Today's Scripture Reading (August 28, 2020): Zechariah 7
It is hard to match the angst of
the Psalmists in exile.
By the rivers of
Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors
demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one
of the songs of Zion!"
How can we sing the songs
of the Lord
while
in a foreign land (Psalm 137:1-4)?
Can you feel the pain? Is
it possible to place yourself in their position; to be stolen from your home
and made to build a life in a foreign land. All of the landmarks that you knew,
the places you liked to go to relax and enjoy life were somewhere else. And so
are your friends. Nothing is the same. Everything has changed, and not because
of anything that you have chosen.
I chose to go to college a
thousand miles away from my home. And I remember days where the homesickness
was overwhelming. In those moments, I used to like to find a quiet place and,
just for a few minutes, close my eyes, and imagine myself driving the roads I
drove when I was home. It made me feel closer to those that I loved.
For those living in Babylon,
at first, the weeping was likely continuous. But it didn't take long for the
mourning to become ritualized. The fast
of the fifth month was instituted to remember the destruction of Solomon Temple and the end of a way of life that
had prevailed in Judah. But it was a mourning and a fast that was created
by man, and not one demanded by God. So, as the exiles begin to return, and as they start to get to the work of rebuilding the Temple, the
question that arises to be asked is whether the fast has any purpose in the current environment.
Is there a reason to continue the fast, or is it time to let the fifth month fast be left behind as an artifact of the past, as something that was once important, but is so no
longer?
It is an important question
and one that we need to continue to ask today. The reality is that there are activities we perform in the church that we do because we are commanded to
by God, and there are things that we do because the traditions of man demanded them. The first are essential, and the second are not. The first we need to continue to do (for
example, celebrating communion or meeting together as the
Body of Christ) and the latter are human traditions (for example, singing hymns or choruses, or what translation of
the Bible is read in our worship services) that are not commanded, but that
we do because it is comforting to us. We need to understand the difference, but that has proven to be complicated. But the reality is that what is demanded by God, we
need to continue. But what is created by man can be changeable, and should
serve the needs of the church and the people of God as they worship at any point in time.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Zechariah
8
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