Dirty Hands

Scripture: Mark 7:21-23

Mark 7:21–23 NRSV

21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Handwashing

Last year, we learned to sing "Jesus Loves Me" while washing our hands, to make sure we were taking enough time and washing them well. Did you learn to do that? Do you still do it? I will admit that I learned to sing that song really fast over the past few months. How about you? Did you learn any new tips to help you keep your hands clean?

Washing hands is a really old tradition, but for most of history, it was done as a religious ritual rather than something that kept you healthy. In fact, for a long time, people didn't even use soap to wash their hands, especially if there was not any visible dirt on them. There is actually an international political group that was created to help encourage people all over the world to wash their hands and the Global Handwashing Partnership reports that handwashing in hospitals didn't start until the 1840s.

One of the doctors in Vienna, Dr. Semmelweis noticed that the number of fatal infections in his hospital was greater than the number of fatal infections from the midwives who delivered babies across the streets. Nobody was washing their hands on either side of the street, but the doctors in his hospital were dealing with all kinds of sick people and then going in to deliver babies. They were spreading germs from infectious patients. Dr. Semmelweis encouraged everyone to wash their hands with soap in between operations, but many of the doctors refused to do it because they didn't want to be blamed for all the previous deaths. It was many years until handwashing became the "new normal" in hospitals.

It is not just doctors and nurses though. It's pastors too. Before COVID, an average Wednesday for me involved going to the hospital to eat breakfast and have a prayer group with some retired pastors. After our prayer time, we would go visit church members or friends in the hospital. Around lunchtime, I might be meeting up with another group of pastors from the ministerial association or visiting the local food pantry to see what help they needed since I was on their board. Most of the pastors I met there had already visited sick members in the hospital or at home that day already. That evening I would be at church helping get our midweek meal prepared and set up and then at least half of the church would be there for dinner and bible study. That is a lot of contact with a lot of people.

Now, most of the hospital rooms and some of the nursing homes would have hand sanitizer set up in convenient places, and I am sure, throughout the day, I would have washed my hands at least twice. However, between my own visits, and being around other pastors who did their own visits as well, I am quite confident that my car steering wheel was covered with every single germ, virus, and bacteria that existed in the entire county. I was no better than those doctors in Vienna who refused to wash their hands between operations. COVID opened my eyes to keep my hands clean as a way to love people and Bekah has been working on me, and I promise you I am a much safer pastor today because of it.

How Traditions Are Made

A New Normal is another term for Tradition. How long does it take for a tradition to form? I suppose it depends upon what the behavior is. James Clear is a behavioral psychologist who has studied habit building and determined that you build habits anywhere from 2 to 8 months of practice. It happens faster when it is daily instead of weekly, but that will not make or break your habit. It doesn't necessarily matter how often you mess up either, so long as you get back up and try again.

Traditions are often built when normal things we do take on special significance. For example, you may be used to getting up to go to work in the morning. On Sunday, we get up and go to worship - which is not the same as work but involves some of the same preparation. Perhaps you have a new routine of going to school Monday through Friday. On Sundays, you will be able to go to Sunday School in a few short weeks. It's not the exact same as regular school. It becomes a new tradition for you.

Feeding your pets can also go from a normal thing you do to a special tradition. Bekah's sister Naomi, had a cat named Idgy. Idgy was a very picky cat and would not accept food being put into a bowl. You had to do a special little dance before he would eat. Naomi was in a wheelchair. Have you ever seen someone in a wheelchair dance? Idgy was a very demanding cat. Why did he make Naomi dance before he would eat his food? I think he wanted some extra personal attention.

Traditions are formed when we take something normal that we do for someone and we make it extra special, extra personal. Birthdays and anniversaries could be celebrated any time and in any way, but when we make them personal and special, they become traditions. The things we do or that others do for us that we treasure the most... those things become traditions in our lives. What is something you do for others that is a tradition you keep?

Jewish Traditions

The Jews had a lot of traditions they created, and handwashing was just one of them. Many of these traditions were created to separate them from the nations and cultures around them. The young Hebrew nation was very impressionable and easily swayed by the more powerful nations around them. They needed these cultural dividers to help them stay true to who they were and more importantly, to the God to Whom they belonged.

Over the centuries, civilization changed and they began to rely more on trade with other nations around them. In the years of unfaithfulness that followed, they were conquered by one nation after another. Boundaries shifted and rifts were created among the Jewish people. Some of those who lived on the borders, especially in smaller villages, avoided crossing geographical boundaries, like Samaria, to keep themselves ceremonially and culturally clean. Those who lived in major urban areas, like Jerusalem, had to contend with foreign nations living right next to them. Those city dwellers washed off their market groceries for fear of catching gentile germs, not for health reasons, but for fear of losing their chosen status by God and the Jewish society around them.

