The Reason For The Rules
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
Series I, Cycle C
When I was eleven years old I was a baseball player. Well, not really. When I was eleven years old I was on a baseball team. But, it wasn't a team, not really. I wasn't really a baseball player. Oh, I had a baseball glove, bat, shoes, and uniform. I was chosen to be on the team and was given a position. But I really wasn't a baseball player. I did not act like a baseball player. I did not know how.
We were not really a baseball team. We did not act like a baseball team. Oh, we had a schedule, played in games, even had a coach, for a while. But we were far from what you might accurately label a baseball team. We were horrible. We lost every game, some by the humiliating scores of 11 to 1 and 21 to 0. After our coach quit, early in the disastrous season, we even quit practicing. Some of our parents tried to hold the situation together. Abner Doubleday turned over in his grave. We were an embarrassment. People laughed at us.
Then the second year rolled around. White knights riding to the rescue were our new coaches, Bobby and Clyde Dial, cousins and both "baseball men." And we began to practice -- every day after school and twice on Saturday. We ran until we fell over. We exercised until we were so sore we could hardly walk. And we practiced the fundamentals. We threw until our arms wanted to fall off. We caught until our hands hurt. We slid until we had "strawberries" on our hips. Pitchers threw under a waist high rope across home plate. No high fat ones for our opponents. No carbonated drinks for us either. And we were disciplined -- on time for everything and early to bed.
Then the season started and it was the same song, second verse. We lost our first six games. Then in the seventh game something incredible happened. After 26 straight loses, we actually won a game. It was then that it happened. It dawned upon us that we could actually be baseball players and a baseball team. Instead of being defeated before we stepped onto the field, we now began to have a growing confidence that we could win. And we began to win as many as we lost. We played the undefeated league champions their closest game. Then in the last game of the season we were playing the second place team in the league -- one we had never beaten. Our third-string pitcher, Greg Cox, was throwing a four-hit shutout going into the last inning. The only problem was that their pitcher, Larry Crowder, was throwing a no-hit shutout at us! Then, as unlikely as it sounds, in the last inning, yours truly doubled over the third baseman's head, stole third, and stole home. And we won 1 to 0 on only one hit!
For the first time we were acting like baseball players. For the first time we were acting like a baseball team. The strict discipline and excellent coaching enabled us to act like and become what already we were. And no one laughed at us anymore.
This dynamic was similar to the situation that Paul sought to address in the church at Colossae. For two chapters, Paul has warned the struggling Christians not to fall for the false teachings of the Gnostic infiltrators. Then he admonishes: "You are a Christian! Act like it!" Paul reminds the Colossians that they have been "raised with Christ" (v. 1). They have "died" and their "new life is now hidden in Christ" (v. 3). The risen Christ is their "very life" (v. 4).
Paul's words here are reminiscent of his words in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he states, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (NIV). In verse four of our text, Paul reminded the Colossians that in his second coming, Christ would return for his new creation and take his children home to be with him in glory. He reminds us that Christ is our life in this world and in the next. We are secure in the world to come and can live this life as a preparation for the eternity we shall spend with him. Eternal life begins now. External life has a quality and a quantity that begins when we accept the Lord Jesus and it is continued throughout the ages. There is both a now and not yet to our life with Christ.
Therefore, we can "set our minds" (NIV), "fix our thoughts" (Goodspeed), "give our hearts" (Phillips) to/on things which are above (vv. 1-2). We can let our lives take on the character of the very one who has raised us to live his very life.
Earl Nichols recalls a word of advice given to him by an elderly minister. Nichols asked, "What do you tell someone who desires a closer walk with Christ?" "I tell them," he replied, "God forgave you! Act like it!" The old soldier of the cross' advice sounded much like Paul. There should first of all be a change of heart, then a resulting change of behavior. Act like the Christian you are!
Therefore, in verses 5-9, Paul gives a list of rules which are to be obeyed. Because you have "put off the old self" (v. 9), and "put on the new self" (v. 10), there should be a character of life that distinguishes us! There should be concrete indicators that we are in the process of "being renewed in the image of our Creator" (v. 10). One indicator is that we are living in obedience to God's rules for living.
