Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
In April 2012, Texas Monthly magazine ran a cover story on Outlaw Country Music. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson were on the cover. (It’s understood that Waylon hated the term “outlaw country,” but hey, if the shoe fits…) It was a good article with lots of insights about the roots of the movement and the people who made it happen.
One of the anthems of Outlaw Country is the song “Luckenbach , Texas
I bring this up because this week I was challenged to consider what this gospel passage means if you think about it as a family squabble. The first thing it would mean is that there is a family connection. Since this conversation was about how Jews exercise their faith, it definitely qualifies as a faith family squabble, and few squabbles are bloodier than squabbles about faith.
Mark 7:3-4 tells us what was going on with this squabble. The Pharisees and all the Jews (meaning the Temple leadership) held to the traditions of the elders when interpreting the law. Because of that, they would ceremonially wash their hands before eating. Since their food needed to be ceremonially clean too, they observed other traditions about washing cups, pitchers, and kettles. These traditions were the way they interpreted the law, not the law itself.
So to sell to the scribes and the Pharisees, merchants would have to follow those traditions too. This added a whole layer of things market merchants would have to do if they intended to sell to the leaders which increased the cost of the production without promise of sale.
Being holier than Jesus, the temple elite ask why the disciples don’t “follow the traditions of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands.” This is an interesting question because there are two ways to look at this cleanliness. The leaders could be asking Jesus why his disciples eat with dirty hands rather than washed hands, but that is not likely. Probably they are asking why his followers eat with “ordinary” hands and not “sanctified” hands like them.
I take this latter interpretation to be more likely because Jesus invokes the prophet Isaiah to warn the Pharisees and all with ears to hear that they are hypocrites, pretenders, who honor God with their lips but not with their hearts. They live according to their traditions instead of the commands of the law. They have let go of God’s ways and replaced it with their own. In this case, with their hand washing, they have made it so that what goes in is more important than what comes out. That’s the squabble, the Pharisees demand more and the disciples are following Jesus instead of them.
Using Isaiah, Jesus says their worship is in vain. He says, No, that is not my way.
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| Presbyterian Family Connections |
In your bulletin today, Georgia has included a picture called “The Presbyterian Family Connections.”[2] The first time I saw this image was about ten years ago and I can’t decide whether this made everything more clear or more cloudy. What in the early 1700’s had a single beginning split in 1741 and reunited 17 years later.
Later in the 18th Century, Presbyterians in three distinct branches split into five by the turn of the century. We have split and reunited with fellow Presbyterians several times over the past three hundred years. There are two distinct branches of the church called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The only reason this image ends in nine different Presbyterian branches is that the tenth that broke off this year hasn’t been added yet.
On a side note, it makes me smile sheepishly to consider the name “Orthodox Presbyterian Church.” I love all of my brothers and sisters in the faith and I know we have our differences. I am with the branch of the denomination that fits me best, but I shudder to think that any fellow Presbyterian denominations could be considered “unorthodox.” Such was the theological climate in the 1930’s, and it’s not so different than it is today.
We all have our squabbles. Marie and I once actually belonged to a congregation that had one of its worst arguments over carpet color. Cliché, yes, but that doesn’t make it less true. The spat over the carpet divided the Ladies’ Circle.
Another squabble this congregation suffered was two different controversies over speaking in tongues. That’s right, this happened not once but twice. As for the semi-official opinion of Grace Presbytery, they would just assume we never speak of it. Considering the squabbles that follow, I understand their opinion.
I don’t know the Presbytery’s view on carpet.
So family squabbles have existed in the church since there has been a church. The example Jesus presents us today is a squabble that predates Christianity as a faith. This squabble has to do with how people lived their Judaism. It’s really a squabble we won’t really fully understand because we don’t have an oblation ceremony, a ceremonial washing.
As for the first major Christian squabble, it was settled in 35AD at the Jerusalem Council. Found in Acts 15, the council decided that the new gentile believers did not have to become Jews before they became Christians. It also decided that while the new believers did not need to be circumcised, but they still needed to follow the Jewish dietary restrictions, keep a kosher table.
What’s funny is that these days we circumcise most boys and hardly anyone keeps a kosher table. This is just the way we have worked out that particular family squabble and did it in the exact opposite way of the orthodoxy established between Peter and James.
In their own ways, these things like washing, circumcision, and even carpet are things we establish to help us live faithfully. Yes, even carpet—imagine someone coming in late with the click of a heal, clomp of a boot, or slap of a flip-flop. Carpet means something. It’s when these things get in the way of us following the commands of God; this is when we get into trouble.
Jesus tells us what kind of trouble in verses 21-22. From within come evil thoughts and evil intentions. These evil intents lead to evil acts. Evil acts lead to, well, evil acts are contrary to the ways of God.
The way we are called to live is found in our reading from James. He teaches that every good and perfect gift is from above. It comes from the Father of us all. God creates us so that we may be a kind of “first fruit,” a blessing on all creation. James further teaches us that we are to keep a rein on our tongues, and if we don’t our religion is worthless. He then says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” It is by giving and sharing that we live and serve God as the first fruit of life.
Our Old Testament reading was from the Song of Songs. Scholars have different views of why this belongs in Scripture. Some say it is a collection of songs Solomon sang to his beloved. Others say it is a metaphor for how God loves creation or the church. Today I want us to look at it from a different perspective. I don’t want us to look at it as a way to love, but as a way to be loved.
The song tells us God so loves us all. God loves us in ways we can never imagine, but the song shows us a specific way that we are loved. God loves us with strength and vitality; leaping like a gazelle or a young stag. God loves us so much that we are begged to follow, “Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.”
God loves us in a way that ends the long cold winter of sorrow and shame, pain and discontent. Beauty arrives in God’s love. Flowers appear and the song of the turtledove is heard in the land. Figs bloom and fragrant vines grow.
Then God says, “Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come with me.”
Lord, let us hear this command. We must discard the discord and the rules that people put in the way of faith. Let us hear that in God’s eyes we are all beautiful. We are beautiful and we were made to be loved. God wants us to be loved. As the first fruit, God wants us to love one another. We will never do this as long as we erect barriers. These obstacles will always get in the way of loving and being loved. Our family squabbles keep us from being the church God calls us to be.
It is up to us to consider what we do, everything we do, and decide what’s window dressing and what’s important to the faith. It’s up to us to look at everything; worship, mission, hospitality, study, everything; and decide what are the commands of God and what are the traditions of man. We need to get rid of everything that gets in our way, no matter how much we love it. Because if it gets in the way of God’s commands God does not love it.
Our lives are filled with stresses, and like the couple in the Luckenbach song those things are killing us. But there’s a line in the song, one that comes right before the chorus, which should be our guide. Waylon sings, “Maybe it’s time we get back to the basics of love.” That’s it friends. The way we live our lives and our faith is killing us and the Church, not just the Presbyterians but all denominations. And I say “Maybe it’s time we get back to the basics of love.”
It’s what James says. It’s what Solomon sings. It’s what Jesus says when he says the two greatest commands are, “You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.” It’s not time to throw out the baby with the bathwater, we should never discard what is important; but it is time to do as Jesus and Waylon require. It’s time to get past our family squabbles and get back to the basics of love.
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