James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Ordinary 22B; Proper 17
What matters in a life of faith? Which is more important: following prescribed rituals or practicing right conduct? What parts of our daily living set us apart and reveal our loyalties?
These questions come up again and again in Scripture. Jesus says that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom. What counts, Jesus says, is doing the will of God. The prophets are not silent on these matters, either. The prophets tell their hearers that God proclaims, “I hate and despise your feasts.” The people’s worship does not bring God joy because the very ones praising God are exploiting the widows and orphans. Jesus ends the debate about what is lawful on the Sabbath with the proclamation that the Sabbath was made for humanity not the other way around. Oh, and by the way, he says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”
What is critical to God if we are to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ? If our diet does not mark us strange and our dress is indistinguishable from others, what reveals our allegiance to Jesus? What is distinctive about us?
James, that book of the Bible not beloved by the Reformers, says that we must be doers of the Word, not merely passive hearers. James, too closely associated with works righteousness for some, says that undefiled religion is caring for widows and orphans in distress. For James, this is the non-negotiable of faith.
That passage so often read at weddings (no, not Song of Solomon), 1 Corinthians 13, states that speaking in tongues, prophetic powers, understanding and knowledge are nothing – they render us nothing – without love, patient, kind and enduring.
In other words, clean hands are nothing without a pure heart and the actions that spring forth from it.
It would be easy to take these texts from James and Mark this week and conclude that nothing other than our actions matter, that worship is optional, ritual overrated, tradition meaningless, belief less important than works. It is tempting to use this week’s readings as a means of jettisoning anything about our congregations or current practices that we do not like or just long to change. Mid-week Bible study? We should be out feeding the hungry instead. Worship? Let’s spend that time in mission. In the words of Isaiah quoted by Jesus, we need to make sure we aren’t honoring God with our lips but keeping our lives and hearts off limits.
The last thing we want to be is a white-washed-tomb Pharisee, so let’s ditch tradition and get to work, pronto.
Creating that kind of dichotomy is simple. A life of faith, however, is complicated. Living with integrity, having the words of our lips match the actions of our hands, our professed beliefs align with our day to day decisions — that’s hard. Hence, we need tradition, ritual, worship, prayer – all the things that can become empty, meaningless, rote or hypocritical if they don’t shape our character and become evident in our choices.
Keep in mind that this story comes in Mark just after Jesus has been lauded in a Jewish part of the world and is about to embark on a major mission to the Gentiles. This hand-washing question is not theoretical to those who are asking it and Jesus’ answer has consequences for his ministry and that of his disciples. This question about tradition is bigger than righteous rule-following; this is about expanding membership in the family of God. This isn’t really about whose hands are dirty, it is about which people we name as unclean. Jesus is not saying jettison all the law, he says he has come to fulfill it after all. He is giving notice to the Pharisees and any others who want to limit God’s grace, concern and community, that no ritual, tradition or religious practice should be used to constrain the will and work of the Most High.
And yet, Jesus goes to the synagogue. Regularly. As is his custom. He quotes Scripture. He prays. He will go to Jerusalem for Passover. It seems the tradition of the elders is of critical importance to Jesus, so much so that even the Son of Man practices those traditions. So, the question these readings beg is not: Do religious rituals matter? The question is: What is the point of doing these religious rituals?
First and foremost, they put us in our place. They enact the truth that we have no other gods before our God. They mark and make us different. We head to worship on Sunday morning, driving past packed coffee houses, busy parks and booming strip malls. Our worship bears witness to the world that there is another rhythm and rule than consumerism. Our liturgy tells an alternative story about where people’s worth is to be found and why each person matters. Our Scripture reveals a plot counter to the one of death and destruction constantly being broadcast everywhere else. These traditions, through the power of the Spirit and the grace of God, shape us into those worthy of the calling to which we have been called, and when they don’t they offer a means to confess, repent and try again.
Jesus does not tell the crowds that rituals don’t matter, that the tradition of the elders is insignificant or wrongheaded; he tells the Pharisees and the crowd that those practices are not ultimate. God alone is ultimate. Jesus says that those God-given means of grace are mocked when those who practice them do not enact them in their daily living. Jesus says that when those traditions are used as an excuse to exclude or abuse, marginalize or ridicule, they enrage the God they are designed to glorify.
As Jesus prepares to go to the Gentiles, he makes it unequivocally clear to the Pharisees, the crowds and his disciples: Nothing God ordained will prevent them from sitting at table together. Those who were once far away will be brought close — not because Jesus came to abolish the law, but because he has come to fulfill it.
Clean hands mean nothing if the one who has washed doesn’t also have a cleansed heart and a right spirit within them. Through the grace of God, may we be those whose lips and words, hearts and hands, match.
This week:
- How do you understand the role of tradition, ritual and religious practices?
- The earliest Christians had to wrestle with real questions about which religious practices were essential and which could be changed or ignored so that the community could be one. How is this still true?
- How has Christianity evolved in your lifetime? What has changed? What has remained unchanged? How did those changes come about?
- Aren’t we all hypocrites? Given that all sin and fall short of the glory of God, how do we live with integrity despite our inevitable mistakes and shortcomings?
- These verses from James instruct us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Does this describe you? How can you practice James’ instructions?
- How are you and your faith community practicing “undefiled religion” by caring for “orphans and widows in distress”?
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