"DETAILS, DETAILS!"

My mother has three sisters. Now, I'm from the south, and in our family we don't call' em "aunt so-n-so." We call'em "Auntie." There's my Auntie RUTH, who believes that the way to be sexy is to never - EVER - cut your hair. The last time I saw her was in 1994 at a family reunion. Her hair was down to her backside then. By now it's probably down to the floor!

There's my Auntie MIM - short for MIRIAM - She believes that when you must give a gift, it MUST be the PERFECT gift. She also believes that you should shop for that perfect gift ALL DAY if necessary!

Then, there's my Auntie MARILYN. She follows a couple of weird rules. The second rule I'II tell you later. The FIRST one is the RULE OF THE SANDWICH.

When we ate lunch at their house, we were never - EVER - allowed to take the first bite of a sandwich out of the middle. The first bite always had to be at one of the corners.

LIKE THAT WAS REALLY GONNA MAKE IT TASTE BETTER OR BE MORE NUTRITIOUS THAN IT ALREADY WAS.

These kinds of rules are what the Pharisees and scribes were passionate aabout. The Pharisees were people with status and power who enforced the Law. They were as passionate as Jesus about honoring and worshiping God, but the ways they went about that were way off track.

The Pharisees opposed Jesus every chance they got. Earlier in Mark's gospel they equated Jesus' power with the power of Satan. Also, Mark's gospel tells us that they plotted several times to kill Jesus. They opposed Jesus because they perceived Jesus as a threat to their status and power, and a threat to the very thing they held most dear--the Law, which was based on their traditions.

But the Pharisees weren't the bad guys. Remember--they were just as passionate as Jesus about goodness and service to God, BUT THERE WAS A DIFFERENCE: They were trapped in their own tradition. The tradition that was handed down to them was a tradition that manipulated the Law to torture and kill Jewish citizens.

The book of 4 Maccabees tells the story of a widow and her seven sons who REFUSED THE ROMAN EMPEROR'S ORDER to eat the flesh of a pig. THE EMPEROR MANIPULATED THE LAW SO THAT any Israelite who made themselves unclean by eating it would be killed!! One of the sons had his tongue cut out and the ends of his arms and legs cut off. ONE WAS BEATEN TO DEATH. AND, as if that wasn't punishment enough, after all that ANOTHER SON WAS roasted alive!!! TORTURE AND DEATH BECAUSE THE EMPEROR MANIPULATED THE LAW. THIS WAS THE TRADITION WHICH THE PHARISEES INHERITED.

For the Pharisees, goodness and service to God was found in obeying a list of HUNDREDS of rules and regulations. Rules and regulations about what was clean and what wasn't, and rules and regulations about how to make things clean. TO OBSERVE THESE RULES WAS PLEASING TO GOD; TO BREAK THESE RULES WAS A SIN.

THIS IS WHAT JESUS WAS UP AGAINST.

Listen to these EXAMPLES of the rules they had to obey: HANDWASHING was not done for the sake of hygiene. It was done for purely ritualistic purposes. There were rules about... How much water to use, How the fingers and hands were to be held, And how far the water had to run down the wrist in order to be considered clean.

A HOLLOW POTTERY VESSEL could contract uncleanness on the inside, but not on the outside. IF IT BECAME UNCLEAN, it must be broken. But it couldn't be broken just ANY ol' way. The vessel had to be broken into pieces so small that they couldn't contain even an amount of oil that was small enough to anoint somebody's little toe! HOW'S THAT FOR A RULE TO LIVE BY?

WOOD used in METAL utensils could be unclean. BUT METAL used in WOOD utensils could not. This frying pan is metal and wood. CLEAN OR UNCLEAN? WHAT ABOUT THE THINGS YOU USE?. Clean or unclean?

Here we have the Scribes and the Pharisees who accuse Jesus of blasphemy and who have sought ways to kill him and to get him out of their way. Remember that they saw Jesus as a complete threat to their power and tradition.

And now we have JESUS. Jesus stood up and responded to them in a way that made their laws obsolete. Jesus stood up and responded to them in a way that freed the Jewish citizens from centuries of torture and death.

The writer of Mark's gospel was very skilled at Illustrating the tension between lesus and the Pharisees.

It's like CHEMISTRY. Did any of you take chemistry in high school or college?

PICTURE IT....You're in a room where the slick, black countertops are covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners, test tube holders, and glass jars filled with all sorts of chemicals and liquids. In basic, elementary chemistry we learned how to mix safe chemicals-Chemicals like sodium and water.

When you mix these kinds of safe chemicals, you don't get much of a reaction at all. They just mix together to make salt-water. But then we learned to mix dangerous chemicals-Chemicals like ammonia and chlorine. Chemicals like acid and sulfur. When you mix THESE kinds of chemicals, the reaction you get is... BOOM!!! THAT'S THE WAY Jesus and the Pharisees mixed with each other. Each one was passionate. Each one was powerful. Each one was dangerous to the other. BUT...when they came up against each other, it wasn't like mixing sodium and water. It was more like mixing ammonia and chlorine. WHEN THEY CAME UP AGAINST EACH OTHER...BOOM !!

Jesus caused a reaction when he declared that all the handwashing in the world doesn't make the Pharisees -good people.

Jesus caused a reaction when he declared that what we do ritually doesn't make the Pharisees-or us- good people. Jesus caused a reaction when he declared that what makes the Pharisees-good people and us-isn't where we take the first bite of a sandwich, or whether we have to shop all day for the perfect gift, or how we dispose of broken vessels, or what our utensils are made of.

WHAT DETERMINES OUR GOODNESS IS WHAT COMES FROM OUR HEART. My Auntie Marilyn had another rule that she enforced with GREAT zeal. When we took communion we were never - EVER - to bite or chew the communion bread. Biting or chewing the communion bread was a sure path straight to hell, she told us. And if she even THOUGHT we were about to chew the communion bread she'd give us one of "those" looks--You know, the look that says, "HOW DARE YOU! You are in SO much TROUBLE NOW."

The PHARISEES and my Auntie Marilyn had ONE SET of rules. JESUS had ANOTHER. The DIFFERENCE between them is this: The rules that the PHARISEES and my aunts followed come from human minds and human mouths. The rules that JESUS taught didn't come from human minds or TORTUROUS HUMAN TRADITIONS. The rules that Jesus taught came from the heart of God. The rules that Jesus taught came from God's love for us. THE RULES THAT COUNT ARE THE ONES THAT COME FROM THE HHEART OF GOD.

THE RULES THAT COUNT ARE THE ONES THAT COME FROM GOD'S LOVE FOR US. Rules like...We must love God with all our heart, all our mind and all our strength. Rules like...Love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Rules like...It's what comes from our hearts that determines our goodness.

For guidance for their lives, the Pharisees didn't listen to God. Instead, they listened to clever legal arguments made by so-called experts.

Who will you and I listen to for guidance in our lives? Will you and I listen to the aunt who tells us that we'll go to hell if we bite the communion bread? Or will we listen to the voice of God?

Where will our goodness come from? Will it come from a long list of ritualistic rules that we're shamed into following? Or will it come from within our hearts?

Our goodness and our faith should never - EVER - Be based on cleverness or so-called experts. Our goodness and our faith should always - ALWAYS - Be based on simply listening to and responding to the voice of God. AMEN.

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