When the Jerusalem Jewish leaders questioned why the disciples did not wash their hands before eating it was not because they were worried about germs. The Jesus team failed to publicly denounce the Roman culture before eating. It was also an act of showing how Holy you could be at all times. The Pharisees believed that wherever you were, you should act as though you were in the Temple of God. While that may have a bit of holiness appeal to it, it is important to realize that this concept of the Temple of God did not truly take into account the need for kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms. There are moments when every human being becomes "common". These are the moments that the Pharisees tried their best to scrub away.

Jesus wasn't afraid of common people with common hands, which is another translation for "defiled" or "unclean". He also didn't ask his disciples to pretend to be something they were not. Instead, Jesus chastised the Pharisees for being hypocrites themselves... more concerned with what other people thought about them than what God thought about them. He gave them a little biology lesson to remind them what kinds of things really give us need for cleansing - spiritual or otherwise.

Without going into too much detail, the things we do in those common places, the things that make us unclean, are not usually things from other people. We make ourselves unclean. The waste we wash away each day meets us in the morning and is there when we lay down to sleep. Our biggest problems often come from ourselves, and no matter how fast or far we run, we cannot get away from ourselves.

I can be bad all by myself. One of the biggest problems with sin is that we are born with such a bent toward it. We, as human beings, often make the devil's work so easy. All he has to say is "What do you think about this?" and we find ourselves already doing it, saying to ourselves, "It sounded like a good idea at the time." We have to fight and learn and grow to a point where we stop going straight down the wrong path as soon as we see it. As Jesus taught, all of those bad things: lust, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deception, immorality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. They profane a person like dirt on dirty hands. The word Mark used there, (koi-na-oh) means all of that, defile, profane, and... to make common. For the Jews that was the worse thing that could happen to them. They could become just like everyone else in the world. Sinners, without hope, without help. Made common from the inside out.

The best of the Jewish traditions were not things they did to show off how much better they are than anyone else. They are reminders that, without God, we are nothing. Without God's guidance, we are lost. Without God's love, we have nothing to give.

Our Traditions

What about our traditions?

Jesus and the early Christians took this idea of Koinao, profane, unclean, defiled,... common and developed this new sense of being, which was referred to as Koinonia. It means fellowship. It means sharing. It means communion. It means the Church.

Paul writes in Philippians 2 that we have koinonea with the Holy Spirit, and John writes in 1 John 1 that we have koinonea with each other and with the Father and the Son. That is a whole lot of dirty hands at the heavenly banquet. But as Jesus pointed out, the hands are not the things we need to be most worried about. We wash our hands, wear our masks, take vaccines, and avoid crowds to help from spreading physical diseases to one another as an act of love. What about our spiritual diseases? The sinful thoughts, words, and deeds we do throughout the week do not just disappear when we walk through the church doors. They linger around us, within us, and we spread them like a sickness when we come together and pretend we can judge each other. We've all got dirty hands. We have all let ourselves become common, to be used by anyone and anything. We have given ourselves away and left ourselves out instead of staying set aside for God as holy. And we call it normal. Common. Just like everyone else. It is also called profane. Defiled.

But God is not afraid of getting His hands dirty too. Jesus knew He could walk with the worst of us and it would all wash away in the self-sacrificial love of God. He invites us to create new traditions together, as we bring all of our dirt, grease, and grime of the common life, and offer it up to God for His use. There we are reminded of Who and Whose we are. We remember our redemption and are sent out as Holy and set apart for God's work. And Church does not stop at the end of the service. That is just the beginning. We bear and share that redemption wherever we come across dirty hands inside our outside our doors and the commonness of koinao becomes the koinonea of the church again when we enter into those places with the three words that Jesus used to invite us from the defilement of death into His Holy Kingdom: "Father, forgive them..." We know they don't know what they are doing... not really. We know that because it has not been that long ago that we stood in their shoes and someone came bearing the grace of Jesus to share with us. Those three words may not change their life immediately, but they will put us in koinonea with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, remind us of our purpose as the church, and prepare us to share as much of God's grace as they are willing to receive.

What traditions do you have?

When we come together as Greeters, Liturgists, Musicians, Preachers, Teachers, Tech support, Visitors of the Homebound, Nursery Workers, Youth volunteers, Gardeners, Maintenance workers, cleaners, cooks... What are the traditions that we have that remind us that we are not common anymore? We are set aside for God's purpose. Those are just Sunday morning things and things we do in our church building. What are your Monday morning traditions? How do you celebrate Taco Tuesday in a way that reminds you of the way that Jesus did more than wash your hands and make you clean... He washed your heart and mind and soul and made you Holy? What traditions do you have that help you see those around you, not as dirty or common, but as God's children that you have been sent to lead home?

We need Jesus, and we have Jesus because He is here with us. Will you share with Jesus as He has shared with us?