PROPER 17 (22) – Year B
15th Sunday after Pentecost — September 1, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
7:2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.)
7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?"
7:6 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;
7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'
7:8 "You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."
7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."
7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
CONTEXT
Welcome to the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen Jesus blur the lines between insiders and outsiders, proclaiming Himself as the bread of life and inviting everyone to His table. This week’s Gospel challenges us with the question: Who is “pure” enough to join this feast?
Jesus confronts this head-on when He faces the Pharisees and scribes who criticize His disciples for not washing their hands according to tradition. He exposes the flaw in their fixation with purity, challenging the accepted notions of what is “clean” and “unclean.” Jesus gets to the heart of the matter by shifting the emphasis from external to internal.
The poet, W.H. Auden said it this way,
"Look in your heart,
there lies the answer.
Though the heart,
like a clever conjuror or dancer
deceive us with many a curious slight
and motives like stowaways are found too late."
Jesus is inviting us to a table where grace replaces gatekeeping and love supersedes the law. How else can we get to the heart of the matter?
Question
How has purity culture impacted your capacity to give and receive love?
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion. See the complete prayer
Word from Below Reflections
Expectations
By Kristy Humphreys |
This goes beyond my own sense of security and self-judgment. I’m paying attention to how the Pharisees move so quickly from self-righteous to judgmental, granting themselves the authority to deem others as “defiled.” How often do we do this, too? After all, society is made up of formal and informal groups that have their own...
Meditations on (Un) Cleanliness
By Stephanie Dunlap |
Richard Beck is Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University. On his blog Experimental Theology, Beck writes: "This radical openness to the Other always seems to get undermined in our churches. Why is that?, I mused. After thinking about it, the answer hit me. And it was a simple answer. The same thing that caused the...
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Weekly Homily by James Alison