For Tradition’s Sake

James 1:17-27

17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. 26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-23

Now, when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, 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.) 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?” 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 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ 8 “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus, he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Let us Pray – O Lord of Creation, You Redeem and Sustain us. Today, we pray for the calming of our minds and hearts as we seek your presence. Allow our meditations to be focused only on you.  Amen.

Today's lesson focuses heavily on the laws of the Jewish religion, specifically the laws regarding purity and cleanliness. Some Pharisees and other teachers of the law had come from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus to see what he was up to. They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with “ritually unclean” hands. They complained to Jesus, saying, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” (v.5)

Jesus responds in a somewhat impolite manner by labeling them hypocrites and pointing out that their worship of God is hollow because they prioritize human traditions over God’s law.

The regulations to which Jesus was referring concerning personal hygiene, customs regarding activities permissible on the Sabbath, rules concerning groups they could socialize with, and the food or objects they could handle were established for the benefit of the chosen people. To keep them in good standing and connected with God, both as individuals and as a congregation called by God. Each rule or tradition was rooted in passages from scripture, and yet Jesus called their way hypocritical.

Traditions can have much sentimental value when we have them; they can help us feel close to our forebearers. For example, we follow traditions in worship every week that we base on scripture. Our parents and grandparents followed them, and they were devised to help us be in a close relationship with Christ. The church has developed them over decades of practice. The Pharisees did the same thing, except their tradition had evolved over centuries, and they were designed to keep good Jewish people holy in God’s sight. However, their traditions became a tool used to hold over people’s heads to make the religious seem superior.

Today, some modern churches do the same thing. Derivations of scripture are used as guidance on divorce and parenting and are used to show the role of women in relation to their husbands. Others will say that a person is not saved if they associate with unbelievers. They are unredeemable if they drink or if they do not subscribe to the belief that God created the world in 6 days or that the world is only six thousand years old. Similar to how the Pharisees’ traditions mandated the rules for washing before meals and restricted walking more than a mile on the Sabbath, Christian traditions, while not imposing these specific requirements, can be held up as “proper” and “holy’, while holding a would-be convert down. The theology of a tradition can quickly become the dogma of doctrine that loses the spirit of the law in favor of the letter of the law.

The impact of such customs practiced by religious leaders during Jesus's time, as well as the traditions upheld by many churches today, do not keep us holy; instead, they can and often do lead people astray. They lead people astray by emphasizing the adherence to rules and interpretations of religion rather than focusing on divine Law and discernment. Religion is subverted by indoctrination, which diverts attention from righteousness and holiness, allowing theology and tradition to become dogma and blind doctrine.

Place yourself in our Gospel lesson. Where are you sitting? Are you trying to hold on to tradition for tradition’s sake? Are you going through the motions because “That’s the way it’s always been done?” (the seven deadliest words spoken in a church) Or are you seeking to walk with Christ? Are you defiantly, in the face of our parent’s traditions, seeking discernment to become the blessing you are called into becoming?

Our hope must be in the Living God. Our best witness to this is found in the Word we read each week in worship and hopefully every day at home. Our second-best witness you can see in the mirror if the first criterion is met. It is not met by following a tradition; that is what Jesus said. That is why the leaders of the temple turned against him; they were holding their traditions over people’s heads and looking down from an insubstantial ivory tower. Jesus was saying it is time to rethink your relationship with religion and focus on your relationship with God!

Our church history is littered with those who claimed moral superiority only to be washed over by the sin of immorality because they took their eye off Christ. Jim Bakker[1], Robert Morris[2], James MacDonald[3], Carl Lentz[4], Brian Huston[5], Mike Bickle[6], and the list does not stop there.

If you know any of the previous stories, they all start out the same. A young man hears about the Son of God, makes a personal decision to follow Him, becomes saved and transformed, and begins to live a life seeking to be close to Christ. He even leads others to Christ. But somewhere along the way, he loses focus; he starts to live in accordance with a doctrine, a dogma, a tradition of his own making until he is so far lost in sin that only a complete and total fall will wake him up. In some cases, that young man, now much, much older, still hasn’t found his way back to Christ.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul writes, “…We have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise your youth but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. 15 Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Paul is saying that our focus should always be on Christ. We should all set our hope on God, teach our children about Him, and be an example of love, faith, and purity in the world. The execution of the command to love God with all that we are is to worship God in the public reading and study of scripture and not to disregard the gifts that God gives you. Put them into practice. God loves you enough to provide you with these gifts; remember, it is how you use them that shows how much you love God. Then, pay close attention to yourself; in other words, be self-aware of how you live and treat others. This is what Paul teaches us concerning what Jesus both practiced and preached. In simple terms, we are to be self-aware in how we live and how we worship.

