Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Proper 17 / Year B
Since the dawn of
religious belief – be it in one deity or a whole pantheon – human beings have
perceived the need to approach ultimate holiness with great care. In many religious traditions, including our
own, there is a pervasive sense God exists completely beyond us. Eucharistic Prayer D captures this awareness
with these words:
“You alone are God, living and true, dwelling in light
inaccessible from before time and forever.”
How do you come
before a Being such as this? Why do we
even think we can enter into the presence of God? When we do what should our posture be; and by
‘posture’ I mean something much broader and deeper than standing, sitting, or
kneeling?
This question of
posture is at the heart of today’s readings.
“Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle” the Psalmist asks, “who may
abide on your holy hill?” It is one of
the most profound questions in the Scriptures.
The answer, apparently, is anyone who approaches God with the right
posture. But this does not settle the
question, it merely begins the debate.
What is the right posture one needs when one comes before God?
Pharisees and
scribes confront Jesus in today’s gospel reading with concerns around this
issue. They are upset Jesus does not
make his followers go through a ritual act of handwashing prior to eating a
meal. The primary purpose of this practice
is for religious purification and has nothing to do with sanitation. It is part of an elaborate ritual designed to
make one acceptable in God’s presence.
And before we poo-poo it, notice Jesus himself does it because the
religious figures don’t attack him for not observing it, rather they attack him
for not making his followers do it.
Here is what is
good about these obscure purification rites: they remind people of the Holy
Otherness of God. In the Hebrew
tradition one never attempts to make an image of God because to do so reduces
God’s unfathomable grandeur to something tangible and limited. One never speaks the Name of God because to
do so has the same effect. God is
experienced as Other, Beyond, Glory inapproachable, and yet also as Present and
open, a Revealing Self who spoke to the ancestors and through the
prophets. This Holy Other and Revealing
Self invites and even welcomes the Hebrew people into its Majestic Presence and
the Hebrew people understand accepting this welcome requires great care on
their part. This care takes the form of
elaborate rites and rituals for purification.
Some of these are prescribed in the Hebrew Scriptures while others
develop over time through tradition.
So, applaud the
Pharisees for recognizing the greatness of God and the need to approach God
with the right posture. Jesus’ issue
with them centers on how one obtains the right posture. In one brief discussion he changes the focus from
outer rituals to inner attitudes; from outward piety to inner devotion; from
purification of the hands to purification of the heart.
Consider
our other lessons this morning. James
exhorts his readers to be doers of the word, not merely hearers of it. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before
God is this,” he writes, “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and
to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
The care he describes is not an empty, outward gesture, but a
manifestation of inner lover. Being
unstained by the world is not mere abstinence, but the result of an inner quest
for holiness.
In
answering the question about who can stand on God’s holy hill and enter into
God’s tabernacle, the psalmist points not to rituals for purification, but to
acts which signify moral integrity: being blameless, truthful, without guile or
contempt for your neighbor, spurning wickedness, embracing righteousness,
keeping one’s word (even when it comes at personal cost), never taking
advantage of another.
In the
Old Testament lesson, Moses shifts the focus from individual purity to communal
purity. We all are to keep the commands
of God, he tells the faithful “for this will show your wisdom and discernment
to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this
great nation is a wise and discerning people!’
For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God
is whenever we call to him?”
Let’s
be honest about one thing: if having the correct posture to approach God depends
entirely upon us, it would be better to be judged by outward rituals than by
inward attitudes. It is much easier to
clean your hands and in a certain manner than to have a pure heart. But God conceives of purity not in terms of
perfection, but intention. What are you
aiming for, knowing sometimes you will miss the target? What is your heart’s desire, knowing you
don’t always pursue it? I remember an
old saying I used to hear as a child: “Always try to do you best and remember
to let God take care of the rest.” This
is the posture God asks of anyone who responds to the welcome of Revealing Self.
Have
you ever reflected on the first prayer we offer at the beginning of every
service of Holy Eucharist:
Almighty God (Gulp!
Here is a Being who should make our
knees tremble), to you all hearts are open (Yikes! What could be worse than an encounter with
someone who knows your heart through and through?), all desires known (Double
yikes, because some of my desires are not so great!), and from you no secretes
are hid (Uh oh! There are some skeletons
in my closet): Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your
Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy
Name.
Every
time we enter into the welcoming Presence of the One who is Self-Revealing in
an act of worship, we do so acknowledging the posture required by God is in
fact a gift from God. It is God who
cleanses us to make us pure; enabling us to love God and magnify God’s holy
Name. Let us give thanks this morning for
how God invites us near, asking of us clean hearts and minds and making us
‘pure’ through God’s own gracious gift.
