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This morning’s lectionary readings put forth one of the most central questions that has been asked by people of all faiths over many centuries of religious history: what does it look like to live a life that is pleasing to God?
In our reading from James, we read that a life of faithful obedience to God means that we not only hear the word and believe, but also that we act— that we are doers of the word as well as hearers of the word. We also read that religion for the sake of religion, or piety for the sake of piety, means nothing if we do not also live out our faith through acts of caring for others. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God,” writes the author of James, “is to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” In other words, it’s not just about what you say you believe, but also how you live out that faith.
Similar themes are found in this morning’s gospel reading from Mark, in what is admittedly—by our modern standards-- a rather peculiar story. It is a story in which the Pharisees chastise Jesus and his disciples for eating a meal without having first washed their hands in order to be ritually clean. Jesus, in turn, responds rather harshly, calling the Pharisees a bunch of hypocrites who do nothing but pay lip service to God with all their rules and regulations and religious rituals. To be quite honest, the whole affair can seem a bit like much ado about nothing. After all, this wasn’t a fight about the appropriate use of sacrifice— a hot topic in that day and age. It wasn’t an argument about how to best care for the poor or widowed among them, the correct use of tithes and offerings, or even proper interpretation of scripture. It was a fight about the importance (or lack of thereof) of washing one’s hands before a meal. It almost seems a little silly, and maybe even trivial.
But maybe it’s not. Maybe this is actually a pretty good illustration of what it looks like— really looks like— when a community of imperfect people are trying their best to figure out the answer to our question of the day: what does it look like to live a life that is pleasing to God? When it comes to religious life— and our common life together in a community of faith-- what are the things that are most important to God?
The Pharisees, in regards to this question, often come across to us as looking rather silly in the gospels, with all their rules and regulations, and their stubborn adherence to tradition. We often think we are so different than them. We think if it had been us, of course we would have aligned ourselves with Jesus and the disciples, not those stuffy old fashioned Pharisees! But maybe we are too hard on the Pharisees sometimes. After all, how many times do we, even being the modern, enlightened Christians that we are, find ourselves fighting about the little things more often than we engage in discussion and debate about the big stuff?
The truth is, it’s very easy for us to be just like the Pharisees—to get caught up in the minutia of every day religious life and whatever our modern day equivalent of ritual hand washing might be—and forget about our larger purpose as the Body of Christ. We are creatures of habit, and thus as human beings we prefer order over chaos, rules over anarchy (most of us anyway). And when it comes to religion, this is even more the case. Jesus saw this tendency in the rituals of the Pharisees, and he saw that adherence to tradition was holding them back. This is why he challenges them, and continues to challenge us today, with the question: what does it look like to live a life that is pleasing to God?
Obviously there are many ways to approach the answer to this question. There is not just one path or one single formula for faithful living. But our Gospel story this morning does offer us one particular way of looking at the matter, which is to say: it doesn’t matter if your hands are clean, if your heart is not. And, sometimes it’s okay, and maybe even necessary to let our hands get a little dirty if we want to keep our hearts clean before God.
Jesus and his disciples, for example, got their hands plenty dirty, and not just because they didn’t wash them before they ate. When they went from town to town, laying hands on those who were considered “unclean”-- the sick, the lame, the sinners, and perhaps worst of all, the lepers— they got their hands dirty. Back then, to touch someone who was considered unclean meant that you yourself became unclean as well. And those who were ill or unclean for any reason were not allowed in the temple because it was thought they would contaminate the house of God. Such ostracism of those most in need meant that the religious leaders certainly kept their hands clean, but their hearts were hardened.
Jesus and his disciples, on the other hand, in treating others with compassion and care, broke the rules and got their hands dirty. But they kept their hearts clean before God.
I almost wonder if this story about ritual hand washing isn’t really about ritual hand washing at all. That perhaps it’s something of a metaphor for the larger conflict Jesus had with religious leaders when it came to who was considered unclean, and why. Jesus and his disciples disregarded the rules when it came to who was supposed to be untouchable. They laid their hands on those considered to be unclean as if to say, “we do not see you as unclean, and neither does God.”
These same principles hold true for us as modern day disciples of Christ. Sometimes we have to get our hands a little dirty if we want to keep our hearts clean before God.
I bet anyone who has ever served a meal at a soup kitchen can relate to this. When you’re in the kitchen preparing a meal for 80 or 100 people, when you are running from the kitchen to the dining room with heaping bowls of chili or paper plates filled to the brim with baked beans and macaroni salad-- you get your hands dirty.
Or what about those of you who have ever cared for an ailing parent or aging loved one? I imagine you might be able to relate to this as well. When you care for someone who can no dress or even feed themselves, God knows, you tend to get your hands dirty.
Or consider any situation in which you have aligned yourself with someone who may be considered “untouchable” by some standard of society. While we may not longer use the language of “clean” and “unclean” in this day and age, we do still have our untouchables. Are we willing to lay our hands on them—the homeless, the poor, the sick and the aging, the addict, and the outcast—and say to them, “we do not see you as unclean, and neither does God.” If so, perhaps we are moving a little closer towards the answer to our question—what does it look like to live a life that is pleasing to God? I say a little closer because at the end of the day, we must recognize that it’s not just about our actions— admirable and worthy as they may be. Our readings this morning make it abundantly clear that ultimately, in striving to live a life that is pleasing to God, it’s not just the work of our hands that matters, but also the state of our hearts. As honorable as it may be to feed the hungry and care for the sick, if we do these things out of a sense of obligation or even— God-forbid— with resentment, that’s not going to cut it either. Ultimately, it’s the intent behind the actions that God really cares about. Which brings us back full circle to our Gospel story this morning.
Jesus wasn’t picking a fight with the Pharisees because he thought the tradition of washing one’s hands before a meal was a bad thing. He wasn’t throwing out tradition because he was lazy or disrespectful. He was simply trying to point out that the Pharisees had let adherence to tradition overshadow their commitment to God. There’s nothing wrong with keeping tradition and holding fast to the things our elders held dear, so long as we are willing to sometimes let them go, if at anytime they get in the way of caring for others— particularly for the least of these. So long as we do not put opinions above people, tradition above the gospel, or ritual above compassion and authentic community. Every time we gather together in Bible Study, or committee meetings, or even social gatherings as a church, and we enter into conversation about the tasks set before us, and even as we argue— as people naturally do— about the best way to accomplish those tasks, we must never lost sight of who we are and why we are here. We must always be intentional about keeping our hearts clean before God, so that we are ready at a moment’s notice to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty, to do the work we are called to do as disciples of Christ, and to strive at all times to live a life worthy of that calling.
Amen, and let it be so.
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