“Keeping Clean in the Dirt” – Sermon on Aug 19, 2012
August 19, 2012
Scripture: Mark 7: 1-8, 14-16, 21-23
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 thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live 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.”
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. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Sermon: Keeping Clean in the Dirt
By Rev. Doreen Oughton
Our scripture passage this morning is from Mark. We’ve taken a few weeks away from Mark to explore what John had to say about Jesus being the Bread of Life. But now we are back to Mark, right where we left off. A few weeks ago, we heard how Jesus had intended to take his disciples off for a little rest, but was followed by a crowd. He preached and taught, fed 5000+, walked on water, crossed the sea of Galilee once more, was swarmed again by crowds, and healed as many as he could. Today’s passage begins with Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem gathering around Jesus. Jesus has had some run-ins with the Pharisees and scribes already, those from Galilee, where Jesus is from. They have accused him of blasphemy for forgiving sins, have challenged him for eating with sinners and tax collectors, and for breaking Sabbath laws. After Jesus cured a withered hand on the Sabbath, Mark tells us, the Pharisees went and conspired with the Herodians on how to destroy him.
Mark devotes the next four chapters to telling us more about Jesus’ ministry, and about John the Baptist’s arrest and execution. There have been no more exchanges with the Pharisees and scribes until now. This bunch, we are told, is from Jerusalem. I wonder if it might be like a Catholic Archdiocese being visited by a representative from Rome because of a renegade priest. Now here’s the thing. As much as the Pharisees and scribes may have wanted to “destroy” Jesus, I don’t believe Jesus was against them. I believe it was, for him, an in-house argument, like the debates between primary candidates from the same party. There were assumptions that some core beliefs were shared, but there were some important differences, and Jesus wanted them to come around to his way of thinking. He knew they were potentially great allies, like the candidates who step down and give their endorsement to another, asking their backers to do likewise. They could really help with the in-breaking of the kindom.
The Pharisees, like Jesus, taught that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” and “forgiving iniquity and sin.” The Pharisees, like Jesus, taught that God is not distant from us, and that human beings can have an intimate relationship with God. The Pharisees, like Jesus, taught that God could be present in anyone’s kitchen, workplace, and bedroom as God is present in the Temple. The Pharisees, like Jesus, taught that God’s love was not confined to Jews, and that one did not have to be born Jewish to know or follow God. This inclusiveness was in contrast to the teachings of the Sadducees, who did teach that God was only present in the Temple, was distant from the common folk, and that access to God was limited to a very select few who’s call was to disseminate God’s wisdom and words to the Jewish tribes. The Pharisees were progressive for their time. Their idea that purity laws were not just for priests in the Temple, but for all Jews, it was so that all could have the same type of relationship with God that the Sadducees said was only for the priests.
Now the ideas of the Pharisees were progressive, but Jesus’ ideas were positively radical. The debate here in this passage is about purity codes, and you need to understand how deeply entrenched these were. When people broke them, it caused a disgusted reaction. People were grossed out. We have our own form of purity codes, though we usually associate them more with health and disease than with religious beliefs. For example, what if I told you that the salad I am bringing to the picnic this afternoon was assembled in the bathroom? Would you eat it? Would you be disgusted? Of course you would. Now there have been studies done on the presence of germs that have shown that kitchen counters, telephones, and doorknobs all carry far more germs than bathrooms, even toilet seats. But knowing that fact doesn’t change the cringe factor, does it? The Jerry Seinfeld Show did an episode where Kramer made salad while taking a shower, which he disclosed just as his guests were complimenting him after their first bite. Much retching ensued. For sure we have our purity codes. And these are the things that Jesus was trying to redefine here. Talk about radical!
Now it is important to note that Jesus is not trying to do away with purity codes. He is not saying that anything goes. He knows that that “ick factor” can be a good thing, that people knowing on a gut level that some things are just inappropriate can be helpful cultural wiring. Jesus is trying to redefine the purity codes. He thinks we should cringe at least as much when we hear racist remarks – or when we hear people plotting revenge, when we are tempted to exploit others – as we do when faced with a bathroom-prepared salad. Jesus wants us to build a culture that worries at least as much about the spread of violence and hatred as it does about the spread of germs or viruses. Along with teaching the importance of washing our hands after using the toilet, we ought to teach the importance of holding our tongues against casual insult, careless disrespect, hurtful mockery. Notice that you need a tissue, sure, but also notice if your behavior is feeding grudges, or is arrogant and prideful.
There’s another issue with the purity code that Jesus’ teachings and behavior alter radically. Imagine I am making a cake to bring to the picnic, and somehow a bit of cat litter gets into the batter. You wouldn’t want me to continue baking that cake, right? Even if I fished out the piece of litter. We would come to the conclusion that the batter was made impure by its contact with the impure litter. I would have to throw the batter out and start again, or go to the bakery and pick something up. The purity codes worked in a similar way with people. If someone was impure, whether a woman at a certain point of her cycle, or a person who’d been ill, a leper, or some such, that person could contaminate another by coming into contact with them. That carries over to some degree even in our society. We don’t want our kids hanging out with the “wrong kind,” lest they ruin their reputation. We don’t want some riffraff moving into our neighborhood bringing down the property values.
But when we think about the things that Jesus constantly lifted up and demonstrated in his life – forgiveness, mercy, healing the sick, thinking of others before self, it seems that to follow Jesus means to put yourself around those who need forgiveness and mercy and healing. We can’t do that if we worry about being contaminated. Jesus taught in the way he lived that the purity of love can overcome any impurity, can purify the impure rather than vice versa. Paul says a similar thing to the Corinthians in the passage read earlier. A believing husband can make pure his unbelieving wife, and, even more shockingly, a believing wife can make pure her unbelieving husband. Paul gives permission to those in his church to stay in relationship, loving relationship, with those outside the church. I believe that Jesus might take it even a step further. Jesus might encourage us. He might say we need to be in relationship with the “wrong kind,” with the riffraff, in order to fully experience God’s holiness. It is in the challenge of finding what is in our human hearts that we will have the chance for being purified ourselves.
If someone stirs our anger or fear, it is an opportunity to open our hearts to be filled with the peace of Christ. If we see suffering and ugliness in the world, it is an opportunity to open ourselves up to Christ’s compassion. When we are in the middle of battling factions – spouse and child, two children, republicans and democrats, – it is an opportunity to stay grounded in the primary goal of reconciliation.
All these things that make perfect sense to us – keeping litter out of the batter, preparing food in the kitchen – these are human precepts. They are not necessarily wrong, but don’t abandon God’s commandments to hold onto these human traditions. God calls us to look at the impurities of our own hearts, and open ourselves up to God’s grace and forgiveness and ability to purify them, that we may go out ourselves with grace and forgiveness, lifting up and loving those still lost and hurting and awash in the mess. May it be so.
