Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 2B-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Isn’t it funny how one thing can be considered bad news for some, but good news for others? So, for those of you under the age of eighteen, I have some bad news for you – School starts this week. For those of you who are parents, I have some good news for you – School starts this week! And for those of you who are teachers, I’ll let you decide whether or not that’s bad news or good news. As you know, I loved teaching. But I do have to admit to you that when it came to the month of August, I literally refused to look at a calendar, because I didn’t want to be reminded of how few days were left before early mornings, lesson plans, faculty meetings and grade books. Oh the power of the grade book! I recently heard a story about a little boy who wasn’t getting good marks. One day, he snuck behind his teacher at her desk and caught a glimpse of the failing test grade she was entering for him. The boy tapped the teacher on the shoulder and said, "I don't want to scare you, but my daddy says if I don't get better grades, somebody is going to get a spanking!"
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, the Divine Teacher, gives the Pharisees a glimpse at his grade book. But before we look at the grades the Pharisees received, we need to go back and consider what lesson it was that the Pharisees were being graded on. For that we need to go back a few thousand years in the history of Israel to consider an unprecedented moment in human history.
We go back to when God chose a ragtag band of wandering Semites to be a Chosen People, his Chosen People. God entered into a special relationship of love with these people. God entered into a Covenant with Israel, saying, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” And to preserve that unique relationship of love, God gave the Chosen People the Commandments – rules for living that would preserve that relationship. The author of Deuteronomy captures the excitement when God, the Creator of the Universe, broke into human history. He calls the people of Israel a “great nation,” “a wise and discerning people" (Deut 4:6), for what other nation has a god so close to it as Israel is to Yahweh? What nation has statutes and decrees as just as the law God gave the people of Israel?
But the Law, the Commandents, were not given as an end to themselves. They were always intended as a means to an end. They were intended as a means for preserving this incredible love relationship which God had established.
Now come forward to the time of Jesus and the Pharisees we meet in today’s gospel.
In one of his books, the Catholic novelist Walter Percy has a character who says about another person, “He got all A’s, but flunked life!” That is essentially what Jesus, the Divine Teacher, is saying to the Pharisees, “You got all A’s at keeping the Commandments, as you understand them, but you flunked life.” The Pharisees, and many others at the time of Jesus, were focused on a complex set of rules for following the Law, but in some important ways had neglected the heart of the Covenant. They had lost their focus on what was the essence of the Covenant – a loving relationship with God and with all creation. Someone said the Pharisees had moved religion from the sanctuary into the kitchen – and that is what their questioning reveals. They have the Lord of Life, the Lord of the Dance, sitting in front of them, and they wanted to talk about the rules for washing hands! A poet says about the Pharisees, “they were so busy scrubbing ‘useless pots the whole day long’ that they completely ‘lost the dance and song.’”
But there is something unsettling about this scene with the Pharisees. It is easy for us to nod and agree that, Yes, the Pharisees got it wrong. They deserved bad grades. But what nags at my conscience is that we know the lesson here is not limited to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were, after all, at the time of Jesus, respected religious people. Like us, they were not thought of as bad people.
And so, we feel compelled to ask ourselves, “What grades would the Divine Teacher give us?” Do we in some way get all A’s but flunk life? Do we in our families, in our friendships, at work, in our church, focus narrowly on a strict observance of a multitude of rules, but fail to seek out and celebrate truly loving relationships? Have we become so scrupulous in the blind observance of the letter of the Law that we neglect the spirit of love on which and for which the law was written. It’s so easy to rattle off a list of commandments by rote. It’s so easy to follow rules to the “T” and expect other to do likewise. It’s so easy to point fingers, cast judgements and disdainfully shake our heads at those that don’t. It’s so much more challenging, not to look the other way, but rather to see beyond and treat those we deem as rule-breakers, miscreants, and sinners with love, compassion, tolerance and mercy. Do we at times move our religious focus from the sanctuary to the kitchen? The earliest Christians called the mass an “agape” – a love feast. Is it still a celebration of God’s love for us, our love for God, my love for you, your love for me, or has it degenerated to mere ritual and routine? Are we consumed with who is worthy and welcome to gather around our table or whose hands are considered unclean because of the sins we perceive they’re guilty of? If so, then our religious experience may be more pharisaic than Christian. We may be more preoccupied with scrubbing “useless pots all day long” and completely miss “the dance and the song.”
But there is one very reassuring thought in all of this: we are being taught daily by a most unusual teacher. Not the Teacher of the Year or even the century. But the Teacher of All Time and Eternity. Like the many good teachers so many of us have known, this teacher will never give up on us. This teacher is eternally patient, eternally loving. This teacher doesn’t want us to fail. He’s the teacher who tirelessly and relentlessly goes over the lesson again and again until we get it right. He’s the teacher who always makes himself available for extra help. He’s the teacher who enters our failing marks in his grade book, not with red ink, but with red pencil that can be erased and changed if we ultimately learn the lessons he has taught. Our Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, has shown us convincingly, through his death on the cross, that he will make the ultimate sacrifice so that we too may share in that loving relationship with God, promised to our ancestors in faith so long ago. We rejoice now in that knowledge and celebrate it in our Eucharist.