Paul then gives a list of rules (vv. 5-9) of things the Colossians should not do. The list pertains to the church at Colossae at a particular time. It is not exhaustive. There might be other additions to the list of things that we should and should not do. The point is that there are certain things that a Christian should and should not do simply because one is a Christian. There should be an ethical dimension to our belief. There should be a practical application to our faith. Our new life in Christ should make a difference in the life we live. There should be a direct connection between the inner change and the outward behavior. There are things that we should and should not do simply because we are a Christian.
As a child and the oldest child, I often would grow tired and weary of my parents telling me to do this and not do that. I did not want to be told what to do. In my childish naiveté, I could not wait until I was an adult so I could "do whatever I wanted." I was like Simba, in The Lion King who sings. "I just can't wait to be king. No one saying: 'Do this; Be there; Stop that; See here.' Free to do it all my way. Oh, I just can't wait to be king."
It is said that when Elizabeth was a princess, before she was queen, she announced to her uncle, George V, "I am a princess and I will do anything I like." "No, my dear," he responded. "It is exactly because you are a princess that you can never do anything you like." There are rules to be obeyed. There are some things one should and should not do simply because one is a Christian.
So there are rules. If there are rules in God's economy, then there are reasons for the rules in God's wisdom. One reason for the rules is that adherence to the rules enables us to be the person we are, the person God recreated us to be. Obedience allows us to place ourselves in a position for God to continue his transforming work in us, making us more and more the Christian that we are. And that is a good thing. That is why we continued to show up for baseball practice even though we were losing the first six games. We liked the player and team that we were becoming.
There is an Old Testament proverb which commands that we should not curse a man who is deaf (Leviticus 19:14). Why? What difference would it make? He cannot hear. It does not affect him! Who does it affect? It affects us! If we do such a thing, we become the kind of person who would seek to damn someone, even someone who could not hear our defamation.
Sometimes I get perturbed in traffic, especially when another driver cuts me off or almost hits me while talking on the car phone. Sometimes I have been known to yell choice words at such dastardly violators! Why? They cannot hear me. I am affecting them in no way. I am affecting me. I am becoming the kind of person who yells like an idiot at someone else even when they cannot hear me. My friend, Jeff McEwen, shoots a prayer of blessing at drivers who cut him off! Certainly a better practice than mine. The point is simply that we become one kind of person when we obey the rules and another kind of person when do not. We become what we practice. Bobby and Clyde told us that we would play like we practiced. They were right!
Another reason for the rules is that these rituals give structure for not only keeping our commitments, but also for realizing the highest good within them. For example, when we enter into the covenant of marriage, we willingly accept certain limitations, not the least of which is that we reserve the expression of our sexuality to our marriage partner. This does not negate or restrict sexual expression, just the opposite. Sexual faithfulness allows us to know the highest and best expression of our sexual powers and pleasure which God intended when he invented sex in the first place!
A piano student accepts certain disciplines and restrictions upon her time in order to become the musician that she desires to become. While others are playing games, outdoors, she is practicing her craft with the desire to be an artist who performs while others are still playing games. A Christian accepts certain disciplines, rituals, and practices that others may not desire to follow in an effort to know a closeness to God that others will never know. Obedience to the rules, self-imposed or by God, provides a vehicle to keep our commitments and channels to us their highest benefits.
Receiving those benefits, even in installments, gives to us the motivation to persevere in faithfulness. It is like winning your first baseball game. You want then to win the second. So, you keep on keeping on.
Richard Foster, the great Quaker author, was in our congregation last year. He was asked the question, "How do you become a writer?" His answer was ingenius. He said that first you must go to your favorite department store, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or whatever. There you buy the largest container of glue that they sell. A gallon would suffice. You then take the gallon of glue home, enter your study, pour the glue into your desk chair, and then place your rear end in the glue. The best way to become a writer is to stick to it. Pardon the pun! I don't know if the rewards are the motivation to persevere or the rewards are the result of perseverance. Probably both! As with most things, there needs to be some kind of balance between the two. Adherence to the rules gives us the ability to keep the discipline, even when they become dull, routine, and boring! Which they probably will.
Keith Miller illustrates this point in one of his earlier writings. He said that it was his daily practice and routine to kiss his wife good-bye every morning as he left for work. He had to admit that this was not always an overwhelmingly warm, passionate exchange. In fact, he said that he had often gotten to work and could not remember if he had kissed her at all! But, he continued, if for some reason he deliberately did not kiss her, then this was a definite sign that something was wrong. Rituals give structure for keeping our life's commitments and realizing their maximum potential. Not keeping the good rituals can lead to the deterioration of our commitments and fulfillment.
