A few years ago, I came across some odd laws from a long time ago that were still on the books in the 21st Century. I think you’ll find them quite amusing.
For example, young girls are never allowed to walk a tightrope in Wheeler, Mississippi, unless it's in a church.
In Blackwater, Kentucky, tickling a woman under her chin with a feather duster while she's in a church service carries a penalty of $10.00 and one day in jail.
No one can eat unshelled, roasted peanuts while attending church in Idanha, Oregon.
In Honey Creek, Iowa, no one is permitted to carry a slingshot to church except a policeman.
No citizen in Leecreek, Arkansas, is allowed to attend church in any red-colored garment.
Swinging a yo-yo in church or anywhere in public on the Sabbath is prohibited in Studley, Virginia.
Turtle races are not permitted within 100 yards of a local church at any time in Slaughter, Louisiana. (Robert W. Pelton in The Door, Christian Reader, Vol. 33, no. 5)
We laugh at these laws today, but I’m sure there was a good reason for each of them when they were originally passed. They probably seemed very important to the people back then, especially to people in church, because all of them relate to behavior in and around the church.
It makes me wonder, “What are we doing in the church today, that seems so important to us, but can quickly become just as silly and quaint tomorrow?” I love a lot of our traditions; but if we’re not careful, we can hang onto those traditions long after they serve any useful purpose. In fact, some of those traditions can actually get in the way of doing the very thing God has called us to do as a church.
So how do we evaluate what we’re doing to make sure we remain relevant, on task, and in line with what God wants us to do? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 2, Mark 2, where Jesus deals with the problem of a couple of good traditions getting in the way of relevant ministry.
Mark 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” (NIV)
Jesus and His disciples were feasting with tax collectors and sinners, not fasting as the religious establishment thought they should do. You see, it was one of their traditions. The Old Testament prescribed fasting for all Jews only on the annual Day of Atonement, as an act of repentance (Leviticus 16:29). But the Pharisees promoted voluntary fasts on every Monday and Thursday (Luke 18:12) as an act of piety. It’s how they defined spirituality, and Jesus was not living up to their definition.
Mark 2:19-20 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. (NIV)
You see, fasting is an act of sorrow in the Bible. It’s an expression of extreme sadness, not of extreme spirituality. So it doesn’t make sense for Jesus’ disciples to fast when Jesus is right there with them. That’s an occasion for celebration, not for mourning! It would be like wearing funeral clothes to a wedding.
Fasting is totally inappropriate when you want to celebrate and praise the Lord, but there is coming a time when it will be appropriate for Jesus’ disciples to fast. Jesus will one day leave them, and then they will mourn. Then they will fast as an expression of their sorrow, and then it will be totally appropriate. You see, we fast when we’re sorry, not when we’re happy.
The religious leaders didn’t like it that Jesus and his disciples were having such a good time. They wanted to steal their joy by imposing a religious tradition that was totally inappropriate at the time, and many religious leaders want to do that today. They want to impose traditions that are a burden. They want to impose traditions that weigh God’s people down. Please, don’t let anyone do that to you.
DON’T LET ANY TRADITION STEAL YOUR JOY.
Don’t let any religious practice keep you from praising God with your whole heart. Don’t let any so-called “spiritual discipline” spoil or ruin those times of celebration.
It’s not that “spiritual disciplines” are always wrong. It’s just that they are not always right (or appropriate). The fact is they can sometimes be ruinous to a person’s spiritual life if they are not appropriately applied. Look at what Jesus said.
Mark 2:21-22 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.” (NIV)
If you fast when you’re glad, you only make things worse. So if God is doing a new thing in your life, don’t fast. Don’t tear up the new thing God is doing with an old tradition. Instead, feast and celebrate. Throw a party and praise the Lord for what he’s doing. There will come a time when it IS appropriate to fast, but not when you’re experiencing the blessing of God, not when God is doing a new thing in your life. You fast to express your despair before God, not your delight in God.
John Claypool, at one time pastor of the Crescent Hill Baptist Church, had a little daughter who suffered with leukemia. When she went into remission, everybody thought that maybe God had healed her. But on an Easter Sunday morning, she went into a terrible relapse.
In his book, Tracks of a Fellow Struggler, Claypool relates how for two weeks his daughter was wracked with pain, her eyes swollen shut. She asked him, “Daddy, did you talk to God about my leukemia?”
He said, “Yes, dear, we've been praying for you.”
She asked, “Did you ask him how long the leukemia would last? What did God say?”
