August 29 2021

One of my favourite traditions around this time of year is all the fall fairs,
exhibitions and expositions that take place. While we didn’t go every year, as child and young adult, I always enjoyed the opportunities to go to the CNE, or the Rockland World’s Fair, and now that I’m here, of course the Comox Valley Exhibition. I think one of the reasons I love going is because these events are steeped in traditions. I don’t spend much time, if any, throughout the year on a farm but I love seeing the 4H club livestock. I don’t
normally pay much attention to equestrian sports but I’ll sit for an hour or two watching the competitors at the ex. I don’t gamble, ever, and I never pay attention to where chickens poop but I am obsessed with chicken poop bingo! And if you have never heard of chicken poop bingo…it is pretty much what it sounds like. A chicken is placed on a board with squares and numbers, people pay for a square and if the chicken’s poop lands on your
square you win a prize. I’m not kidding when I say it’s probably my favourite part of the CV Ex. I am told it is a tradition that has been around nearly as long as the Ex, 147 years this year. Traditions can bring out the best in us. They bring us comfort because they are familiar. They provide us with stability because they are part of the routine. They make us
feel safe because we know that what we’re doing has been done for many years. Traditions can also bring out the worst in us. They can be exclusionary. They can become idols. They can distract us from the real reason for such traditions. That is at the heart of what Jesus is
saying to the Pharisees and Scribes in today’s passage.

Discussion around traditions has been top of mind for me of late, particularly as we look to a return to full in-person worship. A year and half ago many of our traditions got overturned and disrupted. It didn’t feel great- in fact it was a pretty big struggle- but throughout we discovered some incredible gifts. The gift of re-connection with members
of our congregation who had moved away because everything was now available on line.
The realization that we have more people “participating” in worship when they can do so on their own schedule rather than only at 10:30am on a Sunday. We have more people participating in our Bible studies then ever before and they come from all over the country.
As we look to returning to the familiar, it is an imperative that we also look at ways in which the work that has started over this past year continues. Because, our traditions even our doctrine, do not dictate who we are, God does.
Now,as we look at the critiques of the Pharisees and Scribes I do want to point out that it is still very good practice to wash your hands and food before you eat it. In someways I can see why the Pharisees are questioning the disciples’ behaviour- because I would be too- but at the root it is not so much about washing hands before you eat but that word, “defile”. The greater issue who they are eating with. Also, in his rebuttal Jesus isn’t saying that we should get rid of the traditions rather that the traditions are part of a much larger context. Jesus is pointing out that our traditions are meaningless if they do not include genuine words or actions.
The Pharisees point to scripture to help them prove their point. The disciples are not following the laws as laid out by God through Moses, and the Levites, and the elders of the past. But Jesus throws scripture back in their faces and quotes from Isaiah 29: 13 which raises the concern that God’s people have neglected the foundation behind these laws, of love and mercy. They are consumed with getting the human traditions right at the
cost of neglecting why God put them in place in the first place. Commentary writer Darrel Bock says, “Part of the Jesus’ defence of his disciples’ not washing their hands before the meal to prevent ritual uncleanness was to accuse the Pharisees of majoring on minors and adding to the law, while hypocritically honouring God with their lips but not with their
hearts.” They have turned the law and traditions into idols.
I recently had a conversation with a friend and she asked, “When did the church become the pharisees?” I think at the root of the question was the fact that many of us can get wrapped up in our traditions rather than the purpose behind them. I can point my finger at other churches and say, look they require you to become a member before you take communion, that’s wrong. But the truth is, that used to be one of our rules too. As
moderator of the presbytery I have had to say to other sessions and search committees and ministers, you can’t do it that way because it is against our polity, as if the polity is the be all and end all. Of course most of these guidelines are supposed to help us, just like washing your hands before a meal makes good hygiene sense, but often our rules and traditions can become stumbling blocks to faith. If we use our traditions as a way of
keeping others out than we are indeed more like the pharisees than the disciples.
In our reading we skip over some of the details to find ourselves at the root of what Jesus is really saying, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
While it appears that our traditions have power, it is really our words and actions that show our true feelings. For example, the tradition of praying a prayer of intercession during worship is meaningless if we do not live the prayer we are praying. I am not arguing that as we return to some form of what we knew before the pandemic that we should get rid of all of our traditions. I am however, suggesting that we need to look at why they are
important, why do they matter to us, and why do they exist. Jesus was not telling the
Pharisees that their traditions no longer matter but what he was saying is that the traditions are meaningless if they do not promote the love and mercy of God. A little further in this passage Jesus lists what defiles a person, evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. Now, I am not about to confess that I have been driven by everything on that list, I can say with certainty I have never been driven to murder…yet…but in reality I bet we have all experienced greed, or pride or foolishness. We
are all defiled in some way. Chicken poop bingo is definitely a foolish tradition- and one I’m not ready to give up. However, what all those things listed have in common is that they all damage relationships. If our traditions help to build or bolster relationships then they are doing God’s work. If they destroy or damage relationships then we need to reconsider.
Thankfully, God wants to have a relationship with us. I’m not one to normally declare in a sermon we are all sinners and therefore need Jesus to save us. But that is the truth. Yet as defiled as we are, through Jesus Christ, we our reconciled. That my friends needs to be at the heart of our traditions. Amen