Religious clutter

Exodus 13:1-2,11-16

     It's somewhat entertaining to hear some of the discussions around our home. We are a mixed marriage of sorts, Jew and Christian. We inform and teach each other. One of the things we have discussed from time to time, especially with my 91 year old father-in-law is the notion of religious happy horse shit. These are the rules and rubrics that it seems every religion has that really are contrived and totally man made. Jesus railed against the Pharisees for this very reason. Generations of Roman Catholics wondered what fresh hell they would descend into if they ate meat on a Friday in Lent and why there would be a special dispensation for the Corned Beef if St. Patricks day fell on a Friday in Lent which it seems to do time and again.

      In today's passage we read about dedicating one's first born to God.  This is a bit harder to dismiss because the 'rule' is right there in actual scripture.  However,  it still could easily be man made since it is a human that has done the transcribing for God. Perhaps always a dangerous thing. Yesterdays passage about requiring non Jewish guests at a Seder to be circumcised first, is another perhaps a more interesting rule. There seems to me to be more merit in the former than the latter.

       I'd have to say in most cases, there is a reason for a rule.  There is something about the required action or inaction that is supposed to draw us closer to God or to holier living. And still there are the rules that you roll your eyes at because there seems a giant disconnect between God and whatever the requirement is.  Today though, in our household, we are discussing the actions to be taken by practicing Jews when a parent has passed during Passover. We already have learned that there can be no Shiva during Passover.  The thing is, even non-practicing Jews ( or whatevers ) often find attachment to rules comforting especially during troubling times.  It seems that rules, even ridiculous ones bring comfort and closeness to God in troubled times. I am pretty easy going and more likely than most to bend a rule or ignore it if I know that a heart is in the right place. Is it one's intention to dismiss God ? Or is it one's intention to dismiss the rule that will really keep us from being close to God if we can't live up to the rule with mightily zealous scrupulosity?

       I once knew a Deacon who invented his own set of pious movements and 'rules' to be followed in services. Undoubtedly they made his own worship richer. Sadly however, there is a generation of people who now bank on their salvation and religiosity on actions invented by him!  Where does this leave us?

     If we are  serious about our faith it really cannot be a passive thing. Doing so leaves you prey for all sorts of people who with good intent or bad, use your ignorance to foist perilous positions and more rules and rubrics, unnecessary barricades to God's presence in our lives.  How wonderful to discover in your thirst for knowledge and richness of faith what specific actions mean. They need not be empty gestures of faith. At the same time, you can discover what is the made up stuff that is tinsel cluttering and obscuring a vibrant faith.

      In this first week after Easter and during this week of Passover, I am thinking about trying to make my faith richer by learning and discovering what is, and what is not, necessary to my relationship with my creator. How about you?