The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, August 22, 2010
Pentecost 13; 8:30 & 10:00 a.m., Holy Communion
“Our Attitude towards the Rules”
Luke 13:10-17
Opening Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, you have shown us a new way of relating to God in freedom without calculation; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to experience that new way in our lives, that we might truly know and express the love of our Father in Heaven. Amen.
Introduction
Why does so much religion often have a bad name? “It’s all about rules and regulations.” “They have such a ‘holier than thou’ attitude.” “They say one thing and then do another.”
It seems it was not much different in Jesus’ day. Looking back to today’s gospel story of the crippled woman, Jesus certainly didn’t think much of how the religious people handled the situation. They were so concerned about their rules and regulations; they got all upset when Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. After all, healing was work and you weren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath.
It is easy to for us to see how hypocritical these religious folk were. We know that God would want us to help a person out rather than deny them help just because of some religious regulation. So how is this story of use to us today?
It is useful because it brings us back to the centre of true religion. We may not have problems with healing on the Sabbath, but we can be just as guilty of misusing rules and regulations in other areas and so miss what Jesus wants for our lives. What is your attitude towards the rules?
Rules before People
Jesus’ opponents in the story were quite clear about their attitude to the rules. It says that they were indignant when Jesus healed on the Sabbath and that they told the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:14). Keeping the Sabbath as a day free from work was one of the commandments God had given to Moses. Keeping the Sabbath is a good thing – that was clear. However, what was not clear was how you define work. What was to be avoided in order to keep the commandment? The rabbis and scribes had developed a list of 39 categories of work to be avoided, each of which was further refined. For example, extinguishing or lighting a fire was prohibited as was walking more than a “sabbath day’s journey” which was set at 1000 yards. Medical treatment to save a life was permitted but not to be given for a non-life threatening condition. This is why the synagogue authorities were upset – the woman’s condition was not life-threatening. After all, she had suffered from this for 18 years! These people saw rules as protecting us from God’s condemnation. God’s rules were to be obeyed, even at the cost of good not being done.
Jesus’ attitude towards the rules was quite different. Jesus’ response to the ruler’s declaration about the Sabbath not being the appropriate day for healing was the exact opposite: “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (verse 16). The term “should not” has great force – something like “it is absolutely necessary that.” The day that God had set aside each week to free humanity from the bondage of labour was indeed a most suitable day for a person to be set free from the bondage of all that dehumanises and diminishes us. Satan’s kingdom brings bondage – God’s kingdom brings liberation. Jesus saw rules as providing us with God’s blessing. God’s rules were to be used, that good might be done.
The religious leaders had a fundamental flaw. They were putting rules and regulations ahead of people and their needs. The fact that this lady had been crippled for eighteen years didn’t seem to bother them. What upset them was that Jesus wasn’t obeying the rules as they saw them. To them, the system was more important than the people the system was designed to help.
Why is this wrong? Obviously, because in God’s eyes people come first. It is not that rules and regulations are bad, it is just that God designed them to help us, to give us a framework in which we can be able to love him and others. The crippled woman was in bondage. God wanted her free. The religious people’s use of the rules kept her in bondage. This was a misuse of the rules!
What would be some modern-day examples of a misuse of “rules”? Up until fairly recently there was the issue of what you wear to worship – people who wore more casual clothes were seen to be disrespectful. Snide comments would be given and people made to feel uncomfortable. This is not so much an issue any more – but for some, boys wearing caps is – I’ve mentioned this before. Now, the wearing or not of headgear is a cultural matter – not a religious one. I know there is the issue of respect for commonly held values and courtesy towards the feelings of others. (We worked a compromise where we said that wearing of caps in church was all right, but that they should be taken off for prayer.) However, the parallel with our story would be for a young person, unfamiliar with church, to come to worship and keep his cap on, unaware of common custom. Would you be more concerned to welcome and befriend him or would you be so upset by his wearing a hat that you would ignore him, or worse, speak to him on his first visit about not wearing a cap in church?
Thinking more seriously than the issue of dress, how do you relate to those in the congregation who differ from you regarding musical preferences in worship? Even more importantly, how do we react to people who may not look like they are “our kind of people” or are of a different colour and race or seemingly erratic or immoral in their behaviour? Do we just ignore them or make snide comments? This is what people hear when we react in this way: “Our standards of social acceptability and behaviour are more important to us than the fact that you are here to seek God’s presence in your life.” When this happens, we put rules and regulations ahead of people.
