Boxes and Straps⤒🔗

When we think about learning to believe, it is good to look at a pair of remarkable customs, which the Israelites practised in biblical times and many Jews still follow today. When you went in or out of the house, you touched a little box that was affixed to one of the door­posts. The little box, made of wood or metal, contained a piece of paper. On one side of this piece of paper were written a few texts from Deuteronomy and on the other the words "the Almighty."

When you performed your morning prayers, you did not do so with folded hands and closed eyes. Before you began your prayers you bound special boxes, containing biblical passages, with leather straps over the forehead (between the eyes) and around the left arm (at the height of the heart).

In Exodus Moses tells the people how they later must celebrate the Passover feast and how an Israelite had to explain to his son, why they ate unleavened bread at this occasion. The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt in a very impressive manner. This must continually have their attention:

You shall have the record of it as a sign upon your hand, and on your forehead as a reminder, to make sure that the law of the Lord is always on your lips.

Later Moses yet again urges the Israelites that they must love the Lord with heart and soul. They have to teach this to their children and be busy with it on a regular basis. And then we read:

These commandments which I give you this day are to be kept in your heart; you shall repeat to your sons, and speak them indoors and out of doors, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on the hand and wear them as a phylactery on the forehead; write them up on the door posts of your house and on your gates.Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:18-21

The Israelites who took this literally attached such a box to the doorpost – and when they passed it they had to touch it for a moment and remember the words it contained: you belong to the Lord, who set you free, you may live with Him, your life may unfold according to His wise words.

The boxes that they made for their foreheads and arms also reminded them of this, when they began their prayers.

Tassels as Memory Aids←⤒🔗

A third remarkable custom of the Israelites was that they attached tassels, with a violet thread woven into it, to the four corners of their garments – a kind of (prayer) shawl. This the Lord had prescribed in Numbers 15. The intention was that every time you saw them, you were reminded of your service to Him.

Each time you were reminded: I must not do what seems good or fun to me, no, I am consecrated to God and may this stamp my life. He has set me free and He deserves it that I place my life at His service.

So the Israelites, young and old, going in or out, at prayer, or just walking about were constantly reminded in their dress: you may serve God.

Live before the eyes of God: in what you think – with your head; by what you feel and want – with your heart; in what you do – with your hand. Keep God in mind and take Him into account at all times!

Apartheid←⤒🔗

We no longer keep these Jewish customs. But we do well to ask ourselves: how do we give form to what was intended by them? Israel was freed from Egypt, passed through the Red Sea, with as destination the promised land. Also in our lives, and in that of our older and younger children, this was once referred to when we were baptized. Baptized people are set apart from the beginning of their lives; they were put by the Lord in a special position. As immature infants they were stamped as His property. In the prayer at our baptism it was said that we would learn to take up our cross – each day; to follow Christ and live under His reign; energetically fight against sin, the devil and his whole dominion. These words tell us, that we are dealing with oppo­sites, dividing lines, antithesis. And in order to stay on the right side of the dividing line, apart from the world that does not want to know God, we received a separate education. If all things are well, we, while growing up, will have become more and more aware of what this means for our lives, for our thoughts, and for our acts. If all things are well, we ourselves will experience and give much more form to this apartheid and set an example for our children. That requires a lot. Fortunately, however, we do not have to do it all by our­selves. We can fall back on the church commu­nity to which we may belong. A community that the Lord gives to us. And in which He also gives us to others. We, after all, do not only want to profit and consume for ourselves, but we also may make contribution to the spiritual growth of the community and help others. So we can – without tassels and phylac­teries – remind ourselves and each other of our special position as a people that may belong to God and for that reason may be ruled by His word and command.

Inspired Centre←⤒🔗

So our life may be stamped by our faith in Him. A faith that is not a pro memory-post­ – oh, yes, that is there still as well – but one that is central to our lives, it inspires and permeates everything. A faith that makes our lives as one: in thought and action, in work and relaxation, in all things we may live before the Lord. We work, study and amuse ourselves before His eye. That needs not be an oppressive thought. It can precisely give us an awareness of having room to breathe in relief. A feeling of liberation and joy, because God is our king and His desire to have us as His subjects.

Life with God brings us to our destination. That we may also hold up before our children with words and deeds, also when we teach them that we and they stand deeply apart in this world.

Tradition, Compass or Radar?←⤒🔗

Does this standing-apart mean that we huddle together and hide from the evil world? Does this become a negative attitude? Do we let ourselves be ruled in our faith by fear? Do we make a choice for hiding ourselves fearfully behind what is familiar to us and clinging to what we have always said and thought?

No doubt, that happens, but it does not have to be that way. The American sociologist David Riesman has provided us with an interesting analysis. We follow here the description that H. J. H. Brentjes gives of it in his book Visies op jeugd.

Riesman divides people in roughly three types. There are people who are focused on the tradition. A second type is inner-directed and a third group that let themselves be dominated by others.

• The type defined by tradition fits well in a society that is stable and tightly structured. In Western Europe this was the case during the Middle Ages. Such a society does not acknowledge change. Values and rules and how you ought to live are passed on from father to son. The younger generation grows into such a society by carefully memorizing what they are told and by adapting themselves to the estab­lished (hierarchical) relationship. Because law and precept are the norm in this society, you could see the code of law as its symbol.
   
