Check Your ID
Mark 7:1-8
Most of us know the experience of hurrying to get ready to go on vacation, and then realizing you’ve forgotten something once you’ve left and then it’s too late to do anything about it. I have had on my “to-do-list” for quite some time now a reminder to get a replacement license. For some reason, my license has faded so much that you can hardly tell it’s me in the picture. Some of the wording is barely legible. I’ve been told the DMV will do this for free because their machines were wacky for a while. But when we got to the airport a week ago Thursday, when I pulled out my license, I then remembered what I had not done – replace my license.
Since September 11th, and the terrorist scare in early August, airport security is operating at a high level. If you’ve flown recently, you know this first hand. As I waited in line to check my bags for our trip to Iowa, all kinds of fears ran through my mind: Will I get interrogated because my picture is barely visible on my license and they’ll think I made it at home? Maybe I’ll experience my first strip search! Will they even let me go to Iowa? The airline representative did ask me a few extra questions and the people behind me began to look at me with suspicious eyes but I made it through the first tier of security. Oh, why didn’t I get that license replaced!?
Fear is a powerful thing. We only have to rewind life back to Wednesday in Hillsborough when a fractured young man took his pain to the community with a gun. Frantic parents here in this county rushed to Orange High School Road to try and get word about their children. Our response to our fears is to try and fix things. We build in our own levels of security, or what we think is security.
Back at the airport, my next stop was the metal detectors and x-ray machines. More extra questions – Who are you? Where do you live? You need to get this license replaced! Take off your shoes. Are these TSA people out to get me? I took off everything with even a hint of metal on it and I just prayed the small piece of steel in my left eye didn’t set something off. I’m not sure I could have explained how that steel got there to anyone’s satisfaction a week ago Thursday. When they scanned the portable DVD player we took so the kids could watch Elmo on the plane, they looked at it a really long time, all the while glancing back to me. Oh, why didn’t I get that license replaced!?
You know how sometimes it’s good to be with someone. Those persons will get you through doors that ordinarily you couldn’t go through by yourself. Sometimes it helps to have someone who can pull strings for you. Well, I made sure that I stayed awful close to two cute kids last Thursday. I’m convinced that it didn’t hurt my cause that I was traveling with a 2-year old with curly blonde hair and a 4-year old who told anyone who would listen that she was going to Grandma’s house.
Why is it that we’ve become so suspicious these days? One answer stated in very broad terms is what I’ve already said – fear. Someone said to me last Thursday after the incident at Orange High School that our schools are going to end up like fortresses. More specifically, I think we’re suspicious because too often, people aren’t who they say they are. We scrutinize, x-ray, legislate, and prohibit because of this. We guard the borders of our lives so that we can stay safe on the inside and try to keep unwanted predators out. This all was impressed upon me during our air travel last week. I don’t think I look like a suspicious character but I certainly got some suspicious glances and questions and it wasn’t a fun experience. The simple solution for me would have been to check my ID beforehand so it was clear to everyone who I was.
In Jesus’ day, the Scribes and Pharisees were a lot like the TSA at the airport. Their job was to protect the faith, guard against intrusion, and keep religious identity pure. I don’t think they had evil intentions or were necessarily bad people. They were trying to do a job – a job they passionately believed in. One writer compared the Pharisees and scribes in the Gospels to the team that always plays the Harlem Globetrotters. That team isn’t supposed to win; they’re just supposed to make the real stars shine a little brighter.
The issue at hand for the Pharisees and scribes was hand washing, utensil washing, and food washing. The followers of Jesus weren’t following the traditions. So, in the watchful eyes of the Pharisees and scribes, the disciples’ identity was murky. They wondered who the disciples really were. Are these followers of Jesus out to destroy our Jewish faith? And I think the Pharisees and scribes were afraid.
This was more than hygiene and cleanliness. This ritual washing was part of Jewish heritage and their faith. When Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting, they were to ritually wash.[1] By the second century B.C.E. Jews who were not priests began voluntarily washing before prayer and before eating. It wasn’t scripturally obligatory; it was just part of a tradition that kept growing. By the time of Christ, some Jews wanted this ritual washing mandated for all. For the elite in society, this wouldn’t have been an obstacle because they could always afford clean ritual water. But for peasants and people who made their living dealing with dead fish, it just wasn’t possible. But the religious establishment pushed for this act to continue. When the disciples didn’t wash, the scribes and Pharisees were afraid their faith as they knew it, would get lost.
I think the beef Jesus had with the religious leaders was not the traditions themselves. Jesus doesn’t come right out and condemn these washing exercises. The problem Jesus had with the Pharisees is that they used their traditions to get away from the world instead of using their faith, their tradition, and their belief to get into the world in new ways. Jesus came to make God accessible to all. The religious establishment seemed to work overtime to keep that gap wide and keep God inaccessible to normal folks. The traditions and rituals are really all the scribes and Pharisees had! And that’s why Jesus called them hypocrites.
Does the same thing happen today? Do we use our own faith to get away from the world or do we use our faith to get into the world…and influence the world…in new ways? Is your faith personally, and our faith collectively as a church, used to x-ray people and keep them at a distance or is our faith a source of strength to help others, prompt social change, and tell others about Jesus?
Too often today, Christians have a fuzzy identity. It’s not clear who we are. We’re kinda like me going through airport security with a license that’s faded, blurry, and barely legible. At camp this year, speakers were not talking about being a Christian, they were talking about being a Jesus follower. The reason for this is because too many have used the label Christian in un-Christlike ways. It’s no wonder people scratch their heads and say, “They go to Cane Creek and this is who is they are? This is how they live? This is how they treat people? This is how this church treats visitors? This is how they treat folks in need?”
There is one main question that jumps out of this text for me today. What are we afraid of as a church and as individuals when it comes to our faith? Our traditions, our guidelines for being a church, our faith should be a way to get into the world in new ways, not get away from the world and keep people out. If you’re afraid of this church changing as time passes by we should remember one thing – it’s not our church! This is Christ’s church! If you’re afraid of what Jesus may ask of you by being one of this followers, you should pray that God draws you close to His heart, because chances are, your lips are honoring God but your heart is not as close to God as your words are.
Let’s all do an ID check this morning. Who needs to do business with God this morning?
Amen.