A Religious Cover-Up
| And He said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." (Mark7:9-13) |
A thousand years later, the religious leaders were still getting this wrong. Corban was a practice they instituted that allowed children to disregard the Fifth Commandment and the long-standing cultural traditions of caring for their parents by simply claiming that their financial and material care was an offering devoted to God. The problem was that there was no accountability for this vow. No one would ensure that the money, goods or time were actually used for God's glory.
It was a neat way to look good and use God as a cover-up.
"I'd really love to do more for my parents, but I'm giving so much to the church now..."
There are two issues here: Priorities and not using God as a cover-up.
When it comes to priorities I learned a long time ago that our priorities need to be:
- God (not church but our personal relationship with Him)
- Our family (nuclear first and then extended and sometimes extended need to move down the queue)
This doesn't mean that we play fast and loose with our jobs because without our jobs we can't provide for our families.
But wherever I can I put family before job. - Our jobs
- Our church
- Our friends, hobbies etc.
Adriaan Plass, a well-known Christian author and humourist, tells the story of a man who is appointed as an elder in his church. He makes himself available to help his district. He offers lifts, lends out his car and does handyman work for people in need. As people begin to take advantage of his generosity (and his egocentric need to please people) he neglects his own family by not being there for his son's soccer games and his wife is washing clothes in the bath because he hasn't fixed the washing machine. When they gently complain, he accuses them of being unspiritual and not supporting the work of the church.
One day he gets home to find a note on the table from his wife indicating that there is a church family in great need waiting at a table in the local takeaway café. He drops everything to rush across and he finds his wife and son at the table and the scales fall from his eyes and he realises that he'd fallen into a trap of wrong priorities.
