Pentecost 15 (Year A)
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
I recently read a novel set in a post-pandemic, apocalyptic world. In the book, people were working to re-establish pockets of society. A traveling symphony moved from town to town in caravans- performing music and works of Shakespeare. Early in their travels, they had tried other plays, but people only wanted to see Shakespearean works. One of the symphony members commented on the desire for Shakespeare, "People want what was best about the world."
As I read and since I finished the book, I kept thinking about that phrase. People want what was best about the world. People want what was best about the world. That is true even when we’re not in a cataclysmic re-working of what we’ve always known. The very idea of nostalgia, of longing for what once was, is about wanting what was best about the world or what seemed like the best to us. One of the massive tensions between people right now is how differently we may remember the past from how our neighbor remembers it. We’re sure our recollection about what was best, true, and right is correct and they’re sure their memory is more accurate than ours.
We may not agree on what is or was best about the world in general, but as people of God, as people of faith, we have been drawn together by the Holy Spirit to live according to a different “best”. Today’s readings point us to how we have been called to live so that our way of being reflects best on the One who made, saved, and loves us.
All four texts today present a way of living that requires dedication and discipline. In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that the laws they’ve been given are meant to do two things. First, the laws will help the people live in community with one another in the new land to which God has brought them. Second, the laws will act as a light to other nations, showing how the people of God live righteously and in so doing, they flourish. The flourishing isn’t a blessing for doing the right thing; it flows from the communal choice to value whom and what God values and to turn away from things that are not of God.
In the psalm, the writer wonders who may be worthy to enter the temple to worship the Lord. Worthiness does not come from physical perfection or even from the most valuable offering, but instead from holy living. Such living avoids gossip, rejects wickedness, does not cheat others, and pursues justice. The person whose life reflects these choices is worthy to enter the temple.
In Mark, the author of the gospel is explaining Jewish customs to the Gentile audience who is hearing the gospel story. Even as Mark writes that all Jewish people wash their hands before eating, this can’t be completely true because the disciples and Jesus were all Jewish. The passage shows the tension within the early Christian community, which was trying to understand how Jewish traditions might apply to them (and the word tradition is different from the word law). We see this same struggle within many of Paul’s letters as well.
Jesus speaks to those who hold tightly to the traditions and cautions them about misplaced priorities. Human traditions are not unimportant to Jesus, but he is concerned about placing a higher value on the ways of people than on the ways of God. The most important behaviors are the ones that show kindness, love mercy, pursue justice, and reveal the presence and providence of God in the world. Habits, traditions, and behaviors that get in the way of those things must necessarily take second or third place or even be eliminated.
James agrees with Jesus. True religion has nothing to do with how faithful you appear to be or how correctly you can explain what you believe. It has to do with how you live. This explanation becomes a fine line to walk because many people have assumed over the years that right behavior earns God’s favor. That’s not what is being said in this passage. Right behavior flows from God’s favor. It is because we understand and trust in all God has done for us and for all people that we are free and welcomed into service and sharing for the sake of Christ in the world. Because God so loves, then we do too.
For James, if there is evident suffering in the world, if there is pain, if there is injustice, if orphans and widows are being disregarded and languishing in terror and pain, then there must not be any religious people around. True faithfulness is a response to all that God has done and carries God’s peace and mercy into the world. Even if it’s not what the world values, the truly faithful person doesn’t care. The faithful pray in word and deed for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This brings me back to the phrase from the beginning, “People want what was best about the world.” Are our lives, individually and communally, reflecting what is best about God’s care and compassion for the cosmos? As one old hymn says, “The love of God is broader than the measure of our minds”. The measuring tape the world has to understand the broadness of that love is the lives of the people of God.
When we think of what’s best about us as a church, as a people of God, as a denomination, and as a community with other Christians- we must assess our actions – with our building, with our time, with our people, with our money. Are we part of what’s best about God’s work in the world? Do people, would people, will people associate us with the accomplishing of the Divine Will?
In these turbulent times, amid unrest, violence, economic tension, and just, plain exhaustion, we cannot abandon what it means to be truly faithful. We cannot draw in and wait for a better time, a calmer time, a more stable time. It is for such a time as this that we have been given the gift of faith, that we have been baptized, for which we have taken communion again and again.
There is a world longing for the best and we have it, the story, the light, the love, and the very presence of a crucified and risen Christ. We don’t have to have all the answers before we go out to meet even the most basic of the questions. Faithfulness is revealed in the doing- God’s faithfulness to us and then our responsive faithfulness to God.
People want what is best about the world. Through the Holy Spirit, that can and should include the people whose cups overflow with gratitude because of God’s amazing grace. That is us.
Amen.
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