September 3, 2000

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (CEV)

Some Pharisees and several teachers of the Law of Moses from Jerusalem came and gathered around Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples ate without first washing their hands.

The Pharisees and many others obey the teachings of their ancestors. They always wash their hands in the proper way before eating. None of them will eat anything they buy in the market until it is washed. They also follow a lot of other teachings, such as washing cups, pitchers, and bowls.

The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without washing their hands?"

Jesus replied: "You are nothing but show-offs! the Prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said, 'all of you praise me with your words, but you never really think about me. It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made up by humans.'

"You disobey God's commands in order to obey what humans have taught."

...

Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God."

...

"Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.

=======

1. "Time makes ancient truth, uncouth," James Russell Lowell from the hymn "Once to every man and nation." One of the trickier things to deal with is the way that our experience is to be the experience of a next generation. One of the more difficult tasks is to "see ourselves as others see us." Without the perspective of time or the other we have a tendency to project our particulars as generalizations.

2. A classic story about this issue - It is time for the holiday ham to be cooked for the gathered family. The cook is going about the business of preparation and cuts one end off the ham. This was observed by a new in-law to the family who asked why they cut the end off the ham. The response was that was the way the previous family cook had prepared ham. Since this was a multi-generational family they go off to query the previous family cook. They indicated that was they way they had seen the family cook before them prepare a ham. Fortunately that elderly cook was present and when the question was put to them they responded, "I had to cut the end of the ham off because it was too big for the pan I had."

So it is that traditions grow and become ingrained. There is a constant need to evaluate the current situation. Do we now have a larger pan that will hold more? Without the evaluation we can be misled by an ancient reality.

3. When looking at the incorporation of signs and symbols into a wedding service it is important to note that most parts of the wedding ceremony are the result of someone doing something one way and someone else noting that and thinking they wanted that, too. So it was, one ceremony at a time, that traditions grew. A key element to this is recognize that a new way of doing things might set in motion another series of someones seeing something and thinking they wanted that, too.

Graphically this might look like:


\        /
 \      /
  \    /
   \ /
    \/
    /\     we are always in flux and tension
   /  \    between the way we have become
   \  /    and the way we will become
    \/
    /\
   /  \
  /    \
/      \
/        \


\
\
 \
   \
    \ some tradition is always closing down
     \ has run out of its time
      \ constricts life
      /
     /
    /
   /
  /
 /
/



      /
     /
    /
   /
  /    some tradition is always emerging
 /     challenges a previous way to remain relevant
/      opens new horizons
\
 \
  \
   \
    \
     \
      \


Life in its fullness wrestles in the intersection between these dynamics.

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