Sermon—Sept. 2, 2018
Deut. 4:1-2, 6-9
Ps. 15
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
If you were blessed to be raised in a decently stable environment, chances are there were things that you did that became tradition. And the meaning of these traditions was deeper than the action itself. Do you know what I mean? What are some of the traditions you had growing up that were particularly meaningful?
I grew up in Kenya, and in Kenya, the practice of offering hot drinks to visitors is a cultural tradition. Whether you’re visiting someone in a mud hut in the heat of the dessert, or a multiple-building complex in a city, chances are good that you will be given a hot drink. The hot drink has nothing to do with temperature. It has nothing to do with caffeine. It really doesn’t even have to do with being thirsty. In Kenya, hot drinks are a sign of hospitality and community. They’re a sign of relationship and respect.
I didn’t realize how deeply this tradition had impacted me until I came to the States one summer and stayed with some friends…and in the two weeks I was with them, they never once offered me a hot drink. I remember being somewhat offended and even a little judgmental of them—how could they not have offered me a hot drink…didn’t I matter to them? Never mind that they were feeding me every day, sharing their home and life with me…
Does this happen to you? Please tell me I’m not the only one who has drawn unfortunate judgments about people who do things differently, or at least don’t do things the same as I was raised to do them. Are there behaviors and traditions that are important to you, that have a way of showing up as unspoken expectations of other people?
How about in the church? Does this happen in the church? Are there things we do in the church that have become about more than the action, such that we end up using them to evaluate what ‘that other person or group is doing wrong’?
In the Gospel reading today, the religious leaders criticize Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating. This is clearly about more than just a concern for their hygiene. For the Pharisees, this is about tradition, faithfulness, respect and honor. And we’re not just talking about running hands under water with soap and singing the ABC song like I taught my preschool kids. The ritual washing was a whole routine that was about spiritual and ceremonial cleanliness…something that’s hard to draw a parallel to today. Maybe think about when you were a kid and were about to go into your grandma’s house, or into some other ‘important’ place, and your mom would make you spit out your gum, tighten up your collar, straighten your skirt, smooth out your hair. Washing hands was about being presentable before God. And the commitment to the ritual came from a deep desire to be faithful to God and respectful of the cultural and religious tradition of honoring the faith and the elders. It came from a good place, right? There’s some value in respecting and appreciating the rituals and traditions of the community elders.
But when it became something used to draw lines between the insider and outsider, and when it became the measuring stick for faithfulness and loyalty to God, Jesus was compelled to call them out on it with some pretty harsh language. And while it’s easy for us to read this text and point out the judgmental nature of the Pharisees, Jesus’ response cautions us to be aware of our own tendencies to this kind of behavior. It’s not the washing or not of washing hands that determines your faithfulness, Jesus says. It’s what’s in your heart. I can think of a few times when I was expected to go through the motions of offering hot drinks to visitors, but the whole time I was mad at my mom for making me do that when I wanted to be outside playing with my brothers. So was I being welcoming and hospitable?
So do you see what Jesus is saying? It’s not that the ritual cleansing was a bad tradition. Jesus wasn’t saying the tradition of the elders needed to be thrown out. It’s that the tradition had become the evaluation of the heart-stuff: faithfulness to God and commitment to the community. And it’s that the tradition was used to point out the deficiency in other people.
In Deuteronomy, where a lot of these rules and traditions were established, we read over and over again that the purpose of the law is to point to God’s faithfulness, and to tell the story of God’s action in their history. Obedience and adherence to the law was a way of celebrating the relationship they had with God…a relationship that was unique to their community because they felt God was close enough to call on any time they wanted. Obedience was not the thing that created the relationship. Obedience to the law was a response to the relationship that God chose and initiated.
In James we read another passage that can sound like “works are what makes you right before God.” But that’s not what’s being said. If Jesus says in Mark that cleanliness or uncleanliness is an internal matter of the heart, and not related to what you eat or whether you wash your hands, then James is saying that the reflection of your internal faithfulness is your external behavior. Offering tea to a guest does not IN ITSELF make me hospitable and caring. But if I claim to be hospitable and caring, but never actually open my home or life to others, then there’s not much to my claim…does that make sense? Our actions and behavior do not DICTATE the condition of our hearts, but our actions and behavior do REFLECT the conditions of our hearts.
