[Propertalk] Sermon quotes for August 30 - Mark 7 - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

While the issue in this text centers on the tradition of the elders; they grow out of a serious command given in Exodus 30:17-21 [nipto is the word used throughout for "wash" in the LXX]:

  The LORD spoke to Moses: You shall make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it; with the water Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to make an offering by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die: it shall be a perpetual ordinance for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations.

The repeated threat of death indicates that this washing was a very important ritual.

http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/mark7x1.htm

Brian Stoffregen
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  I've found it humbling to ask what "outcasts" do I sanctimoniously spurn as impure, unclean, dirty, contaminated, and, in my mind, far from God. The mentally ill, people who have married three or four times, wealthy executives, welfare recipients, people who hold conservative political opinions, or maybe people with AIDS? How have I distorted the self-sacrificing, egalitarian love of God into self-serving, exclusionary elitism? What boundaries do I wrongly build or might I bravely shatter? 

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090824JJ.shtml

Dan Clendenin 
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Today, in our Christian faith, we also learn to love the "old traditions" that are part of our faith. We love the "old favorite traditions" of Christmas, Christmas hymns, Easter, Easter hymns. Most congregations (and individuals) have numerous traditions that are not part of their constitution, by-laws, or any legal documents; nor are these numerous traditions part of the Scriptures or even our denominational heritage. Rather, within the congregation, there are traditions that become holy, sanctified, and "don't you mess with our way we of doing things around here." In other words, don't mess with our traditions. In fact, people will hold fast to their human traditions more than the commandments of God to love God and love one another.

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

Edward F. Markquart
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If Jesus has been so free from the anxiety of keeping himself clean that he has shared our uncleanness to death in order to infect us with his cleanness, then no wonder his disciples feel free to forget to wash their hands. They are no longer thinking about who is clean and who is not and how they can stay on the clean side of that calculation. Jesus gave his disciples authority over unclean spirits, too (Mark 6:7), and so we are sent out to handle what is unclean with Jesus' cleansing life. Will we be defiled in the process? Absolutely. But we know what to do with that; it goes with Jesus to the cross to get sanitized in his risen life for us and for others. 

http://www.crossings.org/theology/2009/theolo744.shtml

Carolyn Schneider, 2009
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 In fact, the three sexual evils that he includes in his catalogue of perversity can apply equally to heterosexuals or to gays:  fornication, adultery, and licentiousness.  These three vices are orientation-neutral.

http://gospelforgays.com/?p=461

Jeremiah Bartram, 2009
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For many Christians, there seems to be a need to find ways to guard the borders of religious identity All sorts of issues are lifted up as identity-defining, and the stance one takes with respect to them determines whether one is a "real Christian." In the American context, most of these issues have to do with human sexuality. Abortion, contraception and homosexuality have all been made into boundary-defining issues; they have become the "lines in the sand" for whether one judges others to be Christian or not. In the minds of many, these are not matters on which Christians may hold divergent opinions and remain in fellowship with others. Rather, opposition to these practices is seen as part and parcel of maintaining the core of Christian faith in an increasingly secular world.
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...how does one maintain Christian identity and integrity? When we respond, we can do no better than Jesus did when asked what was the greatest of all of God's commands -- love God and neighbor. 

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3435

Cynthia M. Campbell, 2006
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