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America's premier Protestant preacher of the early part of this century, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, once told a story from his early days as presiding minister of the great Riverside Church in New York. It seems that Fosdick, liberal by theological standards of the time, was turned off by much contemporary preaching with its emphasis on sin and threat. He vowed he would place his emphasis on the love and forgiveness of God. One day a man who had attended Riverside for several months approached Fosdick to say that although he was not a church member, he had found great solace in the preaching emphasis of that church. Several more months passed and one day Fosdick realized he hadn't seen the man for quite some time. He made some inquiries and learned that the man was currently in prison for embezzlement. Dr. Fosdick said this was quite a shock for him and made him realize that the gospel was not complete without an emphasis on the moral basis of the Christian faith.

Actually, the New Testament doesn't always seem consistent when it comes to rules and laws. Jesus taught that the love ethic which he embodied reduced all the laws to two: love of God and love of neighbor. Saint Paul in his letter to the Galatians examined this idea at great, if to some extent confusing, length. He held that laws were necessary until the time of Jesus, but were no longer needed once Jesus' ministry was completed. But the New Testament is filled with admonitions as to how a Christian is to act in a variety of situations. If these admonitions are not laws as such, they certainly serve a similar purpose. Clearly, if we could all embody the love of Christ in its fullness, we'd instinctively do what is right. But as yet that's not the case. Most of us still need guidelines for the practice of our faith in the arenas of life.

The Ten Commandments are a good start, kind of a moral backbone. But good intentions need some sort of practical guidelines as a way of helping us choose our course of conduct in the face of a world which often confronts us with difficult ethical and practical choices. This sermon is an effort to suggest such guidelines, with acknowledgement, incidentally, of a certain indebtedness to the above mentioned Dr. Fosdick who conceived the basic rules we shall consider. There are six.

First: The Rule Of Common Sense. Does what you are about to do comply with your inner sense of propriety? Does it make sense or is it silly? Take, for example, the teenager who considers dropping out of school after the sophomore year. At that age it sounds good to get away from the sometimes-drudgery of school, but surely every kid has been told the chances of more than a bottom-level job are exceedingly slim without a diploma. This will mean inadequate income, little job satisfaction, lost opportunities, and feelings of failure later on. How much wiser to hang in there.

What about the couple rushing into marriage? Scott Peck spoke a warning word when he said that sex is nature's way of trapping people into marriage. Not a very romantic observation, perhaps, but one with a lot of truth. So many people do this without first learning how compatible they'll be. Studies leave little doubt that without shared values, similar social needs, and so forth, the stress of marriage can quickly erode a relationship once the intense romantic phase settles into reality. Let it be said there are few more painful emotional trials than divorce. Also, there are few more painful emotional trials than a lifetime of marriage to someone with whom one is very unhappy. Better to wait and be sure. Having an affair -- that always ends in tragedy for someone. Not only is it wrong, but also it hurts everyone involved. There are other, better ways to solve the problems which prompt affairs.

Think about the job. Does it make any sense to quit a job angrily, or to cause the kind of trouble in the workplace that will lead one's superiors to privately desire one's removal? How much wiser to be a cooperative and efficient person on the job and thus greatly improve future possibilities. In any course of action, then, ask yourself: Does this make good sense?

Second: The Rule Of Sportsmanship. Is it playing by the rules of life? We may not all agree on the rules of life but for the moment, let's just accept your rules. They include a sense of ethics, do they not, an inner sense of right and wrong? Are you willing to live by those ethics? Would you want to live in a world in which everyone acted just as you do? Suppose your neighbors were to be exactly the kind of neighbor you are. If you're still in school and are tempted to cheat on a test, do you want to attend a school in which everyone is a cheater, including the teachers and the principal? Do you want to attend a church made up of people who cheat, including the pastors? If you're tempted to lie or to take something which isn't yours, would you want to live in a world of liars and thieves?

Some time ago, the national news services reported on a survey done in some universities to determine how widespread cheating has become. It was discovered that cheating is so widespread that some universities are automatically suspicious of anyone who gets a very high grade on a test. One university took the forty highest grades on a major examination and called each student in for an intensive re-exam. It was concluded that 38 of those students had cheated. Not many of us want to live in a world like that. But if we want it otherwise, we will have to act otherwise.

This is true of everything we do. If we misrepresent our taxes, or cheat on a loved one, or use deceitful business tactics, aren't we helping to create the very kind of world we don't want to live in? Jesus said we should "do unto others as we would have them do unto us." That's playing the game of life by the rules.

Knute Rockne had a poem on the wall of the Notre Dame locker room that may sound a little dated now, but its message belongs in every human heart. It said this:

In the battle that goes on for life,
I ask for a field that is fair.
A chance that is equal with all in strife,
The courage to do and to dare.

If I should win, let it be by the code,
My faith and my honor held high.
If I should lose, let me stand by the road
And cheer as the winner rides by.


No one likes to lose. But in the long run, "winning" is more than the outcome of any game. Cliche though it may seem to the cynics among us, winning eventually proves to be a matter of what kind of man or woman I am becoming. Saint John held forth a high standard for us Christians when he wrote: "Éwhat we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will be like him." Yes, but he's referring to the children of God. That may not happen unless we take seriously the rules of life: honesty, integrity, loyalty, kindness, love.

