The Sacred Story comes from Mark 7:1-21 where religious leaders see Jesus and his disciples eating without having washed their hands (according to ritual tradition). They want to know why and Jesus redirects and widens the conversation to talk about what really makes someone unclean...what goes in or what comes out?

I think the older I get, the more I commiserate with the Pharisees and scribes. It’s that shift in life when you’re watching a tv show and you relate more to the parents than the teenagers? I think the tradition of washing your hands before you eat is pretty good practice. Likewise, you really SHOULD wash your produce before you eat it. Y’all know that stuff is grown in dirt, right? And is sprayed with all kinds of stuff? And washing the dishes (the cups, pots, and kettles) is just a no-brainer. I can only imagine how important all these things are in the ancient world as a critical matter of health. So when Jesus rebukes those asking about the importance of these practices…it’s not that Jesus doesn’t care about hygiene, but it doesn’t seem to be his top priority either.

About 10 years ago, someone did a study on handwashing in hospitals. It turns out that doctors and nurses actually weren’t great about washing their hands before and after seeing patients either. The CDC measured that only 40% of folks would wash up, despite having soap or disinfecting gel everywhere and signs all around that encourage you to wash your hands to protect your own health. So they came up with an idea to change the signs. Instead of saying, “wash your hands to protect yourself,” they said, “wash your hands to protect your patients.” Instead of assuming the strength of their own immune system, they were reminded of the vulnerability OF and their responsibility TO others. Turning the focus from self to others caused soap and gel use to increase by a third in just two weeks.

In the same way I’ve been reminded that getting vaccinated doesn’t just protect you, it protects everyone around you, especially the ones who are most vulnerable. It’s flu season y’all, for heaven’s sake cover your cough and wash your (damn) hands. I don’t think Jesus is against this practice, but what Jesus does seem to be saying is that handwashing isn’t going to cure heart disease.

Our actions and practices matter, absolutely, but…when you care so much about keeping the outside clean and yet are not moved by the knowledge that the elders have no one to care for them…there’s an issue of what’s in our hearts. Jesus insists on talking about what we’re really talking about. Jesus wants to talk about what’s the real problem here.

Because I think we’ve all participated in the sin of wondering, “what is God doing hanging out with THEM?” We all have people who come to mind when we think about who is defiling the faith, who gives Christianity a bad name, who is a danger to the Gospel. And when God includes and even LOVES them our gut reaction is a stunned sense of betrayal. What on earth is God doing sitting at THEIR table!?!

The Pastor who will just baptize anyone whenever or the Pastor who will only serve communion to others who believe as they do or the Pastor of the megachurch down the street who seems to never take a stand either way; parents who are over-protective of their kids and the ones who don’t come to Sunday school or PTA meetings; the churches who have flags in their sanctuary and the one who criticize government policies. Is any of this raising your hairs yet? ICE Agents, religious fundamentalists, soccer moms who spend $8 on coffee by won’t make eye contact with the guy holding a cardboard sign on the corner, sex workers, people who don’t recycle or compost. We have our own expectations of where and with whom Jesus dwells.

Maybe we’re generous enough to think, “God bless em, but I still don’t want to sit next to them.” Perhaps we’d look at them with what we think is love only for our actions to say, “you COULD do it that way, but we’ll all look at you as at least a little bit inferior.” "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" Jesus says we can talk about handwashing AFTER we talk about why’s lying beneath this question. We’ve got to know what we’re really talking about.

Another way that Christian tradition will talk about cleanliness and being defiled is by talking about purity. Some traditions particularly emphasize this idea of staying or becoming pure, uncontaminated by sin, and avoiding any blemish. Often, it’s particularly focused on sexual purity, ESPECIALLY female sexual purity. Even if we don’t ascribe to that particular theology, even if we have known its deep sting, we might still be susceptible to expecting purity in other ways – ideological purity, political purity – the idea that one deviance from the established norm, one single step out of the clearly-marked lanes and it makes you not only contaminated but a danger to others.

This insistence on purity creates a divine expectation of a mortal being and thus ensures that we’ll never be good enough. It binds us in a spiral of shame and/or casts us out as if we we’re the single source of what the real issue is.

Jesus says….you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. The true threat to the body of Christ is not whether or not people scrub up before coming to worship. It is not whether folks know the traditions or do them right. Is it not whether people know the approved etiquette for worship – keeping silence or making noise at the right times, controlling their bodies in a particular way.

We get caught up, consciously or unconsciously, in making following Jesus about correct confession, proper prayers, and right ritual. What keeps us locked into that way of life is the same lie told in the garden…if we can get it all right, we’ll somehow get just a little bit closer to God.

Jesus reframes the conversation about purity, goodness, holiness, wholeness, well-being by pointing to the Ten Commandments. Each of the listed contaminants correspond to the covenant - to honor father and mother, not steal, not kill, not to covet or envy, not beat gals witness.... The laundry list of what defiles are not mismanaged rituals, nor any diagnosis, nor any particular misstep. They are the things already outlined in the law Jesus summarized as “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Still, some will hear Jesus’ correction of this broader list as to what defiles and set about purity and perfection with renewed focus. “Yes, Jesus, I’m on it.” We were really good at washing, I can handle this list too. In just a couple of chapters time the rich young ruler will come to Jesus and say I’ve mastered all these things too. I’ve managed to follow every law without flaw and keep myself in perfect health. And what does Jesus say? Not quite. God’s gospel is not mastery, it is love. Ultimate wholeness does not come through our perfection but God’s commitment loving us in our imperfection.

The covenant points to the way God hopes for us to be, but that we cannot accomplish on our own, not even with thousands of years to try. This is the real issue. That we are not perfect and we fear that disqualifies us from all kinds of love, but especially divine love.

And so we cling to various forms of purity rather than the cross which takes all these death-dealing wounds into itself. But today I want to invite you to practice release. What is it that you need to be healed cleansed of? Healed of? See what God can transform in you.

The truth is that we all need the cleansing waters of God’s grace, the living water of baptism that is stronger than our fear. We all need liberation from the shame and stigma we’ve been convinced we deserve. And we are all made whole, made new, every inch of us…in Christ. That’s why it’s so important to Jesus to talk about what really matters. God’s promise of wholeness is for more than your hands or your habits…it is for your hearts too. Even when our bodies fail or our vices creep in, when the other voices wonder what on earth Jesus is doing with us, Jesus still chooses to sit at our side as a friend and vouch for us as beloved. It is a wonder I’m not sure that I will ever be able to grasp. But I dwell in it…I hope in it…and I’m grateful. Amen.

Made Whole: Redefining Purity