Breaking with Tradition

 

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.  They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition?  For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”  Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?  For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you.  For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’  In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.  And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”  Matthew 15:1-9

In the Gospel records Jesus responded to people consistently, no matter who asked the question.  Or, more accurately, Jesus responded specifically, depending upon how questions were asked.  In this case, the lawyers were interrogating with a loaded question, intended to put Jesus in His place.  It worked; as Jesus answered, it was obvious he owned the high ground, and turned the question right back on the pompous attitude the Pharisees owned.

The side-lesson here is that you’d better get prayed-up, and humbled-down before you ask God a question.  If you go to Him demanding He defend what He’s doing, you’re in for a rough ride.  You’ll fare much better if you go, humbly, truly seeking answers for how to rightly understand something, or how you can honor God with what you don’t understand.

I’ve watched enough police dramas over the years to have picked up a few of Sherlock Holmes’ human nature maxims about criminals.  In an ongoing investigation by police many criminals cannot stand not knowing what their opposition knows, so they attempt to implant themselves into the process.  The Pharisees are a study in this concept.  They are as guilty as can be in having ignored God’s ways for so long they cannot see their own sin.  Still, they enter the arena with a question that opens the door for Jesus to expose the so-called wise leaders and teachers of the law who accuse Jesus of what they, themselves are doing.    Criminology -101 tells us the Pharisees are rattled by Jesus’ lack of convention, but they make a rookie mistake for Marxist wannabe’s, they attack Jesus’ motives without protecting their own flank.  

Jesus’ answer moves the debate quickly from a neglected handwashing tradition to neglecting aged parents, fueled by greed, and accomplished with lies.  Jesus turns the Pharisees’ game on its ear by upping-the-ante a hundred-fold.  And it put the Pharisees on the defensive; in the next several chapters of Matthew the debate goes badly for the elders and rulers, and the final plan of finding a way to silence Jesus permanently becomes the final nail in their ethical and spiritual coffins.  Ironically, it also becomes the key to how Jesus would offer God’s grace to all humanity – they choose a cross to silence a Savior!

For You Today

The question is easily begged in this event:

Which is more important, man’s preferences, or God’s Word?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Matthew 15 see:  Offended Pharisees and Parading Lies as Truth

 

A Little More Light - Part 3

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Friday, March 22, 2019

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  2 Timothy 3:16

Although a “quadrilateral” has four parts, today’s Part 3 finishes this series. 

In thinking about Experience (the assurance of salvation) and Reason (God’s gift to us mortals of being self-aware and drawing intelligent, ethical, and moral conclusions), the remaining two are Tradition (of the church, or doctrine) and Scripture, God’s Word.  For me, these last two are so intertwined I find it impossible to separate them.  The reasoning here is that God’s Word (not exclusively the 66 books we call the Bible), but literally, God’s Words to humanity throughout the course of time are that from which the doctrines of the church (traditions, if you will) were born.  Everything the church does, from worship, benevolence, proclaiming God’s love, mercy, peace, and righteousness, to baptizing and discipling, are extensions of Holy Writ.  We do that to which Scripture calls and empowers believers.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy is not only defining, concerning Scripture, it is also the chief example of how doctrine/tradition and Scripture are hand-in-glove tools of God’s Spirit, the light and power of God’s will here on earth.  Scripture tells us what is wrong and right, and compels us to the right, instead of the wrong.  Such is the nature of the Scripture’s impact, driving church tradition, the doctrines that guide, inform and, by the power of God’s Spirit, transform human life into new life.  This is the essence of church tradition (not traditional acts, such as observing a festival, or hanging hats in the foyer), but direction…moving towards the light.

By nature, I have always had an ambivalent, tenuous relationship with God’s Word.  There is this love affair with my Creator within me which aspires to be obedient to God…a hungering-after His righteousness and thirsting for His will to be fully in control of Russell.  And in the opposing corner lurks that human nature inherited from Adam…always willing to have a break from my responsibility to respond to the Director of this symphony called life.  When that lurking Adam-nature wins out I become a wanderer more than a Pilgrim.

Scripture and the Tradition of God’s people, from the time of Job’s troubles until this very day, are the evidence I can see of God’s pull on my soul towards Him.  It draws me to a scary life…a life walking without sight, but rather in faith.

It is this life that requires more light in the soul than on the physical path.  That light comes best when Scripture, Reason, Experience, and Tradition move in concert within me, assuring, encouraging, directing, and correcting my ways:

·      Experience, or the assurance of salvation is what rekindles the courage inside me to put one foot in front of the other and keep-on. 

·      Reason is God’s gift that helps me mindfully-reject dark enemies in favor of Godly joys.  This is my weapon in the hand against straying into the temptations that abound. 

·      Tradition, the way our faith family has lived in the experience of salvation and carried the sword of reason, is the well-beaten path, blazed by that great cloud of witnesses, the God-following community. 

