Under the Yoke of the Unlawful - a message about being put in a "box"

Twenty-five years ago my first sibling, my sister, had her wedding. I remember the day as being very hot and for a youth not used to wearing a dress coat on a hot day, it was miserable! The wedding was not held in our church...why? because they couldn't play instrumental music in our church building.

For some of you reading this, that reason may not be understandable. However, our family attended a Church of Christ, which is traditionally acappella (no instrumental accompaniment). Of course, this tradition is during our worship service, but some felt it carried over to practically any day of the week, including a wedding. So, my sister had to find another place to hold their wedding.

This tradition was held so tightly that it put our family in a box, for the sake of the wedding. We did, at a Baptist church in town. Have I mentioned it was hot that day?

As Jesus mentioned about the yoke of man's rules and traditions being heavy and His being light, in Matthew 12:1-8 we see one of the places Jesus uses an example to defend the heavy versus light yoke. As the Pharisees are pointing fingers at the disciples of Jesus, they expand the thought of being put in a box regarding the Sabbath. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week...

• Pointing Fingers ~ It is easy, whether it is in society or the religious world, to look at someone and define them based on yourself. Bullying, as defined today, begins this way. Whether it is about a person's clothing or sexuality, people will treat them a certain way based on where they stand on something. The old adage says that when we point a finger, we have three pointing back to us. As we point, we forget about our faults. May we be thankful for grace that has the potential to excuse our faults as well as others!
• Keep it Simple ~ When the disciples, in the text, were rubbing their hands together, some called it harvesting. For our modern "combine harvesting" days, that would especially seem ludicrous. However, what if the scene was a combine was cutting to take a row (or less) to give the family some food. Would we then see it as work? Maybe keeping our definitions simple would help. Let's not stretch them out to make them something just to point a finger or place judgments. Compare apples to apples...not Johnny apples to Granny Smith apples!
• Become Familiar ~ One way to have a more accurate definition of saying if someone is wrong in a matter is to be very familiar with the subject. Too often people who judge Christians are not familiar enough with the Bible. They may think they are, but have chosen to "pick and choose" to defend themselves. "Proof texts" rarely provide the necessary proof, so we need to be aware of using them in our defenses.

Life can be challenging when we are not able to use our talents in accomplishing tasks. That may be in the workplace or in our religious beliefs. There are areas which we have freedoms but are put in a box. Becoming freed from that "box" will allow us to better serve our God through our passions and talents. Plus, we will be excited to serve! Know your parameters, but serve Him with vitality!

Now it's your turn...when have you been placed in a "box?" Also, what was the source for which you were involved?

Trying To Fit a Square Peg in a Round Hole

There have been a few times in my life that I was working on a project and something started to go wrong. It could have been a screw head was starting to strip to left over parts to pieces not fitting properly. The project may cosmetically look correct, even be structurally sound, but not ideally be put together.

When constructing those projects, frustration followed because of the lack of fluidity in the construction process. Sometimes pushing or pounding harder has been the result. Sometimes these methods worked. Sometimes it made things worse. Sometimes it simply didn't make a difference.

When it comes to some people's religious views and/or their faith, there are instances where they may feel they are putting a square peg in a round hole. They may become frustrated because the square peg doesn't seem to work out the way they think it should. In frustration, they want to keep trying to put that square peg in that round hole. One of three things will happen as a result: 1) The peg will splinter and make it through, 2) the peg will not fit, or 3) the peg will break and splinter but not fit. This is somewhat the result with one's faith, with the analogy of the square peg.

As Sunday's lesson was about Jesus answering the question of John's disciples from Matthew 9:14-17, here are some applications to choose from to use this week...

• Splintered ~ When you are involved in a religious controversy, you may have an inclination to want to be right. If that desire to be "right" becomes too big, you will simply fight and fight so that the result is what you desire. However the result can be a splintering - that of relationships. Causing these relationships with people or God to never be the same. Not good to force an issue...
• Not Fit ~ Trying to force an issue for the sake of getting the issue, and then it never "fitting" will definitely result in failure. When I think of something that should be right but it never fits correctly, I can become pretty frustrated in the moment. Later on I will mellow, but in the moment is a whole different story. As we have the option to be flexible in a situation, may we try not to force things and let God handle the things that we cannot control.
• Break and Splinter ~ Continuing on the thought process, forcing an issue through a round hole may cause the peg to splinter off and break. This will look like someone trying to push their agenda on a particular area and things get worse. The result is detrimental to the individual and many around them. They can force an issue so much this result will cause lots of problem.

