I want to talk about sports today. More specifically I want to talk about golf today. Actually, I want to talk about Tiger Woods today. What game is he playing?

I know you will think it odd but when I was reading the passage for today the thing that kept coming into my mind was Tiger. It wasn’t just that I was longing to go play a round of golf. Jesus is actually talking about Tiger in this passage.

I will tell you why I think so. A few years ago I was watching a tournament that Tiger was playing. It was not one of the big tournaments but Jack Nicklaus was on the television commenting on Tiger’s game. Tiger teed off on a par three. It happened to be on a course that Jack had designed. Tiger’s tee shot flew over the green and landed on a bank just beyond the green which would not have been so bad except for the fact that the grass on that bank was very thick, so thick that you couldn’t see his ball, even when they did a close up. Worse than that was that he had a downhill lie onto a green that was sloping away from him down into a pond. So if you know anything about golf you know that he was in deep do-do. Jack even said that the hole was designed so that you would be severely punished if you hit the ball over the green. That is exactly where Tiger hit it.

And he was in trouble. If he hits it too hard it will roll down into the pond. If he hits it too softly he doesn’t get out of the deep grass and is faced with the same problem. And the truth is that when you are in grass like that it is impossible to know just how it will effect your shot, even if you are Tiger Woods. There are too many variables to be sure of what will happen.

Tiger being Tiger I thought he could make the shot. Jack wasn’t so sure. He knew the difficulty involved and he said so. “Tiger is really looking at bogey or worse right here, even if he can stop the ball on the green there is no way to stop it near the hole because of the tilt of the green. He will be looking at a very difficult long come back putt to save par.” So Tiger stood over the ball took his confident Tiger swing and dumped it hardly a foot below where he was standing. Still in the grass, still in trouble. Jack says, “He might be looking at double bogey now, that is if he can keep it out of the pond.”

Tiger walked up to the next shot took a few practice swings, then looked at it intensely, took his confident Tiger swing and the ball popped up out of the grass and onto the green and into the hole for par. That is the first time I wondered out loud about what game he was playing.

Jack was astounded. Finally he said, “There is only one thing that you need for that shot, guts.”

Golf is funny. It demands repetition. You have to swing consistently; over and over and over, the same swing. And yet no two shots are alike and some situations demand real creativity and vision. And all of it demands a supreme confidence that you can make the shot just the way you want. Tiger can do this. It is true that he works very hard. He repeats and practices all of his shots probably as much or more as anyone. But when something comes up like a down hill, out of the rough, delicate, flop shot there is no amount of practice that can give you what you need. You have to make it up and believe in it right there.

Tiger made it up, envisioned it, and flubbed it on national television. Then he had to try it again. How do you believe it can be done when you know how hard it is, and you just failed? Whatever Tiger did I believe it is the very mystery that Jesus is talking about in today’s passage. Hard to describe, but an essential ingredient of life.

Jesus is having an argument. It is an age-old argument. The kind that Rabbis have had forever. It is almost tradition in Jewish life that Rabbis rarely agree but that the arguments bring everyone closer to the truth. In this discussion Jesus is defending the fact that his disciples were not as observant as some other religious leaders thought they should be.

Those arguing with Jesus ask, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled.” (Mark 7:5) You can almost see Jesus’ motley crew. Maybe they did not grow up religious. Maybe they had been told by Jesus not to worry about it. Maybe this story reflects a much later time when more and more Christians were not Jews and no longer held to many of the old Jewish traditions. Whichever, Jesus, in the story counters with “You leave the commandment of God and hold fast the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:8)

Now please be aware that this is a debatable point. It isn’t enough to look at this passage and see it as permission to dismiss the traditions and laws of the Jewish people. That actually would be silly because we have for the most part adopted those laws and they are built into our present legal system in a multitude of ways and they are a living part of our Christian tradition. The words of Jesus are a little more complex than we might assume at first glance.

Jesus does not reject the tradition. Jesus is not against Jewish law. Rather, as he says elsewhere, he came to fulfill the law and the prophets. So even though Jesus many times sounds like he his rejecting laws and condemning those who follow them it is seldom that simple.

There is not much evidence in the Gospels that Jesus envisioned a new religion. There is very little evidence in scripture that Jesus envisioned a new religion that would be so grossly separated from Judaism. But it does seem clear that Jesus did want his religion to move closer to the will of God as Jesus envisioned it. He wanted Judaism to fulfill its potential and his words for today are wonderful examples of how Jesus thought that might happen.

The tradition, the laws provide a framework for true faith to live. But Jesus understands that you can have an empty framework that does not produce faith. Just because a person keeps the tradition does not mean that they are necessarily being faithful. For Jesus it is most important that the tradition inspire faithful activity.

“There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.” (Mark 7:15)

Jesus is making a most important observance about the mystery of faith. He is telling those around him and us through scripture that you can judge the quality of one’s faith by the outcome. What does it accomplish? If a person is observant and yet commits adultery, or theft, or is envious, or any evil thing then there is something wrong.

This is actually a very radical idea. Jesus is saying that it is wise to look at the outcome of one’s faith and then work backward. In other words religion does not define faithful behavior (it might inform it but it does not define it) as much as faithful behavior defines true religion.

To believe otherwise is to believe that your religion can justify all kinds of heinous behavior. And in the history of religion in this world there is a litany, a scandal sheet list of crimes committed in the name of religion, in the name of God. That can only happen if you let a tradition define faithful behavior. (Not inform it, define it) Jesus says it is the other way around. Right behavior defines true religion.

I know what you are wondering. What happened to Tiger? Tiger is a great example of what Jesus is trying to get across. Tiger has the ability to take all his practice, all his learning, all his experience, and fashion it into what is needed in the moment. Even though it may be an entirely unique situation. That is what Jesus would have us do. Tiger creates the right action in response to what is truly needed. That is what Jesus would have these argumentative Rabbis do with their tradition. But if tradition just gives us some rote answer in a world that is needing far more then it is not giving us what God gives us.

For example, there may be very little in our Bible about the acceptance of gay and lesbian people. But if all we can read there and understand there is some kind of unwavering prohibition against such people we are letting a moral code some three thousand years old dictate behavior and maintain a kind of bigotry that is actually opposed to the will of God, today. But, if we as religious people who understand that love is key and acceptance essential, can extend our care and embrace to such people because that is what is needed and so redefine our tradition to include Gay and Lesbian people, then we have understood the call of Jesus Christ and created that which is needed for this moment and so have done the will of God.

Isn’t that what Martin Luther King Jr. did when he attacked the tradition of segregation that was justified in this country with a particular reading of scripture? A tradition must grow and forever be recreated in order for it to remain relevant. It is essential to know scripture and but it is more is essential to have a creative insight as to how to interpret these words so that they address the will of God to now. It really can be no other way if we are going to practice our faith and more importantly, live our faith unto our living God. In Christ Jesus. Amen.