Sermon Seeds: Tradition
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost | Year B
(Liturgical Color: Green)
Lectionary Citations
Song of Solomon 2:8-13 and Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9 or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 and Psalm 15 • James 1:17-27 • Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=71&y=382
Focus Scripture: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Focus Theme: Tradition
Series: Here I Am…Deconstructing (Click here for the series overview.)
Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay
Traditions form when an action, ritual, or practice proves to be so valuable during its time that no other options can compare. They occur when the routine becomes so effective that the effort toward considering another solution seems wasteful, fruitless, and even disrespectful. They forge themselves into the life of a family, community, or society so deeply that the identity of the unit becomes tethered to the tradition. Sometimes, traditions gain such power that their preservation and continuation become ends unto themselves. The longer they are upheld the more challenging it becomes to dismantle them.
That being said, having traditions is a common part of life, and that is particularly true in the life of faith shared within community. Traditions can serve us by forging communal commitments and shared identity. Traditions have been proven and often have shifted over time to accommodate the entry of different cultures and customs or to adapt to external conditions. Traditions held with flexibility, contextualization, and hospitality can, in fact, be wonderful.
While studying worship in seminary, I vividly remember watching a video of a local Roman Catholic congregation performing multiple baptisms. These included babies, adolescents, and adults. Unlike most churches of this tradition in North America, the baptism took place in a pool designed as a prominent feature in the center of the sanctuary. The priest, the baptismal candidates, and much of the congregation entered into it. It wasn’t a formal pool with walls and depth. It seemed more designed to mimic the gentle descending slope found on the beach before entering the waters of the ocean, sea, or Great Lake. Congregants were on the edge, the priest in the middle at the deepest point, and those coming to be baptized entered into those waters before being emerged and lifted up from the shallow depth. Then, the priest anointed their heads with copious amounts of oil. In fact, he covered their faces and hair until they were doused by it. The sounds of the congregation, the smiles and tears on their faces, and the energy of those witnessing the baptism was palpable even through the video screen. That was their tradition of baptism, contextualized within a Latinx faith community in Southern California rooted in the Roman Catholic faith tradition.
Baptism itself is a tradition of the universal church. I’ve witnessed many across denominational traditions and officiated several of them. Most were joyful occasions. Some were more subdued than others. Some included a pool located behind the pulpit, others employed a baptismal fount, and others used the flowing waters found on the shores of Lake Erie. The constancy and consistency were the public witness of faith and belonging. They have all been beautiful expressions of a tradition spanning thousands of years and countless generations.
In the gospel reading, the injection of tradition does not present itself nearly as favorably. Jesus and the Pharisees encounter each other while the disciples appear to break for a meal. With critical observation, the Pharisees question the disciples for not washing their hands ritualistically before eating.
Jesus’ popularity among the masses has gotten the attention of the religious leaders in Jerusalem (7:1). Previously, the scribes who had come from Jerusalem accused Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul (3:22). Now the Pharisees join the scribes. The point of contention is the “tradition of the elders,” the oral law that was eventually written in the Mishnah, as it relates to hand washing. The scribes and Pharisees notice that Jesus’ disciples do not wash their hands before eating, and question why (7:2, 5). At the root of their concern is more than hand washing; it is the practice of their faith. Whereas Mark’s response to post-temple Judaism is to encourage following Jesus, the Pharisees’ response was to bring holiness into everyday life. In their opinion, Jews could uphold God’s requirement for holiness (Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2) by ordering life in such a way that all they did and touched was sanctified. This required avoiding anything that defiled a person. To disregard the practices that helped to cleanse daily life was to dismantle the faith and disregard the oral tradition. This dismantling was, in their eyes, as destructive to Judaism as was the destruction of the temple. For the Pharisee, on the one hand, the Torah as interpreted by the oral tradition mediated the relationship between God and God’s people. Mark, on the other hand, sees Jesus fulfilling that role (Juel, 106–7).
Racquel S. Lettsome
The ministry of Jesus proved disruptive to the status quo, to the prevailing power structures, and to those holding power and privilege…and often used tradition as a weapon rather than as a gift. If traditions form because of their proven usefulness and enduring nature, how tempting would it be for power-grabbing leaders to use them to question the legitimacy of a burgeoning movement? The question they ask Jesus seems harmless enough. Even contemporary listeners might wonder, why wouldn’t they wash their hands? The practice is one born out of privilege and advancement. One must have clean water, at a minimum, to properly cleanse one’s hands. Most use some form of agent, soap or cleanser, to help with the job. When that isn’t readily accessible, the widespread availability of hand sanitizer saves the day.
