Donuts and Dogma

So this morning I met with a couple of buddies over coffee and donuts just to hang out and invest in one another's lives and talk about the things of God. After the obligatory discussion on Apple products and other technology we began talking about Matthew 15:8-9. 

According to Matthew, Jesus had recently walked on the water shortly after feeding 5,000+ people and they were hanging out healing sick people in a town called Gennesaret, when along come some Pharisees and scribes (read, "heavy duty religious leaders") from Jerusalem (Jerusalem is over 100 miles south of Gennesaret). Well, the Pharisees have a real problem with the way Jesus' disciples are doing something and they really wanna bring them down, so they ask Jesus this deep, probing question: "Why do your buddies break our traditions by not washing their hands before they eat?" Jesus is dumbfounded and flummoxed by their clever line of questioning. But He gathers Himself and responds by giving one example of how hypocritical they are because they use their beloved traditions to break the Word of God. Then He quotes Isaiah's prophecy regarding them in verses 8-9:

"These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”

My friends pointed out that Jesus was condemning them for their legalism, for their vain religious activity and they noted that we, in the context of our own church lives, have a tendancy toward legalism and vain religious activity too. Well, this concerns me. 

What are the vain religious activities that we engage in? Or even more dangerous, what vain religious beliefs do we hold?

We talked about church history and how the errant views of a few in the past on matters that seem kinda minor resulted in the shackling of millions of people to certain false dogmas for centuries, binding people to beliefs, traditions, and fears that are unnecessary and damaging, and create false views of who God is.

Between bites of my French Cruller I realize that this is a very frightening thing to think about, because I wonder... We often feel like we've got it pretty much right; that we sorta have it figured out better than some of those guys in the past. But I wonder, do we hold any errant views today that maybe seem like no big deal, but that might result in shackling many to false dogmas in the generations to come? Are there religious ideas and views that we hold precious to us that could serve to bind people to beliefs and traditions that are unnecessary and damaging, creating false views of who God is?

I contend that we do... and I'll write more on that next time...

Psalm 141

Sometimes reading the Psalms is no fun. Sometimes they feel like convicting reminders of our own sin - pricking the heart a little. Psalm 141 is kinda like that. 

Oh, don't get me wrong, the first couple of verses are really nice, 

"Lord, I call on You; hurry to help me. Listen to my voice when I call on You. 2 May my prayer be set before You as incense, the raising of my hands as the evening offering." (http://msb.to/Ps141:1) 

I love the idea of God hurrying to help me, listening intently to little ol' me with my little ol' problems. I love the concept of our prayers being as incense - a pleasing aroma in the throne room of God. This is comforting, this helps, this is what I want God to look like, this is the kind of scripture passage I can really get into. I can witness to my friends with this kind of passage: "Hey buddy, Jesus loves you - and look, see here in Psalm 141, God's gonna come running to your rescue ANY TIME YOU WANT!" So
convenient, this God. Isn't this how we witness to our friends these days?

But then, "Lord, set up a guard for my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. 4 Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts with men who commit sin. Do not let me feast on their delicacies. 5 Let the righteous one strike me— it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me— it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. Even now my prayer is against the evil acts of the wicked." (http://msb.to/Ps141:3)

Oh, how often I "feast on their delicacies!" How often do I let the words and deeds of men influence my own speech and actions.  How easily I am swayed to enter into behavior that is decidedly not God-honoring in response to my environment. How often to I sit at the banquet of iniquity and dive in.

You know what I'm doing when I do that? 

Yep.

How do we stop doing this?



Are you ready? It can be a bit painful...











 



 .






David said it like this in Psalm 141, "Let the righteous one strike me— it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me— it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it... my eyes look to You, Lord God. I seek refuge in You; do not let me die." (http://msb.to/Ps141:5)

Will you ask God to strike you? To rebuke you? The wise one sees it for what it is: healing.

God, convict me of my failings. Teach me to love what you love and hate what you hate. Give me the courage to deny myself and not partake of the banquet of the world. 

The Work of Our Hands

This morning, as I was filling out information on a resource's website, I was prompted to pick a "title" from a drop down list. Clicking the button I expected to see the standard, "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms.", etc., but was instead greeted by a long list of professions. As I scrolled through the alphabetical list, my cursor stopped on "pastor." A simple word, really. It comes from the Hebrew word meaning to shepherd. Not exactly a prestigious title. But when my cursor landed there I couldn't help but to become more than a little emotional. See, God pricked my heart for pastoral ministry over a decade ago when Rick Ferguson encouraged our congregation to "get out of the boat" one Sunday evening, and I've been working toward that end since that night. Last night my beloved church body ratified by vote that calling from so many years before when they voted to call me as their Pastor to Students. Author Morris Kline wrote, "The most fertile source of insight is hindsight." Looking through the lens of memory it is clear that God has been orchestrating events such that at this time I would be prepared to step into His calling, just as He is using the current events of my life to orchestrate how He will use me and my family in the future.

An hour later, during quiet time with God I read these words in a prayer of Moses, "Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God." http://msb.to/Ps90:1 And a few verses later Moses finishes his prayer with, "Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands-- establish the work of our hands!" http://msb.to/Ps90:17

God doesn't need us to fulfill His purposes, He's been at work since before time began. But He chooses to use us, He chooses to "establish the work of our hands," and for that, I'm grateful.

God grant your favor on this, your servant. Grant wisdom. Grant faith. Grant humility. Grant peace. And grant a holy fervor to see your Kingdom purposes accomplished in my little circle of influence.