Traditions Don't Make Us Clean
Year B: Proper 17
According to our theory, ritual distinctions are made by the violence of the Sacred, and are particularly violent when they define the group by exclusion of the scapegoat individual or the scapegoat group. The following pericopes proclaim the removal of ritual distinctions among peoples and the possibility of an inclusive community. —Robert Hamerton-Kelly
A note from Daniel: today marks our return to Mark as well as our return to focusing more on the lectionary readings. While I’ve continued to write on them over the past five weeks, my main emphasis has been on my unexpected series entitled Christ Vision. Also, this is not my week to preach, so there will be no accompanying video for this particular sermon.
Year B, Proper 17, September 1, 2024
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm: Psalm 15
Second Reading: James 1:17-27
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Sermon - Traditions Don’t Make Us Clean
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Mark 7:14–15
Were you raised in a tradition or culture that had clear lines of who is in and who is out, who is clean and who is unclean? One fun example of this is our college football culture in Alabama. Growing up, everybody knew who cheered for Alabama and who cheered for Auburn.
As football season grew closer, it was very easy to see who rooted for who based on their clothes and language. Auburn fans wore blue and orange; Alabama fans wore crimson and white. Auburn fans said, “War eagle!” Alabama fans said, “Roll tide!”
Even outsiders who moved to Alabama were forced to make a choice: “Yes, but if you did have to choose, who would you root for in the Iron Bowl?”
Some people take this way too seriously by vandalizing statues, poisoning sacred trees, and taking the joking and jesting way too far.
You might be able to think of a religious culture like this.
There are factions within my tradition who can recognize each other by clothing such as a head covering for women during the worship or a suit and tie for the men. Modesty is also a big deal for some within my tradition. Both men and women have to be covered from their neck to their knees, even when they swim. There were times at the beach where we would connect with other people within our tradition simply by recognizing their dress code.
We also had specific words and phrases we would use that would differentiate us from other traditions: minister or preacher instead of pastor, gospel meetings instead of revivals, Lord’s Supper or Communion instead of Eucharist, and Bible college or preaching school instead of seminary.
Regardless if you were raised within a Christian home or not, you probably had similar rules for things in your life that helped you see who was friend and who was foe. This could even be things like race, nationality, or how you spice certain foods.
This is the kind of thing Jesus faced in Mark 7. Let’s read.
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Mark 7:1–8
How were they abandoning the commands of God to hold to human tradition? The idea seems to be that anytime we identify who is in and who is out based on our traditions, we end up unnecessarily excluding people from our tribe.
For example, consider the similarity between the Pharisees’ tradition of washing before a meal and my particular modesty culture.
You might imagine the argument going something like this: “We want to stay pure as the Law commands, and since we don’t know how we might have been accidentally contaminated during the day, the safe thing to do is purify ourselves before the meal.”
If you were raised like me, this logic may appeal to you.
Here is how modesty was argued in my particular circle: “We are commanded to wear modest apparel, and since we don’t know which shorts my be too short, the safe thing to do is to wear long shorts that go below the knee so we don’t cause others to lust.”
Since we all have liberty of conscious, also called soul liberty, someone can choose to hold to these modesty guidelines or to wash their hands in this particular way. The issue arises when we teach “human precepts as doctrines.”
As quoted earlier, Jesus argued, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile” (Mark 7:14–15). In other words, purity is about transformation of the individual, not whether or not they hold to all the religious codes and traditions.
In fact, the outward religious traditions and codes we hold dear do not automatically make us clean. Here is a picture I saw floating around Facebook over the last month:
As a bluegrass song I enjoy says, “You can go to church on Sunday and shake the preacher’s hand, sing songs about the hereafter in that blessed promise land, but if your brother falls by the wayside of life, you gotta pick him up and help him on his way.”
The idea of the song is that being “religious” isn’t enough; we have to “help thy brother.” Or as Jesus and Paul and John sum up again and again, we have to love our neighbor as ourselves, and sometimes our traditions can get in the way of that.
Just because we can memorize Scripture, attend church regularly, and say our prayers does not mean that we are disciples of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
And I have met a lot of people who bear this fruit who do not line up with the ideas of who is in and who is out with which I was raised. And as Paul goes on to say, against such things there is no law…even if it is the safe way to do things.
Second Reading: Doers, Not Hearers
I’m glad that I was raised to read my Bible everyday. When we were in Sunday School, the teacher would ask the “Daily Bible Readers” to raise their hands. One of the deacons would total up the number and put it on the board.
It was a big deal.
While we should search the Scriptures regularly by reading, studying, and reflecting on what they have to say, we must also allow ourselves to be transformed by what we’re reading.
James warned, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” (James 1:22).
What does this look like in our lives? It means being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19). It means controlling what we say (James 1:26). Doing what we hear ultimately manifests itself in sacrificial love: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).
The church shouldn’t just seek to teach truth; she should also seek to practice truth. Instead of just being Daily Bible Readers, we should be Daily Bible Doers. When we receive Jesus, who is the Word of Truth, into our hearts we are transformed, and our transformation brings about the transformation of the world around us.
James wrote, “In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). One way to read this passage is to translate “creatures” as “divine creation.” In other words, when the Word of God transforms us, we become part of God’s new creation.
Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.