The choir returns next week, so this is our last week coming to the 8:30 a.m. Mass.

Good German tunes for singing today. The processional hymn is The Master Came to Bring Good News, to the tune Ich Glaub an Gott, German for I believe in God. The recessional hymn is How Shall They Hear the Word of God, to the tune Auch Jetzt Macht Gott, German for Also now makes God or Still God Makes. Whatever that means.

The first reading is from Deuteronomy, Moses addressing the people, telling them to observe faithfully and exactly the laws he has given them. One line, [Y]ou shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it, brings to mind the Gettysburg Address, where President Lincoln says that the brave men who fought there had consecrated the ground far above our poor powers to add or detract.

(The second reading from St. James has something of a similar notion as well, when he says about God, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.)

But it’s that admonition from Moses that to me colors, and in doing so confuses me about, the Gospel reading from St. Mark. The Pharisees ask Jesus why some of his disciples do not wash their hands before a meal. The narrative explains that this practice is something that all Jews do, as a way of keeping the traditions of the elders.

But it’s more than just a tradition, isn’t it? It’s a direct mitzvah from the Torah, and Moses specifically says that no one is to add or subtract from that. But then Jesus answers the Pharisees in such a way as to emphasize the spirit of the law rather than the letter.