August 31, 2006
Lip
Pentecost 13/17B Mk 7.1-8,14f,21ff
When the Pharisees and Scribes asked Jesus to explain why his disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating, they weren’t seeking insight. They were demanding proof of worthiness.
On the other hand, Jesus saw people’s needs and met them with no expectation of response, no policies, no procedures. It was all so simple. Apparently something else besides cleanliness is also next to to godliness.
Isn’t it ironic, the maze of proprieties we churchers have cobbled together over the centuries and all in the name of one who had so little use for them? It’s like the Victorian father taking his son out behind the barn and saying, belt in hand, “I’ll beat the love of God into you if it takes all night!” It’s like all those movements underway in the church today that require catechisms and commitments over and beyond the Baptismal Covenant.
The Pharisees and Scribes meant well. It was in their job description. We mean well. What is religion, after all, but a human endeavor to make faith both memorable and manageable? Meaning well. Who can blame us for that?
Well, Jesus for one. And he had Isaiah to back him up. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Is 29.13; Mk 7.6f).
I suspect God had more than enough lip long ago and would like instead some heart for a change and maybe somewhere else beside only on bumper stickers about NY.