Discussions of Clean and Unclean

Discussions of Clean and Unclean
Matthew 15.1-9

All churches have jokes about the power of tradition. How many Anglicans (or Methodists, or Baptists, or Roman Catholics . . . or whatever you like) does it take to change a light bulb? Five, comes the answer: one to change the bulb, and four to talk about how good the old bulb was.

The story is told of an archbishop visiting a local church and meeting a man who had been going there for 50 years. ‘You must have seen many changes in that time,’ said the archbishop. ‘Yes,’ replied the man, ‘and I opposed them all.’ The danger of this approach is highlighted by what some have seen as ‘the seven last words of the church’, parallel to the ‘seven last words’ of Jesus on the cross. The ‘seven last words’, it is suggested, might be these: ‘We never did it this way before.’...

Taken from Matthew for Everyone – by Tom Wright