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
Dr. Lose,
Thanks again for a wonderful essay.
Do you have any resources for moving a church from a bloated committee system to a more fluid way of operating?
Linda, here is an excellent starting point and resource that embraces David’s prompting and the situation which you wish to tackle.
Graham Standish – “Becoming a Blessed Church: Forming a Church of Spiritual Purpose, Presence, and Power.
http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Blessed-Church-Spiritual-Presence/dp/1566993121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440521324&sr=8-1&keywords=becoming+a+blessed+church
Thanks for your note and question, Linda. In addition to the resource that Angus referenced, what I have learned thus far (mostly from conversations with experienced pastors) is the following:
Teams organized around purposeful work that needs to be done are more effective than standing committees. If you have committees (or areas that need standing attention), then identify the work that needs to be done and particularly focus on projects.
Governance groups – board of elders, church council, vestry, etc. – work best when they are a) small, b) charged with tending the overall vision of the congregation along with the pastor leadership, and c) to help them focus on that are not asked to lead teams/committees.
The key in all of this, I think, is to identify a clear and outcome-based sense of mission and organize the functioning of the congregation around moving in an identified direction rather than just functioning to function. I know that’s not a lot, but hopefully a bit helpful. Again, I’d start talking with other leaders who have done this work and learn from these colleagues. Thanks – and blessings! David
I am not sure what the confusion is but David is calling this “Pentecost 14B” and according to the Lectionary this is actually Proper 16B (though it is the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost). Could someone please look into this, because it’s very confusing to receive an email that says Proper 14B when it is actually Proper 16B (though I understand where the confusion is coming from since it is indeed the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost:) Thank you!
I use the designation 14th Sunday after Pentecost – hence, Pentecost 14 B (which is shorter than the whole title and thereby fits the title line). I don’t follow the designation using “Propers” mostly because the churches I have served still list Sundays in terms of “after Pentecost” rather than “Proper.” And, truth be told, I always found the “Proper” thing a tad confusing. The number of weeks after Pentecost I understand. 🙂 Hope that helps.
For me, your conversation regarding “Pentecost 14 B or Proper 16B” is a perfect illustration of the text. Thanks!
After all, its more traditional : )
The term “proper” refers to a sequence of appointed readings and responses, including some Sundays that may occur in diffefrent years. Since Pentecost is a movable feast, there are sometimes more Sundays between Pentecost and Christ the King, depending on when Pentecost actually occurs. Hence, there are Propers numbered from the earliest possible date of Pentecost, but they are appointed to be read between certain dates. August 30, 2015 is the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 2015, and the Propers that fall in that date range. In another three years, we will again read Proper 17, but it could be the 13th, or perhaps the 16th Sunday after Pentecost. I haven’t planned quite that far ahead yet.
I was hoping Candace was just playing- and illustrating this message well….
Change and it’s inevitable march forward always makes this passage the irony of being human…the tension of the certainty of the past and possibility of the future. It is the difference of a black and white TV with rabbit ears to the TV that is more computer than a receiver of a audio/visual signal. We grow by past practice to flourish into an undefined future. Jesus makes a future understandable in the timeless God that marks the past commands the corrective to good intentioned help (understanding that become rules and regulations) which now hide God and therefore the future God offers. We have to grasp God’s prior work to grope for that future surprise.It may be well to review Augsburg Confession Articles V and VII (and maybe VIII for good measure).
I’m reminded of Phyllis Tickle’s writing about the church needing to have a yard sale of those traditions that, while evoking memory, may no longer hold deep meaning. When we look at what Jesus taught his disciples they would need for the task at hand (one cloak, one pair of sandals, dependence on their hosts, etc.) we discover we’ve accumulated a lot of baggage along the way. Remember the Seven Last Words of The Church: “We’ve never done it that way before.” We may discover forgotten meanings while setting up the tables for the yard sale, which is a way of learning again how to hold conversations about the deeper meaning we find in life together in the name of Christ.
I am at a new church now–about 2 months. I am already asking those questions, almost word for word with what you wrote in your devotion today.
Are these the right questions? “What would need to change, make our worship and congregational life more understandable, accessible, useful, and helpful?” How do we over a non-consumer-centric message in a consumer friendly way? Jesus had water-walking, multitude feeding, healing. What do I have? I’m sure it is something but I’m not sure what IT is. Love? But Love is messy, inexplicable, hardly ever useful or helpful (to the lover even if they are to the beloved) Love is however accessible; well not always, for often the lover or the beloved or both are too broken for love to pass between. Aha! THAT is more likely what I have! The witness of Love’s accessibility between two broken souls by the bridge of God.