The church is actively navigating this tension today. More and more people are claiming to be ‘spiritual but not religious,’ and not participating in external practices and traditions of religion. Meanwhile, more and more people who have been surrounded by practices and traditions are finding that often the external stuff of religion is just that…merely external…and so leave the structure in search of something that’s more authentic and integrated. And, there are plenty of people within the church who are saying what the Pharisees said to Jesus about his disciples as they evaluate the landscape and see the attitudes and behaviors of different generations: “don’t they care about our traditions and respect the history and input of their elders?” At a retreat I was leading last weekend, the congregation wanted to name “flexibility and willingness to do new things” as a core value. Someone asked me, “Is it wrong to name tradition as a value?” So the church is navigating this tension. We know there is power and meaning in this message about God and God’s love for the world. But there are times when the traditions and structures we’ve put around that message have become the value. At the same time, we aren’t quite ready to get rid of our traditions and practices, because it is those things that help us tell the story about our understanding of God’s faithfulness to us, and it is those things that celebrate our gratitude for God’s relationship with us as God’s people. It’s hard for us to imagine the story being shared in a context other than the one we’re familiar with, or surrounded by rituals and traditions different from those that are so meaningful to us.
If we were discussing this text sitting around a table, we might go through the traditions and practices of this community…those things we do together that give our community identity and meaning…and wonder where the external action has become more important than the internal message. We might wonder together when and how we use our experiences to draw conclusions and point fingers at those we see doing life differently. We might consider where, in our own relationship with God, we claim an internal commitment to things like justice, care for neighbor, or spiritual maturity but when we look at our external life, those commitments don’t show up in our behavior.
And I hope that you find opportunity over the next week for your own reflection and conversation around these things. But here’s what I want you to ponder. First—what are the traditions and rituals that are particularly meaningful to you as you reflect on God’s participation in your life? What are those things that you do or that are done in community that most deeply speak to you about your faith? And Second—are there ways that we use external behaviors to draw lines that unnecessarily exclude others? Are there ways that we create unspoken expectations on what faithfulness to God and this community LOOK like that can result in casting judgment on those who don’t conform? And finally—how is God inviting you to share the power of love and grace and all those things that you’ve been given by God through faith in Christ with those around you?
Our traditions and rituals tell stories about our values, about our history, about our gratitude for God’s faithfulness. But they do not LIMIT or DEFINE God’s faithfulness and action. And these traditions are not meant to be used as measuring sticks of others’ faithfulness, or as weapons to exclude or criticize those who do things differently.
We could have the most liturgically, historically, and theologically precise tradition of worship and welcome—where we sing, process, preach, kneel, pray and proclaim God’s love for all. But none of that matters if we’re not actually loving God and loving others. None of that matters if we’re not actually in relationship with God and neighbor. None of that matters if we’re pointing fingers and casting judgment on others.
These texts today invite us to both an internal and external inventory of our attitude and behaviors. Let me be clear—all of these texts today have to do with responding to God and showing up in the world. None of them have to do with our salvation. God’s love and grace is a gift to us that is free—even when we are hypocrites who get caught up in religion and spend too much time worrying about who has gone through the appropriate rituals. God’s invitation to come to the Table and be filled by the gift of forgiveness and life is for all of us—even if we haven’t washed our hands or shared a hot drink with a visitor. The waters of baptism and the invitation to be sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever are for all of us—even those who say they care but don’t show it. So the inventory is not for the sake of evaluating God’s love for us, God’s commitment to us, or God’s abundance of grace given to us through Christ. The inventory is for us as we continue to grow as followers of Christ. The inventory is for us as we continue to seek first God’s kingdom. The inventory is for us as we continue to form communities that are radically welcoming, committed to justice, rooted in the Gospel, and sent out into the world.
When I came back to the States for college, for a few years I would take my box of mugs, hot water kettle and tea bags to things like movie nights and game nights—because I was still holding on tightly to HOT DRINKS being the sign of hospitality and community. But as I grew in my care for those around me, and in my commitment to this new community, I realized it wasn’t about what we were drinking. That tradition of hot drinks expanded, shifted, and maybe even had to be put aside altogether as I engaged in relationships, formed community, and offered and received true hospitality.
As we seek to grow in our love for God and love for neighbor, may we be ready to let go of the structures—maybe even the traditions—that keep us from all that God has for us as God’s people, gathered by the Holy Spirit, called through the waters of baptism, and sent out to the world with a message of grace and love for ALL PEOPLE.
AMEN