Readings: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

It seems to be part and parcel of being human to engage in ritualistic acts.  At least it is part and parcel of my experience.  There are certain very simply functions in my life that I carry out in the same way time and time again.  For example, I lock the door of the house, take a few steps, and go back to check that it is really locked.  Never once have I found it to be open.  Yet it would be unthinkable not to check.  I would worry about it all day. 

When it comes to cleanliness we have rituals, especially since the advent of SARS.  When we visit someone in the hospital now we wash before and after entering a room.  There are prescribed ways of washing.  We have bottles of hand sanitizer stationed around the church.  I even carry a small bottle in my purse. 

Cats have rituals.  I thought it was just my idiosyncratic cat until I read an article in the Reader’s Digest.  They have rituals about cleaning themselves, about eating, about naps and about checking their territory. 

I have observed my dog, Jewel using ritualistic behaviours.  Ways of approaching people, or other dogs, ways of settling down for a nap – three times around in one direction, then two times in the other.  

Today’s Gospel focuses on ritual.  It begins with a specific and cutting question.  The Pharisees demand an explanation from Jesus about the behaviour of his disciples.  “Why do your disciples eat with unclean hands?” They ask.  It is not that they are being fastidious about cleanliness.  It has to do with Jewish law, with conforming to Judaic tradition, with carrying out ritual acts in the prescribed manner.  The disciples had not washed their hands in the way the Pharisees said people should.  They had failed to follow the ritual practices of their religion.  The purpose of such purifying was not to change outward appearance in any way.  It was not to protect from disease.  It was for outward show.  It would make Jesus’ disciples more acceptable to the Pharisees. 

No! I am not standing here in St. Francis where ritual is so much a part of our worship tradition saying that ritual is wrong.  Symbolism speaks to us in a unique and powerful way.  Yet it is very difficult to explain.  If someone ‘unchurched’ came into our service today and asked you what it was you were doing, how would you go about explaining what was taking place?  What if you were asked why?  Yet the symbols of our faith have deep meaning.  We make the sign of the cross remembering the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf.  The symbol of water reminds us of our entry into the Christian faith through Baptism.  As we are immersed in the water, we go with Jesus into the tomb through which he brought victory over death and a share in new life.  When we break bread and share the cup at the Eucharist we participate more fully in the life of Christ.  As we say the prayers of the people we join with the whole Church in prayer for the world.  Ritual can and does draw us into a more radical obedience to the will of God. 

But ritual – customs and traditions, the way we do things – can become the whole story.  They can be so ingrained in us that they become a law unto themselves.  They can become so ingrained in the human mind that there can be a genuine abhorrence on the part of those who observe their ritual practices being ignored.  Ritual can become a barrier to doing God’s will and work in the world.  It can become one’s total purpose and religious experience. 

The Gospel reading challenges us to do some honest self-evaluation.  It is not through ritual that we serve God.  Common sense should dictate to us whether or not what we practice as ritual has any merit.  What brings us close to God is not how we practice our faith, but how we live it.  Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of their practices to the Pharisees.  He let them know that they were more concerned about the enforcement of rules than the human situation.  They were substituting human ingenuousness for the laws of God.  They were dependent on knowledge rather than faith.  Their practices were more important than the purpose they served. 

The problem was neither new nor unique.  Thousands of years ago, two people brought sacrifices to offer to God.  Abel offered the best of the flock; Cain the best of the harvest.  Both brought what they had.  Both offered; one was accepted.  The difference was in their attitudes.  Cain was merely going through a religious exercise.  God turned it down.  Abel came in loving obedience to God.  God was pleased with the gift. 

Again and again we hear Jesus take moral issues out of the realm of mere action and into the deeper realm of motivation.  How many times must we forgive?  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is that we are forgiving people.  Do we say grace day after day, praying for the needs of others, but never contribute to help change their plight?  Do we bring names of the sick and suffering to the altar Sunday after Sunday but never go out to minister to them?  Do we have a rich liturgical life but do none of the real work of the church?  Do we think that we serve God by going to church on Sunday?  Or because we spend time in private prayer?  Because we support the church?  These may indeed be signs of a Christian living a Christian life.  But they do not change the fundamental question.  “How is my heart towards God?” 

“There is nothing,” Jesus says, “that goes into a person from the outside which can make that person unclean.  Rather, it is what comes out of a person that makes one unclean.”  Jesus is affirming the holiness, the sacred nature of all creation. 

A little child has been playing in the garden.  He is covered with dirt from head to toe.  He runs over to you and plants a big kiss, saying, “I love you.”  How like that child we are.  God loves us and we approach God with a grimy kiss.  God looks through our messiness and our dirt, looks through all of these things that are wrong and sees innocence and a desire to please.  God accepts our grimy kiss and is pleased with our coming, no matter what our condition. 

So we must constantly ask, “Is our worship acceptable to God?”  It is if we come, no matter how grimy as children of God and go out cleansed, restored, forgiven, as servants into the world.