Friday, August 31, 2018

“Spiritual Pontification” (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)


What happens when tradition clashes with the changing culture?  I think that this is something that we need to consider in our present time.

One of my favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof.  This is the story of Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family’s lives.  He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love—each one’s choice moves further away from the customs of his faith and tradition—on top of the edict that the czar evicts the Jews from their village.  If you have ever seen the musical, you know that Tevye struggles to do what he knows . . . to live up to what he has been taught . . . to follow the traditions without question; and, yet, the traditions are being challenged and pushed to their limits.  As long as everyone followed the traditions, there was control . . . everything was in its place.

I want you to think for a moment . . . what is one thing that is expected before every meal?  Think about what you harped on your children to do before each meal?  Do you remember?  Yeah . . . washing their hands.  Can you remember arguing with your children about washing their hands before each and every meal?  Remember how you answered them when they asked why?  Because . . . because it is healthy . . . because that is what we are supposed to do . . . just, because!  As parents we thought washing hands before eating was important, but our children didn’t think it was such a big deal . . . and, besides, maybe they were tired of all the rules we had as parents.  So, we struggled with tradition . . . does it really matter?

Well, that is what is happening in our scripture reading this morning.  It is not just about washing one’s hands . . . it is about the tradition and authority behind the practice.  The Pharisees mince no words in explaining the problem to Jesus: “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”  As far as the Pharisees were concerned, Jesus and his disciples were running rough shod over tradition.  Though the question is about tradition, the implication is about authority.  The Pharisees want to know who Jesus thinks he and his disciples are to flout the traditions of the elders.

Of course, Jesus is not going to put up with this hypocrisy from the Pharisees.  Hypocrisy seems to be a strong word . . . maybe a word like pontification is more suitable.  To pontificate is to “speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way.”  This is what the Pharisees are doing . . . they are pontificating about the practice of one’s faith.  To be faithful one would wash one’s hands before eating.  This was a sign of the being faithful. 

Jesus states that this is hogwash!  He accuses the Pharisees in their pontification of being hypocrites . . . they would rather pontificate—to speak and express opinions in a pompous manner than to deal with the commandments of God.  To them, traditions were more important than doing the will of God.  Or at least that is what it sounded like.  What Jesus wants to know from the Pharisees is how traditions contribute to fulfilling God’s mission.  Thus, it is that Jesus explains that it is not the rituals and dogma that is practice that makes one faithful, but how one lives his or her life.

Jesus proclaims to the people: “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from outside can make him ‘unclean’?  For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body . . . What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’  For from within, our of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

In other words, actions speak louder than words.  How one lives his or her live reveals one’s faithfulness . . . not the words that are spoken . . . not the rituals, traditions, and dogma followed to the letter . . . but how one fulfills through his or her life the command to love God completely and to love others as they love themselves.  This is what reveals whether a person is living a faithful life . . . not whether he or she washes their hands before eating.

As we can all imagine, it was a matter of control for the Pharisees.  Control is the issue.  It is an issue every congregation struggles with.  Yet, the times they are changing . . . traditions are being challenged.  I think that we are all aware of this taking place.  Think about how we do things today in our worship service as compared to five, ten, or even twenty years ago.  What are we doing that we would not have done way back when . . . women elders and deacons . . . casual dress from jeans on men and slacks on women . . . standing at certain points in the service . . . beverages in the worship service.  Think about the changes to tradition that have happened over the years . . . and, ask yourself, in the end, did it really matter.  As I said, the times they are changing.  Are we able to change with the times?  I think that is the question before us.

Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof, struggled with traditions being challenged . . . especially when it came to his daughters and their desire to marry for love and not tradition. His three oldest daughters chose mates who went against the tradition Tevye was accustomed to . . . and, he struggled.  He struggled to hang on to tradition . . . to hang onto control over his daughters . . . to have some sort of semblance of what he knew and understood.  He struggled because he knew that he was on the verge of losing his daughters . . . of having no relationship with them.  He had to answer the question of what was more important . . . his relationship with his daughters or tradition.  In the end, he stepped into a foreign situation, he chose his daughters.

Which bring us back to ourselves considering what it is that Jesus is saying to us this morning in our scripture reading.  He is challenging his listeners . . . his followers . . . to consider whether they are pontificating their faith with words and rituals rather than actions that show love towards God and others.  That is a tough question considering we like our traditions whether they serve the will of God or not.  That is the conversation we must enter into . . . especially as we consider the challenge of dealing with the younger generations.  What needs to change, we might ask our kids, neighbors, and so forth, in order to make what we offer as a community of faith more understandable, accessible, useful, and helpful.  By asking these questions we begin to put God’s will ahead of tradition.


As one commentator put it: “That won’t be an easy journey, of course . . . We love our traditions. I love our traditions. They have helped to mediate the faith to us in countless ways. But what if they’re not doing that for the emerging generation? What if we’ve come close to worshiping the traditions instead of the God they were supposed to point to? And what if Jesus is calling us to put our mission – whether to care for our aging parents, feeding the hungry, opening our doors to the homeless, making our building available to after school tutoring, sharing the Gospel with folks much of the church rejects, partnering with the community to care for more of God’s children, whatever – what if Jesus is calling us to put our mission ahead of even our most cherished traditions? What then?”

Well, I don’t know.  But, it is a good place to start . . . to consider the question of whether we are living spiritual lives of pontification or spiritual lives that strive to do God’s will.  Consider it.  I appreciate your willingness to consider the challenge Jesus puts before us this morning.  I hope that you will discern God’s presence and will in this conversation, and that you will not just wash your hands.  Amen.

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