Third: The Rule Of Your Own Best Self. Each of us has an inner sense of who we are and what we hope to be. What kind of person are you? Do you have integrity? Do you want to be known in your vocation as a man or woman of honor, of unimpeachable honesty? I know a man who builds shopping centers. Some time ago, he ordered a very large quantity of high quality bricks to be delivered to a job site. When they arrived, the man went out in the evening to count the bricks which were bound together in easily countable bundles. He discovered that he'd received too many bricks, more than were shown on the invoice he'd received. He called the supplier and reported this. The supplier, however, assumed the builder was the one who'd made the mistake. So the man made arrangements for an official of the supplying company to meet him the next morning. Sure enough, too many had been delivered, a fact which would never have been discovered by the supplier. This man could have made a tidy profit by using the excess in another location and saying nothing. But his own sense of honor as well as his reputation in the trade were of far more importance. Since then, this man tells that, in a line of business where not everyone is honest, where cutting costs and shaving expenses is "the name of the game," his word is accepted without question, because people know what kind of man he is -- an honest man.

Another example comes to mind. The head of the local Goodwill Industries told me recently that a physically handicapped, minimum wage worker came to his office the other day. He held in his hand an envelope he'd found in an old pair of trousers which had been donated to Goodwill a few days before. In it was over a thousand dollars in cash. The boss expressed surprise that the man who had probably never had that much money at one time in his life had chosen to turn the money in. But the man was equally surprised at the question. He said he'd been raised to always be honest and he couldn't stand to think of himself any other way. What simple, unquestioning integrity.

Those of us who are older have learned that there is nothing quite so important as looking in a mirror and being able to honestly say, "I kept the faith. I'm happy with the kind of man, or woman, I have become."

Fourth: The Rule Of Publicity. Would you be content to have other people, especially the people who mean the most to you, know what you have done? Your daughter? Your mother? The people you work with? Several years ago, a friend of mine thought it would be a fun addition to a party to conceal a tape recorder on a coffee table around which some early arriving guests then gathered. Later in the evening, he revealed his big surprise. He played the tape to the sheer horror of everyone present, but especially one young woman who was heard to say something exceedingly uncomplimentary about another woman who arrived therafter. Needless to say, the party was ruined, several people were embarassed, and a friendship was ended. Of course, the host was at fault in a way. Yet one wonders: what if people knew what we are doing and saying?

Of course, there are highly personal matters that are legitimately exempt. But referring to the way we conduct our vocations, and the things we say about others, and our clandestine conduct, would all of this allow us to be proud of ourselves if the world knew? Hear the words of a man whose reputation is certainly known to every preaching minister, Phillips Brooks. "It is an awful hour when the first necessity of hiding anything comes. The whole life is different thenceforth. When there are questions to be feared, and eyes to be avoided, and subjects which must not be touched, then the bloom of life is gone. Put off that day as long as possible. Put it off forever if you can."

Fifth: The Rule Of The Most Admired Person You Know. We all have one or more people who influence our lives. Perhaps it's a favorite teacher or a minister. Maybe it's a parent or perhaps a colleague in your work. Or it could be a special friend. Maybe more than one of these. I have two friends, clergy, who have set standards to which I now aspire. Time after time, I have acted in a way I must admit was better than my impulses would have lead me to do because I knew that's how they would act. What about you? Is what you're about to do something you could feel good about if one of these people were to act the same way? Would that person be proud of you? This is an excellent question to ask oneself.

The Indiana Pacers of the NBA defeated the New York Knicks by two points in a hard-fought seventh game of their playoff series for the eastern championships. Pacer star Reggie Miller had embarassed himself and many of his admirers after their opening game with some things he had said about the Knicks. But Reggie was interviewed immediately after the final game in Madison Square Garden. His first words were "I want to thank Jesus Christ; he's why we're here." (Actually, they were there because Miller scored 29 points -- presumably some of the Knicks had also prayed.) But then he apologized in front of the entire nation for his ill-advised earlier remarks and said, "I was wrong." That took courage and integrity. For some of us, that, more than the high scoring game, qualified Reggie Miller as a role model for all the kids who want to be like him. To bear witness to his faith and to admit an indiscretion -- obviously, someone has set a high standard for that young man and in that moment, he was passing it along to others. How good the world begins to look when we can conduct ourselves in this way.

Sixth: The Rule Of Foresight. What are the probable consequences of your intended action? Of course, we can never know for sure, but we can have a fairly good idea. If things turn out as logic suggests is probable, will you be happy with that?

When I first entered seminary I, along with several other first year students, had spent several years in "the real world" before deciding to become a clergyman. So, too, had a new classmate. Toward the end of our first quarter, our class in church history gathered for our final exam. Those of us who had been away from the classroom for several years were quite apprehensive about the threat of final exams. Soon, the exam books were opened and we all began to write. Suddenly, we were appalled to see the professor walk over to the desk where my classmate was seated and roughly yank the exam booklet away from the poor fellow. For a moment he sat there, his face flaming red. Then quietly, he gathered his books and a briefcase and left the room. I never saw him again. He had cheated, and the professor had caught him.

I have often wondered about that man in the years since. What explanation did he give his wife and children for suddenly leaving seminary? Did he lie and make matters worse? Did he tell them what happened and forever lose their respect? What explanation did he give the members of the church which had proudly sent this second career member off to be a Methodist minister? How has he lived with himself? Where is he now? What is he doing? He never became a minister. What a tragedy, all because a man failed to think what his actions could cost.

There it is, then. A practical, down-to-earth formula against which to measure the daily choices of our lives. Does it make good sense? Is it faithful to the rules in which I believe? Is it true to the person I want to be? Would I mind if other people knew? Could I be pleased if the people I admire did the same? Will the consequences really be what I want? If the answers to all of these are "yes," then it's probably the right thing to do.