I am at another new church this week. When I say ‘new’ I mean one I haven’t worshipped in before, however others have been worshipping here since the 12th Century. I am looking forward to meeting those who currently worship at St Thomas a Becket in Tilshead.

I wonder if you are a fan of Lego?

I have recently discovered that if you visit a Lego store you can create your own mini Lego characters, and I am a little addicted! There are vats of heads, wigs, bodies, and accessories to chose from, and you can spend quite some time being creative. You can even get heads that swivel from happy face to sad face, or, as in the films, good cop bad cop!

Today’s readings feel a little bit like those swivelling Lego heads. In the Gospel passage Jesus is having some rather strong words with scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem who have followed him out into the countryside; we don’t know why they have joined Jesus and his disciples, although suspicion would suggest their intentions would have been to catch him out in some way, although there were some Pharisees, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who recognised in Jesus profound glimmers of heaven. Whatever their intentions in following Jesus are, their words and actions are petty and demeaning.

The Pharisees try to call out Jesus and his disciple on their uncleanliness: the Jewish tradition included ritual washing not just of their hands before eating but a special way of washing pots and pans which marked them out as being different and cleaner than their unclean heathen neighbours. For some Jews this was, and still is, taken to such extremes that they would be unable to receive hospitality unless they were sure that everything had been washed ‘properly’. Indeed I know of someone who would take their own plates with them when they went to eat at a friend’s house.

Jesus responds by calling them out. He knows that although these Pharisees and scribes seem clean and upright, upholders of The Law, Jesus know that what they are really upholding is religious tradition built around God’s commandments, and that some of God’s commands have become hidden by those traditions. The passage goes on to give a prime example of this: although the 10 Commandments, given directly by God to Moses (twice because the first stone tablets were broken) include the command to honour your mother and father, a Pharisaic tradition called Corban could release you from doing so. Jesus recognises the hypocrisy and it isn’t in unclean hands that he sees it. Indeed the hands that feed the hungry, whether they are ritually clean or not, are closer to God than those of the Pharisees.

In a similar way, Jesus’ brother James calls out the early Christians for their worthless ‘religion.’ James is writing to ‘the twelve tribes of the dispersion’, the Jews who had been scattered by conquest and deportation, by trade and business, as well as the followers of Jesus who have been dispersed by persecution and mission.

James calls his readers to ‘walk the talk’. Just as the Pharisees were putting tradition before God’s word, the new Christians were putting religiosity before Jesus, saying one thing to look good, to look holy, but actually doing something completely different because it was easier, because it was more beneficial for them. James describes them as people who look in a mirror, but instantly forget what they look like. Or perhaps they are like those Lego characters, choosing to present themselves to the world with a smile on their face whilst all the time harbouring a grudge.

So what can we learn from these passages today? I think we need to be wary of how we speak. James encourages us to be quick to listen and slow to speak: what are the words and phrases used in church circles that give us away as having slipped from our true calling in this place? Remember I have never been here before, it’s my first time of worshipping with you, this next comment cannot therefore come with judgement! Is this a church where phrases such as ‘but we always do that’ are commonly used? If I were to be a fly on the wall would I hear you talk about tradition or religion, or would I hear you talk about how Jesus did things and what would please him? Often it is asked ‘How would you react if Jesus walked in the door?’ the thing is, Jesus has walked in the door. He can see and hear us, he already knows.

What traditions, what religious behaviour would Jesus wish us to uphold? James tells us,

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1: 27

Jesus wasn’t ashamed to get his hands dirty in order to care for others, and neither should we. Dirty your hands as you reach out in love to others, but don’t dirty your heart, and never hide behind religious words and traditions. Perhaps we shouldn’t ask what would Jesus do, but rather remember what Jesus did.

Read the Bible passages here: Gospel of Mark, and the Letter of James.