Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
We are people with deep roots. We each have our own stories to tell, of our families, of growing up, learning, discerning. We are deeply rooted in Biblical and theological traditions. We recognize that we came from somewhere, and walk in the footsteps of a whole lot of people.
And, not unlike our Biblical ancestors, sometimes we forget.
We forget what is important. We forget where we came from. We forget who we are, and who, ultimately, we are called to follow. In short, “we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
In today’s pericope, we meet Pharisees and scribes who ask good questions, engaging with Jesus in some good debate: “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Jesus, as he so often does, engages in the debate, answering their question with a challenge to them, to his disciples, and to all of us who follow him. “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Jesus calls them, and us, to remember who we are.
Jesus calls them, and us, to remember who we are. To remember where we came from, to honor and remember the undergirding values, that is, “the commandment of God.” As we read in the reading from Deuteronomy today, “…take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your mind all the days of your life….” Remember…and tell. Tell these stories to your children and your grandchildren. You are part of something so much bigger. You come from somewhere.
Chances are we have all encountered this pericope with some anxiety or hesitancy. It is one of “those,” where we get this long list of “evil intentions,” these things that Jesus says defile a person from the inside. Jesus’ intent is not for this to become a “clobber verse,” but rather a way for all of us to recognize in ourselves our own capacity for sin, and invites us to go right back to the beginning, where we confess, once again, that we have sinned and fallen short. Perhaps this list is a way to remind us that we are all captive to sin and cannot free ourselves and to point us back to our identity not only as sinners, but also and simultaneously saints, washed in the waters of baptism and given the new name “child of God.”
Deeply rooted in the life-giving promises of the Triune God who has been, and is, and will be gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, we are called into repentance and given new life, over and over again. We do not have to figure it all out on our own because we are gifted with the commandments that, at their best, point us back to God and to one another.
By living into Christ’s life-giving promise, we might just end up getting our hands dirty, finding ourselves at tables with people whose life stories are a whole lot different than our own, and caring “for orphans and widows in their distress.” The risen Christ, after all, calls us, over and over again, back to the basics—to font and to table, where he promises to find us, feed us, and send us out to be his people, deeply rooted in his promises of life.
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