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Clean Hands, Full Hearts (Can’t Lose): A Sermon About Purity and Tradition

Clean Hands, Full Hearts (Can’t Lose): A Sermon About Purity and Tradition

Last updated on: August 31, 2015 at 10:43 am by Erin Wathen

Clean Hands, Full Hearts (Can’t Lose): A Sermon About Purity and Tradition 2015-08-31T10:43:12-07:00 Erin Wathen

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7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and 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.) 5So 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?” 6He 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;
7in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7)

Picture: A downtown, “register of historic places” sanctuary. High gothic towers; stained glass windows, insured for more than most houses; vaulted ceilings; walls of ancient, sanctified stone. For decades, the faithful have gathered here for worship and Bible study; women’s mission society and men’s prayer breakfasts; for styrofoam cups of coffee and the holy banana bread of life.

But then… you know what comes next… dwindling numbers. The exodus of young children and families—and of course, those mythical creatures, the Millenials. Crumbling stone, an aging organ, and it’s going to cost us HOW MUCH to reinforce the foundation?? Then somebody says the word “mildew” in hushed tones, and there is much glancing about, as though a troubled demon has just entered the room. And the pastor’s healthcare costs as much as the upkeep on the ancient roof. The finance meetings are fraught with unspoken reality —we have to sell the building.

But that unspoken reality stays unspoken. And in the meantime… tradition is upheld and endowment funds are leaned upon heavily and mission becomes a fond memory of years past—this thing they used to do, when the seats were full.

It happens all the time.

It’s not that any church ever sits down one day and decides —right now, today, we are going to stop being the Church. We are going to stop doing what we were called to do together; we’re going to keep paying the light bills but stop serving our neighbors. It’s never as intentional as that. But one little decision at a time—one tedious meeting, one sad death, one building crisis at a time—churches stop living and start existing.

This is how tradition and ‘the way we’ve always done it’ and ‘don’t they know who we are’ —starts to take precedent over the gospel.

And THAT is where we find Jesus and the Disciples this morning… sitting in one of those tedious meetings, having one of those little crisis of construction moments—when the Pharisees want to know, ‘Jesus—why are your guys not washing their hands? Don’t they know who we are? Don’t they know we do things?’

For the Pharisees, the washing of hands before a meal was not just good hygiene. It was a matter of ritual. One of those ‘this is who we are’ things that set the people of God apart and made them a “we” instead of a bunch of “me’s.” The Pharisees see the disciples not washing their hands, and they turn it into one of those ‘gotcha’ moments when they can reveal Jesus as a fraud. It is an opportunity to discriminate—against Gentiles who have just converted; and also incriminate—making Jesus look like a bad rabbi who does not really know his purity laws.

But Jesus tells them —having faith is not just about the rules and rituals—it is about having a right spirit. Nothing that you take into the body can be bad. What’s more important is what the body does; the living faith, the product of the heart.

It’s important to remember that Jesus was a faithful Jewish leader—he did not take the purity laws lightly. And beyond the importance of ritual— He knew the value of some good hand sanitizer. He knew that those laws were in place not just to establish community, but also for the GOOD of community. Still—for all the religious AND practical importance of clean hands—Jesus refuses to let the rules take on more importance than the INTENT of the rules—which was always, and only, to point to the Glory of God.

We’ve seen Jesus do this before. Often. And whether he was talking about healing on the sabbath, or eating with people who were socially unacceptable, or coming to dinner with dirty hands, the message is always the same–the law matters, but NOT AS MUCH as the actual, real-live person in front of you. What matters more is the inner life; the workings of the heart. If you can love God and serve neighbor AND wash your hands, then all the better. But the ritual does not matter more than the inward transformation.

(If this were the gospel of Eric Taylor it might go: Clean hands, full hearts…can’t lose!)

The rituals of faith, and the shared practices of community are important…but not nearly as important as living the faith; as loving your neighbor, caring for God’s people, and acting in ways that reflect the purity of a healthy inward spirit.

Somehow, over time… as the Christian movement grew and took on power and privilege over a couple of centuries, the disciples of Jesus started to sound less like Jesus himself; and more like the Pharisees.

The Church—as those followers came to call themselves—started to care more about the rules and traditions meant to bind them together, and less about the hurting world they were called to serve through the good news. Obscure, unattainable morality code started to take precedence over human kindness and well… everything just went all to heck from there.

It isn’t just Church where we see evidence of “this is how we do things” taking precedence over people… Kind of like with our country’s approach to gun legislation… Dogmatic attachment to the letter of the law, over and above the clear and growing threat to public safety…

That is exactly the kind of blind adherence to tradition that Jesus warned against. Because that way leads to death, almost always.

