"Choose a wife rather by your ear than by your eye." - Thomas Fuller

Where bacon cheeseburgers come from.

It's 6 a.m. and I'm sitting in a Starbucks about 1/4 mile from my MIL's place. In two hours I'll join the men of Celebration Bible Church for their monthly breakfast, a routine we started when I was pastor 20 years ago. And they're still meeting at the same joint, though it's changed hands a few times since then.

After writing a few paragraphs here I'll continue working on the current section in my book, which happens to be about the fourth commandment - do no work on the Sabbath. The question: is that command still binding or is it the only of the ten that is suspended or terminated. And if it is no longer in force, why? Especially when its stated basis is God's model set at creation. Does that fact alone suggest it's central to God's natural order of things?

Without going into that issue here, writing about it got me thinking about what the Pharisees did with the Sabbath command and how like them we can be.

God didn't specify what "work" is, just that it shouldn't be done on the Sabbath. This omission apparently drove them crazy so they drew up an incredibly detailed list of what was and was not allowed under that directive. You could walk this far ("a Sabbath's journey") but not one step further, regardless of where that put you. Lifting a load that weighed X was permitted, but not an ounce more because at that point it became a burden and was therefore labor(ious). You could rescue an ox that fell into a well, but when Christ healed a lame man on the Sabbath he had committed a grievous sin.

This didn't end with the Pharisees; it continues today. Orthodox Jews may not drive on the Sabbath because the internal combustion engine involves "lighting a fire" in each cylinder.
[So is it OK to drive a Prius on the Sabbath?]
Carrying anything on Sabbath is prohibited, including something as small as a house key. Not to worry, though. Wearing jewelry is not forbidden, so if the key is sufficiently adorned and clipped to one's clothing the problem is solved. Bedazzled!

Lest you think this is a craziness restricted to Jews, many Christian groups have fallen prey to the same trap. The Bible says women should dress modestly, so the church feels compelled to define that standard in terms of inches above/below, jewelry items allowed or prohibited, even colors that draw too much attention. Rook (a game played with cards numbered 1 through 14 in suits of four colors) is allowed but games played with a standard deck is not. Profanity is definitely out, but the most thinly veiled euphemisms pass without notice. The change of a single letter moves a four-letter word from profanity to acceptable.

What is it in people (us) that feels the need to quantify God's directions down to the most minute and ridiculous level? If he says, "Take one day in seven as a break, a rest from your routine labors" why do we need to write volumes (the Halakah) to specify what that command means in every situation down to the finest detail? And why is a person's conformity to that minutia considered more righteous than the one who listens to the pattern of his life and God's desire that it be better by that rest?

I honestly don't know the answer. I can't figure out what it is in humans that feels the need to legislate every area of morality down to the finest detail, choosing the letter over the spirit of the law.
Not everyone, but too many.
They sure don't seem like happy people.
About 8 years ago when Pathway was renting rooms at a large resort in the west valley for our Sunday ministries we were told we'd have to find someplace else for a particular Sunday...that happened to be Easter that year (NOT the Sunday a church wants to be someplace out of the usual). Why? Because an association of Orthodox Jews had rented the entire resort for a Passover retreat. Goyim (Gentiles) were not allowed on the premises, at least not as a group, especially as a Christian group.
Boy, was there a dust-up over that!
I eventually worked out a solution with the resort managers that moved us to a far corner and two buildings that would suit our purposes for the morning.
In the process of working with the resort I was on site several times during that week making arrangements for our (isolated) presence and had occasion to observe these orthodox Jews "celebrating" Passover. I've never seen such a large group made up of people of all ages so uniformly morose, sullen. Even the children walked quietly, without the energy and elan children should have.

None of them were carrying "burdens" except for the load of legalism which, I'm convinced, had them weighed down and robbed them of any joy in life. How can you be happy when there's so many rules and regulations to know and obey?

Again (!) Christian groups have also fallen into that inexplicable trap. We have a Mennonite community just north of us. They're known for their charity and graciousness, but don't go up there looking for a comedy night at the church. We've romanticized the Amish, but their austere life is accompanied by a brutal legalism that mercilessly shuns members who commit the slightest infraction of the rules, sometimes accidentally. They are made to sit separately from the group, cannot participate in church activities, and are shunned even by immediate family members. All in the name of righteousness.

Yeah, I can't figure it out. It's crazy, cruel, and counterproductive.
It must really tick God off.