The Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), September 2, 2018 - Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 and Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553)

Jesus and the Adulteress

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

One Word

One word jumps out at me here: some.

It doesn't say all. 

It doesn't say Jesus.

It says some of the disciples. 

So this was a classic example:

Find something wrong in a group.

And with broad strokes

Rile the crowd to think, all.

Think, immigrants. 

Think, blacks.

Think, homosexuals.

Some powerful people are good at name-calling.

But Jesus, 

And those who follow him,

Call them out.

One little word shall fell them.

Scott L. Barton

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and 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.) So 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?” He 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;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

+  +  +

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 (Two poems)

Arise, My Love, My Fair One

He leaps, he does not walk, to her;

He comes not by road, but as the crow flies;

He cannot wait, and she smiles to see.

She sees him arrive. She shares her joy.

"Look," she tells a friend. Or us.

Waiting, looking, catching a glimpse of her,

Enjoying her even when he doesn't have her.

Finally, he invites, "Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away." She is the answer

to the winter of his discontent.

He feels, he sees, he hears, he tastes, he smells -

Everything, all his senses, announce her to him.

And like the invitation of God, he repeats:

"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."

Scott L. Barton

The voice of my beloved! 

Look, he comes, 

leaping upon the mountains, 

bounding over the hills. 

My beloved is like a gazelle 

or a young stag. 

Look, there he stands 

behind our wall, 

gazing in at the windows, 

looking through the lattice. 

My beloved speaks and says to me: 

“Arise, my love, my fair one, 

and come away; 

for now the winter is past, 

the rain is over and gone. 

The flowers appear on the earth; 

the time of singing has come, 

and the voice of the turtledove 

is heard in our land. 

The fig tree puts forth its figs, 

and the vines are in blossom; 

they give forth fragrance. 

Arise, my love, my fair one, 

and come away.

The following poem by Thomas John Carlisle (1913-1992), which inspired a line in the poem above, deserves to be more known.  In addition, Arthur Frackenpohl (b. 1924), now of Pittsford, New York wrote an anthem using this poem that you can obtain from Shawnee Press. 

Hear it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CunB3JERZs8
(See also the book of Ruth)

Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One

(Boaz' Song to Ruth)

Rise up, my love, my fair one. Come away.

The winter of my witlessness is past.

My concentration on the harvest may

have made me heedless but I see at last.

The mist that filmed my mind is over, gone.

The fairest of flowers appears and it is you.

The singing in my heart has me undone

and I am glad and now know what to do.

The figs have ripened. Vines are in full bloom.

Their fruit and fragrance are as naught to all

your luxury which floods away my gloom

and makes me more than eager for your call.

Arise, my love, my fair one. Come away.

This day of days shall be our wedding day.

Thomas John Carlisle

Eve and After: Old Testament Women in Portrait (Eerdmans, 1984)