What is True Religion?

There are two stories this week that illustrate similar points about the meaning and purpose of "sabbath." Both have enormous cultural tones and both pull back the curtain on what the mission truly is for the rabbi. We catch the troupe in a breach of sabbath etiquette, and we see the rabbi having to choose tradition or mission.

This would all be a little bothersome except for the fact that it has continued to crop for all these intervening centuries.

When I was a young man in high school my dad ran the bus ministry at a church in Abilene. He recruited guys to help him find serviceable school buses, found another guy who would paint them an electric blue and stencil the name of the church on the side, and recruited high school and college kids to ride the buses and chaperon the kids through Sunday morning and Wednesday night church. He was the unstoppable force in this ministry. At one time there were more than half dozen buses, and well over 150 kids picked up every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

These kids were from the poorest sections of Abilene. They were ragged and smelly and dirty. They cussed like sailors, they would steal whatever was not nailed down, and at some point we had real problems with riots on the buses and on the routes. Remember, this was the early 70's and racial tension was at an all-time high.

But there were victories. Some of the kids were cleaned up and had a shot at a decent life. Time and again my dad to this day will point out someone who is obviously doing fine and remark, "He rode our buses" My dad never says it with pride, just a statement that the ministry worked.

One Sunday morning there was the normal high activity around the worship service. The worship leaders and elders all wanted to stay on schedule, to get to the next thing. In the midst of this whirlwind, one of the "bus kids" wanted to be baptised. A quick decision was made to do it after the second service, so the normal flow of the different assembly times and class times would not be interrupted. My dad pinned one of the elders to the wall and told him plainly that if that had been a "member's child" they would have stopped down the service and had the baptism. They chose poorly. My dad, who is not by nature confrontational, rightly called their hand on it.

Man or Sabbath? Good or evil? Mission or maintenance?

We have a lot to talk about.

Lord, give us the ability to discern the righteous activity over the traditional activity. Give us strength to speak up when organization injures the individual. Keep us in your Word. Amen
Don