• When a society develops drastically and changes, as Western Europe did during the Renaissance and Reformation, it becomes important that people develop a conscious individuality. They can no longer just fall back on tradition, but must possess an inner conviction. Then your personal conscience deter­mines how you will act. Young people, therefore, need to be made aware of what is at stake. Unlike Catholicism, the Protestants did not find careful conformation to external rules all that important. For them it was especially that you, with God's Word as a firm guideline, stood by your convictions no matter what. To be inner-directed can be symbolized by a com­pass. You can go in different directions, but you let yourself be guided by a given orienta­tion point.
   
• In our contemporary pluriform society all kinds of values and norms stand side by side. It should be possible that there are many opinions and perspectives in one society. Change and relativity are data that you cannot get around. Whether or not living-together is then possible, depends on whether or not you together can come to good agreements. In order to function well in such a society, you must develop another feeling for life, in which you relativize yourself and your opinions. Change reduces tradition to one of the possi­bilities from which you can choose. And relativity makes it impossible that the indi­viduals are focused on a communal ideal. In education you, therefore, must teach young people to be flexible, so that they can quickly orient themselves on the behaviour of others and be able to adapt themselves to the situation at hand. This being conditioned by others around you can be symbolically represented by the radar screen.

Thus far a simple sketch of Riesman's ideas, which can clarify our view of things and can help us in our consideration about learning to believe.

Ruled by Tradition?←⤒🔗

As believers we may continually be and become aware, that we may belong to God. This is so fundamental for our existence, that it becomes the framework for everything we think and do. This faith conviction is then determinative for our whole way of living, also in the little things of each day. And we always hold this up and tell it to our children as well, namely that a Christian existence has its own orientation, colour, and draught and makes us stand apart in this world.

We asked the question: Does this mean that we hide ourselves from the evil world; that our faith is ruled by fear; that we cling to the old and familiar and seek support in the tradition? It may sometimes look like that. That attitude is certainly there. Let me put it clearly: we do not need to throw tradition over board just because it is something of the past. What was said and written in reformed circles in the past is not by definition out of date and no longer applicable to the today's questions. In these traditional opinions and attitudes the answer was given to problems of that time. And the times do change, but there is also a continuing line. There is continuity: many problems of the past are also questions of now and of the future. They are perhaps different in form, but fundamentally they are variation on the same theme. It would, therefore, be very short­sighted to throw all thoughts of the past over board, to consider them without value and to start all over again.

No break with tradition then. But no letting yourself just be dominated by tradition either. The answer of then was indeed the answer of then. The positive aspect of it must also be taken over today, but that concerns more the underlying intention than the time-bound form.

When you handle past solutions as a code of law; when you conform yourself to tradition as to precepts without further ado; when you take over the rule because it is after all a rule and not because you have the inner conviction that you have to give your being a Christian this form – can it then not create the impres­sion that being a Christian is out of step with the present? We are, however, called to be Christians in this time and to follow Christ in contemporary situations as well.

We must, therefore, certainly not break with the past, but use for the questions of today what was valuable in bygone days. But we add: that can well ask for other forms that suit the changed circumstances of today.

Adaptation to Today?←⤒🔗

On the other hand we must guard against being so open to the signals of contemporary culture that our own choice of position virtu­ally disappears. We encounter all kinds of thinking and patterns of behaviour that have drastically changed over time. And those who go along with the times must, therefore, then be very sensitive to the trends, be flexible and be aware of the relativity of everything, one's own opinion as well.

You must scan the group to see what is there and then adapt yourself to it. Your radar screen catches the signals from your environ­ment and they determine your course. Many people today live that way; they let themselves be dictated by their environment in what they must think and do. If we are in search of our own experience and style of our separate Christian life, this approach cannot be determi­native. We, therefore, must distance ourselves clearly from this position and its infectious activity.

One's Own Compass←⤒🔗

What then? No living according the tradition without further ado; no steering from the outside via radar signals; but setting a course via one's own inner compass that directs us to the good orientation point.

We must not let the past dictate the law to us and do things as they were done in the past just because they were done that way. We must neither let ourselves be directed by the continually changing opinions of people around us. We may indeed make use of much that is valuable in tradition and we may have an open eye and feeling for the present situa­tion. We, however, want to live from the inside, directed by a finely tuned inner com­pass. So each of us, young and old, may give form to being a Christian in our own way, with our own capacities, according to our own character and our whole personality: to follow

Christ in the twenty-first century, to focus on Him in the search for answers to the questions we face, to look at all things from the perspec­tive that knowing Him provides. You then live not according to external rules and do not let yourself be dominated by opinions of others in this time. You, however, have your own conviction, ruled by the word and command of God. An inner compass that shows you the way, also when you run aground in an area where tradition does not provide the solution and where the ever changing currents of contemporary thinking do not lend support. With it you eventually dare to be a Daniel and have the courage to stand on your own.

Living from Within←⤒🔗

In Jeremiah we read that God announces a new covenant (31:31-34):

I will set my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will become their God and they shall become My people. No longer need they teach one another to know the Lord; all of them, high and low alike, shall know Me says the Lord...

And Paul writes about how the people who belong to God are equipped and grow in faith and knowledge to mature manhood in the full stature of Christ by the gifts that Christ gives in His church (Ephesians 4:7-16):

We are no longer to be children, tossed by the waves and whirled about by every fresh gust of teaching, dupes of crafty rogues and their deceitful schemes. No let us speak the truth in love; so that we fully grow up into Christ. He is the head, and on Him the whole body depends.

We and our children may grow into this Christian maturity, in which our standing-apart becomes apparent by living from within, according to our inner compass that is set to the true North, our Lord.

For our faith and our learning to believe, it then seems to me of great importance that we are clearly aware, experience and set an example.