Another reason for the rules is that they provide boundaries for personal safety and security. In verse 4 of our text, Paul proclaims that Christ is coming a second time to obtain his church. He is coming back for us. Our future is secure. We can live life to the fullest in the present knowing that our future is secure in the hands of God. We can live this life in preparation for the next. There is some truth in the saying that we are not ready to live life until we have faced death. Christ has faced death for us. In that we are secure. Being secure in our future, we can practice the present disciplines to equip us for continued life in eternity.
I wish that my motives were always that pure! Some of us most of the time and most of us some of the time keep the rules because we are afraid of the consequences if we don't. "Because of these, the wrath of God is coming" (v. 6 NIV). We have mixed motives! I would hope that I obey the rules because I am overwhelmed by my love of God and my sincere desire to please him. There have been a few times, possibly, when that has been the case. Most of the time, I must confess, I obey the rules because I am afraid of what could happen if I don't. Besides, if I wait until my motives are 100 percent pure to do anything, I may never do anything. I am just happy that God's motives are always pure and that he always keeps his commitments. In that I am secure.
I like security. What's wrong with that? The opposite is chaos. It is similar to the mother who grew weary at the lack of cooperation from her family. She stated to them that she had suspended the rules. And this applied to every member of the family, including her. If someone wanted a meal, they knew where the kitchen was located. If they desired clean clothes, the washer and dryer worked just fine and they could help themselves. She then stated that she was going to fix herself a bite to eat and get some rest. After 24 hours the chaos and confusion was so rampant, her family begged for a resumption of the rules.
Don Meredith told the story of his teammate with the Dallas Cowboys, Joe Don Looney. After a hectic career as a running back at the University of Oklahoma, Looney was drafted by the Cowboys where he immediatelyshowed a definite distaste for the rules. Once he entered the team dressing room and saw a sign over a hamper which read, "Please place your soiled articles here." Whereupon, Looney exclaimed, "No sign is going to tell me what to do." Then he threw his dirty clothes onto the floor. Meredith stated, "Never was a man so aptly named!" Sometimes it is chaotic or just plain crazy not to obey the rules.
Another reason for the rules is that obedience brings serendipitous joy. For most of my life I have been afraid of the will of God. I have nurtured the mistaken notion that if I surrendered "wholeheartedly to the will of God," he would call me to the darkest recesses of Africa where I would have to live in a tree and eat dirt. Surrendering to the will of God was only done with great dread and trepidation.
Hannah Whitall Smith speaks to this dynamic when she says that a Christian lady was once expressing to a friend how impossible she found it to say, "Thy will be done," and how afraid she should be to do it. She was the mother of an only little boy who was the heir to a great fortune and the idol of her heart.
After she had stated her difficulties fully, her friend said, "Suppose your little Charley should come running to you tomorrow and say, 'Mother, I have made up my mind to let you have your own way with me from this time forward. I am always going to obey you and I want you to do just whatever you think best with me. I will trust your love.' "
"How would you feel toward him? Would you say to yourself, 'Ah, now I shall have a chance to make Charley miserable. I will take away all his pleasures and fill his life with every hard and disagreeable thing that I can find. I will compel him to do just the things that are the most difficult for him to do and will give him all sorts of impossible commands.' "
"Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the indignant mother. "You know I would not. You know I would hug him to my heart and cover him with kisses and would hasten to fill his life with all that was sweetest and best."
"And you are more tender and more loving than God?" asked her friend.
"Ah, no!" was the reply. "I see my mistake. Of course I must not be any more afraid of saying, 'Thy will be done,' to my Heavenly Father than I would want my Charley to be of saying it to me."
Better and sweeter than health, or friends, or money, or fame, or ease, or prosperity is the adorable will of our God. It gilds the darkest hours with a divine halo and sheds brightest sunshine on the gloomiest paths. He always reigns who has made it his kingdom, and nothing can go amiss to him. Surely, then, it is only a glorious privilege that is opening before you when I tell you that the first step you must take in order to enter into the life hid with Christ in God is that of entire consecration. I beg of you not to look at it as a hard and stern demand.1 In his will is our highest joy.
