Deuteronomy 4.1-9, James 1.14-27, Mark 7.1-23
Sourton, Bratton Clovelly, Germansweek, Trinity 13 (Proper 17), 2/9/2012
A friend of mine recently became a priest in the Church of England. The first Sunday he went to celebrate communion in his church he realised there were all sorts of traditions involved which he didn't understand.
One he mentioned was this: his vicar told him that as he began preparing the bread and wine the server would offer him a bowl of water with which to wash his hands. He wasn't to accept this - instead, what he should do was hold his hands up and shake his head, as if to say, 'no, thanks'.
What a strange tradition - turns out it's there because decades ago the vicar used to wash his hands at that point in the service, but his successor didn't want to do that. But instead of asking the server to stop offering the water, he always went through that odd, meaningless ritual. And it's carried on ever since.
We have to be very careful about our traditions and rituals. About what we regard as 'orthodox' Christianity. About keeping on doing things simply because we've always done them that way.
Because that way may no longer speak to people's hearts, that way may no longer be God's way, if it ever was in the first place.
We have every right to question our church leaders on the traditions we maintain. To do so is to be Christlike. Because Jesus never stopped asking questions of those who maintained the traditions of his day. Jesus was deeply concerned that God's people didn't miss the point - didn't get so wrapped up in the letter of the law, that they let their hearts shrink, shrivel and die.
So in today's gospel we find him in deep conflict with the traditionalists of his day. Over the issue of ritual cleanliness. In brief, if you didn't wash properly, wash yourself, and wash the utensils you used around food, then you were unclean, defiled.
You won't find this law in the scriptures. It was one of many which the religious experts had created through their own interpretation of the scriptures, and imposed on the people of the day.
It was a simple enough law to keep if you lived and worked close to a good water supply, in the temple courts, government offices, royal palaces. But what if you worked out on the fields all day, if you were a builder up on the rooftops, a plumber down the drains? Not easy to wash up before meals in any of those places.
The law condemned such folk as unclean, defiled. Jesus wouldn't wear that. Jesus condemned the law.
Jesus said, it's not what goes into a person that makes them unclean - he's talking about food here - it's what comes out.
He's saying, it's not important whether you obey purity rules or not, what's important is what comes out of your heart. If your heart's full of badness then that's where pollution begins. It's a bad heart that makes you unclean. It's a bad heart that defiles you.
I think we live in Christlike days, in this sense. Because the spirit of our age is to question those institutions which uphold tradition. Our society has a critical spirit, which keenly seeks out hypocrisy: in the government, in the church, in royalty...
Some of this is mischief-making. But much of it is something to do with checking what's at the heart of these institutions. How can a government be trustworthy if at its heart is deception and protectionism? How can a church be loving and all-embracing if at its heart is homophobia and child abuse? How can royalty command respect if it is full of failed families?
These are Christlike questions. And to deal with them in a Christlike way these institutions must embrace them, take a long hard look at themselves and ask whether their fine traditions are what Jesus called the traditions of men, in opposition to the commands of God.
The writer of Deuteronomy told Israel, ‘Observe [God's laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will ... say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."’ [Deuteronomy 4.6]
And James wrote, ‘Those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continue to do this, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do.’ [James 1.25]
The perfect law that brings freedom is, of course, the new law of Jesus - a law which looks at the heart of a person, not at how they relate to what is written in the statute books. It is our task as people seeking to walk the way of Christ - to keep looking intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continuing to do this, seeking to live out God's law of love and grace.
It is our task as Christ's followers to keep asking ourselves, do the rules that we follow reflect the loving commands of God, or are they closer to the crushing traditions of men?
The holy people of Jesus' day regarded those who didn't wash their hands properly as unclean, defiled. You might ask yourself, do I think like that about anyone?
Our society certainly does. For instance, how many smokers feel ostracised because to have a quick cigarette they're forced to stand outside buildings? Society condemns them. Yet, it's not what goes into a person which should condemn them, but what comes out. We all know smokers who are good people, there's perhaps some here today.
Society condemns all sorts of people without looking intently into their situation; Christians condenm them without seeking to ask how we might begin to live out Jesus’ law of love and grace toward them.
Society condemns the homeless without seeking to understand what made them homeless, and certainly without caring to do anything about helping them rebuild their lives. The same goes for our prisoners, in need of rehabilitation for their good and for the good of society.
Society damns gays and lesbians without taking much time to question common heterosexual practices such as those which Jesus listed in today's gospel: lust, adultery, vice, which apply to people of all sexual persuasions.
Just like Jesus' opponents all those years ago society still sidelines those who eat food differently to ourselves: because of what, or how, they eat we say foreigners smell, they're dirty, neglecting that in recent years our most popular meal has become Chicken Tikka Masala, forgetting to celebrate that our high streets now offer a wide range of lovely cuisine from all over the world.
A society swamped by laws, rules and regulations is a society where trust has broken down, a society which no longer confidently shares common values, a society weakened by its people’s failure to understand and value each other according to their character. It is a litiginous society, weighed down by rulebooks, and shallow in relationships. [2]
I could go on. I think the point's been made. In the light of all this, how should we live?
I suggest we live as Jesus' disciples did - as people prepared to ask questions of him, always prepared to work out what Jesus meant when he took on the establishment and the popular culture of his day.
We should take great delight in searching the scriptures to discover what God's perfect law of love and freedom means in every situation we face.
We should talk to each other about these things, learn to trust each other even when we differ, to be accountable to each other for our attitudes, to pray together that we will be wise and understanding folk, that we will be confident enough to challenge those laws, traditions and attitudes in our establishment and culture which go against Jesus’ ways.
We should learn to see people not for their ability to adhere to certain laws, rules and regulations, but for their character, their motivation, their contribution to society.
We should learn to see people not for what goes into them, but for what comes out from their hearts.
Notes
[1] This is a rewrite of a sermon preached at Holy Trinity, Wavertree, in August 2003.
[2] See Giles Fraser, The Military Ethical Complex, talk at Greenbelt 2012
Comments