Tag Archives: Rule Keeping

Chapter-a-Day

New Things Come

Leave a comment

Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.
Hebrews 8:1-2 (NIV)

He walked up to me after I’d given a message about Sabbath rest. He wasn’t mean or angry, but he was definitely not happy with me. I live amidst a culture that has traditionally been religiously rabid about Sabbath keeping. I have heard so many stories from adults who spent their Sundays growing up sitting in chairs in the living room. The entire family listening to the clock tick. Other stories recount hair-splitting legalism worthy of Jesus’ day. Tossing a football was okay, but organizing a game was work and that broke the Sabbath.

In my message, I taught that this kind of legalistic rule-keeping Sabbath worship was never the point, it was not what Jesus taught, nor does it resonate God’s intentions for us. Sabbath is about needing rest for our spiritual, mental, physical, relational, and communal health.

The man informed me that he held his family to strict Sabbath keeping and wanted me to know that I’d just thrown him under the bus in the minds of his children. I hope that the family conversation that afternoon was productive and healthy for all of them.

In today’s chapter, the author of Hebrews continues his discussion of Jesus as the cosmic, eternal High Priest of heaven. In fact, the author states that this is his main point. For the first-century Jewish believers to whom he is writing, this resonates deeply. It echoes their entire life experience. They intimately know the temple in Jerusalem, the priestly system of worship, offering, and sacrifice.

As a believer growing up in Protestant midwest Iowa, not so much.

And yet, this is part of a thread of the Great Story that is crucial to understanding all of it. If I miss this, it’s like watching the original Star Wars movie and thinking Luke and Darth Vader are unrelated antagonists. It’s like reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and thinking Snape is a cookie cutter villain.

The metaphor of temple is woven into the tapestry of the Great Story itself:

  • In Eden, the whole world was God’s temple.
  • In Exodus, God compresses His presence into a tent tabernacle.
  • In Solomon’s day, that becomes a stone temple.
  • In the prophets, God promises a greater dwelling.
  • In Jesus, the temple becomes flesh.
  • At Pentecost, the temple becomes the people. You and me.
  • In Revelation, the temple becomes the entire renewed creation—
    a holy city that is a Holy of Holies, illuminated from within by the Lamb who is the sanctuary.

Everything is moving toward union, presence, intimacy…
and the erasure of every barrier between God and humanity.

Notice, however, the changes that come with the progression. My legalist Sabbath keeper brothers and sisters want to live in an Exodus paradigm, when Jesus changed all of that. The author of Hebrews says it plaining in the chapter. First in quoting the prophet Jeremiah:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant…

It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt…

I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.”

No longer a legal written code to be kept like a rule book. The new covenant Jesus made put God’s Spirit into our very bodies, minds, and hearts. It’s not about behavior modification from adherence to an outside set rules, but life transformation from God’s holy presence within me.

The author ends the chapter writing:

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Old things pass away. New things come. The story of Scripture is not God demanding a temple and religious rule keeping.

It is God refusing to live without me.

It is God shrinking Himself from cosmos → tent → body → Spirit
so that He might enlarge me from dust → disciple → temple → bride → city of God.

Jesus said He was the temple. It was God saying:

“Where I dwell is not a building.
It is with you. It is in you.
And one day, my beloved,
it will be the whole world again.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
A logo featuring an open book icon with an orange background, representing a spiritual or religious theme.
Chapter-a-Day

Opposition!

Leave a comment

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
Mark 2:18 (NIV)

One of the things that I have learned along my life journey and in my career is that when you step up into the spotlight in front of a group of people, and you have something to say, you make yourself an easy target. When the something you have to say pushes against the orthodoxy of whatever group you’re addressing, then you’re an easy target stirring a hornet’s nest.

Mark’s biography of Jesus is the shortest of the four biographies of Jesus known as the “gospels” (Gospel means “good news”). In fact it’s 3700 words shorter than the next one on the list as far as word count (John) and almost 10,700 words shorter than Luke’s account.

What that means is that Mark is moving fast through the story and he’s only sharing the essentials. John wrote at the end of his biography that if all the stories were told about Jesus that could be told then all the libraries in the world could not contain them all. So, it begs the question of me as a reader, what can I learn from the choices Mark is making?

In today’s chapter, Mark shares four quick scenes from the early days of Jesus’ ministry. In each of the four, Jesus’ words or actions are challenged by others. Three of the four challenges come from different constituencies.

Jesus tells a man that his sins are forgiven, and “teachers of the law” told him he’d committed blasphemy. “Teachers of the law” refers to Scribes, which can be considered vocational lawyers who spent their lives interpreting the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Bible).

In the next scene, Jesus is having dinner with His new disciple, Levi (Matthew). Matthew was a tax collector, which meant he was seen as a Roman collaborator, he had money, and he didn’t hang out with good, religious Jews. Jesus is challenged by “teachers of the law who were Pharisees.” The Pharisees were a quasi-political party who held sway over the Jewish religion in Jesus’ day. So these challengers were not only vocational lawyers, but they were members of the most powerful political party within the rulers of Judaism. They challenged Jesus for mingling with socially and religiously unacceptable people.

