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New Utrecht Reformed Church
328 Years
1677-2005
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326 Years
1677-2003
Webmaster:
val11214@yahoo.com
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Order of
Service
31 August
2003
Proper 17
(17th
Sunday
after Pentecost)
Bible Study
Led by Bette
Johnson Sohm,
licensed preacher in the Methodist Church
and member of Faith United
Methodist Church, Staten Island.
Lectio
Divina (Holy Reading) - Scripture Imagination
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 NRSV
- Paraphrase
* Mark 7: 1-8,
14-15, 21-23
........A group of religious lawyers and
members of the Pharisee party had come from Jerusalem and were keeping
a close eye on Jesus and his followers. They noticed that some of his
disciples were eating their meals without first washing their hands in
the customary way. The Pharisees, like most Jewish people, observed
strict purification rituals before eating. There were numerous rules
spelling out the required ways of washing, not only for people’s hands,
but for the food and the cooking utensils as well. Careful observance
of these traditions was believed to protect people from defilement, and
the religious types wouldn’t have dreamed of taking any shortcuts. So,
when they saw what was going on, they spoke to Jesus and demanded an
explanation: “Why do your disciples spit in the face of our ancestors
by flouting the rules they passed down to us? Look they are eating with
defiled hands!”
Jesus said to them, “Isaiah
hit the nail on the head when he spoke
about you. He saw right through your hypocrisy when he wrote this:
‘These people mouth all
the right words,
........but their hearts aren’t in
it.
Their worship is just one big sham.
........They invent rules to suit
themselves
................and then teach
them as the word of God.’
At the end of the day, you lot
are more concerned about
your own rules and traditions than you are about what God actually
wants of people.”
Having said that, Jesus
turned and spoke to the crowd again, saying:
.....“Listen
up, and try to get this clear in your own minds. The things that really
pollute people are not the things they put into their mouths, but the
muck that spews out from within them.
.....If you are looking for the
cause of
evil, look inside yourselves. Evil intentions are conceived in the
human heart, every one of them: lechery, disregard for people’s rights,
murder, sexual betrayal, unbridled greed, callousness, deceit,
promiscuity, jealousy, vilification, conceit, senselessness. All these
things originate inside people. They don’t get in from outside. And
these are the things that really pollute your lives.”
©2003 Nathan
Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
Discussion
Questions
1. What was it like as a
Pharisee? Did anything surprise you?
2. How did it feel as one of
the "in-crowd?" What did you feel about
what the Pharisees were saying? What about Jesus' response?
3. How did you feel as Jesus
about the Pharisees? The disciples? What
about the crowd?
Hymns: "For the Beauty of the
Earth" F.
Pierpoint
"Create in Me a Clean Heart" based on Psalm 51 (Authorized
Version)
News
- July 2003
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