Challenging Scripture

The title of this blog entry ‘Challenging Scripture’ is intentionally a double entendre (a figure of speech that can be understood in either of two ways). In a time where it seems like everything we hold sacred, included scripture itself, is being challenged; I recently found myself profoundly challenged by a Scripture passage we discussed in our bible study group.

Mark 7:6-7: 'As Isaiah prophesized, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teaching are but rules taught by men.’

I love words. And I love trying to pick an appropriate word when I am attempting to convey a thought or idea. Often, the search for the perfect word is an effort to encapsulate a big thing (idea, taste, feeling, etc.) in a small package.

For instance, the word ‘Succulent’ evokes a myriad of texture, taste and experience. You can almost feel the juices dripping down your chin!

However, sometimes, this attempt to convey a big idea with small words has the side affect of obscuring the total picture. So, I tend to like to ‘re-lengthen’ scripture verses at times to see if I can discover some additional meaning by replacing a word or words with their definitions.

As an example – here’s the Isaiah prophesy above – substituting a couple of Webster definitions for the words ‘worship’ and ‘vain’:

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They participate in ceremonies, prayers and other religious forms of expressing love for me that lack substance or worth and do not yield the desired outcome. Their teaching are but rules taught by men.’

Ouch. My initial reaction to this expansion of the verse was ‘is that even possible?’ Wouldn’t any attempt to express love for Jesus be worthwhile? Doesn’t it all … ‘count’ .. for lack of a better term?

However, here’s a bible study tip that I try to remember. When Jesus quotes a scripture or says something, Himself, you can take it to the bank.

Which leads me to admit that I find this scripture very challenging. Intimidating almost. It says that there are forms of religious expression that lack worth. It says that there are fruitless ceremonies that are man-made and do not contribute to the worship of God.

And Jesus goes on to summarize the problem as follows in Mark 7:8: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men”

It appears, then, that there is genuine worship - which is doing the commands of God and there is vain worship - which is holding to the traditions of men.


So what prompts me to bring this up? Why now?
For some reason, only known to God, I seem to be bumping into a lot of Catholics lately - in many contexts including kids, colleagues, strangers, bloggers, etc. They range from 'practicing' to 'barely practicing' to 'Catholics in name only' (Catinos).

And they all seem to be revving up for Lent. I was even browsing a random online blog and ran into a blogger that is a ‘Catholic’.. but views the way she practices 'her religion' (her term) as ‘her own’ and ‘discarding the rules that I don’t agree with’. She has manufactured her own man made religion and thus has a unique way of approaching Lent.

At the same time I am continuing on a personal journey to understand social justice. As a Californian I am challenged almost daily to defend my beliefs and to agree with, or at a minimum accept, a different world view that has it’s own definition for social ‘justice’. Within that context I am genuinely trying to figure out how Jesus would approach some of these complex issues and ideas. My mind remains open and searching for God’s own heart on many of these issues.

But this set of verses seems to present a warning against taking re-engineering the gospel too far. It appears that when we (individually or institutionally) try to reshape obedience to God (doing the commands of God) into something more palpable to man in order to reach people with the Gospel… it is entirely possible that the worship we reach them with will have been rendered vain – ‘lacking substance or worth; not yielding the desired outcome’.

What’s the point of that?

Are you participating in some form of worship (at church, for Lent, in the privacy of your own life) just to satisfy some rule that you or your Church came up with? Instead of focusing on doing what God commands us in the Bible? If so – I want to encourage you – as I remind myself – to look skeptically at the traditions of men (inside and outside the Church). Challenge them with Scripture (Rom 12:2).