The Deeper Issue
Our relationship to God: But there is a deeper issue behind all of this that we need to be aware of. It has to do with how we view our relationship to God. A person who puts rules and regulations ahead of people reveals that their own relationship with God is more based on careful calculation rather than on generous love. “If I can just do such and such, I’ll have fulfilled my duty and be OK with God.” “I’ve gone to church today, and that should do me for the month!” “I’ve read the Bible three times this week – that should please God.” “I’ve done my volunteer work this month, so I’m keeping up my end of the bargain with God.”
The religion of rules and regulations asks, “How little do I have to do to meet God’s standards?” The religion of love says, “What more can I do to reflect God’s love?” The person following the first approach sees their relationship with God as something to be won and maintained through effort, something they have to deserve. The person following the second sees their relationship as something they could not earn, something God has given to them, that they do not deserve. Religion based on careful calculation results in smugness or uncertainty; religion based on loving gratitude results in humility and assurance. The first sets limits; the second knows no limits.
Parents know this instinctively in relation to their babies. I don’t think any of those here who are parents with infants would say to their child, “Well, I’ve changed and fed you just so many times today – that’s enough according to my baby book, so I’ve done my duty. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to get anything more out of me!” Now, you might feel like that from time to time, but I’m sure your response will be uncalculating and generous. You will give your baby what he or she needs. You relate to your children not from calculation but from love. It is the same with us and God. We relate to God not from calculation but from love.
God’s Relationship to Us: How can our relationship with God work like this? It works this way because this is how God has worked with us. God did not wait until we were good enough, until we had made the grade, before coming to rescue us. He knew that none of our calculating – our obeying the rules – would ever make us fit for his kingdom, so he took the initiative, out of love, to come and liberate us. “God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son…” (John 3:16).
When Jesus came, he himself demonstrated this way of relating to God. He didn’t calculate how much he had to do to please his Heavenly Father – he gave himself in total love to do his will, whatever it was. In total self-giving love, Jesus was able to stand in our place, on the cross, to pay the debt we owed. The Bible says, “This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). When we respond to that love – not by trying to earn it, which we can not do, but by simply receiving it, which we can do – Jesus comes into our lives and we become transformed. By his Holy Spirit living in us we are able to love him and to begin to let his love flow through us to others. This is how we can live out a religion of love rather than a religion of rules and regulations.
Conclusion
This is the life of faith we are called to live out. It is a faith which is based on Jesus’ love for us, not what we do for him. What is the state of your religion today? What is your attitude towards the rules? Are you in the calculation mode like those religious leaders in that synagogue? Have you smugly thought, “I’ve done all that can be expected of me; I believe in God, I do my duty to others; I’m OK”? Or perhaps this has led you into a state of deep uncertainty, thinking, “I’ll never make God’s grade; I can’t possibly do all he wants me to; I’m lost!” Either way you are trying to measure your relationship to God by rules and regulations. Spiritually, you are just like the woman in the story, bent over and crippled.
Jesus wants to liberate you from this bondage to the treadmill of self-effort. Jesus invites you to turn from trying to win God’s love through your own efforts, to simply receiving it into your heart. He calls you to straighten up out of your bent position to rules and regulations to the upright position of living out of his love in gratitude and joy. Whether you live with freedom in Christ or remain in bondage to rules is your decision.
Postscript
What does this freedom look like when it is lived out? The following story from an earlier era focuses on the issue of right dress and behaviour in church. I have used it before and the situation it deals with is not fully relevant to us here at St. Aidan’s, but it does speak most effectively to our attitude towards the rules, so that I why I want to share it with you once more.
His name was Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He was brilliant, rather esoteric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus was a well-dressed, very conservative church. They wanted to develop a ministry to the students, but were not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go there. He walked in to the main service with no shoes, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and sporting wild hair.
The service had already begun and so Bill started down the aisle looking for a seat. The church was completely packed and he couldn’t find a seat. By now people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill got closer and closer and closer to the front and when he realized there were no seats, he just squatted down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behaviour at a college fellowship, this had never happened in this church before!) By now the people were really uptight, and the tension in the air was thick. About this time, the pastor realized that from way at the back of the church, the head sidesperson was slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the man was in his eighties, had silver-grey hair, a three-piece suit, and a pocket watch. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walked with a cane and as he started walking toward this boy, everyone was saying to themselves, “You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?”
It took a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church was utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes were focused on him. You couldn’t even hear anyone breathing. The people were thinking, “The rector can’t even preach the sermon until the Head Sidesperson does what he has to do.”
And then they saw the elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowered himself and sat down next to Bill to worship with him so he wouldn’t be alone. Everyone was deeply moved. When the rector gained control he said, “What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.”
