How the Bible Opens Itself to Us
- davidwperk
- Jul 29, 2021
- 6 min read
Devotional Reflection, Thursday, July 29, 2021
Proper 12, the week of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s reading:
"19 (Thus he declared all foods clean.) "
Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary and Martha of Bethany. (See below.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings
AM Psalm [70], 71; PM Psalm 74
2 Samuel 4:1-12; Acts 16:25-40; Mark 7:1-23
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 7:1-23
7:1Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’
9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10For Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 11But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— 12then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’
17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
David's Reflections
The four Gospels paint remarkably resonant portraits of Jesus, but each portrait has its unique features. Any four artists painting portraits of the same person would render four different portraits, each of which would be their interpretation of the personality of the subject painted, but one could tell that all four portraits were of the same person. In the case of the Gospel portraits, each evangelist writes to his own community, and the needs of that community and his unique response to the traditions about Jesus in part determine how he tells the story and where he puts the focus.
Mark's version of this story exhibits these tendencies. In today's Gospel he makes several comments on the story that are contained in parentheses.
"3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)"
"11'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)—"
"19 (Thus he declared all foods clean.) "
All three comments by Mark seem to be explaining Jewish customs for a nonJewish audience. He interjects his voice into the story to be certain that nonJewish readers understand the customs. It's like he's whispering in the ear of the reader, giving clues to the cultural and religious life of Jesus that his readers lacked otherwise.
Paul Ricoeur, a French philosopher who also was a Christian (Ricoeur died in 2005), speaks of the concept of distanciation. The author of a text like the Bible is not available to us; we are listening in on a conversation from another era and have no direct access to the writer or the readers. Admittedly, that creates problems for understanding, and many people who read the Bible feel their distance from the texts and their cultural context.+
Yet, today's reading, with those parenthetic comments from Mark, reminds me that the writers wrote with the concept of distanciation in mind. (Although they had not read Ricoeur.) They knew that readers would be "on their own" to understand. So, they built into their texts the hints, clues, and keys needed by the reader to understand. Our challenge is to trust that the text will open itself to us and that "all things necessary to salvation" will present themselves to a close and prayerful reading.
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it this way:
"In my last Letter I said that in the Bible, there is more that finds me than I have experienced in all other books put together; that the words of the Bible find me at greater depths of my being; and that whatever finds me brings with it an irresistible evidence of its having proceeded from the Holy Spirit."*
+Ricoeur wrote extensively about the process of interpretation; a large amount of that work related directly to the Bible. See for example his Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. [Fort Worth: Texas Christian UP, 1976)].
*[Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Reprinted from the third edition 1853 with the introduction by Joseph Henry Green and the note by Sara Coleridge. Edited with an introductory note by H. StJ. Hart (Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1967), p. 43.]
The Collect of the Day, Proper 12, the ninth Sunday after Pentecost
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary and Martha of Bethany.
Collect of the Feast of Mary and Martha of Bethany
O God, heavenly Father, your Son Jesus Christ enjoyed rest and refreshment in the home of Mary and Martha of Bethany: Give us the will to love you, open our hearts to hear you, and strengthen our hands to serve you in others for his sake; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
For Quiet Confidence
O God of peace, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 832)
A Prayer for Light
Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 124)
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