Pentecost 15B2018
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
by Pastor Sarah Stadler
I had always imagined these passages where Jesus and the Pharisees spar as similar to what I imagine the WWF is. “And here comes Jesus, wise rabbi, God’s son, coolest kid in town. He’s so wise the Pharisees won’t know what hit them!” Screaming crowds, fancy outfits, and consummate professionals almost dancing through an exploration of God’s law, complete with swagger and showboating. Silly me.
The Pharisees were the most religious folks in the Jewish world. Learned, devout, faithful, they were concerned with getting religion right. They studied hard and worked hard at following the law. It’s hard to tell from scripture without accompanying video clips, but I doubt there was much swagger or showboating during this particular conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. For centuries, good, religious folks had washed their hands before they ate, and Jesus’ disciples—all of them good, Jewish men—weren’t washing their hands. Why not? Why weren’t the disciples of a reportedly divine man following the tradition of the religious elders? I think it puzzled them, maybe even concerned them, so they asked—a genuine question.
Meanwhile, Mark chapter seven tells us that the ritual washing of hands before eating is not a law found in scripture. Four times in this passage, the gospel writer Mark, the Pharisees, and Jesus refer to the hand-washing practice as a “tradition” of the elders. Not a law of God but a tradition of the religious leaders.
Now, of course, traditions can enrich life and faith. Traditions can provide structure and discipline. Traditions can be gifts to communities. According to Wikipedia, a tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Here at Grace, we observe many traditions. We engage in (some) practices that are not simply the result of asking the question: what do we hope to accomplish and what action best helps us meet that goal? We engage in (some) practices not motivated by God’s command. We engage in (some) practices because that’s the way we’ve always done it. We engage in (some) practices that hold a special significance for us that really aren’t biblically or theologically significant—or maybe even practices that run contrary to Lutheran biblical or theological teaching. The example that comes to mind is asking men to remove their hats for prayer. Culture-wide, we observe this tradition, and men who do not may be on the receiving end of glares or maybe even angry words. I myself regularly ask men to remove their hats for prayer at GLOW. I consider men removing their hats for prayer a helpful practice at times, especially in a group where we are trying to create a culture of respect. But if we examine this tradition, while it may be important to us, while its origin story may include some practical reason, there is no theological reason for men to remove their hats for prayer. God does not command this practice. Its only function is to convey respect, a long-held meaning of the practice.
One tradition of many Lutheran congregations for a long time was to only offer Holy Communion once a month. However, while I was in seminary, the ELCA published a document called The Use of the Means of Grace which, among other guidelines, declared that all ELCA congregations would, as standard practice, offer Holy Communion on a weekly basis. Some congregations had already moved to this practice, but others had maintained serving communion only once or twice a month. Much fury ensued across the ELCA. People said communion wouldn’t be special if served every week. People said worship would take too long if communion were included every week. People said, “This is the way we’ve always done it! And now we’re going to change?” In my church history class in seminary, I learned that only in the United States was monthly communion ever a tradition. In other countries, weekly communion has long been the standard practice as, indeed, it was for Martin Luther. However, as Europeans settled the United States, the need for pastors exceeded the supply of pastors. As a result, faithful lay people built churches in all their small communities for weekly worship. But only once a month did a pastor come to administer Holy Communion. With a lack of pastors, one pastor would serve four congregations and ride a circuit from congregation to congregation, visiting one congregation per week. Thus, congregations throughout the western two-thirds of the United States established a long tradition of monthly communion even though Martin Luther wrote that we should receive Holy Communion as often as possible.
Another tradition we’ve challenged in recent years in the ELCA is the age at which children first receive Holy Communion. Theologically, the most desirable age would be as soon as the child can eat solid foods. Indeed, both communion and baptism are sacraments that proclaim God’s grace poured out for us before we can understand or deserve them. We thus baptize infants without blinking—as we do today, little Elias Juan Rodriguez, but our tradition long stipulated that children must be in fifth grade or even confirmed before they may receive communion. Here at Grace, Elias’ older sisters as well as all the children of this congregation in recent years began receiving communion as soon as they reached for it and their parents consented, usually around age one or two.
Now, imagine the Pharisees seeing the disciples not removing their hats for prayer. Or imagine the Pharisees witnessing weekly communion or dear Kyle or Mia or Elliot receiving communion. Why do your people buck tradition, Jesus? A genuine question, right? Maybe we ourselves have asked this question because we have come to believe that our human traditions are commandments of God.
But Jesus reminds us there is a difference between what God commands in scripture and what we establish as tradition for many a varied reason. Not all traditions are bad. Wash your hands before you eat. Good idea. But I won’t throw you out of the church if you don’t. And there’s the problem with our traditions. In our genuine, devoted practice of faith, we might judge those who fail to observe traditions and get caught in the same sticky web as the Pharisees. Today’s gospel invites us to dig deeper into scripture to distinguish between what God commands and what we have established, to ask questions and be open to the answers, and most of all, to be open to one another—we who are just trying to follow Jesus, to love God and love one another.