·      Scripture is like the shepherd of God’s supreme authority of a love letter to whosoever will join Him on the great adventure of marching to Zion, journeying-on to that place of still water which restores my soul.

For You Today

It’s a dark world out there…and God has provided all the tools you need to keep moving towards the light and sharing that light with others along your way. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Parading Lies As Truth

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Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.  They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition?  For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”  Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?  For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you.  For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’  In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.  And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”  Matthew 15:1-9^(NLT)

The Pharisees were not above pushing the envelope where truth was involved, so long as their selfishness passed the test of the greater good.  But in this encounter with Jesus the arrogant, nit-picking Pharisees bit off a little more than they could chew.  They tried to take Jesus to task because the disciples skipped a ceremonial bit of handwashing tradition.  Jesus countered with his own question about why the Pharisees were in the habit of ignoring the needs of poor, aging parents.  The religious teachers were carping about physical cleanliness at the table; Jesus told them to wash their hearts!

The issue (of course) is taking our comfort zone of man-made traditions and placing them ahead of the spirit of God’s way and will.  The Pharisees were masters at this.  Jesus simply told them they were being hypocrites, claiming faithful stewardship of promised gifts to God, just so they could rationalize their own greed.  As Pharisees they were charged with teaching God’s ways; instead they were using religious-sounding traditions to promote their own wealth.  They dishonored their parents, and God did not take that lightly.

A member of the governing board of a church convinced the board to ask the pastor to resign.  They had become bored with the pastor’s sermons.  The pastor responded to the board at the next meeting that God had called him to this church, and he did not sense his work was yet finished, so he would not be resigning.  The board member quickly replied:  Well, God may have brought you here, but we’re getting shed of you! 

Some stuff that is said sounds good; not everything holds up on close examination.  Sometimes church leaders, pastors, board chairs, committees and members say things that may express what the majority of a group thinks, but that does not always mean they’ve found God’s will.  Sometimes they’ve only found a way to rationalize a decision that allows them to remain outside of God’s will, while still keeping the appearance that they’re spiritual.  The real motive, like the Pharisees, is to serve their own greed or control issues.  You can do that if you’re willing to parade lies as truth.  But there is a cost to doing it; the contention between the governing board and pastor of that church was 30 years ago, and the building in which that church met is still standing today, but it is used for a community center now.

For You Today

It’s a good thing to examine what we do because of our traditions; while we’re thinking about this it would be a good time to take a hard look at our motives and decide on which hills it is worthwhile to die. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

When the Pancakes are Gone

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

OK….so Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) is over, the pancakes were good, and now it’s Ash Wednesday…let the repentance begin?

That’s essentially the word on the street about the religious observance of ashes on the forehead.  In poor Job’s case (overly simplified) it was:

·        In one chapter Job loses everything:  family, wealth, reputation and health;

·        Next come 37 chapters of Job arguing with his friends and God about why he lost everything;

·        Then there are three chapters of God responding enough to help Job understand that God knows stuff and we are pretty ignorant;

·        And then a final chapter of Job acknowledging how little he really knows about why things happen and Job repenting (changing his attitude and actions) in dust and ashes.

The “dust and ashes” thing – do we really mean it? 

Mean what?

Do we really mean what has been a Christian tradition since the early days of the church?  That is, in the 47 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter morning, are we Really in a season of intense personal work (prayer, repentance, reflection) as a way of preparing to properly meet God on resurrection morning? 

Or were the traditional pancakes and Mardi Gras parties enough to help us endure the religious rituals? 

What is left when the pancakes are gone?  Is it just giving up McDonalds for Lent?

I have to confess at this point, I have been on all three sides of this.  Not being raised in a church tradition which makes much of Lent, my tendency was to ignore it.  But, I’ve also tried to experience Lent by some intense practice of self-denial and whatever brand of stepped-up devotional fervor seemed right.  And, sadly, there are times when I’ve just simply “limped” through the motions, nodding in the direction of my “duty” to observe Lent because it’s on the calendar.  

Ho Hum; pass the pancakes, please.

This year I’m inclined to let the past stay in the past.  Like God’s mercies – new every morning – I’m inclined to believe that (even) my cynicism about past failure can be a dim memory in this Lenten season of ashes.

Tonight I’m going to have a symbol of that repentance placed over my eyes.  Instead of washing it right off after the service, I think I’ll leave it on until I get home and look in the mirror. 

And there it will be – ashes, beautiful, scandalous, cautionary and full of promise.  As good as the pancakes were…the joy of anticipating Resurrection Day will be greater by far!

Today…for you

Make plans to worship with your faith community tonight.  Ashes are best viewed in community; it’s a good start.

Title Photo:  http://hannahscupboard.com/pics/job-surrender.jpg