Dirty People

Thursday September 7th, Mark 7: 1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?" 6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. It’s called lip service. Putting on a good show, but lacking anything of real substance. Then sometimes, as the epitome of evil, the real reason for the show is just to hide downright deceit. I love a church where people don’t dress up, it seems more real, a bit dirty on the outside and a bit dirty on the inside. Sometimes, some of our traditions have outlived their usefulness and they need to be jettisoned. One thing to remember about churches, a healthy one is always willing to jettison a tradition for the sake of reaching those who are not yet a part of the church, an unhealthy church is always willing to jettison those who are not in the pews for the sake of keeping their traditions. Most of us are a combination of both.