MARK 7:8-13

[R E LANGFORD JR]

Lenten Greetings!
Here is the next snippet of Chapter 7 in MARK.
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1revd:	*MSG* Well, joegabe, how about an opening prayer?
joegabe1:	*MSG* Dear Lord,
joegabe1:	*MSG* We do well to give you thanks
joegabe1:	*MSG* for all you do for us
joegabe1:	*MSG* please inspire our gracious teacher
joegabe1:	*MSG* and help all the people that has needs that
joegabe1:	*MSG* we have to pray for
joegabe1:	*MSG* luna in the hosp and zeke and kricket that need prayer
joegabe1:	*MSG* please help also pks dad who is ailing and is on oxygen
joegabe1:	*MSG* we ask this in the name of jesus your son
joegabe1:	*MSG* amen
1revd:	*MSG* Amen.
pk:	*MSG* amen
1revd:	*MSG* On 10 JNE 11, I did an "experimental" posting of the bible study. It was not posted in the typical way in the chatroom. BIBLE STUDY on MARK 7:8-13. A Happy Easter Season Greetings on this Friday in the last week of this 50 day period called the Pentecostarion! That was a year ago!
1revd:	*MSG* Joegabe would you post MARK 7:8-13?
joegabe1:	*MSG* Mark 7:8-13
joegabe1:	*MSG* New King James Version (NKJV)
joegabe1:	*MSG*
joegabe1:	*MSG* 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men[a] ???the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.???
joegabe1:	*MSG*
joegabe1:	*MSG* 9 He said to them, ???All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ???Honor your father and your mother???;[b] and, ???He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.???[c] 11 But you say, ???If a man says to his father or mother, ???Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban????????? (that is, a gift to God), 12
joegabe1:	*MSG* then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.???
1revd:	*MSG* We continue to agree that a "???" stands for a quote mark (")
1revd:	*MSG* yes?
joegabe1:	*MSG* yes
1revd:	*MSG* grand
1revd:	*MSG* In last week's snippet we noticed that Jesus restricts his answers. He sticks to scripture. His adversaries can hardly fault him for that. That is where they claim to begin.
1revd:	*MSG* Jesus, however, sticks to scripture in such a way that demonstrates he is speaking from a POV, from a world-view, in which God (his father in heaven) is breaking into an alien realm and becoming king here on earth, inside this world, as he is already king in heaven.
1revd:	*MSG* Transforming creation itself is part of this: Jesus goes about healing all sorts of broken people.
1revd:	*MSG* Transforming society is part of this: Jesus goes about re-establishing God's ideas about who and what is clean/ pure, and what or who is unclean/ filthy. A broken society/ culture is being healed!
1revd:	*MSG* Transforming people themselves is part of this; Jesus awakens hearts, opens "eyes," creates compassion and forgiveness by himself having compassion and by forgiving.
1revd:	*MSG* I've chosen to rehearse vv. 8 here, which we covered last week as a conclusion / verdict of Jesus on the prior cameo.
1revd:	*MSG* I chose this in part because different translations link it with the prior verse, and others with the following. Yet still others let it stand, almost independently, as the verdict of our savior in that circumstance wherein he was being questioned by "experts" from Jerusalem.
1revd:	*MSG* 8 "You have let go of God's commands. And you are holding on to the teachings that men have made up."
1revd:	*MSG* Jesus continues by specifying the contrast between the "teaching of the elders or traditions of men" and the "commands of God." God's commands are recorded in the bible, and are always understood to be "binding." OTOH, the "traditions of the elders" {see also vv.3} while not biblical, and therefore not authoritative nor binding, had been elevated to a position of prominence by many in the Jewish community of that day. Then Jesus gives a specific example.
1revd:	*MSG* MARK 7:10-12
1revd:	*MSG* 10 "Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother.'?(Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) He also said, 'If anyone calls down a curse on his father or mother, he will be put to death.' ?(Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9)
1revd:	*MSG* I put the bible references to what Jesus is quoting in parentheses. I hope that helps.
1revd:	*MSG* 11 But you allow people to say to their parents, 'Any help you might have received from us is CORBAN.' (CORBAN means 'a gift set apart for God.')
1revd:	*MSG* [ASIDE: Sometimes CORBAN is spelled with a "k" == KORBAN. ASIDE ENDS]
1revd:	*MSG* 12 So you no longer let them do anything for their parents."
