Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1/8, 14-15, 21-23
The Rev. Drew Brislin
In the name of the one Holy and Undivided Trinity, Amen.
Here in the South, traditions are pretty important to a lot of us. With the beginning of college football, many of us find comfort in our traditions that revolve around this most holy of institutions. Some of us regularly pilgrimage to Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Troy or another number of locations to cheer on our home teams. Have special clothing or jewelry we must wear customs to perform. One might say that there is a fine line between tradition and superstition. As Episcopalians we are especially susceptible to tradition. We often lift up Anglican theologian Richard Hooker’s “Three-Legged Stool” imagery as foundational to our theology as in that what we believe is grounded in our approach to scripture, ‘tradition’ and reason. The episcopate in other words our bishops are charged with being the protectors of our traditions as one of their primary roles is to make sure that we conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of The Episcopal Church. We worship according to The Book of Common Prayer so that we have a core practice of worship. This is important to us as Episcopalians as we hold fast to the belief that the way we pray very much, shapes what we believe. It is important to have people we trust and people we yield authority to in our denomination who will hold sacred these institutions and to be caretakers of our traditions.
As we leave the Gospel of John and the Bread of Life Discourse, we now find the lectionary taking us back to the Gospel of Mark. Jesus had just fed the five thousand and walked on water just prior to our foray into John’s Gospel. These miraculous acts were revealing to us in that they are showing us who Jesus is and what his authority is here on earth. Jesus’ identity and probably more importantly the authority that is being given to him becomes threatening to some. I think it is very important as we move through our Gospel to remember that at this moment Jesus is a Jew. That in his conversation with the Pharisees and scribes, you have Jewish people conversing with other Jewish people. Jesus never says that people should not follow the law or that people should not follow tradition. What I think Jesus is saying this morning is that tradition should never be a stumbling block, tradition should never be a wall that hinders people from being in relationship with each other and in relationship with God. When in our lives have, we yielded authority to individuals who took advantage of that responsibility because we followed their instruction without question? I believe I have mentioned to you all in the past that I worked for Winn Dixie from high school all through college. I have a vivid memory of one afternoon during the summer in which I worked in the meat department. There was an older lady who had worked in that department for more than twenty years, who I basically looked to for instructions. One of the main things I did was prepare various meat products and package them and make sure the cases were stocked for the customers. It just so happened that this particular day we had run out of pig ears. We had some in the cooler, but they needed to be prepped, packaged and labeled. My mentor instructed me to go grab a box of pig ears and the special q-tips for cleaning them. I said yes ma’am! I grabbed the box and then went feverishly looking for the special q-tips. I even enlisted the help of the manager of the department who after a few minutes turned to me and said, ‘I think someone is pulling your leg.’ Everyone had a good laugh and later when the asked me to go find the case stretchers, I replied ‘Fool me once.’ While this was a harmless joke, how often do we follow instructions without question or yield to those in authority without reflecting on what it is we are actually doing?
It’s hard not to read the Gospel this morning and think, ‘What is wrong with washing your hands?’ Seems like good hygiene to me. But that would be missing the point, I think. The washing of the hands when used as a gate key to relationship becomes a barrier and the tradition that was meant to invite people into community becomes a wall. One of the most beautiful things I ever witnessed occurred one Sunday when Allison and I attended services at St. David’s Episcopal Church in downtown Austin. We were there visiting my brother and decided to attend the early service. As we got up to make our way towards the altar to receive communion, we noticed that some of the homeless people who had come in for the service began to make their way to the altar as well. Our liturgy and our traditions were unlocking a door to community that was inviting people from all sorts of backgrounds to come in and to meet Jesus in each other around the Lord’s Table.
The only sin Jesus ever truly calls out is hypocrisy. I don’t think that Jesus is telling us that having traditions or living into them is a bad thing. What we are not called to do, however, is to find ways to separate the body of Christ. Evil intentions come from within, and this is what defiles. ‘These intentions lead to vain worship and the people’s abandonment of God’s commandment.’ As Episcopalians and most importantly as Christians let us remember that our traditions and our form of worship is a gift from God as we have received them and that they call us into community, and they call us into relationship. We give thanks so that we may come to God’s table together so that we may come to communion together.
Amen