Bacon on Fridays

      I love a good rule breaker. I have lamented so far as to say that I am praying for Hester to win one more "A".  Of course there are times I find it terribly amusing as well. There are strictly kosher households out there which have a shelf in their refrigerator ( lined with aluminum foil ?  ) for items that are treyf. Or people who keep a scrupulously kosher home but feel it is acceptable to eat shrimp or bacon in a restaurant. I find it equally laughable when speaking of fasting and meatless Fridays. At one time it was a 'mortal' sin to eat meat on Fridays. Now, not so much. The rules are to be strictly observed only in Lent. However, if St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday in Lent, well - can you say "dispensation" boys and girls?  I note all these minor hypocrisies not as a judgment so much as a notation about the nature of rules.  One of the things that Jesus railed about a great deal was the number of rules and strictures that the Pharisees held over the faithful making them 'twice as fit for hell, as they are themself'.

         A few years back I read an excellent book called God vs. Gay by Jay Michaelson. One of my take aways was probably not fully intended by the author, especially as it applies to rules and rubrics of which I speak.  Mr. Michaelson noted the many contradictions and questionable translations of Scripture that leads some people to be over zealous in their interpretation and judgment of others.  Mr. Michaelson argues that whenever there is a question regarding Scriptures, the final arbiter of such questions must always be love.  That is what God is and that is God's intent in creating us. Love, pure and simple.

          To the question of the Apostles plucking grain or corn on the sabbath? Clearly a sin some might say. Jesus however puts the answer to question quite simply in today's passage from Matthew. It is so easy to follow rules with scrupulosity, that is why the two great commandments are infinitely more complex and hard to follow that the Ten we all learned as kids.  Love is the arbiter for all things and if we wielded love as easily as we use passages to clobber people with we would be far, far better off.  Let us not focus on the rules so much as love.

          For good old bacon and infinite acts of love, I pray. 

           

Matthew 12:1-14

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.’