1revd:	*MSG* Notice that Jesus does not tangle things up for simple-minded folk like myself. He doesn't bother to say that HE gave Moses the command. Or, if you prefer, Jesus does not bother to say YHWH spoke a word on this subject to Moses, a word / a command which Moses then handed along to all Israel. No! He jumps right to the "talking point" of his adversaries, who had come to put him on the spot in an examination, and says, "Moses said." That cuts the ground away from them, when the person they're accusing of unclean teaching of unclean disciples quotes their own authority, showing them that they've got it wrong.
1revd:	*MSG* Oh, yes, I forgot a point.
1revd:	*MSG* [ASIDE] CORBAN is a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "offering." [ASIDE ENDS]
1revd:	*MSG* hahaha
1revd:	*MSG* clumsy fingers
1revd:	*MSG* MARK 7:11 "But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is CORBAN (that is, devoted to God)?"
1revd:	*MSG* Here's the nub of the problem! At the time of Jesus, by using this word in a religious promise, an irresponsible son was permitted to dedicate, formally, to God, i.e. truly to the temple, his earnings (profits) that otherwise whould have rightly gone for the support of his elderly parents. This money, or goods in kind, such as new lambs, did not necessarily have to be spent for religious purposes.
1revd:	*MSG* From the perspective of Jesus it appears that the religious authorities were colluding in a scheme by adult children responsible for their elderly parents to defraud their parents of proper care and support. That's not the worst part, however. The whole enterprise hinges on purposefully misreading the word God spoke to Moses! If it were only a social injustice, perhaps Jesus would have called them on it. In fact, he renders a verdict on their religious practice, their spiritual life, because of how they accomplish their trickery.
1revd:	*MSG* Remember that in Jesus' day most folks did not live past childhood, a 30 year old was an adult in the prime of life, a 40 year old was elderly - and usually sick or infirm, and a 50 year old was what we call the "feeble elderly" today. . . . unless you were a Roman emperor or senator with access to the best medical care, or perhaps a Herodian king, like Antipas.
1revd:	*MSG* Caring for the sick and elderly is slowly becoming a problem in the USA, as more folks called the "baby boom" generation reach retirement age of 65 or 70.
1revd:	*MSG* We ought remember, it seems to me, that when the German Kaiser asked his chancellor at what age to promise that the state would provide a pension for elderly soldiers, Bismark gave an answer which has stuck with us since the 1870s.
1revd:	*MSG* He said, "Sixty-five, your Majesty." Bismark knew full well that in the Germany of the 1870s, most people died by the time they were 57 or 58!
1revd:	*MSG* I was blest to have worked for a congregation that allowed me to put in a full 40+ years since ordination. I was ready to retire @ 65, mainly because that's what m'dad did, but they asked me to continue until I was older.
1revd:	*MSG* Some folks could continue working today, based on the actuarial tables, until they are in their late 80s. Think of that! To be able to keep working, perhaps 20 hours a week, until you're in your 90s
1revd:	*MSG* wow!
1revd:	*MSG* Things have not changed, however. People are just as hard hearted as in Jesus' day. Thus we see the CORBAN formula was truly a bit of trickery for circumventing the clearly established duty of children to care for their feeble or needy parents, as prescribed in Moses' Law.
1revd:	*MSG* At that time the rabbis, and scribes of the temple, were holding that the CORBAN oath, even uttered foolishly or rashly, was binding. This is just one of several practices wherein the letter of the law was upheld while the intent of the law was flouted.
1revd:	*MSG* I keep trying to think of some contemporary practice based on a human promise that is like the CORBAN arrangement 2000 years ago.
1revd:	*MSG* Any ideas?
joegabe1:	*MSG* no
1revd:	*MSG* me neither
1revd:	*MSG* Flouting the law by keeping to the letter of the law, while ignoring the intent, ought not surprise us. No indeed! This ought not surprise us. Do we not become indignant when people shirk their responsibilities today by 'finding,' or more honestly 'creating' loop-holes in man-written laws such as try to govern our society equitably?
1revd:	*MSG* Who can fail to be amused by a recent US Supreme Court decision about corporations' and their protected freedom of speech? Now the decision assures huge corporations the right to spend amazing sums of cash on promotion of this or that candidate for some political office, something some humans thought they had prevented. That prevention was dissolved by the court's decision. Now, it's shown to be just as unpopular when the shoe is on the other foot.
