– Scripture:

                Source of Your Pollution

The Pharisees, along with some religious scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren’t being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they’d give jugs and pots and pans). The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, “Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?” Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing,  but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they are worshiping me,  but they don’t mean it.  They just use me as a cover  for teaching whatever suits their fancy, Ditching God’s command  and taking up the latest fads.” He went on, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God’s command, so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel out of that by saying that it’s perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I’ve given as a gift to God,’ thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God’s Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.” Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.” When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.” Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart, but your stomach works its way through the intestines and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.) He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.” From there, Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre.

                           Mark 7:1-24 MSG

Key Verse – The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, “Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?”

                           Mark 7:5 MSG

– Reflection:

I am a person who gives who and what came before me their due. It’s great to connect to earlier times, but not at the expense of what we should stand for in the Kingdom. When we say the Lord’s Prayer, we offer a prayer that has been said by Christians in some form or another for almost 2,000 years.  When we say the Apostle’s Creed, we are uttering words Christians had said long before I was even thought of or even a Christian.  When we celebrate Communion, we are participating in a ritual that has been practiced for the entirety of the Christian tradition. The faith of those who have gone before us comes alive in and through us. I think that’s incredibly special.

Where do we go from here?

When we find ourselves doing something because it’s always been done that way, failing to consider why it has been done that way or whether or not the way we do it is what makes it necessary, we can fall into the idolatry of traditionalism. There are things that I have read about in the Christian faith that are being performed because they always have been, but it has just been adopted. No one in some of the groups knows why they are doing certain rituals; they are only doing them because that is what has always been done. I like to know why something is being done and what it is honoring. That’s me, though. The Leaders in Jesus’ time were worried about the disciples not washing their hands before eating. Today that would be considered nasty but not an actual ritual in my eyes. Reading what Jesus said was big to me: “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact:  These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it.  They act like they are worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, Ditching God’s command and taking up the latest fads.” Powerful words from the man himself.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, We all open our hearts to you; all of our desires are known, and no secret can be hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that we may love you and be worthy enough to lift up your holy name.  Through Christ our Lord, we pray, Amen.