The struggle that every community in every age faces - including our own - is how can the "tradition of the elders," which has given us our identity, now be changed so that what was good in it - the desire live according to the will of God - can actually be expressed in our current circumstances.
Year B
Pentecost 14
September 2, 2012
Sunday between August 28 and September 3 inclusive
Proper 17, Ordinary Time 22
Click here for the complete Holy Textures background commentary on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.
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Sermon by the Rev. Dr. George Hermanson, "."
The lectionary ends its 5 weeks of dabbling in John and returns to Mark. No murmurs from me about this.
Once again Malina and Rohrbaugh provide helpful background on this passage. (Pages 174-176, see footnote below.)
At one level, the controversy here is between the Judean elite who were 5% of the population, and everyone else. The elites lived in towns and cities and had access, time, and money for the water needed to follow their interpretation of the washing required to follow the Torah.
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