As I begin writing this day, I need to acknowledge what a hard time we are all living through. If it was possible to reach out to embrace, hug, high-five, shake hands or just to look into one another’s eyes without a screen it would make a huge difference. But we can’t. Again, we are sitting tight and waiting to see what will happen. As the children of our families prepare to start school with all the excitement of children who have been denied the opportunity, all the angst of teenagers who have not had to be “in-person and judged,” and all the fears that parents and grandparents are experiencing because of the Delta virus, along with the anxiety of teachers who know that their students will be very needy, we are left without much we can do but wait and see, hoping it will not be as bad as we fear. It is hard. Very hard. There is nothing else that can be said about it.
Our faith teaches us that we are cared for, right down to the last hair on our heads; that we matter in the larger scheme of things; and that we, each one of us, is precious and deserving of abundant life. It just seems that it is next to impossible to realize that vision in our world today.
As always, there are people who will say that we are in dire straits because we are not fulfilling our obligations, following the spiritual guidelines, or being repentant enough. That attitude places all of the blame for society’s ills right on top of our heads, or on the heads of those that we choose to blame for the evils of the day. It is a pattern that is familiar because it is found throughout our sacred scriptures.
In today’s first reading from Deuteronomy, 4:1-2, 6-8, Moses tells the people that the statutes and decrees which he is teaching them, and which they are to observe in order to live, are also key for taking possession of the land which God is giving them. Mind you, the land is already occupied, but they are being promised ownership if they observe the statues and decrees. The flip side of this teaching is to understand that failure to live or to thrive, and to take possession of the land will be their own fault, a result of disobedience. The passage from Deuteronomy that we hear is part of a longer section which presents The Law that we know as the Ten Commandments. There is irony when we consider that the tenth law is, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, or anything that belongs to him,” and yet the promise of obedience to The Law is that the people will “take possession of the land” – and presumably displace the people who are already there. It is as if Moses, or whoever is writing the narrative, is adjusting the laws that have been given to allow for an occupation that, according to The Law as it was given, would not be permitted.
In the Gospel reading for today Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23, Jesus speaks to this very issue when he is challenged by some Pharisees and scribes who believe that they have caught Jesus and his disciples disobeying The Law when they ate without ritual purification. Jesus quotes Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me: in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” Adding “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” This is an old story that has been repeating itself for eons. God’s law is very simple. Love and respect for others is at the heart, but humans keep striving to get an advantage over others.
In the Gospel for this weekend, verse 9 is left out, perhaps for expediency, but it is I think, a very potent verse. “He went on to say, ‘You have made a fine art of setting aside God’s commandment in the interest of keeping your traditions!’” Another verse that is omitted in this passage is verse 20 which says very clearly, “What emerges from within a person, that and nothing else, is what makes a person impure.”
Human traditions are what tell us that we must attend mass regularly, go to confession, abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent, marry within the church, remain unmarried if divorced and without an annulment, marry a person of the opposite sex, have children until our bodies break down, have a male priesthood, follow certain liturgical rules etc. etc. etc. Our human tradition is to find a basis for each and every belief within the limited scope of what scripture provides, even if the meaning of the texts must be stretched. That is a human tradition as well. Some traditions are good and valuable to the community. Some are not. None of them are divinely ordained.
The core teaching for religious or spiritual institutions is almost universally to treat other people with kindness, love, and respect, affording them every dignity that one would like for oneself. The qualifications that surround that core come from human interests, or traditions, created with the intention of making sure that some people or groups can continue to do what they want in regard to other people, or other people’s possessions. If the tenth commandment had been taken seriously Israel either would not exist, or it would exist in cooperation with the Palestinian People. If it had been taken seriously America would be a much more diverse country with a multitude of indigenous leaders and a vastly different landscape. The human tradition that allowed for the law to be overlooked was to consider only people who were Hebrew or Christian to be recognized as a “neighbor.” Others were simply not neighbors and therefore, not covered by The Law.
In his book Tenacious Solidarity, Walter Bruggemann speaks of two strains that run throughout the Bible. One says God’s love is unconditional and that should be our example. The other strain says God expects certain considerations in return for Love. From the second come the purity laws that separate people and that is an example that seems easier for many humans to get behind. (1)
Our world, our country, our society, our church, all are teetering on the edge because humans prefer to do as they please, to hold on to what they have, to maintain power and authority over others, all while pretending that they are doing all that they can, rather than actually learning to live with the simplicity of loving every other human being and accepting the demands that love places on our hearts.
We love because God loves us – each and every one of us.
Walter Brueggemann. Tenacious Solidarity; Biblical Provocations on Race, Religion, Climate, and the Economy. Edited by Davis Hankins. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2018. (Pg. 156-157)