Summary: "Well, it's like you said--the good news is that we're all sinners, right?" My friend's active listening skills provided just the mirror I needed to realize that my own feeble witness to the Gospel had landed a bit askew. We had been talking about black and white race relations in America, a couple of young white clergy grabbing a quick dinner before heading to a local gathering called, "Doing our own work: white people working to end racism." Of course, we are all sinners, and I'll even allow that misery loves company, so I guess, morbidly, I'm glad that we're all in this thing together, but the ubiquity of sinfulness surely isn't the *good* news. Is it? Well, it is the news brought to us by Jesus in our Gospel reading this week. Here in this seventh chapter of Mark, Jesus' ongoing confrontation with the religious leaders is rekindled, and the Pharisees and some of the scribes from Jerusalem provoke Jesus' most assertive response to date. Without apology, Jesus tells the religious leaders that their hypocrisy is the fulfillment of age-old prophecy. Their worship is mere vanity. In fact, they have altogether turned from God's commandment and cling now, pathetically, to schemes of their own devising. Jesus' main frustration seems to be the religious leaders' lack of understanding or acceptance that the seat of the sin and evil in our world is the human heart. It is from within our own hearts that evil intentions come, and no amount of ritual cleansing can transform our hearts, nor trick anyone but ourselves into believing otherwise.
