Thou Shalt Not Fish
Sometimes, making rules and regulations can backfire:
Consider the case of the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas. This pier based hotel, constructed in the 1960’s, stretched 1,000 feet out to sea, capturing a panoramic view. Since the balconies were directly above the ocean, management decided to place signs in the room stating, 'Do Not Fish on Balcony.'
When the hotel was completed and ready to open, guess what started to happen? Guests began to fish off their balconies. Hotel guests would tie large lead weights to their fishing line to reach the ocean floor several stories below. Some guests would cast their line and miss the ocean altogether and the line would swing back towards the hotel, along with the heavy lead weights. Unfortunately, there were large picture windows on the first floor dining room and hotel management had to replace a number of broken windows. The crashing sound of windows breaking was a common occurrence to dining room guests.
The solution??
After evaluating their predicament, management wisely decided to remove all the “Do not fish on balcony” signs. This immediately resolved the problem of guests fishing on the balcony. It turns out guests did not even think about fishing until they read the sign.
Because of our fallen nature, the Law can actually work like an invitation to sin. It can take something good and holy like the Law and twist it to promote evil. Sin warps love into lust, an honest desire to provide for one’s family into greed, achievment into arrogance, ambition into bloodthirstiness, and the Law iitself nto a promoter of sin.
"But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead" (Romans 7:8, NIV).
"Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin" (Romans 3:20).
Mysteries on the Walls of our Faith and Worship
One of our young woman recently baptized asked for help to solve a mystery that perplexed her to no end. Among the towels, garments, and other items in the baptismal changing room, she noticed two black, curly wigs hanging on the wall. “Why are those wigs hanging there?” she asked. The answer was unclear, but it was suggested that perhaps they'd been put there a long time ago, for women who didn't want to be seen with stringy, wet hair, or for the modesty of older women with thinning hair who might appear balding coming up out of the waterr. Definitive? Nah. Plausible? Sure. Nevertheless, the mystery remained (as did the wigs hanging in the changing room).
Sometimes we have “wigs” hanging around. They may be traditions that were started in other times for specific reasons. For example, you may have seen communion plates covered by runners or tablecloths going back to times when buildings didn’t have air conditioners and the cloths were used to keep the flies off the elements. The circumstances changed, but the cover remained.
There are many traditions we honor that are fine and acceptable, but which are only expedients and may be a mystery to our young, new Christians, visitors, and the like. That is not to disparage them, but it is to say that we should be ready to discuss them.
Whether that is standing before a song or Scripture reading, leading a specific number of songs before prayer, having an invitation at the end of a sermon, having the Lord’s Supper before the sermon (or vice versa), ending worship with a prayer or a song (Matthew 26:30), the way those leading in worship enter the auditorium, or any number of habits and customs congregations settle into, we should never let these simply settle into our subconsciousness.
Periodically, it’s good to explain and discuss these habits and traditions, whether in brief form during the course of our services, at greater length in a Bible class, or certainly in one-on-one conversations.
It is also good to ask if and how we might vary or alter some of these customs, periodically or even permanently. There are acts of worship we are commanded to engage in each Lord’s Day (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), but for how long and in what order? The Word of God is to be reverenced, but does standing inherently do that? What the people did in response to Ezra was spontaneous, and they followed it up by bowing low with their faces to the ground (Nehemiah 8:5-6).
These traditions may be good, or at the least neutral.
But the point is to keep them from becoming mysteries hanging on the walls of our faith or our worship. Let’s continually ask what we are doing and why!
"And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others" (Mark 7:13, NLT).
Asking The Wrong Question
- I’ve never heard the avid fisherman say, “Do I have to go back to the lake?”
- I’ve never heard the shopaholic say, “How often do I have to go to the store?”
- I’ve never heard the committed sports fan say, “How many games do I have to watch?”
- I’ve never heard the foodie say, “How often do I have to try a new restaurant or dish?”
- I’ve never heard the head-over-heels-in-love say, “How many times do I have to see him/her each week?”
- I’ve never heard the devoted mom say, “How often must I hold my baby?”
We’ve lost the battle when our sermons, articles, and classes center around answering the question, “How often must I assemble? How many times a week do I have to come to church? Are Sunday night and Wednesday night mandatory?”
How unnatural for a disciple, a committed follower of Jesus who is in love with Him and who has such a relationship with Him that He is priority number one, to approach the assemblies in such a way! Must? Have to? You see, the question is wrong. The mentality and approach is where the work needs to occur.
When Jesus and His Church are my passion, the thought-process becomes “I get to,” “I want to,” and “I will!” Neither parents, grandparents, spouses, elders, preachers, siblings, nor anyone else should have to get behind to push the one who has put Jesus at the heart and center of their lives.
"Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25).