1revd:	*MSG* One wag put it this way, "I'll believe corporations have the same rights and freedom of speech as living people when Texas executes one of them." I put it to you that our man made laws and traditions of our elders are no better than were the same invented customs in Jesus' day!
1revd:	*MSG* It will be amusing to discover which way our US Supreme Court jumps on this affordable health care law. It will be even more amusing to watch and listen to how our presidential candidates fuss over the result. How wonderful to have a Savior who asks us to focus our attention, not on man-made laws, on God's Word to us in Jesus!
1revd:	*MSG* It may be worth noting that Mark, as he tells this tale, explains what CORBAN means. This implies, at least to me, that he may be addressing an audience with plenty of Gentiles, perhaps mainly Romans. If this implication is on sound grounds, then it means Mark's audiences at the very least were quite a mixed bag, and not mainly Jewish (knowing Hebrew). I trust that does not surprise anyone who has been following this bible study wherein we strive to hear things in the tale the way a first century listener would have heard the story.
1revd:	*MSG* MARK 7:12-13 (again another verdict) 12 "then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
1revd:	*MSG* It's important not to let ourselves be tricked into thinking Jesus is collapsing Jewish Law into a private kind of piety. We cannot conclude from these words that Jesus is REALLY teaching a spurious "religion of the heart." Such a religion would have nothing to do with public life, how people treated each other, or even how we would treat our nearest relatives.
1revd:	*MSG* No! This is no "religion of the heart" no private religious matter intended to be kept hidden and private, at home or in the church or synagogue. No! This is an incredibly powerful conclusion!
1revd:	*MSG* This is an indictment of a whole tradition: rabbis, scribes, Pharisees (all of whom cared deeply - at least publicly - for the Law of Moses). I put it to you that it's worth several moments to ponder why Jesus, who I claim was the one to give the Law to Moses, ought care so much as to confront these "experts" from Jerusalem.
1revd:	*MSG* Last time I touched on my suspicion that Jesus may have thought of himself as belonging to the Pharisaic party - - in so far as they were the only group that attempted to promote adherence to the law. It's clear to me that Jesus cares deeply for getting the word of God to Moses straight, and to make human practice mesh with that standard.
1revd:	*MSG* I betcha Jesus was no more popular with the people he publicly showed up to be tricksters and conniving, treacherous folk who made such trickery possible, as is the court (the "Supremes") or any "whistle blower" who calls attention to wrong-doing, or inequitable provisions in human laws.
1revd:	*MSG* That was where this effort ended on 10 JNE 2011, so it's a good place to end today. I wrote that I looked forward to reading joegabe's, cookieart's, and any other comments on this experimental effort to present a rather attenuated "bible study." It differs considerably from the somewhat longer ones presented in the chatroom! Please, do let me know what you think. TY TY!
pk:	*MSG* rev that was good
1revd:	*MSG* Today, we're ending just about on time, what with a few additions.
1revd:	*MSG* ty pk
1revd:	*MSG* joegabe, would you lead us in prayer?
joegabe1:	*PART* Left room.
1revd:	*MSG* oh my
joegabe1:	*JOIN* Entered room.
coffeebot:	*MSG* joegabe1 Welcome to The Coffee Shop, we are glad you could come.
coffeebot:	*MSG* 4Administrator: joegabe1. Type !x to view coffeebot's Control Panel.
joegabe1:	*MSG* Dear God
joegabe1:	*MSG* As we go through the week until next weeks study
joegabe1:	*MSG* let us rejoice that we have our life and our health
joegabe1:	*MSG* let us pray for all those that are ailing and also do your work lord
joegabe1:	*MSG* we ask this in jesus holy name
joegabe1:	*MSG* amen
1revd:	*MSG* Amen.

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Hopefully all of you will have a blest and holy week,
upcoming, and will experience much joy on Palm
Sunday soon to arrive on April Fool's Day. The next
bible study session on line in Talk City will actually
happen on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, @ 1:30
P.M. (edt), 5 APR 2012. It happens that I have
another commitment on Good Friday and so cannot
be present that day.
                                   
The Rev'd R E LANGFORD JR, FAPC, ELCA pastor  ! retired !
       39.58°N by 75.98°W

My clarity of conscience and my purity of heart are undisputed

evidence that my memory is failing me.        

`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸..·´¯`·...¸ ><(((((º> `·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><((º> `·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.· ><((º>