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Lip service Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23  While I was on the faculty of Bethany College, one of my colleagues was Carl Hansen, professor of Philosophy and Religion. He was a respected scholar, and also an ordained Lutheran preacher. Once he preached at the Lindsborg United Methodist Church, and it is his opening sentence which has stayed with me for all these years. (See, it does happen, once in a while!) This is how Carl started out: “There are just too [#@%&] many hungry, poor people in the world!” (I chose to delete the expletive to protect the innocent among us.) There was somewhat of a gasp from the congregation, as I recall – which is of course what Carl had hoped for. He then continued with something like this: “Now I am sure there are some of us who are far more upset about the bad word I just used, than we are about the injustice of world hunger and poverty.” Wow! He hit us right between the ears, and challenged us to not shut him out because he had an important message to share with us. But it was hard not to get all focused upon the ‘bad word’, upon that which was ultimately trivial.  Don’t get me wrong here – I’m not advocating for the use of ‘bad language’, and neither was Carl.  What was being expressed was a righteous anger in response to the social injustice of world hunger and world poverty. Carl challenged us to not get sidetracked by  the details and in so doing lose sight of the evil he was addressing. In the passage from Mark, some of the folks gathered around Jesus get all bent out of shape because they witness the disciples eating with unwashed hands. Jesus replies rather sharply, as Jesus is apt to do at times. He challenges the critics – and thus he challenges us, you and me - to take a hard look at themselves, quoting Isaiah: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they are worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. (v.6;The Message) Lip service – isn’t that what we call that? Talking religion, playing the game of religiosity without having the desire or the fortitude to be and act in ways which are truly ‘religious’ –  focused upon God.  It’s hard to practice what we preach – trust me, I speak for myself. It’s hard to not get caught up in what are oft inconsequential, human details of our faith, and lose focus upon that which GOD asks of us. Jesus tells his disciples and us to concern ourselves with that which comes from the heart. Unwashed hands are trivial when people are hungry. Lip service is trivial, platitudes are trivial, when people so desperately need tangible evidence of God’s grace and love.  - Pastor Piet - September 3, 2006