Nullifying God

"Thus you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition." Matthew 15:6 b

Tradition has a weird way of become the 'word of god'. I remember back in the church I grew up in that there was a certain way that communion had to be conducted. Certain words had to be said by certain individuals, in a certain order. These words or individuals could not be changed. In this particular case the question is about support for parents and whether or not it is considered a gift to God. So, basically what what happening was that the Pharisees had figured out that they could call their support of their parents giving. Thereby turning the tradition into law. Of course that lowered the amount of their giving since the parental support was counted. This meant that they could keep that other money for themselves.

There is a selfish game here. If I can call something right, then I can turn it into a religious tradition, then of course it becomes law and counts toward my giving. Giving is a matter of the heart. The tithe (10% of income) is a guideline for giving. But if I can count parental support towards that, and buying girl scout cookies towards that and paying parking when I visit a church member in the hospital from that. You get the picture. Pretty soon the church actually owes me money considering how many 'traditional', 'religious' and 'church-related' expenses I have.

I have to note this. I have known school parents to count their tuition as part of church giving. After all my child is supporting the school and that support wouldn't be there if my child didn't come. Amazing what people can come up with when it comes to money. My friend always said that 'liars figure' and 'figures lie'. We can figure out whatever works for us. Jesus said that all this game`playing in effect nullified God. It is not really about God at all. It is about is and OUR money. How did the term the "Almighty Dollar" ever get started. If you ever want to start an argument with a church attender, politics may be a good start, but money for sure brings conflict. Maybe that is why it is called the "Almighty Dollar".

Just Sayin',
Pastor Fred

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