[Propertalk] Sermon quotes for August 30 - Mark 7 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

>From "Fiddler on the Roof":

Then came the third daughter, and it was the same story all over again.  Not only did she not use the matchmaker; but worse yet, in fact the worse thing that ever could happen to a Jewish family, was that she fell in love with a non-Jew, with a Gentile.  With a Bolshevik soldier.  And to marry a non-Jew, a Gentile, that was the unforgivable sin.  Now, when this young couple came to Tevye and announced their intentions, Tevye could bend no further.  He refused to give his daughter in marriage; he refused to bless her; he kicked her out of the house; he declared her as dead; her name was never to be mentioned again in his home; and so his deeply loved daughter was lost.  His daughter was now dead to Tevye.

Much later, at the very end of the story, the revolution was starting in Russia, and the Jews, including Tevye and Golda, were fleeing to America.  This historic Jewish family was being fractured, never to see each other again.  And then comes the last scene, the most touching scene of the whole movie.  The whole family said good-bye to each other, and suddenly the youngest daughter and her Bolshevik husband walk forward, coming from nowhere, and standing outside the family gate, to say the last goodbye to her father.  And perhaps, just perhaps, to be blessed by him.  Perhaps, just perhaps, to be at peace with the man she so deeply loved.

Tevye was caught.  What should he do?  He had vowed that his daughter was  dead, that he would never speak with her again, now he was caught.  And he needed to say goodbye to that daughter.  And finally, in despair, Tevye turned his back on his daughter.  He turned away from her, and he bent over the fence in brokenness and in grief.  No blessing,  No peace.  And the story ends tragically.

"Fiddler on the Roof" is a story about a good man, Tevye, whose traditions are more important to him that the commandment to love and forgive as God loves and forgives. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_tradition_fiddler_on_the_roof.htm

Edward F. Markquart

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A friend of mine, a Dominican priest, puts a finer point on it. Good people, he says, are more likely to be tempted by what is best about them than by what is worst. In a world that badly needs change, how many times have we good people let the warm glow of our acts of charity shield us from the disturbing risk of the change we need to make? In a church that badly needs to demonstrate its integrity, how many times have we good people wounded each other with the opinions and judgements we wield?

http://covenantnetwork.org/sermon&papers/spaulding.htm

The Rev. Richard E. Spalding, 2004

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Is the church primarily holy space, separate from the world in its confusion, or is the church a launching pad for service and a gathering place for the least and the lost?

<>

Jesus and the Pharisees were arguing a very basic point. What do faithful people do to be faithful? What are the interests of God and how do we serve them? Ritual is important and so is the manner and the degree to which we are distinct from the world around us. There can be no doubt about that. The Pharisees have a good point. Jesus seems to be saying that engagement with the world is even more important. 

http://day1.org/500-what_matters_to_god

The Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade, former rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Washington, DC, 2003

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... maybe our deepest fear is that our status quo is not so good anyway. Our deepest fear is that there really is uncleanness in us and we are afraid to face it. 

http://day1.org/666-why_dont_you_wash_your_hands

The Very Rev. Samuel G. Candler, Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, GA, 2000 

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You and I know that Jesus was not advocating eating with dirty hands in our gospel reading for today.  The lesson is not really about hand washing at all -- it is about fault-finding and nitpicking. 

<>

Professor Charles Neilson, a Presbyterian pastor and teacher of Church History, compared some modern Christians with the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time and said, "Their difficulty is that they are trying to be more religious than God."  

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/sep.03.00.htm

John Jewell, 2000

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What does God want. Well said the man, the [new Pope] wants all those women off the altar. Women should be reading the scriptures or distributing Communion, or directing music, not even if they're nuns. Indeed, said the pastor. And he should put the mass back into Latin, that's God's language. Why did we have to change it. Actually said the pastor, maybe it should go back into Aramaic.

http://www.agreeley.com/hom09/aug30.htm

Andrew M. Greeley, 2009

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After the wedding party processed up the aisle and before the ceremony began, the celebrant made an announcement. Only baptized Catholics in the state of grace would be allowed to receive Holy Communion during the Eucharistic celebration. Anyone who had committed a mortal sin and had not received absolution from a priest should not approach the altar. <> One guest, herself very active in her own parish community, observed, wryly, that it was interesting that the only cardinal sin mentioned was lust. Could it be that if he mentioned all the possible manifestations of all the deadly sins, no one would be permitted to approach the altar?

http://www.agreeley.com/homilies00/sept03.htm

Andrew M. Greeley, 2000

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