2015/08/30 — 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's first reading and gospel invite us to reflect on law and tradition (law vs. tradition?). The second reading, as usual is not chosen to be part of that reflection, although it does relate to right ways of living — "Be doers of the word." — as well as to the gift that is God's word.


Deuteronomy presents several speeches of Moses to the Israelites. They have completed their forty years in the wilderness and are encamped in the land of Moab, just east of the Dead Sea, within sight of the promised land. Moses will not be permitted to cross with them into the land of Canaan. Joshua will lead them in the conquest of Canaan, after Moses has died and been buried in Moab. So this book represents his last words to the Israelites, and he summarizes their history and restates the law God has given them.

Today's reading — Deut 4:1-2, 6-8 — begins an exhortation to keep God's law. Moses gives two reasons for keeping God's law. The first is that it is a condition for their taking and holding on to the promised land. The second is that their observing the law will show the other nations how wise they are, because the law itself is so just. Thus living by the law indirectly glorifies the God who gave it.

It is my understanding that to this day Jews regard the Law (Torah) as a wonderful gift — a privilege, not a burden. In fact, after the week-long festival of Sukkot there is a festal day called Simchat Torah — "Rejoicing in the Torah" — when the yearly cycle of Torah readings concludes and begins anew with the final passage of Deuteronomy and the first passage of Genesis. It can include dancing around the synagogue, and even out into the streets, with the Torah scrolls. This is very different from the way most of us tend to think of law. We tend to see all sorts of rules as impositions. This may be understandable when it comes to human laws, but even with divine laws, we tend to try to rationalize our way out of what they seem to command. We often feel they're unpleasant, and wish we could just do what we please. We need to remember that God is our loving creator, and all his commands are given out of love, for our own good, even if we don't see the good right now.

Moses makes the point that the Israelites are neither to add to the law nor subtract from it. They must not attribute anything to God beyond what he has said, nor must they ignore any of it. This ties in with what Jesus says in the gospel condemning the scribes and Pharisees for "disregard[ing] God's commandment but cling[ing] to human tradition."


The responsorial psalm —Ps 15:2-5, with response based on v. 1 — guide us to start thinking of specifics of what it means to observe the law: doing what is right, not harming others. James will say more about it.


We have completed the series of readings from Ephesians, and today the second reading is the first of five selections from James — Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27. It wouldn't hurt to read the intervening verses as well, but the selected verses give us plenty to think about.

Torah was a gift of God to the Jews, one which Jesus affirms as valid for us when rightly understood. (Matthew 5:17-20) When James speaks of God's gifts and refers to the word of truth, that may bring us to think of Torah and of the gospel, which Paul calls the word of truth at Colossians 1:5, but we should also think of Jesus, the Word of God, as the fullness of that word of truth. He is the one who gives us the birth (a word that recalls baptism) into eternal life. So we are to welcome Jesus, the saving Word of God, who sums up all the other words of God to us.

Welcoming the word means more than hearing. Those who went to worship services would hear the word when it was read in the assembly. But that hearing (even if we agree with what we hear) is useless and empty, it is unreal, unless it governs our behavior. Of course, none of us is perfect. There are times when we fail to live according to God's word, and we should repent and strive to sin no more. But however frequent these lapses, they are qualitatively different from the situation of someone who goes his merry way, not caring that he is engaged in behavior that he knows is wrong.

The world has many things that tempt us to sins of greed, lust, hatred, and others. God's law shows how we can remain unstained by the world.


This week we return to Mark for our gospel reading — Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 — picking up roughly where we would have been if we had read Mark's account of the feeding of the 5,000 and its aftermath. The omitted verses give illustrations of setting aside God's law in favor of human traditions and an explanation of why what enters from the outside does not defile. But the essence of the passage is here.

The central point seems to be Jesus' saying to the scribes and Pharisees who were questioning him, "You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." This is just the opposite of Moses' instruction to take nothing away from the Law and to add nothing to it. While Jesus is clear that he does not abolish the Law, he is also clear that it is not a matter of slavishly following every rule to the letter in all situations. For example, in Mark 7:18-19 the evangelist seems to say that he has abolished the dietary laws. In Mark 2:23-28 he says that the sabbath rest does not forbid the "work" of picking and eating grain when one is hungry, because the sabbath is a gift, not a burden and he declares himself lord of the sabbath. Furthermore, in Mark 3:1-6 he says that the sabbath rest does not forbid the "work" of healing.