I finally feel that our highest joy only is achieved as we keep God's rules personally within a community of faith. All of our lives we are personally updating the rules. As a child we are given rules by significant adults as to what we should and should not do. Part of the maturation process is to take these secondhand rules and personalize them as to their validity for our own life. Possibly for years we obeyed the adage to "look both ways before crossing the street" without even thinking. We did not have to think about it because there was an old parental tape playing in our subconscious mind to do so. Then one day we said to ourselves, "I wonder if they were right?" Then after not looking both ways and almost being run over by an oncoming vehicle, we step back on the curb and admit that, by George, they were right! We have taken a secondhand rule given to us by someone else, tested it, and made it a firsthand experience of conviction. It is true of our faith formation as well. As we experiment, we discover that most of the rules work, but some do not.
This time of vulnerable experimentation needs to be conducted in the context of a supportive and guiding community. Therein is the church. Here we are given wise counsel, prayerful encouragement and, possibly most of all, forgiveness.
Years ago, in a cartoon strip named Tumbleweeds, the captain of the fort sent his trusted scout to find out what was up with the Indians in their area. The scout returned, announcing, "Captain, I have lived with the Indians, eaten their food, taken part in their ceremonies, and listened to what they say."
The captain replied, "What have you to say?"
And the scout responded, "Get off our land."2
I am not for sure what all that means, but it could indicate that we are known and shaped by the company we keep. I also firmly feel that this disciplined group of persons, called the church, is our best hope of changing society for the better.
There is an old tale told of a time far away in a distant land. The elders of the land came to the king with matters of utmost distress. "It is tragic, O King. We must have your wisdom. Except for a small portion, our food supply has been corrupted to the point that if one eats it, he shall go insane. We can eat the contaminated food supply and all live but go insane, or we can eat the small uncorrupted supply and shall soon starve. Tell us, O King, what shall we do?"
Being a wise king, he deliberated for a while and then replied, "We shall eat the corrupted food supply and live. But we shall reserve a few to eat the uncorrupted supply. They shall be on a special diet. They shall exist to remind the rest of us that we are insane."
Keep God's rules. It might just help this world to become more of a sane place. It might even help to retain your own. It might even help you to become more of what you already are.
____________
1. Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (Westwood: Henning H. Revell, 1952), p. 49.
2. Sandra Hefter Herrmann, Ambassadors Of Hope (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1995), p. 47.
We were not really a baseball team. We did not act like a baseball team. Oh, we had a schedule, played in games, even had a coach, for a while. But we were far from what you might accurately label a baseball team. We were horrible. We lost every game, some by the humiliating scores of 11 to 1 and 21 to 0. After our coach quit, early in the disastrous season, we even quit practicing. Some of our parents tried to hold the situation together. Abner Doubleday turned over in his grave. We were an embarrassment. People laughed at us.
Then the second year rolled around. White knights riding to the rescue were our new coaches, Bobby and Clyde Dial, cousins and both "baseball men." And we began to practice -- every day after school and twice on Saturday. We ran until we fell over. We exercised until we were so sore we could hardly walk. And we practiced the fundamentals. We threw until our arms wanted to fall off. We caught until our hands hurt. We slid until we had "strawberries" on our hips. Pitchers threw under a waist high rope across home plate. No high fat ones for our opponents. No carbonated drinks for us either. And we were disciplined -- on time for everything and early to bed.
Then the season started and it was the same song, second verse. We lost our first six games. Then in the seventh game something incredible happened. After 26 straight loses, we actually won a game. It was then that it happened. It dawned upon us that we could actually be baseball players and a baseball team. Instead of being defeated before we stepped onto the field, we now began to have a growing confidence that we could win. And we began to win as many as we lost. We played the undefeated league champions their closest game. Then in the last game of the season we were playing the second place team in the league -- one we had never beaten. Our third-string pitcher, Greg Cox, was throwing a four-hit shutout going into the last inning. The only problem was that their pitcher, Larry Crowder, was throwing a no-hit shutout at us! Then, as unlikely as it sounds, in the last inning, yours truly doubled over the third baseman's head, stole third, and stole home. And we won 1 to 0 on only one hit!
For the first time we were acting like baseball players. For the first time we were acting like a baseball team. The strict discipline and excellent coaching enabled us to act like and become what already we were. And no one laughed at us anymore.
