Thursday, August 27, 2015

Pentecost 14 B - Mark 7:1-8, 13-14, 21-23

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Thank God we’re back to the Gospel of Mark! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not into gluten free Gospels but five weeks of bread, even bread from heaven, is more than I can stomach. Okay, that might be a little over the top for a lectionary based joke but I don’t think the lectionary needs five weeks to deal with John chapter six. Be that as it may it turns out the Gospel lesson for this week still has something to do with food and the rituals that surround it. I find it noteworthy that necessary things, the everyday act of eating and drinking, are given additional layers of meaning but maybe that is the point. Things basic but necessary are always more than ordinary. Most of us are far removed from the production of our food so that we can grab a burger from In and Out and think nothing of the sun and soil and rain and crops and cattle and rancher and farmer and slaughter house and silo and purchaser and packager and shipper and cook and wait staff that eventually put the burger on the bun with fries on the side so that we could wolf it down without thinking about it. Maybe if we were more aware of how fortunate we are we would become more aware of those for whom the every day act of eating is not a given. Of all the religious things we do being generous with the ordinary gifts we’ve been given brings the most joy to the God who desires the honor of our lips to be a true expression of the devotion of our heart.

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