Mark 7: 1–8, 14–15, 21–23
|
|
Lord, may we hear your voice in the words spoken in your Name. Amen.
|
Theologian Karl Barth advised his seminary students to preach with the
Bible in one hand and a copy of the newspaper in the other. For
he knew that having one eye on current events and our neighbor in the
midst of them — while keeping in mind what our faith says about
love and hate — was going to be the best way of reaching the
ears and hearts of all who listen to us. And this morning I
can’t think of a week when I’ve prayed harder about events and
people in the world as I have this week as I’ve watched the
tragic events in Afghanistan unfold. And strangely enough,
it’s all relevant to our scripture passages this morning.
|
|
At first, I have to admit, I was praying for Americans only – those
who were flying out of Afghanistan as quickly as they could — as
well as those who were trapped in their homes, afraid even to venture
out towards the airport in Kabul. Suddenly they were all part of
my family. They were all included in my prayers. But as
the week wore on, and I heard more about other foreign nationals who
had faithfully aided American forces for twenty years in Afghanistan,
I began to pray for them too. And finally, of course, as I read
more about different groups of Muslims – peace–loving
Muslims as well as misguided ones – I realized I had to include
them all in my prayers.
|
|
And it’s just that complex a situation that greets us this
morning in our scripture passages. As Moses prepares his people
to enter into the Promised Land, he tells them to pay careful attention
to the statutes and ordinances he has given them to live
by. “Don’t forget a single one,” he tells
them in the Book of Deuteronomy – “and don’t add
anything either. For as you follow these guidelines the nations
around you will notice what a wise and discerning people you
are . . . and will appreciate the God
you follow.”
|
|
So when they got to the Promised Land, did they follow his
advice? Well, yes, sort of. For a while. But they
also improvised. They also stretched the rules now and
then . . . and did what they felt like
doing. Until the Lord God finally lost his patience and sent them
all to Babylon for a “Time out” period of fifty
years. And it wasn’t until he allowed them to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple that they all got serious about
following his Word more carefully.
|
|
But then – surprise, surprise! They didn’t all
agree about God’s Word, that guidance he had given
them. Factions arose. Followers of Nehemiah and Ezra
decided that the peoples’ cardinal sin had been to marry foreign
wives, against God’s Law. So, to their minds at least, the
safest way forward was to separate themselves from the world
entirely. Just close themselves off from anyone outside their
own circle, and so stay out of trouble.
|
|
But the prophet Isaiah had a different view, entirely. To his
way of thinking it was because the people had ignored the plight
of others around them – all sorts and conditions of people around
them – that God had finally lost patience with
them. Isaiah’s view was that God wanted his children
to get involved with the pain of the world, no matter where they found it.
|
And right there – with one faction saying one thing, the other
saying the exact opposite – is where things stood when Jesus came
on the scene. Do you remember what he does in his first
public sermon? Right – he reads from the Isaiah scroll
where Isaiah says,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me;
He has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor,
to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind;
to let the broken victims go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
No doubt about it – right from the beginning of his ministry
Jesus casts his lot on the side of those who keep an eye on the pain
of the world, no matter where they encounter that pain. He gets
involved with people the Jewish purists consider beyond – or
maybe beneath — their attention — the poor, the lowly, even
foreigners. Never mind ritual cleanliness! Never mind
exclusivity! Jesus will let his caring heart rule his
actions – and not human tradition.
|
|
And it is, in fact, a human tradition the Pharisees are using this
morning as a club against Jesus and his followers – and not a
statute God had called them to observe. For the statute that
said people were to wash their hands before eating or after coming
from the market was one that – originally – applied only
to the High Priest, as he entered the Temple to prepare the daily
sacrifices to God. The Pharisees had simply borrowed that
priestly practice and applied it to themselves – as well as
requiring it of all laypeople. So there was a certain way the
hand was to be held under running water – and then another way
it was to be held so all the water could drip off cleanly. For
they wanted everyone who saw these elaborate preparations to realize
how superior they were to all the people around them. What had
begun as a practice meant to honor God had become a practice that
focused attention on them. And was designed to honor
them – and not God.
|
|
No wonder Jesus accuses the Pharisees and the doctors of the Law who
accompany them of being hypocrites! What they have done,
he says, is to ignore the heart of the Law, which is love of God and
neighbor. Instead, he says, they’ve focused on
externals – on how they look to others – rather
than doing good to others. As one commentator put it,
the Pharisees gave lip service but did not give themselves in loving
service.¹ Or, as another one put it, more pungently, they kept
their hands ritually washed while being up to their elbows in evil.²
|
|
Jesus, by contrast, wasn’t interested in looking superior to people
around him. More often than not, he was inviting people in instead
of shutting them out. So he sat down to eat with a house full of
sinners and invited a tax collector to join his inner circle. He
healed lepers and blind men and women polite society wouldn’t even
speak to. And always, he welcomed the children. It’s
not that he was setting the Law aside. He was simply demonstrating
the Law’s deeper concern for mercy and forgiveness and love.
|
|
Maybe that’s why I found myself praying for all sorts and
conditions of people in Afghanistan this week – for everyone
belongs to God. There simply are no throwaway people. There
are no people we can safely dismiss or put down. And if we all
belong to God, then we all belong to each other as well. The
family reunion only gets larger.
|
|
The task before us is reconciliation. The task before us is
pulling people in rather than shutting them out. The task before
us is love.
|
Amen.
|
¹ Heidi Husted “Matters of the Heart”
Living by the Word, August 16, 2000
² Thomas G. Long “Moral Words, Evil Deeds”
Living by the Word, August 25, 2009
|
