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The Rev. Christopher Brdlik
September 3,  2006  -  Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

This weekend marks the end of summer, the relaxed season of the year. But around the parish office the end of summer is actually quite busy, and there’s been a lot of activity at Calvary recently. Our new coordinator of children’s ministry, Bonnie Magnuson, has been hard at work recruiting and training teachers, finding new curriculum, checking out the classrooms, and generally introducing and orienting herself to our parish. Laurie Matarazzo has been busy planning the youth groups for fall, finding that special team of youth leaders that has made our progress so successful in recent years. Jim Little, too, looks forward to the return of choir rehearsals, the adults and two youth choirs. This year, because so many of the younger youth have been promoted to St. Cecilia’s, he’s making a special effort to find new, younger singers. In so many ways, as fall draws closer, our attention in the Church focuses on our children. In so many ways, raising children has been an important feature of religion since the earliest times. Today’s Old Testament lesson, from the Hebrew Law (Deut. 4:1-2, 6-9), ends with this verse: “O Israel, make these statutes known to your children and to your children’s children.” Whether we have kids or not, we recognize the importance of passing on the faith to the next generation of believers. 

Then why is it that Jesus didn’t teach his followers to wash their hands? (Mark 7:1-8, ff) Do we want our kids to grow up with bad table manners, learned in Church? It is, of course, a matter of good hygiene to wash hands. Walk into the hospital today and mounted on the wall — even on the long corridor at the front entrance — are plastic dispensers of hand cleaning lotion. A little squirt on your hands as you pass by helps prevent the spread of germs, germs causing the extra infections that are all-too-common in the hospital environment. Clean your hands as you go in, and between every room as you visit another patient. It’s good hygiene.  

Another example: I remember a couple of years ago Backpacker magazine did an article comparing water purification equipment hikers could use while on the trail — little filters, pills, chemicals. It ranked every product for effectiveness. Then it concluded that the problems hikers had in the back country with Traveler’s Revenge and all the rest weren’t due to water supply. The back country isn’t getting more polluted. Water sources in the wilderness are probably as good as always. The problems were caused by hikers who did not wash their hands. Good old-fashioned personal cleanliness was the solution, not some high tech filter. 

We think of hand washing as a matter of hygiene. But in the ancient world of the Bible (which knew nothing of viruses and bacteria) there were ceremonial or religious considerations attached to the washing of hands. Even to this day near the entrance of most mosques is a source of water, a place where worshippers can wash their hands (and face as well) before entering the mosque for prayer and worship. Outside the grander mosques these places can be quite elaborate. In some cases they were marked as gifts of the royal house, a present from the Sultan to believers. In this respect Islam is quite similar to the practices of the Torah, the Jewish law, and not too different from the Catholic tradition of holy water. And it is these ceremonial or religious considerations about the washing of hands that concern the Pharisees in today’s gospel reading. 

Now, kids, hear me out: Jesus is not saying that you don’t have to wash your hands before eating. Of course you do — it’s good manners. But as usual Jesus sees through to a deeper level of meaning as he observed what was going on around him. He was concerned about hypocrisy. He was concerned about people who said one thing and did another, about people who misused religion. He objected to religious leaders who wrapped themselves up in religious ritual as an external covering, but inside, in their hearts, in their souls, hid their true selves, covered their selfishness and greed. Jesus disliked phoniness. And too often religion has been used to cover up evil intentions. Jesus knew that God judges us based on internal motivation, not on piety or religiosity. And God is never fooled by outside appearances. The Lord knows us, inside out. 

The wisdom Jesus taught has only been borne out by centuries of human history. Again and again have we seen how religious language or practice has been used for personal or political gain. In the American experience it has been the Elmer Gantries, the most outwardly religious so-called men of God, who have been shown to have feet of clay: Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and Tammy Fay, Jim Jones of Jonestown, more recently Warren Jeffs, the fundamentalist Mormon. Often such figures are in it for their personal gain in power or fortune. Sometimes it’s sex: the recent priestly scandal comes to mind. A particularly volatile combination is the use of religion in national and international politics. We have a sad, tragic, and dangerous situation abroad in the Muslim world today. Those who feel threatened by the power of Western progress, by the economic and social changes of globalization and technology, by post-modern relativity — those who feel threatened have been led astray by extremist leaders who mask their political aspirations with a covering of religion. This is a problem with only a small minority, but it is a problem nevertheless. In the name of God they believe they can kill innocent persons with impunity, as if that’s what God required. Or they can use the tensions of the international political scene to attack others of their own faith to settle ancient religious scores, Sunni vs. Shiite. Extreme religion coupled to politics is a dangerous combination that affects us all.  

Karen Armstrong, in her insightful book, The Battle for God, traces the history of fundamentalist religion. Fundamentalism occurs when simple believers of any religious tradition think their faith is under threat of collapse or annihilation by forces outside their control. What they need to learn, she writes, is how true faith can grow to help people, to strengthen them, during times of social upheaval. 

“Increase in us true religion,” prays the Collect of the Day (Prayer Book, page 181). What we need instead of religious extremism is practical religion. And we have it described for us in today’s reading to James (1:17-27). Whoever wrote this short epistle knew how to turn a phrase concisely and pointedly. If we want to understand God’s purposes for true religion we have only to choose a verse or two of this passage to get the message. Go ahead — choose any of them. This is what God wants us to do: generous acts of giving; perfect gifts; be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; rid yourselves of sordidness and wickedness; be doers of the word and not hearers only. When you get right down to it, every religious tradition makes the same point: The glory of God is an increase of compassion. This is the perfect law, the law of charity and concern. Jesus put it as a double command to love God with heart, soul, and mind, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. James wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is to care for orphans and widows, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism — all the rest essentially make the same point. 

Someday I hope people of faith will understand that better and practice compassion toward one another rather than conflict between each other. This is what we should teach our children and our grandchildren: Love God, and love your neighbor. True religion. Practical religion. And, yes, it’s also good to wash your hands. 

©  copyright 2006, Christopher Brdlik

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