This dynamic was similar to the situation that Paul sought to address in the church at Colossae. For two chapters, Paul has warned the struggling Christians not to fall for the false teachings of the Gnostic infiltrators. Then he admonishes: "You are a Christian! Act like it!" Paul reminds the Colossians that they have been "raised with Christ" (v. 1). They have "died" and their "new life is now hidden in Christ" (v. 3). The risen Christ is their "very life" (v. 4).
Paul's words here are reminiscent of his words in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where he states, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (NIV). In verse four of our text, Paul reminded the Colossians that in his second coming, Christ would return for his new creation and take his children home to be with him in glory. He reminds us that Christ is our life in this world and in the next. We are secure in the world to come and can live this life as a preparation for the eternity we shall spend with him. Eternal life begins now. External life has a quality and a quantity that begins when we accept the Lord Jesus and it is continued throughout the ages. There is both a now and not yet to our life with Christ.
Therefore, we can "set our minds" (NIV), "fix our thoughts" (Goodspeed), "give our hearts" (Phillips) to/on things which are above (vv. 1-2). We can let our lives take on the character of the very one who has raised us to live his very life.
Earl Nichols recalls a word of advice given to him by an elderly minister. Nichols asked, "What do you tell someone who desires a closer walk with Christ?" "I tell them," he replied, "God forgave you! Act like it!" The old soldier of the cross' advice sounded much like Paul. There should first of all be a change of heart, then a resulting change of behavior. Act like the Christian you are!
Therefore, in verses 5-9, Paul gives a list of rules which are to be obeyed. Because you have "put off the old self" (v. 9), and "put on the new self" (v. 10), there should be a character of life that distinguishes us! There should be concrete indicators that we are in the process of "being renewed in the image of our Creator" (v. 10). One indicator is that we are living in obedience to God's rules for living.
Paul then gives a list of rules (vv. 5-9) of things the Colossians should not do. The list pertains to the church at Colossae at a particular time. It is not exhaustive. There might be other additions to the list of things that we should and should not do. The point is that there are certain things that a Christian should and should not do simply because one is a Christian. There should be an ethical dimension to our belief. There should be a practical application to our faith. Our new life in Christ should make a difference in the life we live. There should be a direct connection between the inner change and the outward behavior. There are things that we should and should not do simply because we are a Christian.
As a child and the oldest child, I often would grow tired and weary of my parents telling me to do this and not do that. I did not want to be told what to do. In my childish naiveté, I could not wait until I was an adult so I could "do whatever I wanted." I was like Simba, in The Lion King who sings. "I just can't wait to be king. No one saying: 'Do this; Be there; Stop that; See here.' Free to do it all my way. Oh, I just can't wait to be king."
It is said that when Elizabeth was a princess, before she was queen, she announced to her uncle, George V, "I am a princess and I will do anything I like." "No, my dear," he responded. "It is exactly because you are a princess that you can never do anything you like." There are rules to be obeyed. There are some things one should and should not do simply because one is a Christian.
So there are rules. If there are rules in God's economy, then there are reasons for the rules in God's wisdom. One reason for the rules is that adherence to the rules enables us to be the person we are, the person God recreated us to be. Obedience allows us to place ourselves in a position for God to continue his transforming work in us, making us more and more the Christian that we are. And that is a good thing. That is why we continued to show up for baseball practice even though we were losing the first six games. We liked the player and team that we were becoming.
There is an Old Testament proverb which commands that we should not curse a man who is deaf (Leviticus 19:14). Why? What difference would it make? He cannot hear. It does not affect him! Who does it affect? It affects us! If we do such a thing, we become the kind of person who would seek to damn someone, even someone who could not hear our defamation.
Sometimes I get perturbed in traffic, especially when another driver cuts me off or almost hits me while talking on the car phone. Sometimes I have been known to yell choice words at such dastardly violators! Why? They cannot hear me. I am affecting them in no way. I am affecting me. I am becoming the kind of person who yells like an idiot at someone else even when they cannot hear me. My friend, Jeff McEwen, shoots a prayer of blessing at drivers who cut him off! Certainly a better practice than mine. The point is simply that we become one kind of person when we obey the rules and another kind of person when do not. We become what we practice. Bobby and Clyde told us that we would play like we practiced. They were right!
