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We Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that: We Make Our Traditions Matter! A sermon on Mark 7:1-13
We Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that
We Make Traditions that Matter
Mark 7:1-13
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to value what you think, say and do, as they help you realize that God is with you!
The great questions
About once every two months, I get asked one of those questions that pastors, okay, this pastor, loves to hear. So if you want to make a pastor happy, or at least this pastor, ask him something like this.
“pastor, why do you/we bow to the altar when we approach it?”
“pastor, why do some people make the sign of the cross when we pray, or during the creed?”
“pastor why do we sing something every week? Like the Kyrie, or the Lord’s prayer or the Agnus Dei?” (what are those things anyway?)
You want to make a pastor happy, ask him why we do the things we do, for there should be a reason behind it!
If a pastor ever answers questions like that by saying “it’s tradition,” tell them that is not a good enough answer, you want to know why it’s tradition, why is it done today? And if you would like to change a tradition, perhaps it is good to understand why the tradition was treasured, prior to abandoning it.
But religious traditions are like our gathering in church this morning. It only has value if its chief purpose is to give people what they need to know – Jesus.
Otherwise, the traditions are like the traditions the pharisees tried to hold on to, and Jesus wasn’t too complimentary of those traditions!
Law – clinging to or expanding traditions without meaning
Listen to the exchange again
“So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”” (Mark 7:5–8, NLT)
Now, back then, there was no health department signs in the bathroom where it ordered that you must wash your hands before returning to work.
In the Old Testament, there were a number of times where you had to wash your body and clothes for ceremonial reasons, like in Numbers 19,
18 Then someone who is ceremonially clean must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water. That person must sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the furnishings in the tent, and on the people who were in the tent; also on the person who touched a human bone, or touched someone who was killed or who died naturally, or touched a grave. 19 On the third and seventh days the person who is ceremonially clean must sprinkle the water on those who are defiled. Then on the seventh day the people being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe themselves, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement.
Numbers 19:18-19 (NLT2)
There is also a passage about the priest about to sacrifice, who has to wash his hands before he does. But anytime someone was defiled, usually involving touching blood or something dead, or for certain sins, there was a time of purification and at the end, water applied. Often it was by sprinkling, which eliminates the discussion about whether it was for a hygienic reason. The reason was to celebrate the cleansing by having a visible, tangible way to express it.
But over the years, the original meaning was forgotten as the process was expanded, to the point where it is described in the gospek. “4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles. (and some manuscripts include dining couches)” Now, if those items touched blood, yes, there was a ceremonial reason to wash, but out of fear, they figured, we would just wash everything…then even wash hands before taking a piece of wheat from the plant and chewing on it.
It’s as if they said – since God said this was proper, let’s take it up a notch, without considering the impact it has on those who they demand obedience, as they make up these traditions.
So here is the lesson for us, Why do we have the traditions we insist on, why are they there, and therefore why should we treasure them.
Basically, how do they point us to Jesus, and the comfort and hope we find in Him.
If we can’t answer that, then, as Jesus quoted, “our hearts are far from Him, and our worship is a farce….
So what can we hand down?
So are there any good traditions? Are there things that we treasure in church that we must pass on, and must insist on?
There is only one thing to judge by, according to scripture,
5 He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” 8 This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone. Titus 3:5-8 (NLT2)
Or as my deacon students are memorizing – the chief purpose of all ceremonies (traditions, pastoral care, worship, etc. ) is to give people what they need to know about Jesus.
This is what matters, this is what’s important.
Does remembering our baptism point to Jesus? Yes!
Does hearing our sins forgiven point to Jesus? Oh yeah!
Does hearing the word of God point us to Jesus? Yes!
Does the sermon point us to Jesus, our healer and hope? It certainly better
Does the Lord Supper point us to Jesus? Nothing does it better!
Does all this pointing to Jesus lead us to praise Him with our voices and worship Him with our lives? Yes!
This kind of praise and worship honors Him, and shows are hearts are His.. and our worship is meaningful, and real, for in it we confess the Lord is with us!
AMEN!
May We Never Think This Life Is Normal!
Thoughts that drag me to the cross of His mercy
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (NLT2)
6 “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD, who serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to my covenant. 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56:6-7 (NLT2)
In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were “normal.” Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.
Paul says, “While we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). Thus, according to his view, the passion and resurrection of Christ are going on all the time. They are always present and not limited to an historical moment. It was rather an historical moment which introduced the eternal values of the cross and resurrection into the whole of time. We participate in Christ’s divine life through baptism and the other sacraments. As a consequence, we must learn how to express the risen life of Jesus rather than our false selves in our conduct and relationships.
