When I tell the story of my life, I often start with, “I woke up in the seventh grade.”
I say that because that’s when I realized I had no guide in my life. I didn’t know if this was a common awakening among middle schoolers. I just knew that I had concluded I would need to take charge of my day-to-day, orient myself to the landscape, and devise the plans for my future. It was up to me to figure out how.
So, as a start, I created some rules to help me get where I needed to go. Here’s two examples:
🔸I will always do my homework.
Rarely had anyone even asked if I had homework, much less had I completed it. It was time someone did that; and that someone was going to have to be me.
🔸I will never skip class.
I figured I would learn more by being there.
Over the years, I created many such rules, and they became the way I did life. In time, using my rules, I completed public school, then junior college, and eventually, a Bachelor of Science. That collection of rules was essential to shaping me into an adult.
Once I reached adulthood, though, I no longer needed those rules. I needed an entirely different approach to life, one that was far more flexible than the structures I had used to become an adult. Malcolm Goldsmith shared a similar conclusion in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. And he is right. My adult life works on a totally different level and in a totally different way.
This is not to say that rules are unimportant or that they are no longer useful. This is about subtlety and nuance. When I entered the working world, I sometimes had “homework” to complete before returning to work the next day. I did that work. But I didn’t do it because I had a rule to follow about doing it. I did it because I had chosen to follow a certain path in my work life, and doing that work was a reflection of my commitment.
This mirrors what we find in this week’s selection from Galatians. The Apostle Paul makes the point that the Law of Moses served as our “disciplinarian“ until Jesus came to justify us through faith. My early “life rules” restricted me, but they also guarded me until such time as I could learn an entirely new way to live. This is the role served by the Law of Moses. It set stringent restrictions on God’s chosen, shaping them into people who could receive Jesus when He finally walked among them. They became a people who could embrace His radical, more adult approach to living.
Alternately, if we continue trying to live our lives by subjecting ourselves to the Law of Moses, then basing everything on love might seem impractical, unworkable, even impossible. Living a life made up of love rather than rules—that would seem radical to a Law-follower. In fact, it only works properly if we start with faith. We cannot hope and we cannot love—we cannot even make sense of Jesus’ teachings—without first believing in Jesus.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that we can’t actually follow those rules, that we will always fail in the attempt no matter how hard we try. That’s why he calls on us to move on, grow up, and do the right things for the right reason—our faith in Jesus and his radical call to do all out of love.
We need to accept the truth about those rules. Yes, they got us to Jesus. But they can’t take us any further.
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PHOTO (and a humorous take on rules and laws in Paul Dickson’s The Official Rules). Here’s his author page on Amazon:
And, if you don’t mind a little 80s Christian rock music, here’s PETRA singing Beyond Belief (with lyrics on the screen):
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When DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday mornings, we enjoy good food, read challenging scriptures, and enjoy fellowship while sharing our thoughts. We meet both on Zoom** and in the function room at Our Breakfast Place restaurant from 8:00 to 9:00.
It’s nice. Join us.
Blessings,
Steve
**Contact me for the Zoom link
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Read them here:
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 42 and 43
Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm 22:19-28
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
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