May we think about what we are encountering in life as we need to be flexible with the new wine that is added into wine skins - make sure the wine skins are new, as well.

Now it's your turn...What have you encountered that was difficult for someone to remain to be flexible with something new, so they don't have to "burst?"

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus - My View

cc Within the past few months a video on YouTube was released that was titled “Why I hate Religion, but Love Jesus,” by Jefferson Bethke. At the time of this writing the video currently has been viewed 20,757,918 times. This video went “viral,” which is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing. I am sure that some of those numbers were repeated views. However, that number is still astonishing. It definitely raises some questions for us all.

If you haven’t viewed the video, what are your initial thoughts from the title? Does it strike you as true or false? Regardless of your answer, why did you answer it the way you did?

If you have viewed the video, what was your reaction? Agree or disagree? Why or why not?

Often times the term “religion” has been symbolic of “Christianity.” The problem seems to be when “religion” becomes equal to “Christianity” because they are not. Religion shows the institutional side of Christianity, which many seem to not be attracted to at all. Christianity is about Christ, which I see is about relationships. Religion is about showing up and checking off a list of duties you deem necessary. Christianity is about putting self second to other things to live a life of servitude.

Religion attempts to look good, from the structures or décor of the buildings to the clothes you are wearing. Christianity may look nice but that isn’t a priority.

I grew up with “religion” in mind. The denomination I have attended since birth made “doing it right” a priority over what it actually means to “do it right” outside of the church building. I had no idea what I was supposed to “do” in my everyday life; how I was supposed to live out my Christianity. I only knew I was trying to get “you” to look like me.

In one portion of Jefferson’s poem he challenges by saying, “Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practice; Tend to ridicule God's people, they did it to John The Baptist; They can't fix their problems, and so they just mask it; Not realizing religion's like spraying perfume on a casket.”

I think that grace is one of those “Christianese” words that we have used in churches forever. However, the depth of its use has become stripped and devalued. It has become a selfish word, meaning that you like grace given to you but have a difficult time giving it to some people. It is a challenging word to practice. The time you need to practice it may be the most difficult. The religious will sometimes throw the “Jesus” card out there to think He will fix everything, when, in fact, He may not. So, His name is used as a mask when a situation may not actually get better. On occasion, using phrases like “God will make a way,” “He doesn’t give us more than we can handle,” or “God works all things out for good” are phrases that have truth in some circumstances but are not guarantees for every situation.

Here are some additional lines from Jefferson’s poem, “See the problem with religion, is it never gets to the core; It's just behavior modification, like a long list of chores; Like lets dress up the outside make look nice and neat; But it's funny that's what they use to do to mummies while the corpse rots underneath.” Have you ever had a religious experience where you didn’t feel you made it past the surface? Instead, you did your religious things out of duty? Or dressing up to look nice. How about the thought of looking like religious “mummies” by dressing up? Religion just seems to be about the wrong things. It tends to keep away the relationship and is concerned about the “what” you do in life and how often it’s done.

We can all put on a good front, as that is what the institutionalized part of “religion” seems to cause us to do. It is like Jefferson put it, “like [we’re] saying [we] play for the Lakers just because [we] bought a jersey.” We want to look like we belong to Jesus but it doesn’t go past the covering.

The “religious” in the Bible were often corrected for their outside acts and dead hearts. Jesus called them fools. All they were doing was living a life following the rules. The church needs to let Jesus in, not just spew “Jesus” out from their mouths. Jesus is the cure for sin and “religion” can cause you to have an infection. It makes you feel good but it doesn’t go deep. Religion causes us to work but Jesus already did the work.

Understanding what Jesus did and why God allowed what Jesus did should cause us to be eternally grateful and humbled. It is not us who had to pay the penalty we deserved to receive because of sin. When sin came into the world, in the Garden of Eden, God separated Himself from us. To allow Jesus to die was God’s plan to be able to have the intimate relationship with us. Religion simply does not do that. Those that have a relationship with Jesus are religious, in nature, but those that are religious do not necessarily have a relationship with Jesus.

I am thankful that Jesus died so that I can have a relationship with Him, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. May I never be just religious.