Pentecost 14 B – Tradition!

Dear Partner in Preaching,

Welcome back to Mark! After six weeks in John’s “bread of life” chapter, you’re probably more than ready to come back to the extended story Mark is telling about Jesus. But what an odd place to land: right in the middle of an argument so routine it feels peculiar to read about it in the Bible. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve not only overheard this argument before, but actually participated in it. About washing your hands before dinner, that is. In fact, it was a fairly routine part of the day when my kids were younger (and only occasionally – but still! – a part of our routine now that they’re teens.)

That can’t surely be what’s going on in this passage, can it, an argument about washing hands before eating that has probably been repeated in each and every one of our homes? Yes and no. Yes, it really is about the practice of washing hands. No, as is often true in such arguments, there is often more going on beneath the surface than initially meets the eye. With our kids, maybe they just forgot. Or maybe they’ve decided that even though Mom and Dad think this hand washing-thing is important, they don’t, and, while they’re at it, maybe they’re tired of all the rules Mom and Dad are making. So maybe not washing their hands, in this case, is less about forgetfulness and more about testing their parents’ authority.

The same thing is happening here. It’s not just about washing hands, it’s about the tradition and authority behind that practice. Which is the point the Pharisees press: “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders?” they ask, somewhat aghast at the implications of Jesus and his disciples running rough shod over tradition. What is at stake, then, is not just a specific practice but the larger question of authority. In short, the Pharisees want to know, just who does Jesus think he is to flout the tradition of the elders?

And at this point, it’s nearly crucial to put back in the verses the lectionary omits. Because it’s not simply about authority, but authority linked to behavior. Our everyday, ordinary, decisions about how we treat each other. Which is why Jesus throws the “tradition of the elders” thing back in their faces. Want to talk about tradition? Jesus asks. Then let’s talk about the tradition – make that a commandment! – of honoring our parents. Seems pretty straight forward to me, and yet you’ve found a religious loop-hole by which you can declare your wealth an offering to God and thereby not have to share it with your parents!

In other words, Jesus is challenging them as to how their traditions contribute to them fulfilling their mission. And I think this is just where this week’s sermon might bring this odd passage to bear on our shared life. I mean, maybe we don’t seem at first blush quite as fussy about tradition as Jesus’ opponents did, but what if you were to suggest tinkering with some of our own traditions? Perhaps changing worship in order to make worship more understandable and accessible to a younger generation? Or what if you were to drop the lectionary in favor of moving through the narrative of the Bible? Or what if you were to cancel all committees in favor of a more nimble way of governing the congregation? Or what if you were to suggest getting rid of pews to make the sanctuary space more flexible so you could offer it to some community groups? Or what if each fourth Sunday folks didn’t come to church at all but rather were engaged in community service throughout your county? Or what if…?

You probably get the idea. We each have traditions that are more than traditions. They are markers of what has been accepted as right and wrong and thereby serve to lend us a sense of stability. (Never mind that our traditions do in fact change over time – what’s important is that they appear unchanging in the moment!) This passage serves both to relativize our traditions – should we really hold them sacred? – while also pushing us to the far more important concern of the law to help us care for each other.

Mark, we should note, has a particular theological interest in the question about the cleanliness of foods. After all, the Jews who followed Jesus (for whom Mark wrote) differed in this from their Jewish cousins and brothers and sisters, and so he slips in the theological justification for their new practice. But we might take this occasion to look at some of our practices and ask whether they’ve become more important than our mission.

With this in mind, Dear Partner, I’d be interested in asking our community just how much they are willing to change in order to reach a new generation with the Gospel. And, perhaps just as importantly, what are they unwilling to change. What tradition, that is, is so important that no matter whether it helps us achieve our mission or not it preserves our sense of the orderliness of the world and shores up our identity and therefore can’t be touched?

This, in turn, might be the starting point to a fruitful conversation – not just among ourselves (that is, members of the same faith community), but also with those who aren’t coming to church. What would need to change, we might ask our kids, neighbors, co-workers, and so forth, in order to make our worship and congregational life more understandable, accessible, useful, and helpful? By asking these questions we might begin to put mission ahead of tradition.

That won’t be an easy journey, of course. You’ve probably heard the old joke, “How many Lutherans [substitute your community] does it take to change a light bulb?” “Change? Change? My grandfather donated that lightbulb!” We love our traditions. I love our traditions. They have helped to mediate the faith to us in countless ways. But what if they’re not doing that for the emerging generation? What if we’ve come close to worshiping the traditions instead of the God they were supposed to point to? And what if Jesus is calling us to put our mission – whether to care for our aging parents, feeding the hungry, opening our doors to the homeless, making our building available to after school tutoring, sharing the Gospel with folks much of the church rejects, partnering with the community to care for more of God’s children, whatever – what if Jesus is calling us to put our mission ahead of even our most cherished traditions? What then?

Well, it should be a pretty exciting conversation, and I appreciate you starting it this week. You won’t be able to have the whole thing this Sunday, of course, but you’ll get things off to a good start.

Whatever direction you may take this week, Dear Partner, know that I’m grateful for your labor, for what you do has never been more important.

Yours in Christ,
David