1 Sunday, September 2, 2012 14th Sunday after Pentecost B Pastor Dena Williams The Holy Gospel according to the

Community of St. Mark in the 7th Chapter Glory to you, O Lord Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 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 Jesus, 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.

2 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. The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, O Christ Its a Set Up The Gospel according to the Community of St. Mark . . . we welcome Mark again today. We took an excursion to the Sixth Chapter of John, the bread chapter, for five weeks of lessons on the bread of life. Now we are back in Mark. Mark, the earliest and shortest of our four Gospels. Our Gospel readings for the next several months will come from Mark, primarily the 7th through the 10th chapters. The short story of Mark is action packed! Jesus does not sit around in this Gospel. He walks and sails and talks and preaches and heals and casts out demons at a dizzying speed. The focus of Mark is not What would Jesus do?, but What did Jesus do?! Welcome to Marks story of What Jesus did. So, what has Jesus done that brings us to todays reading? Well, he has walked and sailed and talked and preached and healed and cast out demons! All in the first six chapters! And, he has gotten the attention of the Pharisees and scribes from the temple in Jerusalem.

3 They are suspicious of this wandering prophet. And today they are carefully watching him and his followers, and sure enough, they find them doing something of which they do not approve. Well, theres a sermon there! Its a risk of ministry it doesnt matter if youre called to preach or teach or lead in some other way in the congregation, there are folks watching carefully, hoping to find you doing something that is just unacceptable to them. And they are rarely disappointed. An important lesson of ministry is that some folks will be grumpy about something, no matter what. The only way to avoid their criticism is to not preach or teach or lead, to not do ministry. Well, thats a sermon for another day . . . Today the Pharisees and scribes have caught Jesus followers eating their lunch with dirty hands. Actually, the Greek says eating their loaves of bread with dirty hands, but I guess weve had enough bread for awhile. So, they ask Jesus How come your followers are not following the rituals of the tradition? How come they are eating without washing their hands?. Well, seems Jesus, the preacher, teacher, healer is asked a question, a challenging question. And his answer? Well, he could point out the obvious, Were having a picnic in the country, for crying out loud, where on earth would we wash our hands?

4 Instead Jesus takes the opportunity to teach. He doesnt just address the question of hand washing, but points out the error of the ways of his questioners, not only that, he calls them a name! Listen: Isaiah the prophet was right about you hypocrites, He wrote this about you: You people honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far away from me; you worship me in vain, you teach human rules as though they are divine doctrine. You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition. Well, theres a sermon there. Seems that when a group of people gets preoccupied with how things ought to be because thats the way weve always done it, and for no other good reason, the people risk being called hypocrites. They risk paying lip service to the divine. They risk worshipping in vain, having abandoned the commandment of God and holding to human tradition. Well, thats a sermon for another day . . . Marks Jesus goes on to explain to the Pharisees the error of their ways. Then when he is alone with the disciples, they ask him to explain what he said to the crowd. Jesus explains that it is not eating with unwashed hands, it is not what we put in our mouths that defiles us, it is what comes from within, from the human heart, that is what defiles us. And what might that be? Well, theres a list, isnt there? I know what you did when you heard that list.

5 I know what you did, because its exactly what I did. With some anxiety, you looked quickly down the list, checking off items. Lets see: fornication, no theft, no murder, certainly not, adultery , no avarice, dont know what that is, wickedness, well, not anything serious, deceit, only to serve the greater good, licentiousness, dont know what that is either, envy, well maybe once in awhile, slander, never been sued for it, pride, that can be a good thing, cant it? folly, well, maybe after a drink or two at a party. We checked to see how well we were doing at keeping what looks like a list of rules! The Pharisees would be proud! Jesus would ask, what things are in your heart? what things come from your heart? Is there love? This list is not about keeping the rules, this list is about living in loving relationship. It is about the healing of our hearts that comes from the love that comes from God. Jesus list of sins is about how we treat our relationships with other people, how we treat ourselves, and how we treat our relationship with God. Jesus list is about the contents of our hearts. The contents of our hearts-its about how to live in loving relationship,

6 and . . . its a set up! Jesus, in the first six chapters of Mark, Jesus hangs out with Jews poor ones and rich ones, ordinary ones and temple authorities, women and men and children but all the followers, all the potential followers, and even the challengers of Jesus are Jews. Marks Jesus has not left his comfort zone. Oh, hes made a few folks anxious by eating with people who eat with dirty hands, but hes maintained a most important social custom, kept a pivotal human tradition. He has kept to his own kind! There has been no keeping company with Gentiles! Just wait! Wait until next weeks Gospel. Wait until we hear what Jesus does next! Talk about ignoring tradition, shunning custom, breaking the law just wait! Todays Gospel is a set up Jesus is preparing his followers, the writer of Mark is preparing us, for the Jesus who has come to all people, the Jesus who is bread for the world, the radical Jesus who throws caution to the wind, loves indiscriminately, seeks out and saves the last, the least, the lost. Jesus came for needy people. If Marks Jesus came to our town today, he would come first to those sorts of folks,

7 those in need. He might stop by ____________ Lutheran Church. He knows there are people here who are suffering. He knows that although we generally have clean hands, the contents of our hearts are not entirely clean. But, he would go first to those on the fringe of our society the homeless, those who struggle to feed their families. He would come first to those who society has rejected the mentally ill, those who are dying of cancer, AIDS, and sorrow. those in prison, drug addicts and alcoholics. Marks Jesus would come to the very old, and the very young, those who are most vulnerable. Oh, Pastor thats hard to hear! That Jesus would come first to the great unwashed of our society. Thats very hard to hear! Well, youve got lots of company! It was very hard for the Pharisees and scribes to hear this very news from Jesus himself. Very hard, indeed. It was so hard for them to hear his message of love for all people, so hard, that Jesus was ultimately crucified for saying it was so. So, we come today to examine the contents of our hearts, to examine the contents of the collective heart of this congregation. We come knowing that Gods love for us, Gods radical love for us, will heal our hearts. We come believing that Gods love

8 gives us the love we need to share the love of Jesus with all people. And rememberits a set up. Next week . . . the rest of the story. Amen