It’s not just about religion, or even government. It’s about how people will cling to a perceived certainty, every single time, over ambiguity that calls for in-the-moment discernment. Black/white, right/wrong sorts of answers have a certain appeal. They seem to make life easier. And so they often win out over the risk and reality of relationship.

The thing is… it’s a fine line between easy answers and fundamentalism. It’s a slippery downward slope, from “this is who we are and this is how we do things, NO MATTER WHAT,” to “this is what we believe, and everybody who doesn’t fall in line will be punished. Or imprisoned, or deported, or executed.”

That’s why every now and then, we take a few minutes to remember:

– what we preach is not as important as what we practice.

-what goes into the body is not as important as the inner life of the spirit.

-the rituals we repeat don’t matter as much words from the heart.

–And coming to dinner with clean hands is not nearly as important as making room at the table.

Ritual is not all bad. Buildings are not always a burden. And Tradition has its place and purpose. But it’s important to remember that tradition ITSELF is not the gift. Rituals are not meant to take the place of actual faith, and buildings are not meant to be hiding places.

There is a church in Grand Rapids called Bethlehem Lutheran Church —how great is that for a church name, like a place that is always just waiting for something to be born? — Bethlehem Lutheran had that big gothic, downtown, historic-register-of-places thing going on. They knew all about the hallowed be thy bricks prayer, and the styrofoam cup of God’s blessing.

They also knew about the missing Millenials; and the crumbling plaster; and the futility of saying ‘don’t they know who we are,’ even as the place fell down around their ears.

But you know what they did? They got the heck out.

They did some long hard work of discernment and decided that who they were, was people who still felt called to serve their neighbors. Just…maybe they needed different neighbors.

So they sold the gothic towers, and the ancient organ. Because that building was what they had—it wasn’t who they were. And they moved to an industrial space in a part of town where the people had needs: far beyond hollow liturgies and beautiful-but-decrepit old buildings. And they went about being God’s people in a new neighborhood.

Their pastor says, “It is impossible to hide from the realities and inequalities of the world in our new location.”

And of course, that’s when stuff gets interesting.

These days, that struggling, dying church is welcoming new members —some of whom would never have felt welcome in the old fancy pants building. And some of whom are younger, and want only an authentic, active faith that matters to the world. Furthermore, the church has become a central location housing many of the resources and human services that the city offers.

That is good news.

Here at Saint Andrew, our building is not a burden. It’s beautiful and welcoming; it meets our needs, and it often draws people to us. For the most part it is paid for. It is fairly new so Most Days (Everybody knock on something wooden) the roof is not falling in around us. (Unless it rains real hard and the wind blows just so…) And also, we are committed to putting a significant portion of our resources, and our time and talents, into the work of the gospel in our community and world.

Still—the story of Jesus and Pharisees reminds us that we should always be asking hard questions… About why we do the things we do; and whether we are investing as much in living the gospel as we are in the things we consume.

That story of Bethlehem church came from the Alban Institute, an organization that helps churches grow and thrive. And alongside the story, they posed some of those hard, reflective questions for churches, and I tried to answer them for us. [these are paraphrased]

Is your building is preventing you from doing good ministry? Nope.

Does your church have a clear sense of vision and purpose? A solid identity? YES! Check.

Does your vision meet the reality of your ministry. YES, we put our mission and values into action.

Then, there was this one: Is your church connected to the realities of its community and context?

[long pause for crickets]

I had to sit with that one for a minute. Maybe we’ve got some work to do.

We may have awareness of the realities of our community…but are we living in those realities, daily?

Do we know, for instance, that there are over 600 homeless children enrolled in the Olathe public schools? And that some of those children go to Washington elementary, our partner school? And Some of them go to school with our own children. And all of them are our neighbors.

Do we know that the hispanic population of Olathe is growing at a rate of over 100% right now? Do we know where these folks live, and why they’re coming here? Have we met them?

Do we know how many of our neighbors struggle with food insecurity and underemployment?

Do we know the toll of systemic racism in our own local government?

Maybe we know it… Maybe we even care deeply about it.

But would you know it to look at us?

We are not holding up a crumbling building here–we do not have that burden holding us back from the work of our mission. Nor are we hiding behind some archaic, judgy moral code and trying to enforce it on the world.

But I wonder… What would we be willing to give up, in order to reach and serve and worship with people who don’t look like us?

It’s something to think about.

In the meantime. We remember that we worship, not just because ‘this is who we are’ and ‘this is what we do.’ But because, at this table every week, we are called back to the real purpose at the heart of community; the inner life that points to the reality of God, and our call to bear God’s loving presence to the world.

We can come to the table with or without clean hands. Clean is better, because it’s almost flu season… But. Clean hands or not—come with a full heart, and all else is up for discussion.

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