Jesus responds like he knows that the question they ask is not the root of their challenge and resistant curiosity about him. They are just looking for something—anything—they can find to discredit him so that his rise in popularity and his message does not dispel the prestige and position they have surrounded themselves with.
It’s important to note that not all religious leaders treated Jesus with hostility. Some were genuinely curious. Because they are described in categories, it becomes easy to forget that they were people within roles with the agency to determine for themselves how they would live that out.
The same is true with tradition. While they may be weaponized or become a prison barring new expression, creativity, and life, they don’t have to be. Thinking of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,” it’s worth noting that he includes the qualifier of “foolish” to consistency. Replace “consistency” with “tradition” and the meaning holds true. On the other hand, a wise tradition can be sustaining, liberating, and lifegiving, like the baptismal service described earlier. Traditions can be made new while maintaining the heart and meaning behind them. Emerson and, more significantly, Jesus encourage us to examine traditions before mindlessly practicing them and lifting them up as standards or rules for living.
Practices pertaining to ritual purity and impurity and the written and the oral law seem to be far removed from the concerns of contemporary Christian readers. It would be easy to dismiss this section as simply an artifact of ancient debates about whether Jewish laws and customs should be adopted by gentile Christians, of little relevance today. The central [idea] around which the entire passage is composed is the quotation from Isa. 29:13, which contrasts external devotion with internal apostasy: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart they take away from me; in vain they are devout, teaching as doctrines human instructions.” The prophecy does not condemn Israel’s honoring God “with their lips,” nor does it devalue the externals of devotion in and of themselves. Rather, it denounces the “disconnect” between the nation’s declared commitment to the law of God and their lack of really understanding the purpose of the law: “Their worship [fear] of me is a human commandment learned by rote” (Isa. 29:13b; cf. 1:10–17). There is no shortage of contemporary examples of people, institutions, and even nations that claim to be religious while ignoring or interpreting away the moral principles they purport to espouse, like the Pharisees criticized by Jesus.
Mary Ann Beavis
Jesus does not critique them because they identify as Pharisees, he exposes the hypocrisy of some members of a group formed in order to live out their devotion to their God which they then use as a measuring stick to lord over others outside of that group. The tradition started as good but lost its fruitfulness when the practices became more important than the outcome sought, the people impacted, and the One worshipped.
Tradition can be neutral, wonderful, or burdensome. Traditions may help welcome strangers, care for those in need, and nurture communities, or traditions can raise barriers to hospitality, compassion, and relationships. Tradition may be used to honor the Holy One who makes all things new or the gatekeepers who insist that there’s only one way to do a thing or be a people. Traditions must be examined, adapted, and sometimes released for the flourishing of the kindom on earth, in communities, and in church as the Creator intended.
Here we are…deconstructing tradition.
Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
I managed to suppress a surge of anger by shifting the subject a little. Sometimes the way to move Dad is to go at him from several directions.
“Did Mr. Garfield give you back your book?” I asked.
“What book?”
“I loaned Joanne a book about California plants and the ways Indians used them. It was one of your books. I’m sorry I loaned it to her. It’s so neutral, I didn’t think it could cause trouble. But I guess it has.”
He looked startled, then he almost smiled. “Yes, I will have to have that one back, all right. You wouldn’t have the acorn bread you like so much without that one—not to mention a few other things we take for granted.” “Acorn bread…?”
He nodded. “Most of the people in this country don’t eat acorns, you know. They have no tradition of eating them, they don’t know how to prepare them, and for some reason, they find the idea of eating them disgusting. Some of our neighbors wanted to cut down all our big live oak trees and plant something useful. You wouldn’t believe the time I had changing their minds.”
“What did people eat before?”
“Bread made of wheat and other grains—corn, rye, oats… things like that.”
—Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
For Further Reflection
“The human soul can always use a new tradition. Sometimes we require them.” ― Pat Conroy
“when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”” ― Kate Chopin
“Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.” ― J. Krishnamurti
Works Cited
Beavis, Mary Ann. Mark (Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011.
Lettsome, Racquel S. “Mark.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014
Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
This sermon series invites us to explore the call to Christian discipleship and to examine our response. Name the traditions held within your faith committee and consider a time of discernment to assess their current fruitfulness.
Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.
A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.