Another reason for the rules is that these rituals give structure for not only keeping our commitments, but also for realizing the highest good within them. For example, when we enter into the covenant of marriage, we willingly accept certain limitations, not the least of which is that we reserve the expression of our sexuality to our marriage partner. This does not negate or restrict sexual expression, just the opposite. Sexual faithfulness allows us to know the highest and best expression of our sexual powers and pleasure which God intended when he invented sex in the first place!
A piano student accepts certain disciplines and restrictions upon her time in order to become the musician that she desires to become. While others are playing games, outdoors, she is practicing her craft with the desire to be an artist who performs while others are still playing games. A Christian accepts certain disciplines, rituals, and practices that others may not desire to follow in an effort to know a closeness to God that others will never know. Obedience to the rules, self-imposed or by God, provides a vehicle to keep our commitments and channels to us their highest benefits.
Receiving those benefits, even in installments, gives to us the motivation to persevere in faithfulness. It is like winning your first baseball game. You want then to win the second. So, you keep on keeping on.
Richard Foster, the great Quaker author, was in our congregation last year. He was asked the question, "How do you become a writer?" His answer was ingenius. He said that first you must go to your favorite department store, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or whatever. There you buy the largest container of glue that they sell. A gallon would suffice. You then take the gallon of glue home, enter your study, pour the glue into your desk chair, and then place your rear end in the glue. The best way to become a writer is to stick to it. Pardon the pun! I don't know if the rewards are the motivation to persevere or the rewards are the result of perseverance. Probably both! As with most things, there needs to be some kind of balance between the two. Adherence to the rules gives us the ability to keep the discipline, even when they become dull, routine, and boring! Which they probably will.
Keith Miller illustrates this point in one of his earlier writings. He said that it was his daily practice and routine to kiss his wife good-bye every morning as he left for work. He had to admit that this was not always an overwhelmingly warm, passionate exchange. In fact, he said that he had often gotten to work and could not remember if he had kissed her at all! But, he continued, if for some reason he deliberately did not kiss her, then this was a definite sign that something was wrong. Rituals give structure for keeping our life's commitments and realizing their maximum potential. Not keeping the good rituals can lead to the deterioration of our commitments and fulfillment.
Another reason for the rules is that they provide boundaries for personal safety and security. In verse 4 of our text, Paul proclaims that Christ is coming a second time to obtain his church. He is coming back for us. Our future is secure. We can live life to the fullest in the present knowing that our future is secure in the hands of God. We can live this life in preparation for the next. There is some truth in the saying that we are not ready to live life until we have faced death. Christ has faced death for us. In that we are secure. Being secure in our future, we can practice the present disciplines to equip us for continued life in eternity.
I wish that my motives were always that pure! Some of us most of the time and most of us some of the time keep the rules because we are afraid of the consequences if we don't. "Because of these, the wrath of God is coming" (v. 6 NIV). We have mixed motives! I would hope that I obey the rules because I am overwhelmed by my love of God and my sincere desire to please him. There have been a few times, possibly, when that has been the case. Most of the time, I must confess, I obey the rules because I am afraid of what could happen if I don't. Besides, if I wait until my motives are 100 percent pure to do anything, I may never do anything. I am just happy that God's motives are always pure and that he always keeps his commitments. In that I am secure.
I like security. What's wrong with that? The opposite is chaos. It is similar to the mother who grew weary at the lack of cooperation from her family. She stated to them that she had suspended the rules. And this applied to every member of the family, including her. If someone wanted a meal, they knew where the kitchen was located. If they desired clean clothes, the washer and dryer worked just fine and they could help themselves. She then stated that she was going to fix herself a bite to eat and get some rest. After 24 hours the chaos and confusion was so rampant, her family begged for a resumption of the rules.
Don Meredith told the story of his teammate with the Dallas Cowboys, Joe Don Looney. After a hectic career as a running back at the University of Oklahoma, Looney was drafted by the Cowboys where he immediatelyshowed a definite distaste for the rules. Once he entered the team dressing room and saw a sign over a hamper which read, "Please place your soiled articles here." Whereupon, Looney exclaimed, "No sign is going to tell me what to do." Then he threw his dirty clothes onto the floor. Meredith stated, "Never was a man so aptly named!" Sometimes it is chaotic or just plain crazy not to obey the rules.