Distinguishing between God's commandments and human tradition is not so simple as simply saying that if it's in scripture, it's God's commandment, and if it isn't in scripture, it's human tradition. There are the examples above of Jesus either setting aside the literal meaning of scripture or interpreting it in a particular way. We still need to interpret the scriptures. For example, what does Jesus require of us when he says no one can be his disciple unless he renounces all his possessions; or was that only addressed to those who would follow him around during his earthly ministry? (Luke 14:33) What does it mean when he tells the disciples, "He who hears you hears me?" (Luke 10:16)

Paradoxically, we need the Church, the "pillar and ground of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), to give us authoritative interpretations, while there is always a danger of churchmen taking other traditions as binding. In other words, there can be traditions which support and correctly interpret the word of God. These are not to be condemned. There can be other traditions whose usefulness is limited or bound to specific historical circumstances. Again, if we listen to the authentic voice of the Church, we won't be led astray.

But this is at a level of generality. We need to obey God in the individual circumstances of our lives. To do this, we need to internalize, as best we can, what we know of God's commands through the word of God in scripture and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Today's scriptures invite us to ask ourselves if there are any areas in our lives where we have been setting God's commandments aside. Do we find God's commandments and teachings a joy? Are we doers of the word as well as hearers?

An Update — 2012/12/19

Not too much worth writing home about, but here's a bit.

A Night at the Cinema.  Tuesday of last week I went to the Cabot Street Cinema to see the 2011 movie "Wuthering Heights." I've never read the book, but I knew that it had to do with the doomed romance of Cathy and Heathcliff. What a shock the movie was! It was well made, but the central characters were awful people. (BTW, for those of you familiar with the book, the movie only covers the first generation. It stops with Heathcliff's gaining ownership of Wuthering Heights, and does not show the subsequent lives of his and Cathy's and Hindley's children.) The movie clearly depicts Hindley's brutality, Heathcliff's violence and Cathy's bad treatment of Heathcliff as well as her husband, Edgar. They're all a thoroughly unlikable lot. It is the Lintons' great misfortune to have come into contact with any of them, much worse for them that Edgar marries Cathy and Isabella marries Heathcliff. I found the brutality, the semi-squalid condition of the Earnshaw house, and the bleakness of the countryside quite unappealing, however true to the novel they may have been.


Christmas.  My brother and I are invited to our aunt's for Christmas dinner. That should be pleasant. She says that this year she will not cook a turkey — which probably makes this the first Christmas of my life when turkey was not Christmas dinner, although I can't be absolutely sure of the first three or four years of my life. I suppose I could get a bit of turkey somewhere and have it for supper and pretend it was the real dinner, with the banquet merely lunch — as if there were some cosmic importance to my keeping the sequence of turkey dinners at Christmas unbroken. But nah. I'm getting a little bit flexible in my old age, and if it will be lamb or what have you for Christmas dinner, that's okay — as long as it isn't bean sprouts and tofu. And I'm not going to buy a turkey and cook it on Sunday or Wednesday: too much leftovers.

I've been thinking a bit about what I will have, expecting my brother to be here from Saturday night (when we'll go to a party) through New Year's Day. Today I bought a small chicken, which will probably be Sunday dinner and possibly yield enough leftovers for one lunch. I've been thinking of doing my shrimp thing for Christmas eve. I also have to cook meatloaves for the soup kitchen that day. I could possibly make an extra one for us to have. It would furnish at least two dinners. Maybe I could have a roast of beef — or pot roast or braised beef — for Wednesday (with leftovers one or two days). Maybe salmon on Friday, or shrimp if we didn't have it on Monday. The usual steak and baked potato on Saturday? It would be fun to celebrate New Year's Eve with lobster. If I can find a duck anywhere, that would be good for New Year's Day. That leaves Sunday — restaurant perhaps. I'm sure we'll get by somehow.

I've sent off the gifts to my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, and I know basically what I'll be getting for my brother. Yikes! I haven't sent cards to my friends in Rothenburg. Now they'll never get there before Christmas.

It will be a busy time at the church, with me helping out here and there.

I still haven't put the candles in the windows. Maybe I will as soon as I finish this post. I've also got a few other decorations to display.


Other Stuff.  The car door handle has been repaired.

We had a prayer service this evening for the victims and mourners from the school shooting in Connecticut.

I posted on my music blog about the concerts I recently attended. Before the one at HMA I had dinner at the Scollay Square — got the same waiter as last time. Dang!

The "Barcode of Life" by Rick Baker

I think Rick expresses very well some things that are terribly wrong with America: the reduction of employees to commodities, the idolization of technology, the obsession with sports, the loss of meaningful cultural traditions. Read his post. Scrooge lives, and it is what America wants.