What do you say to your daughter when you can't help her, and the heavens are silent? Emotionally and spiritually he was exhausted. A few hours later, she died. The following Sunday morning, John Claypool got into the pulpit to preach. He preached on Isaiah 40:31, which says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Dr. Claypool said something to the effect, “There are three stages of life. Sometimes we mount up with wings as an eagle and fly. We're on top of the world. Sometimes we run, and we don't grow weary. We just go through the routine. Sometimes it's all we can do to walk and not faint, and I need your prayers and your encouragement.” (R. L. Russell, "Triumphing over Trials," Preaching Today, Tape No. 119; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the time to fast – not when you’re on top of the world, but when it is all you can do to walk and not faint. It is not a sign of strength. It is a sign of extreme weakness and sorrow. You fast to express your despair. You fast to express your despondency before God, not your joy! So if you’re joyful today, don’t let any tradition steal that joy. And…
DON’T LET ANY TRADITION STEAL YOUR LOVE, either.
Don’t let any religious practice keep you from doing good. Don’t let any so-called “spiritual discipline” keep you from reaching out to meet the real needs of real people.
That’s what was happening in Jesus’ day. The religious leaders put their traditions above the real needs of real people. First, they would deny food for the hungry.
Mark 2:23-24 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” (NIV)
Only they weren’t breaking the Mosaic Law. Moses had prohibited work on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10), but he did not give many specifics.
On the other hand, Jewish tradition went into great detail about what people could and could not do on the Sabbath. In Jesus’ day, religious leaders had specified 39 classes of activities that were forbidden on the Sabbath, with six subsidiary prohibitions in each (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament). That made 234 rules to follow just on the Sabbath. For example, tying knots in general was forbidden, but not those that could be loosened with one hand. Or a person could not carry enough ink to write two letters of the alphabet (A. B. du Toit, The New Testament Millieu).
Warren Wiersbe says, “The Sabbath Day had become a crushing burden, a symbol of the galling religious bondage that had captured the nation” (The Bible Exposition Commentary). And here, it was such a burden that it denied food for the hungry.
The disciples weren’t doing anything wrong. All they were doing was picking a head of wheat here and there, rubbing it in their hands, and popping the kernels into their mouths. Well, what does Jesus have to say about that?
Mark 2:25-26 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” (NIV)
Jesus reminds the religious establishment that sometimes traditions must be broken to meet the real needs of real people. David and his men were running for their lives from Saul who wanted to kill them. And in their flight, they had come to the tabernacle starving for food. So the high priest ignores the ceremonial law and gives them holy bread reserved only for priests. He broke a rule to feed the hungry, and Jesus commends that!
Mark 2:27-28 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (NIV)
Religious leaders have no authority to determine what is right and wrong on the Sabbath. Only Jesus does. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and He reminds us that a day of rest was designed to benefit people, not the other way around.
You see, the Sabbath was a gift from God. Originally, it was a gift of weekly rest to a nation of slaves who were used to working from sunup to sundown, 7 days a week. Sadly, many Americans could use that gift of rest today.
In 2005, a store called MinneNAPolis opened in Minnesota's Mall of America. It rented comfy spots where weary shoppers could take naps for 70 cents a minute. The store included themed rooms such as Asian Mist, Tropical Isle, and Deep Space, and the walls were thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children outside.
The company's website said, “Escape the pressures of the real world into the pleasures of an ideal one.” “It's not just napping,” said the press release. “Some guests will want to listen to music, put their feet up, watch the water trickling in the beautiful stone waterfall, breathe in the positive-ionization-filtered air, enjoy the full-body massager, and just take an enjoyable escape from the fast-paced lifestyle.”
Sadly, the store closed six months later after getting fewer than nine nappers a day. The owner said he “couldn’t develop a regular clientele.” (“Napping Store Fails at Mall of America,” NPR’s Morning Edition, May 18, 2006)
Too bad, because a lot of us could use “an enjoyable escape” from a “fast-paced lifestyle,” couldn’t we? Well, I’ve got good some news for all of us. We don’t have to go to the store to get that kind of an escape. It’s readily available to all of us at any time. All we have to do is accept God’s gift of rest one full day every week.
That’s what the Sabbath was all about! It was a gift from God to benefit His people, but the religious leaders in Jesus’ day had forgotten that. Instead, they had elevated their Sabbath traditions to the point that they would actually deny food for the hungry in order not to violate their traditions. Then, they would deny healing for the sick.
