In the name of the One, who came singing Love and whose song we now sing.
The writer of the Gospel of Mark suggests that when it came to their everyday lives, the faithful, law-abiding Pharisees had made a tragic error – they’d lost the heart of their faith. They’d replaced the dynamic life-giving essence of their religion with empty ritual and tradition. What initially had been put in place to heighten and enable the commandments to love God and neighbour, had become the Pharisee’s raison d’être – the reason and function of their being. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus observed: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”. They have become so obsessed with their historically helpful traditions, that they have allowed them to take on a life of their own. Instead of facilitating the creation of a community of love, the cultural traditions and rituals are being utilised for division, destruction and deathliness. Now it is the rituals themselves that have become the driver of their thoughts, judgements and actions.
We heard only the first half of this major speech of Jesus in Mark’s gospel where, in various ways, Jesus’ listeners are told how the focus of hearts and minds is what’s important. Ritual hand-cleaning is not evil – but letting it be the driver – letting it get in the way of loving God and loving neighbour; that is evil, says Jesus. It’s a frightening prospect, if we should dare bring such consideration into our own lives and not just leave it all back in the 1st century with quaint traditions of a different religion and a different time. Dare we hear Jesus’ words today?
Let’s take a moment to think about our own individual and personal situations. What drives the way you live and act? Is it obsession to detail and external matters? Are you worried about what others might think or expect of you? Is ‘the way things always have been done’ your measure of how appropriate behaviour might be for today? Or, is your primary driver that of Love of God and neighbour? If we’d been sitting in Jesus’ company, would we be squirming? I think I might have been! Could Jesus’ accusation “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition” be levelled at you? And, if it could, what changes in your life are necessary, to turn away from this deathly path? It might be worth taking a moment or two to think about that.
What drives the way you live and act? Let’s expand the question a little further. For instance, how do you decide your response to government debates – say, about the selling of state owned enterprises, the re-defining of marriage, the age for purchasing alcohol, or the inclusion of the Treaty of Waitangi in the taking of Oaths? Are human tradition and culture sitting in your driver’s seat, making up your mind – or are your responses shaped by the mind of Christ, driven by the commandment of God to love?
How does the commandment of God make a difference? How does it shape not just what we think, but the way we act, when we hear how 25% of New Zealand children live in poverty; when we hear of the fear-driven reactions of the Whanganui community; when we hear threats to close Hillside workshops; when we learn of soldiers dying in Afghanistan? Do we just honour God with our lips, with hearts that are far from living out our discipleship? When it comes to the way we relate with our workmates, friends, strangers and family, what drives our thoughts, our words, our actions as we engage with life around us?
Let’s take a moment to step into another’s experience as we continue to ponder all these questions. I was having a cup of coffee with Richard, a friend of mine, recently. He was telling me about his daughter living in England, married to a Muslim young man. Richard explained how he and his wife, although they travel frequently to England, have never met their son-in-law’s family. They’ve never spoken to their son-in-law’s father, his mother, his sisters, his brothers. There’s a huge wall that has never been breached – not when their children married, not even when a grandson was born. There has been no contact at all because of the impossible divide between their religions: Christian and Muslim. From Richard’s perspective, it is as if he, his wife and wider family do not exist. “Is your son-in-law a practising Muslim”, I asked out of interest. “Not really” was the reply, “but he never eats pork and he does do some charitable acts – although I’m not sure he understands what is behind all that.” In light of this morning’s gospel, I pondered what drove the keeping of these traditions – and wondered whether there were also Christian traditions maintaining this divide, preventing the restoration of full loving relationship.
The same afternoon, after talking with my friend, I came upon an article which talked about a traditional custom in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. When there is a desire to settle a conflict among the Tolaki people, a knotted rattan string called ‘kalo sara’ is put on a white linen cloth in an open tray. The person or people who submit this knotted string to the other party are requesting peace. The article I read described a situation not that different from what Richard had described. There was a local church leader who had rejected his sister because she married a Muslim. His sister and her husband came to him with the kalo sara. And the church leader, knowing that refusing to accept this offer for reconciliation would have been a violation of the adat (local law) with the risk of excommunication by the community, had no option but to accept the request for peace and thus to restore the family ties.[1]
Two situations ... two very different countries ... two very different families ...the same two religions ... each with their own particular cultures and traditions. In one case, tradition used for destruction; in the other, tradition used for restoration.
The gospel call to love God and to love our neighbour is incredibly difficult. We need traditions and rituals to assist us in becoming more loving – because it’s just not possible to do so on our own. Spiritual disciplines, worship ritual, study, contemplation of beauty, acts of kindness and social activism all assist us in our responding to what Mark calls “God’s commandment”. But, each also has the potential to get in the way and prevent us from fulfilling this commandment. Our prayers, our music, our good deeds can be just as meaningless as ritual hand washing or not eating pork, if they lead to collapsing, broken relationships.
If the love, peace, hope and justice that Jesus taught about is to go on – we must make it our song . And that means the way we think and act about asset sales and drinking age, domestic violence and sexual abuse, poverty and mining and the state of our planet and cosmos will be shaped, not by popular opinion or cultural traditions, but by that commandment to love.
Are we willing to be the singers of Jesus song – to be driven by that commandment to love God and love our neighbour – even when we are tested to the depths of our being?
What drives the way you live and act?
[1] “Ancient symbols – contemporary mission” Occasional Info: WARC Mission Project 2006-2010 No. 7, December 2009.
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