Another reason for the rules is that obedience brings serendipitous joy. For most of my life I have been afraid of the will of God. I have nurtured the mistaken notion that if I surrendered "wholeheartedly to the will of God," he would call me to the darkest recesses of Africa where I would have to live in a tree and eat dirt. Surrendering to the will of God was only done with great dread and trepidation.
Hannah Whitall Smith speaks to this dynamic when she says that a Christian lady was once expressing to a friend how impossible she found it to say, "Thy will be done," and how afraid she should be to do it. She was the mother of an only little boy who was the heir to a great fortune and the idol of her heart.
After she had stated her difficulties fully, her friend said, "Suppose your little Charley should come running to you tomorrow and say, 'Mother, I have made up my mind to let you have your own way with me from this time forward. I am always going to obey you and I want you to do just whatever you think best with me. I will trust your love.' "
"How would you feel toward him? Would you say to yourself, 'Ah, now I shall have a chance to make Charley miserable. I will take away all his pleasures and fill his life with every hard and disagreeable thing that I can find. I will compel him to do just the things that are the most difficult for him to do and will give him all sorts of impossible commands.' "
"Oh, no, no, no!" exclaimed the indignant mother. "You know I would not. You know I would hug him to my heart and cover him with kisses and would hasten to fill his life with all that was sweetest and best."
"And you are more tender and more loving than God?" asked her friend.
"Ah, no!" was the reply. "I see my mistake. Of course I must not be any more afraid of saying, 'Thy will be done,' to my Heavenly Father than I would want my Charley to be of saying it to me."
Better and sweeter than health, or friends, or money, or fame, or ease, or prosperity is the adorable will of our God. It gilds the darkest hours with a divine halo and sheds brightest sunshine on the gloomiest paths. He always reigns who has made it his kingdom, and nothing can go amiss to him. Surely, then, it is only a glorious privilege that is opening before you when I tell you that the first step you must take in order to enter into the life hid with Christ in God is that of entire consecration. I beg of you not to look at it as a hard and stern demand.1 In his will is our highest joy.
I finally feel that our highest joy only is achieved as we keep God's rules personally within a community of faith. All of our lives we are personally updating the rules. As a child we are given rules by significant adults as to what we should and should not do. Part of the maturation process is to take these secondhand rules and personalize them as to their validity for our own life. Possibly for years we obeyed the adage to "look both ways before crossing the street" without even thinking. We did not have to think about it because there was an old parental tape playing in our subconscious mind to do so. Then one day we said to ourselves, "I wonder if they were right?" Then after not looking both ways and almost being run over by an oncoming vehicle, we step back on the curb and admit that, by George, they were right! We have taken a secondhand rule given to us by someone else, tested it, and made it a firsthand experience of conviction. It is true of our faith formation as well. As we experiment, we discover that most of the rules work, but some do not.
This time of vulnerable experimentation needs to be conducted in the context of a supportive and guiding community. Therein is the church. Here we are given wise counsel, prayerful encouragement and, possibly most of all, forgiveness.
Years ago, in a cartoon strip named Tumbleweeds, the captain of the fort sent his trusted scout to find out what was up with the Indians in their area. The scout returned, announcing, "Captain, I have lived with the Indians, eaten their food, taken part in their ceremonies, and listened to what they say."
The captain replied, "What have you to say?"
And the scout responded, "Get off our land."2
I am not for sure what all that means, but it could indicate that we are known and shaped by the company we keep. I also firmly feel that this disciplined group of persons, called the church, is our best hope of changing society for the better.
There is an old tale told of a time far away in a distant land. The elders of the land came to the king with matters of utmost distress. "It is tragic, O King. We must have your wisdom. Except for a small portion, our food supply has been corrupted to the point that if one eats it, he shall go insane. We can eat the contaminated food supply and all live but go insane, or we can eat the small uncorrupted supply and shall soon starve. Tell us, O King, what shall we do?"
Being a wise king, he deliberated for a while and then replied, "We shall eat the corrupted food supply and live. But we shall reserve a few to eat the uncorrupted supply. They shall be on a special diet. They shall exist to remind the rest of us that we are insane."
Keep God's rules. It might just help this world to become more of a sane place. It might even help to retain your own. It might even help you to become more of what you already are.
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1. Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (Westwood: Henning H. Revell, 1952), p. 49.
2. Sandra Hefter Herrmann, Ambassadors Of Hope (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1995), p. 47.
