I was having breakfast this morning – bottled Spanish style sardines. This is a usual treat I enjoy when we have the budget to buy a bottle – it is quite expensive, especially the really “sarap” ones. Anyway, back to my story. As I was munching on my breakfast, it brought a “mini” flashback.
I remember when I was young, my mother taught me how to eat sardines. Actually I first saw her eating sardines in a certain way, and then she eventually taught me and explained to me why. It was the canned sardines during that time, the flat can type, most probably imported. What she taught me was to slice it open first so that it opened up flat. And then we would take out the bones that were right in the middle of the fish. She explained, just like eating any other fish, that we should take out the bones so that it would not hurt us or choke on it. And ever since then that would be how I would eat my sardines. Slice it open, lay it flat, take out the bones, and then munch!
Until I started working. The company I worked for started selling canned sardines. We were the first marketing arm of VMC brand of canned sardines and bangus. And so, just like any other marketing company, before selling the product we first had a product knowledge seminar on how sardines were cooked. And that’s when I learned that the sardines in the can were “pressure-cooked”, so that by the time it is canned the bones would be so soft they were actually edible!
So there was no need to slice open a sardine, take out the bones, so it would not hurt us while eating. For so many years I followed a tradition of my mother, which turned out to be useless. It’s funny how we have so many traditions about so many things without really asking, or studying about it. We just follow without any question whatsoever.
In everyday practices like eating, or cooking, and doing other things, there may be no harm whatsoever in doing things traditionally, as the family members passed on through the years. We all have those experiences – how we eat, how we drink medicine, how we clean cars, etc. But in the spiritual realm, in our walk as Christians, I believe we need to be a little more careful and understanding concerning traditions. For what may seem innocent and good to us may not be to God.
In our walk as Christians some traditions may seem trivial, simple differences in how we worship, and yet without our knowing it may actually be useless (to God, not to us), and detrimental to our life now, and to our eternity. We get so used to “worship” according to what we have been taught without checking with the past, which God so graciously revealed to us in His Word, the Bible.
The Pharisees during Jesus’ time were so seeped in tradition that Jesus had to warn His disciples:
Mark 7:6-8 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
For them they were worshipping. But little did they know that God was not accepting their worship, for with their lips they prayed, but their hearts were far from Him. And their traditions were rules taught by men, and not taught by God.
In our worship of the Lord how important it is for us to make sure we’re not just following rules taught by men, but to follow the command of our Lord. It may seem good and practical to us, but is actually useless to the Lord.
God is so willing to give us a “God knowledge seminar”. He’s prepared the manual – the Bible. And if our hearts are just open there are a few things we can learn, and unlearn, with regards to how we approach God. And, it is always good to ask, to check, if we’re doing what is pleasing to the Lord.
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