The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven. The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven.
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If you're new with us today, you may have noticed that we have several readings that we do together, and that happens each and every Sunday. And it's a good reminder for all of us that these are called, actually, lectionary readings, just kind of a fancy word, three year cycle of readings. The gospel will come from Matthew in year A, mark in year b, which is the year we're in now, and then Luke in year C, and then you have various Old Testament readings, acts readings, epistle readings, also psalm readings. Okay? So every time that we get together, we're gonna read from the Old Testament or acts, and then we're gonna read from a psalm, and we're also gonna hear a new testament reading and then a gospel reading.
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That's every Sunday. All right. And interestingly, that's every Sunday around the world, people are also doing this. So Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Lutherans, some of what we call more your high church churches and denominations, they use this as well as many, many different protestant groups. And so on any given Sunday, you could be worshiping in Los Angeles or in India.
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And it's the same readings for everybody, which is kind of neat as the church this huge, you know, two plus billion people somewhere, estimated 2.5 billion right now, 2.3 billion christians around the world that are meeting with these various readings. The church has given us these readings. And by the time you make, like, in other words, if you came all three years for every Sunday, 52 times three, whatever that is, I'll leave it to the. To the mathematicians. I can't do that in my head.
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If you were to make all of those, you would have read most of the Bible, like, out loud in church. Isn't that kind of cool? I think that's kind of cool. You know, like, we actually get most of the bulk of the Bible, the big stories, all of this, and some interesting stories, too, that we kind of skip over sometimes. And so if you would join with me, this is maybe one of those interesting stories here.
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Join with me as we stand for our gospel reading this morning, found here in the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter seven. I'm reading from the NRSV here. And our pew bibles, by the way, are esv. Just to note that, notice these words here.
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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 ask him, why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?
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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.
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And then we're dropping down here to 14 and 15, and then drop down again to 21 and 23. Then he called the crowd again and said to them, listen to me, all of you, and understand there's 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,