Mark 3:1-6 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. (NIV)
They were so incensed that they joined with people they normally despised to find a way to kill Jesus. The Herodians were Jews, who adapted Greek and Roman culture into their own way of life. The Pharisees were separatists, who despised Greek and Roman culture as being totally antithetical to everything it meant to be a true Jew. And yet these two groups are coming together to get rid of this Man who would overlook their traditions to feed the hungry and heal the sick.
That’s what was happening in Jesus’ day. Please, don’t let it happen here today. May we never put our traditions above the real needs of real people.
Do you realize that Mark 3:5 is the only explicit reference to Jesus’ anger in the New Testament? To be sure, there is a time when Jesus drives the moneychangers out of the Temple, but only here does the Bible actually SAY he was angry. You see, Jesus is filled with “anger” and deep sorrow when we let our traditions get in the way of “doing good.” Feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and winning the lost must always be our priority, because it was Jesus’ priority.
I like how one church remembered its priorities even after the economy took a nose dive four years ago. During those tough economic times, churches all across the country saw a sharp drop in their offerings, including the Cross Timbers Community Church in Argyle, Texas. Their drop in income forced them to make some very “painful” cuts.
But the pastor of the church, Toby Slough, was more concerned about how his members faced their own tough times of job losses, pay cuts, and foreclosures. So with that in mind, Slough did something a little different when the church took up an offering one Sunday morning in March of 2009. He didn't encourage people to put money in the plate; he encouraged people to take money out of the plate. (Talk about breaking tradition!)
Do you know, on that particular Sunday, the church actually took in the largest offering of its nine-year history? People were more than ready to give to those in need – ready to make sure the plate was filled to overflowing as it was passed among those who were suffering.
Pastor Slough told a CNN affiliate in Dallas, “In these economic times, we can't be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people.” In the two months that followed, Cross Timbers gave a half-million dollars to members and non-members alike who were facing various financial struggles.
One Sunday morning, they gave $50 bills to 1,300 families and asked them to hand them out to those in need. One of the recipients of that generosity was Katie Lewis. When interviewed by CNN, a tearful Lewis said, “I've been alone so long. Just to be thought of and to be remembered, to be welcomed – it's amazing.” (Brian Lowery, managing editor, www.PreachingToday.com; source: Church gives fresh meaning to 'offering' plate, www.cnn.com, 5-18-09)
Now, there’s a church that didn’t forget what it was all about. Pastor Slough said it best when he said, “We can’t be so into church business that we forget what our business is.” My dear friends, let’s not forget what our business is, and that’s to help people find Jesus.
Whatever we do, we must not let our traditions steal our joy or our love. We must not let “church business” keep us from “the business of the church.”
For years, the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe separated not only human populations from each other, but also many animal populations, as well. For example, there was actually a fence in the forests surrounding the border between Germany and what is now the Czech Republic. That fence separated two populations of red deer until 1989 when government officials dismantled the fence. Even so, those populations remain separated to this day. When biologists began studying the red deer population in 2002, they quickly realized that the deer living in Germany were not migrating into the Czech Republic, and the deer living in the Czech Republic were not migrating into Germany. In other words, they were still behaving as if the fence remained intact.
More recently, Marco Heurich, tracked a doe for several years with a GPS collar fitted to her neck. During that time, he tracked her more than 11,000 times in Germany, but not a single time in the Czech Republic. He even tracked her at the border several times, but she never crossed over.
This occurred despite the fact that she was born 18 years AFTER the Iron Curtain came down. She had no physical memory of the fence's existence, and yet she was still blocked by it. Furthermore, the land once occupied by the fence and its guard towers had been turned into a large and thriving nature preserve. It was a perfect home for red deer, but that doe never entered it.
Marco Heurich and his team of biologists tried to explain the deer’s strange behavior. They said that “most deer travel across traditional trails – ones that are passed down through generations by modeling and repetition. It's possible that the doe and the other members of her herd simply haven't ventured beyond the beaten path.”
But wildlife filmmaker, Tom Synnatzschke, who often works in the area, had a different explanation. According to Tom, “The wall in the head is still there.” (“Deep in the Forest, Bambi Remains the Cold War's Last Prisoner,” The Wall Street Journal, 11-04-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sad to say, that’s the way it is with many people and some churches: “The wall in the head is still there.”
Well, to paraphrase Ronald Regan at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, I say, “Church of Jesus Christ, tear down this wall.” Tear down this wall of tradition that keeps people from experiencing the joy and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Tear down this “wall in the head” that keeps us from being all that Christ has called us to be. And tear down any wall that keeps us from joyfully expressing His love to those who need it the most.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me. (Judson W. VanDeVenter)
