Proper 17 :: Deuteronomy 4:1 – 2, 6 – 9 / Psalm 15 / Mark 7:1 – 8, 14 – 15, 21 – 23
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 29, 2021.
“A PERSON OF ‘LOW JUDGMENT’?”
(Homily
texts: Deuteronomy 4:1 -2, 6 – 9 &
Mark 7:1 – 8, 14 – 15, 21 – 23)
Let’s ask ourselves this question: “Do
we know anyone who’s a person of ‘low judgment’?”
Low judgment…..Hypocrite, in other
words, for that’s what the literal meaning is of the Greek words which come to
us as “hypocrite”.
Our Old Testament reading from the
book of Deuteronomy, as well as our Gospel reading from Mark, chapter seven,
encourage us to be persons who have “high judgment”. A person who has “high judgment” is one who
has thoroughly integrated their beliefs with their practices in everyday life.
Consider, for example, how Moses,
speaking in the verses we hear this morning from Deuteronomy, challenges those
original hearers of these words, and us, to not only hear and know
God’s will and God’s commands, but to observe that will and those
commands.
Then, as we turn to today’s Gospel
text (having returned, now, to Mark’s account after a sojourn in John’s account),
we hear Jesus excoriate the Pharisees for their concentration on the outward
actions of the things that people do, but at the expense of a proper
orientation of the heart, of the inner and most central part of a person’s
being. They ask, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of
the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” In response, Jesus uses that “low
judgment” word: Hypocrite. Quoting from Isaiah 29:13, He says, “This people
honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they
worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
In the verses that are omitted from
this morning’s reading (verses 9 – 13), the Lord exposes the practices of these
Pharisees, citing their practice of “Corban”, a practice whereby a person could
devote the family’s assets to the Temple in Jerusalem. As a result, a person’s
parents, in their old age, would be deprived of a means of support. Thus, the
Lord says, the intent of the Law of Moses to care for father and mother is
supplanted by a later, and less important, practice.
Being a person of “high judgment” is
critical to our witness to God. There’s little that gets my ire up more than to
hear of those who claim to be disciples of Jesus, Christians, who behave badly.
The old saying that describes such behavior goes something like this: “What you
are doing speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Being a person of “high judgment”
involves the ability to take a good, close look at ourselves, at our attitudes
and the way in which we conduct ourselves, day in and day out. It involves
trying to look at ourselves as God might see us, and as others might see us. To
be sure, we can’t see ourselves completely and totally, so we will need the
help of other believers to hold us to account for what we say and what we do.
Come then, Holy Spirit, come with your
enlightening and purifying fire, purge out of us any residue of “low judgment”,
that we may reflect the full image of Christ.
AMEN.
