Matthew 12:1-14
There was a time when you entered a Roman Catholic church, the first thing that you did was make the sign of the cross and dipped your fingertips in holy water and once again, made the sign of the cross. Heaven forbid you should forget this there was usually someone around to remind you of your failing as if you'd go straight to hell if this simple obligation was not met. There are a whole array of such practices that Roman Catholics follow and people buy into them as if they are passed down directly from God. There was a cleric I once knew who had his own arsenal of personal acts of piety. He had all sorts of gestures, davening and and gestures. I found it sad that there would be at least a whole generation from this one parish that began to act the same way and would think it was actually part of the rituals.
I understand the point of some of these gestures. The Roman Catholic church is rich with them. What they are supposed to do is enrich your faith. They are not supposed to be your faith. People have made that mistake over and over again.
Here in this passage the Apostles are breaking yet another rule that the Pharisees have set up. The rule is undoubtedly backed up by logic of some kind, some alleged divine revelation or an interpretation of scripture. I am sure it made many people feel holy. But lets get a grip on reality. Jesus was able to synthesize down the ten commandments to two. Admittedly the are very powerful and are all encompassing but they do not include eating meat on Fridays, davening, holy water or what exact and precise formula is said to invoke the Holy Spirit during the consecration. Yet there are still people who would suffer martyrdom for some of these man made rubrics. They seem to instill such fervency and righteousness. They give comfort because they relieve people of judgements and the use of your brain to assess what love is or how to express it in the world in which we live.
I will be one of the first to say that respect for ( institutional ) God has dramatically decreased but has spirituality? Are we less holy for eating meat on Friday or appreciating the marvelous beauty of God's created world instead of dipping our fingers in holy water? Is God consigned to a building? Are rules the means to salvation, holiness and our own wholeness?
Somewhere in the middle is a personal decision about respecting God, using rules as tools to appreciate and express holiness and what God really wants from us. I believe that is a personal relationship and expressions of love for God and loving all our brother and sisters on our journey. Otherwise use the rules as tools but not as laws.
There was a time when you entered a Roman Catholic church, the first thing that you did was make the sign of the cross and dipped your fingertips in holy water and once again, made the sign of the cross. Heaven forbid you should forget this there was usually someone around to remind you of your failing as if you'd go straight to hell if this simple obligation was not met. There are a whole array of such practices that Roman Catholics follow and people buy into them as if they are passed down directly from God. There was a cleric I once knew who had his own arsenal of personal acts of piety. He had all sorts of gestures, davening and and gestures. I found it sad that there would be at least a whole generation from this one parish that began to act the same way and would think it was actually part of the rituals.
I understand the point of some of these gestures. The Roman Catholic church is rich with them. What they are supposed to do is enrich your faith. They are not supposed to be your faith. People have made that mistake over and over again.
Here in this passage the Apostles are breaking yet another rule that the Pharisees have set up. The rule is undoubtedly backed up by logic of some kind, some alleged divine revelation or an interpretation of scripture. I am sure it made many people feel holy. But lets get a grip on reality. Jesus was able to synthesize down the ten commandments to two. Admittedly the are very powerful and are all encompassing but they do not include eating meat on Fridays, davening, holy water or what exact and precise formula is said to invoke the Holy Spirit during the consecration. Yet there are still people who would suffer martyrdom for some of these man made rubrics. They seem to instill such fervency and righteousness. They give comfort because they relieve people of judgements and the use of your brain to assess what love is or how to express it in the world in which we live.
I will be one of the first to say that respect for ( institutional ) God has dramatically decreased but has spirituality? Are we less holy for eating meat on Friday or appreciating the marvelous beauty of God's created world instead of dipping our fingers in holy water? Is God consigned to a building? Are rules the means to salvation, holiness and our own wholeness?
Somewhere in the middle is a personal decision about respecting God, using rules as tools to appreciate and express holiness and what God really wants from us. I believe that is a personal relationship and expressions of love for God and loving all our brother and sisters on our journey. Otherwise use the rules as tools but not as laws.
At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
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