We also believe, teach, and confess that no church should condemn another because the one has fewer or more external ceremonies not commanded by God than the other has, when otherwise there is unity with the other in teaching and all the articles of faith and in the proper use of the holy sacraments,
I’ve heard people talking about the “new normal” in relation to both COVID and the price of gas. Just get used to things being broken, and hardships, for life is different now. Get used to the new morality, or at least how it is being re-defined.
And the church hears these things and marshals its people to go to war at the ballot box, and on Social Media. I’ve even heard that such times will find us allied with folk we shouldn’t be allied with, for politics and apparently faith makes strange bedfellows.
And once again the Church has entered the wrong war, and is using the wrong weapons.
Because of that, it is losing the war for control over public opinion, and far, far more importantly, we aren’t even in the battle for people’s souls. We are letting them be destroyed, and dare I say, the church is even helping by destroying people’s faith.
Tozer is correct, and we must realize that we always exist in crisis. Add to that the idea of Keating, that our way of battle is not promoting ourselves, but dying to self, that Jesus may be seen, instead of us. That those who are baptized become the evidence of Christ’s death and resurrection. That must be our strategy, that must be our missional value.
How about this for a mission statement for a church?
Making manifest Jesus’ love, by dying to self!
This is how we see our real enemies, sin, self-centeredness, and Satan defeated.
Our weapons are simply, the early Lutherans identified them as all that is necessary for church unity.
Teaching people what they need to know about Jesus, and sharing Him through Baptism, Absolution and the Lord’s Supper.
Each of these sacraments helps us see how we died to self and have risen in Christ. Each shows us the love and mercy of God. They do so for they are commissioned by Jesus to deliver that promise.
You want the world to change? You want everyone to do what is right? You want to win the war we are in?
Know Jesus, experience His love poured out on you… share that victory with others, seeing them freed from what Christ has freed you- not from – but to… to share in the glorious love of God.
For that … should be what we consider normal.
A. W. Tozer, Tozer for the Christian Leader (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015).
Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living: Excerpts from the Works of Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O., Sacred Scripture, and Other Spiritual Writings, ed. S. Stephanie Iachetta (New York; London; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2009), 223.
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 516.
Why Church Traditions Should Matter…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
“Is not Israel still my son, my darling child?” says the LORD. “I often have to punish him, but I still love him. That’s why I long for him and surely will have mercy on him. 21 Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came. Come back again, my virgin Israel; return to your towns here. 22 How long will you wander, my wayward daughter? For the LORD will cause something new to happen— Israel will embrace her God.” Jeremiah 31:20-22 (NLT2)
These wretched men think that building up the church consists of the introduction of some sort of new ceremonies. They don’t realize that building up the church means to lead consciences from doubt and murmuring to faith, to knowledge, and to certainty.”
Imagine the story of the prodigal son, who goes his way, spends his inheritance, starts feeding the pigs and loathes what his life has beocme. He comes to the realization that he would be better off as the lowest servant, even a slave in his father’s fields. He heads home, and instead of the Bible’s version where the Father runs and greets him,….
He finds a foresale sign, and his family has moved on….
Home is now a myth, hope is all but lost, and there is nothing there for him anymore.
I get that feeling, as I’ve gone “back home” and the church I grew up – the external structure is there, but they built a 4 story school inside. The Denniy’s I worked in at 15 was raised to the ground, and there is an emptiness…there is little of my home to go back to, save a ancient cemetary where i used to go read books in its quiet shade.
I think that is why Luther clarifies what reformation, and the revival of the church is about. It is not about changing things for the sake of being new, nor should things remain the same for those inside the church. There needs to be consistency for the prodigal son’s’ sake, and for the wayward daughter’s return. So people can be led from doubt and murmering into the experience of depending on God,
Where Luther was encouraged to start from scratch he couldn’t -because he saw a need for the prodigal, and the wayward. Perhaps more than any other time in my life, that is needed in these days. Peopel need the place where sin is absolved, where God is revelaed to them through the word, where they can once again receive the Sacraments. A place to come home!
That is the irony, for the mature Christian – the old signs and symbols exist, not for their comfort and preference, but for the sake of those who need to be drawn back to church and the relationship with God nurtured there. It is for those who need to have their life with God restored and revived. I’ve done enough funerals of unbelievers and those who left the church to see this in effect, as the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 are spoken in older ways, and their grief and pain is relieved for a moment, and hope flashes before them as the signposts point again to when peace was known. In those moments, as their hearts recognize the signposts, the Spirit speaks to them again.
Does this mean we can’t change anything? Of course not! New music is written – that is good. New translations come and go, written for the context of people. Yet, there needs to be that which helps a person know they are home, where they belong, where God dwells among His people. It is a balance, but that starts with considering who we are keeping or changing things for, and the effect change has.
Even so, I pray your faith is strengthened by those places in life where signposts and altars are erected.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 54: Table Talk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 54 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 195–196.
