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Today marks the beginning of a new season in our Wilderness Wanderings.\xa0 The focus of our church this Fall will be on Spiritual Disciplines.\xa0 And so in our devotions this Fall, we\u2019d like to take a simpler pace.\xa0 A little known fact is that the Christian Reformed Church participated in forming something called the \u201cRevised Common Lectionary,\u201d which provides a set of scripture readings for each day, including for Sunday worship.\xa0 The idea is that across the 3-year cycle of the lectionary, a full dose of the breadth of scripture can be engaged.\xa0 We likely won\u2019t continue this for 3 years, but at least for this Fall we\u2019ll suspend our commentary, and invite you to simply hear the Word.\xa0 We won\u2019t follow the lectionary strictly (as we won\u2019t be preaching from it on Sundays), but we\u2019ll offer at least one, and perhaps more text each day drawn from the scriptures flowing through the Lectionary on any given week.\xa0 If those who assembled the lectionary have done their work well, you\u2019ll hear interconnections between the different texts over the course of the week.\xa0 May God bless you as you hear his word.

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1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2\xa0and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3\xa0(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4\xa0When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

5\xa0So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, \u201cWhy don\u2019t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?\u201d

6\xa0He replied, \u201cIsaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

\u201c\u2018These people honor me with their lips,
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0but their hearts are far from me.
7\xa0They worship me in vain;
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0their teachings are merely human rules.\u2019

8\xa0You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.\u201d

9\xa0And he continued, \u201cYou have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10\xa0For Moses said, \u2018Honor your father and mother,\u2019 and, \u2018Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.\u201911\xa0But 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)\u2014 12\xa0then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13\xa0Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.\u201d

14\xa0Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, \u201cListen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15\xa0Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.\u201d [16]

17\xa0After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18\xa0\u201cAre you so dull?\u201d he asked. \u201cDon\u2019t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19\xa0For it doesn\u2019t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.\u201d (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

20\xa0He went on: \u201cWhat comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21\xa0For it is from within, out of a person\u2019s heart, that evil thoughts come\u2014sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22\xa0adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23\xa0All these evils come from inside and defile a person.\u201d

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This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

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As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:\xa0\xa0

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping,
That awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.
May Almighty God bless, preserve, and keep us, this day and forevermore.\xa0
Amen.