Earlier this past week, I came across a cute story that you can tell in polite company.  It goes like this:

A man is attending church with his three young children, including his six-year-old daughter. Trying to be a good father, he sat them in the front row so they could clearly observe the lesson. During the service, the pastor baptized a tiny baby. The little six-year-old girl was very interested in this, noticing that the pastor was saying something and pouring water over the baby's head. With a confused expression, the little girl asked her father, "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that little baby?”

When I read this, I happened to be thinking about this morning’s gospel reading, where Jesus teaches: "There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." Because I can see the importance of the young girl's question, no matter how cute and innocent it is intended, we all need to be open to cleansing our minds and our hearts. We all need to be open to changing our traditions to align with God’s will in our lives. We could all stand a good spiritual brainwashing!

Jesus teaches what makes a person impure, not holy, and separated from God is the impure things, the sinful things that come from within a person. I will not belittle the things that we should avoid, some of us more than others, but those things in and of themselves are not what makes us sin. We shouldn’t seek to be cleansed of the outward, potential physical sin, but it is our hearts, our minds, and our souls that we should seek to wash in the love of God, the blood of Christ; this is the most important thing. If we desire Christ and seek to cleanse our hearts first, the rest will fall into place. Paul calls what we produce from within the fruit of the Spirit. He teaches us that when we are in sync with Christ, those fruits will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

The acts of kindness and love that we demonstrate are a result of what we allow God to work within us rather than from our adherence to traditions. Our display of gentleness, faithfulness, and kindness does not stem from our efforts to follow a timeless law dictating how we should behave. Instead, it grows from that which God plants in our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit.

The qualities of joy, peace, and self-control, which indicate holiness and purity, are not achieved by continuously trying to adhere to specific rules designed to help us attain them. Instead, they come about by reflecting on what Christ has done for us and continues to do for us.

James writes, “…Every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (v.17-18)

The state of being holy, pure, and clean is a divine blessing. We should aim for these qualities. However, in our pursuit of them, we must remember that we cannot achieve this state on our own. We must use discernment. External factors do not cause holiness; instead, we must rely on the Holy Spirit, connected to our internal state, to affect change. Through the influence of God's will at work in our lives, our transformation happens as we internalize these teachings and allow them to guide us.

 James continues, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror,  for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.” (v.22-24)

The message we need to internalize is that the teachings spoken by Jesus, the guidance provided by the Holy Spirit, and God’s divine wisdom placed within our hearts for meditation should be implemented in our lives daily, not just on Sunday mornings if we feel like it. This is only possible if we embrace the teachings, allow them to become ingrained within us, and then let them inspire us to take action. If we fail to do so, if we only follow tradition for tradition’s sake, we chance becoming critics of those who endeavor to follow Christ faithfully. Similar to the Pharisees and scribes who assembled to listen to Jesus, instead of being helpers and friends who aim to support and encourage each other with love, we become the hypocrites of Jesus’ accusation.

Have you made room in your heart for God to work? In this space, do you allow yourself to make requests of God but also listen and let the Spirit lead your actions and behaviors in the world? God is the one who sanctifies you, not doctrine, tradition, or dogma. Christ came to teach us more than the traditions of the temple ancestors. He came to offer us a new life, free from what the Pharisees hold over our heads, free from the guilt and pain we have been living with. Have you heard the Good News?

Brothers and sisters, receive God’s Holy Word into your hearts each and every day. Listen for it as you pray, study, and worship alone and with others in Christ. Then, put aside the emotions, feelings, and thoughts that would lead you astray. Pray for guidance and help. Let His word come forth from within you, shining around you in acts of love and compassion and in deeds of patience, understanding, and mercy. May we all come to understand what it means to be the blessing we are called into becoming. Blessed be the name of the one who washes our hearts and our minds, making us acceptable in God's sight, both now and forevermore. Amen.

Foot Notes:

[1] James Orsen Bakker, an American televangelist and convicted felon, hosted The PTL Club television program and the PTL Satellite Network from 1974 to 1987, along with his wife, Tammy Faye. He also created Heritage USA, a Christian theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is no longer in operation.

[2] Robert Morris was the pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. He resigned after being accused of molesting a 12-year-old child. Morris was able. To hide the crime for years, even claiming the extramarital sin was with a person of age.

[3] James MacDonald was the pastor of Harvest Bible Church. He was fired after being accused of bullying, sexual harassment, authoritarian behavior, and lack of transparency in church finance.

[4] Stephen Carl Lentz was a pastor at Hillsong NYC. He was fired after it surfaced that he had extramarital affairs. He was also accused of sexual harassment by the family nanny. He also suffered from a prescription drug addiction. His wife was also fired from the church, even though her conduct was not in question.

[5] Brian Charles Huston is the former senior pastor of New Zealand-Australian-based Hillsong Church. He allegedly concealed the abuse of a child by his father.

[6] Mike Leroy Bickle is an American Evangelical leader and founder of the International House of Prayer. He is accused of sexual abuse from several women over decades, some as young as 14 years old.