We have rules in life, don't we? Lot's of the rules are really good ones that are pretty self-explanatory: stopping at Stop signs; driving on the proper side of the road; not playing loud music in neighbourhoods after a certain time of night. These sorts of rules make sense, but we have others that are so ingrained in our lives, so much part of our identity and our culture, that we no longer see them as rules, would have to think hard to even list them and even harder to be able to explain why we do things that way.
Jesus was faced, one day, by the "rule police" of his time over the fact that his disciples hadn't washed their hands before they ate. He pushes back on them and their fixation on the rules, on doing things the right way. He accuses them of following their rules (which they think came from God) rather than living in a way that would really please God.
I wonder how often we live in much the same way. Keeping ourselves inside some invisible, indefensible, boundaries because we think they are important to our identity as Christians while totally missing the point of what God would really have us do.
This Sunday, we'll wonder together about the importance of clean hands in our lives as disciples of Christ.
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