September
3, 2000
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (CEV)
Some Pharisees and several teachers of the Law of Moses from Jerusalem
came and gathered around Jesus. They noticed that some of his
disciples ate without first washing their hands.
The Pharisees and many others obey the teachings of their ancestors.
They always wash their hands in the proper way before eating.
None of them will eat anything they buy in the market until it
is washed. They also follow a lot of other teachings, such as
washing cups, pitchers, and bowls.
The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples
obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without
washing their hands?"
Jesus replied: "You are nothing but show-offs! the Prophet
Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said, 'all of you
praise me with your words, but you never really think about me.
It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made
up by humans.'
"You disobey God's commands in order to obey what humans
have taught."
...
Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Pay attention
and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into
your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God."
...
"Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing,
murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency,
envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from
your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.
=======
1.
"Time makes ancient truth, uncouth," James Russell Lowell
from the hymn "Once to every man and nation." One of
the trickier things to deal with is the way that our experience
is to be the experience of a next generation. One of the more
difficult tasks is to "see ourselves as others see us."
Without the perspective of time or the other we have a tendency
to project our particulars as generalizations.
2.
A classic story about this issue - It is time for the holiday
ham to be cooked for the gathered family. The cook is going about
the business of preparation and cuts one end off the ham. This
was observed by a new in-law to the family who asked why they
cut the end off the ham. The response was that was the way the
previous family cook had prepared ham. Since this was a multi-generational
family they go off to query the previous family cook. They indicated
that was they way they had seen the family cook before them prepare
a ham. Fortunately that elderly cook was present and when the
question was put to them they responded, "I had to cut the
end of the ham off because it was too big for the pan I had."
So it is that traditions grow and become ingrained. There is a
constant need to evaluate the current situation. Do we now have
a larger pan that will hold more? Without the evaluation we can
be misled by an ancient reality.
3. When
looking at the incorporation of signs and symbols into a wedding
service it is important to note that most parts of the wedding
ceremony are the result of someone doing something one way and
someone else noting that and thinking they wanted that, too. So
it was, one ceremony at a time, that traditions grew. A key element
to this is recognize that a new way of doing things might set
in motion another series of someones seeing something and thinking
they wanted that, too.
Graphically this might look like:
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\/
/\ we are always
in flux and tension
/ \ between the way
we have become
\ / and the way we will
become
\/
/\
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
\
\
\
\
\ some tradition is always closing down
\ has run out of its time
\ constricts life
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/ some tradition is always emerging
/ challenges a previous way to remain
relevant
/ opens new horizons
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Life in its fullness wrestles in the intersection between these
dynamics.