Tradition!

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 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.”

TRADITION!  Tradition.  Did you have a Best Man at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have a Best Man at a wedding, was so that they would have their Best SWORDS-MAN at their weddings to defend you in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is swordplay a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have a Best Man?  TRADITION!  

Alright, brides, your turn.  Did you have bridesmaids at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have Bridesmaids at a wedding, was so that they could act as decoys for the bride in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is that a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have Bridesmaids?  TRADITION!

How about those candles on the altar?  Do you know why we have candles on the altar?  Well, the reason we have candles on the altar is that when Christians first began gathering in homes and in the catacombs to worship they needed some light to read the service and the Scriptures.  There weren't any first century light switches available so they put a couple candles on the altar!  But now with electric lights we have no actual NEED need for candles on the altar, so why are they still there?  TRADITION!  

In researching the history of my first congregation for their 125th anniversary I uncovered a congregational tradition of chewing tobacco during worship and spitting on the floor of the church.  I also discovered that ending that tradition almost split the church!  TRADITION!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus was confronting TRADITION!  Jesus, you see, was living out his mother’s song… The Magnificat.  He was scattering the proud.  Bringing down the powerful.  Lifting up the lowly.  Filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.  He wasn’t just challenging the traditional order of things, he was smashing it to bits!  Eating with sinners and tax collectors.  Having women as followers and disciples.  Challenging the occupying army of Rome and those who were their local toadies and… AND he was eating without, GASP!, doing the correct ritual washing!  

The Pharisees, on the other hand, insisted that things be done the way they had always been done but Jesus was turning over that traditional order.  BUT, Jesus wasn’t doing that just to be difficult.  Jesus was doing it because those traditions had, for the Pharisees, become more important to them than God.  “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition,” Jesus told them.  Their obsession with rituals and traditions had become more important to them than doing what God calls God’s people to do… doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. 

Now, the Pharisees make super fun and tempting punching bags, but we really should remember who the Pharisees were.  They were the regulars in worship back then.  They were the ones who pledged, served on committees, and had the keys to the building.  So when we’re tempted to dump on them we need to keep in mind that Pharisees are just as likely to show up in the mirror as they are in the Scriptures.

We need to be careful, because in every time and place, wonderful, faithful people have started beautiful and powerful traditions.  Traditions which help transport us closer to God and deeper into the love of our neighbors.  But if we are going to avoid the same trap that the Pharisees fell into all those years ago, we too will need constant reminding that even the most amazing, powerful, beautiful and long held traditions... THEY AIN’T GOD!  

That is why we constantly need to ask ourselves... Does this thing we do… does this hierarchy we defend… does this “way it’s always been done”… still help to point us toward God or has it become a god itself?  Does this way of being the church still call us to a deeper love of, and care for our neighbors?  Or has something happened somewhere along the way so that what used to help us connect with God, now ends up distracting us from God and somehow now perversely keeps us from lives of loving kindness, doing justice and walking humbly with our God?  

May God continue to give us the courage to honestly and constantly examine everything we do, and when we find traditions that are becoming gods for us, to allow them to die so that we might rise again, into the new life God has in store for us… a life focused first and foremost on loving God and loving neighbor. Amen.