Proper 17B

Human relationships are complicated.

We can leave that statement as fact just the way it is.

Most human relationships fall into one of three categories,

though even these broad categories don't always catch everyone in our lives.

We have acquaintances,

we have friends,

and we have "family".

Acquaintances are those people we know through social events, 

through work, through groups

and we only talk to them in those contexts.

We don't usually go out of our way for acquaintances the way we would for friends or family,

but we could chit chat with them in some capacity.

Our relationships with them are characterized by the social laws and rules of the context in which we know them.

Friends are those people we spend time together with on a mutual basis.

We like them, we know something more about them.

We might share funny emails with them or call them occasionally,

We would know if they became ill or lost their dog.

Our relationships with friends are characterized by trust and mutual respect.

"Family" is not necessarily just those we are blood related to.

Family are those people we couldn't live without.

The people we talk to every day because we want to talk to them everyday.

The people who we love deeply and are bonded to,

the people we would do anything for.

Our relationships with family are characterized by faith in them and by understanding.

Of course, some of our blood family might only be acquaintances or friends,

some of our friends are more like family,

yet typically most of the people in our lives can be categorized in one of these genres.

One of the biggest questions Jesus poses to the people listening to him

is where is God in your life in these categories?

Is God an acquaintance? Is God a friend?

Is God part of your family?

What kind of relationship do you have with God?

This is the argument we see Jesus and the Pharisees get into today in the Gospel of Mark.

The Pharisees and Jesus have very different understandings of what our relationships with God should look like.

For the Pharisees, relationship with God was determined by the rules in the Torah.

Orthodox Jewish practice has always been very strict about rules around the body.

These bodies of ours are not clean, not polite, not pure

and so there are rules to keep us as close as we can be, despite our weaknesses.

The Pharisees were one of the major groups of devout Jewish men in the first century

and they were the rule followers.

They stuck to every rule they could find in the Bible and the tradition

in order to stay as pure as they could be.

They were letter of the law men.

Cross every t, dot every i.

This is why they get upset with Jesus' disciples when they see what they are doing.

They are eating without washing their hands!

Their hands are dirty!

The disciples are breaking the rules, they are eating with their hands dirty.

(Miss Manners would also not approve.)

Hands must be washed before eating.

Naturally there are some very good reasons for this rule.

Washing your hands before you eat

helps keep dirt, germs, and other toxins outside of the body,

so that they don't contaminate us.

Yet, when Jesus is confronted with their lack of discipline,

he takes the situation to a higher level.

All the Pharisees are complaining about is that their hands are dirty.

Yet, the real gist of the matter has nothing to do with dirty hands.

While the Pharisees are worried about the disciples not following the rules,

Jesus doesn't really care that much about following human rules.

Jesus is more interested in their relationship with God.

I don't know if you've noticed this before,

but Jesus is all about relationships.

I mean, we are talking about the man who prays to God

and effectively addresses God as the Aramaic version of Daddy.

He habitually talks about God as his Father

in a very personal way.

He shows a deeply personal relationship with God.

And he wants his disciples to have that kind of relationship as well.

When he teaches them to pray, 

he starts with "Our Father,"

he wants them to have deeply personal relationships with God as well.

Its always about relationships with Jesus.

In their adherence and strictness for the rules,

the Pharisees betray only an acquaintance relationship with God.

they are stuck on the rules and regulations of the context of the Temple,

showing no great relationship with God in their hearts.

It is, of course, a generalization to say that this is the way all of the Pharisees were,

however, as a group, this is the way they are portrayed. 

This is what Jesus laments in his quote from Isaiah (29:13 LXX).

The Pharisees put the rules created by humans

ahead of having a relationship with God.

They go about their lives, fulfilling the rules, but not knowing God in their hearts.

This passage begs a question of us then,

where are we in our relationship with God?

Is God an acquaintance?

Is God a friend?

Is God in your family? Is God in your heart?

No matter where we find ourselves, 

thankfully we are in relationship with God in some way.

Always open to us are the steps forward,

the relationship building practices and invitation for more.

If rules are useful, healthy, and good for your relationship with God,

then they are there to help you.

If the rules get in your way of your relationship with God,

then they don't matter as much.

What Jesus wants for us is to follow the two greatest commandments,

to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength,

and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Which are no small feat on their own. 

Loving God can take a long time to learn to do.

Not that anyone would admit to not loving God in a church,

but in the real way of love, not all of us are there in our relationships with God.

Many of us have been hurt, many of us are scared, many of us are uncertain.

It is enough work to try to love God and love our neighbors,

with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, 

which are only two of the six hundred and thirteen laws in the Hebrew Bible. 

Have no worries,

God is waiting for you.

Waiting to take your relationship to the next step,

wanting for you to know Him more fully.

How can you step closer in relationship with God today?

Amen.