by Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
“What are you going to do about Jane? Do you have a plan to deal with her?” The new Altar Guild director had been in place for just a couple of days when she was confronted by 3 members who asked her this question. She knew why they were asking. She knew what they wanted. Jane was the head of the funeral service team. A lady of advanced years whose memory and abilities to get around were not what they used to be. Things were falling through the cracks. They wanted her gone.
Jane was also one of the kindest, gentlest souls God ever made. Her husband had been an army officer and they had moved frequently. But where ever they lived, Jane faithfully appeared at an Episcopal Church and volunteered for the church’s Altar Guild. Her first Altar Guild experience was as a teenager helping her mother polish silver patens and iron linens. For seven decades after her quiet confidence inspired and instructed newer members.
Altar Guild is a special ministry in the church. I doubt there’s one more ritual-centered than Altar Guild. And a lot of rituals there are. So many that it would warm the heart of the most strident Pharisee. Altar Guild members prepare the church for worship before anyone arrives and cleans up after everyone leaves. They wash and dry, iron and polish often alone in the quiet of the sacristy. It’s a ministry of people who say “yes” to service that is virtually devoid of praise or recognition. About the only time Altar Guild members are recognized is on that rare occasion when something does go wrong.
Now not always, and not here at St. Matthias, but somehow it is also a ministry where it is oh-so-easy to become Pharisee-like and focused on hands and forget the heart, focused on shiny chalices and pretty linens and forget the gift of bread and wine and presence. Somehow the care of sacred objects of worship connotes a power and authority that goes to member’s heads so that the reason that we hold them sacred in the first place fades away.
Funny how rituals get started. We continue to do things without knowing why we do them, but we do them because it’s what we learned and what everyone else has done before us. This is a key thought to keep in the back of our minds as we look at this gospel today. So let’s hold that image of three people pointedly quizzing the new Altar Guild director about Jane. We’ll come back to them later.
We’ve had several weeks of readings from John about the Eucharist where we see clearly how much we need Jesus for sustenance and for life itself, where we see who Jesus is and what he is all about. Now we’re back in Mark in the midst of conflict and controversy. Suddenly Mark’s stories about healing have stopped for a minute and we have a debate focusing on the interpretation and practice of Judaism by Jesus and his followers. Ritual washing was one key part of a highly complex system of purity regulations.
And just before this gospel passage, we hear about Jesus healing and teaching in a place called Gennesaret. Throngs of people longing for healing are crowding in on Jesus. And all the sudden, a group of Pharisees appear. They’ve come quite a distance in the first century world – about 80 miles. So they must be quite concerned about what this happening. They’re there because they’ve heard this Jesus guy is teaching something unique and new, he’s creating a stir, throwing everything into chaos. They’re wondering who are these people following him, who are all these people trying to get close to him believing that he can heal them if they can just touch the hem of his robe.
So they make a difficult journey to see for themselves. In the midst of all these people longing for healing and all the joy and relief that goes with it, what do they focus on? Jesus’ followers not following a ritual about purity. Not the great suffering or needs of the people but on whether or not they’ve washing their hands before eating.
Jesus does not back down or make nice. He calls them hypocrites. Jesus criticizes his opponents for substituting human traditions for divine commandments. Religious hypocrites, both then and now, are the most dangerous kind because they live lives pretending to be something they are not in order to deceive others and take advantage of them. They publicly preach sacred teaching about the love of God and the truth of the gospel message while living private lives that reflect love of self and some version of truth that benefits only themselves. As clean as the Pharisees hands were, they often used them to pick apart, and point and accuse.
The disciples are also confused. In private, they ask Jesus exactly what he means, and Jesus is uncharacteristically clear: he tells them that the things we eat don’t enter our hearts, they enter our stomachs. The food is used as needed to help our bodies function. That does not spoil us or debase us or damage us in any way. It is the things that come out of our hearts that are not of God, the things that are not based in love – those things are damaging to us. They are damaging because they separate us from God and from one another.
Rituals themselves are not an anathema to God. Recent research suggests even simple rituals can help us alleviate grief, reduce anxiety and increase self-confidence – all good things that God wants for us. Basketball superstar Michael Jordan put on his North Carolina shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls shorts in every game; Curtis Martin of the New York Jets reads Psalm 91 before every game. And Wade Boggs, as third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, wrote the Hebrew word Chai (“living”) in the dirt before each at bat. Boggs was not Jewish. These superstitious sounding rituals enhanced their confidence in their abilities and increased their emotional stability under stress. It gave them a platform to take on a mindset of connection to their best selves and to their best possible contribution to something precious – a cause greater than themselves that would last long after they had left the field.
It’s up to each of us to look at our own rituals and practices and actions and ask ourselves if we, like the Pharisees, have misinterpreted what is important to God. It is good to have clean hands, cups and pots. But what really matters is the heart. Are our hearts far from God? Do we give more time to keeping a clean house than a clean heart? Today’s gospel is not about washing hands. It’s about washing hearts.
Have we fallen in with those very uncomfortable failings that Jesus lists: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. Of course we have. We all do. The good news is that, once we are self-aware, we can let them go and turn back to God who is waiting eagerly with outstretched love to welcome us. What Jesus says today has nothing to do with washing hands, or cleanliness. Today’s gospel is not about washing hands. It’s about washing hearts.
Let’s go back to those Altar Guild members and their pointed question to the new director. She told them she did indeed have a plan for what to do about Jane. “My plan,” she told them, “is to love her. My plan is to cherish her and look out for her. It’s true that things have to go smoothly and be set up correctly. So my plan is to discreetly check on what she does and offer to support her. And I invite you to do the same. I invite you to love her along with me.” And they did.
About a month later, Jane called the new director and said she was ready to step aside. She acknowledged with grace and dignity that leading the team was just too difficult for her. The director accepted her decision and asked her to share with her how the rituals of Altar Guild informed her faith, how she brought the divine to her work all these years. Without hesitating Jane said, “oh it was the prayer.” And she shared the prayer she prayed each time she came to the sacristy:
“Most gracious Father, who has called your child to serve in the preparation of your altar, so that it may be a suitable place for the offering of your body and blood, sanctify my life and consecrate my hands so that I may worthily handle these sacred gifts which are being offered to you. As I handle holy things, grant that my whole life may be illuminated and blessed by you in whose honor I prepare them.
“I pray for those who come to the table, who drink from the cup and eat from the paten that they may find real presence of Jesus Christ whose death was not the end but the beginning of life everlasting.
“I pray that their lives may be transformed, their wounds healed, their strength renewed, their joy restored so that they may understand themselves to be God’s beloved creation.
“I pray that this sacrament of bread of wine taken today may connect them through the love of God, the body of Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit with all those who have help this cup who have accepted this bread today and will do so in the future, that we may all be one body by and through the one God who is mother and father to us all.”
Our default must always be love. Amen.