RECYCLE, REUSE NO MORE
DAY 48: I realize that it is not very politically correct to admit that I don't do the whole green thing - but there you have it. I'm a waster. Raised as a kid who had to recycle every thing in a different way growing up I'm not feeling the love for the "recycle, reuse, renew' movement. I had to reuse my sister's hand me downs, her old lunch boxes, and her outgrown bike. Recycling meant taking back glass soda bottles so we could get the nickle deposit and have some pocket money.I grew up when recycling meant you didn't have much. Not having to reuse things meant you could afford new stuff.
My, how times have changed. Today, chic people like used stuff. It's trendy to go to second hand stores. It's "normal" to wash your trash so you can separate it into categorized cans. We are even expected to build our houses with recycled, renewable refuse. All the best people have kitchen counters made out of old crushed beer bottles and carpet made from plastic bottles. The irony is that in many cases we pay more for recycled products their new counterparts; now that's chic. Next they will be asking me to buy recycled toilet paper.... But some things were just NOT meant to be recycled!
As I read today's scripture passages, I found that religion was also NOT meant to be recycled, at least not once Jesus came.
In Mark 2 & 3 Jesus set about doing new and strange things the religious people didn't understand. And He was confronted about it at every turn. First, as He was looking for people to call to be His disciples He chose people that did not fit the standard mold. Religious leaders chose disciples who were respectable, pious with impressive potential. That was the way it had always been done; just reuse the mold and move on to the next. Jesus had a new way of doing things. In this instance, He chose a tax-collector; someone little better than a traitor in the eyes of Israel - a Jew who would work for the Romans collecting taxes on his own people and probably cheating them to boot. Not worthy to socialize with let alone invite to be a disciple. So what did Jesus do?
14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
Jesus called Levi (aka Matthew) and He ate dinner with him and his rowdy friends. Not exactly reusing the acceptable practices of acceptable religious folk, was He? But responding to the complaints, Jesus explained that He was doing new things because He had a new goal far different from the goal of the religious establishment around Him:
17 Jesus told them... I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.
The same religious people then complained because Jesus' new disciples didn't fast. They didn't understand when He said being with Him was a time for celebration, not mourning, like when you are with the groom at a wedding. They really didn't understand when the same "new kind of disciples" plucked some wheat to eat it on the Sabbath. That was against the religious rules. So was healing a man on the Sabbath, in this case one who had a deformed hand. This time though, their defiance to hold on to the old way of rules and laws and refuse to accept His teaching of the new way He brought made Jesus angry. He offered them so much more, but they only wanted a recycled and reused version of religion as they knew it. If only they had understood what God intended all along - old and new: to call sinners to a Savior. They could not hold on to the old way of being "good enough" and embrace what Jesus was showing them.
As I thought about this I wondered if there are parts of my faith journey that are just recycled religion. I think there might be. Jesus, though, came to make all things new. It does not please Him if I just go through the religious motions because some tradition was passed down to me just like my sisters old blue jeans... and just as empty.
What have you just been recycling in your faith practice where God wants to bring something new?
PS: no angry comments about the virtues of recycling ... if it makes you happy, please go green :)
Day 48 of 365
Leviticus 4
Leviticus 5
Mark 2:13-28
Mark 3:1-6
Psalm 36:1-12
Proverbs 10:1-2
My, how times have changed. Today, chic people like used stuff. It's trendy to go to second hand stores. It's "normal" to wash your trash so you can separate it into categorized cans. We are even expected to build our houses with recycled, renewable refuse. All the best people have kitchen counters made out of old crushed beer bottles and carpet made from plastic bottles. The irony is that in many cases we pay more for recycled products their new counterparts; now that's chic. Next they will be asking me to buy recycled toilet paper.... But some things were just NOT meant to be recycled!As I read today's scripture passages, I found that religion was also NOT meant to be recycled, at least not once Jesus came.
In Mark 2 & 3 Jesus set about doing new and strange things the religious people didn't understand. And He was confronted about it at every turn. First, as He was looking for people to call to be His disciples He chose people that did not fit the standard mold. Religious leaders chose disciples who were respectable, pious with impressive potential. That was the way it had always been done; just reuse the mold and move on to the next. Jesus had a new way of doing things. In this instance, He chose a tax-collector; someone little better than a traitor in the eyes of Israel - a Jew who would work for the Romans collecting taxes on his own people and probably cheating them to boot. Not worthy to socialize with let alone invite to be a disciple. So what did Jesus do?
14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
Jesus called Levi (aka Matthew) and He ate dinner with him and his rowdy friends. Not exactly reusing the acceptable practices of acceptable religious folk, was He? But responding to the complaints, Jesus explained that He was doing new things because He had a new goal far different from the goal of the religious establishment around Him:
17 Jesus told them... I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.
The same religious people then complained because Jesus' new disciples didn't fast. They didn't understand when He said being with Him was a time for celebration, not mourning, like when you are with the groom at a wedding. They really didn't understand when the same "new kind of disciples" plucked some wheat to eat it on the Sabbath. That was against the religious rules. So was healing a man on the Sabbath, in this case one who had a deformed hand. This time though, their defiance to hold on to the old way of rules and laws and refuse to accept His teaching of the new way He brought made Jesus angry. He offered them so much more, but they only wanted a recycled and reused version of religion as they knew it. If only they had understood what God intended all along - old and new: to call sinners to a Savior. They could not hold on to the old way of being "good enough" and embrace what Jesus was showing them.
As I thought about this I wondered if there are parts of my faith journey that are just recycled religion. I think there might be. Jesus, though, came to make all things new. It does not please Him if I just go through the religious motions because some tradition was passed down to me just like my sisters old blue jeans... and just as empty.
What have you just been recycling in your faith practice where God wants to bring something new?
PS: no angry comments about the virtues of recycling ... if it makes you happy, please go green :)
Day 48 of 365
Leviticus 4
Leviticus 5
Mark 2:13-28
Mark 3:1-6
Psalm 36:1-12
Proverbs 10:1-2
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