As Jesus is beginning His ministry, His cousin John the Baptist, is at the height of his own popularity. John was rogue preacher. The same religious and political establishment who challenged Jesus, challenged John as well. John had a huge following with a lot of his own disciples. So in this next scene, it becomes clear that John has his disciples fasting and they notice that Jesus’ disciples are not. I love that Mark mentions “some people” who questioned this because along my life journey I’ve had many experiences with being told that “some people” have taken issue with something I’ve said or done. Even Jesus is getting the “some people” challenges from within the constituency of people who would naturally be His likely supporters and followers.

The final scene Mark shares has to do with rule-keeping. This time it is the straight-out members of the Pharisees who challenge the fact that Jesus’ disciples were picking off grain in a field for an afternoon snack. It happened to be the Sabbath, a religious day of rest that Pharisees policed to a fault.

In these four scenes, mark is telling us:

Jesus claimed to have the divine authority to forgive sins, and did a miracle to prove it. The religious establishment called it blasphemy.

Jesus socialized with people who were socially unacceptable to the fundamentalist and orthodox religious set.

Even the anti-establishment, populist types who were followers of John and were keenly interested in what Jesus was doing challenged the fact that He didn’t demand the same rigorous spiritual disciplines that John did.

And Jesus taught His disciples to follow the Spirit of the law of the Sabbath and not worry so much about the rule-keeping bureaucrats who took it upon themselves to police such things and punish the rule-breakers. Those rule-keeping bureaucrats got stirred up like hornets when Jesus claimed that His authority as “Lord of the Sabbath” trumped their authority as bureaucratic, establishment minions.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of a quote by Albert Einstein who said that “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” I can’t help but be reminded that life is not only full of challenges, but also challengers. Mark seems to be telling me that Jesus Himself was challenged and opposed on all sides by both His supporters and His detractors. In the same way, I can expect to be challenged when I am being who God calls me to be, doing what God calls me do to, just like Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus, I already know what He expects of me when challenged. It starts in my spirit which He tells me should be love, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. It then comes out in the form of blessing and praying for those who challenge me, hate me, and say all sorts of bad things about me. Jesus said,

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”
Matthew 5:11-12 (MSG)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Law of Love

Leave a comment

The Law of Love (CaD Rom 13) – Wayfarer

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Romans 13:9 (NIV)

Those who have never read The Lord of the Rings and have only watched the movies miss out on the book’s masterful conclusion. The fallen wizard, Saruman, does not die as the movies depict. Rather, Gandalf makes multiple attempts to give his colleague a chance to repent of his folly and come back to reason. Gandalf offers Saruman grace and mercy.

Saruman’s hard heart flatly refuses the offer. Unbeknownst to Frodo and company, the wizard uses his skills as a deceiver to raise a following of ruffians and travels to the Shire. He and his men take control and wreak havoc on the Hobbits’ homeland. When Frodo and his three companions finally arrive back in the Shire they find it barely recognizable because of the rules that had been implemented:

“Then the four companions went into the hobbit guard-house and made themselves as comfortable as they could. It was a bare and ugly place, with a mean little grate that would not allow a good fire. In the upper rooms were little rows of hard beds, and on every wall there was a notice and a list of Rules. Pippin tore them down. There was no beer and very little food, but with what the travellers brought and shared out they all made a fair meal; and Pippin broke Rule 4 by putting most of next day’s allowance of wood on the fire.”

This scene came to mind this morning as I pondered today’s chapter, in which Paul reiterates Jesus’ teaching regarding the Law of Love. Paul has waxed eloquent for several chapters regarding the Law of Moses and the rule-keeping that his Jewish brothers and sisters took so seriously. Now, he brings the conversation back to Jesus’ own teaching on the subject:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the “bare and ugly place” that the Shire becomes when it was enslaved by systemic rule-keeping. It is such a great metaphor for lives that become enslaved by religious rule-keeping. I love that Jesus came to free us from that burden and placed on us one simple law of love that is summed up in two commands: Love God. Love others. If I truly live by these two commands, all the other rules will take care of themselves.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

From Rules to Raspberries

2 Comments

From Rules to Raspberries (CaD Rom 7) – Wayfarer

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Romans 7:4 (NIV)

As a modern reader, I don’t believe I can fully understand just how rabid the Jews of the first century were about keeping the Law of Moses. In a general sense, however, I think we all have at least rubbed shoulders with fundamentalist-type rule-keepers. They aren’t hard to recognize. The emphasis is always on the obsessive-compulsive avoidance of things that are deemed sinful, the condemnation and avoidance of anyone who does them, and the strict upkeep of self-righteous appearances. I have observed that critics of Christianity love to use fundamentalist rule-keepers as being representative of all Jesus’ followers. It’s an easy target.

Over the 18 years I’ve been writing these chapter-a-day posts, I have often referenced the semester of college that I spent among fundamentalist rule-keepers. I have so many stories that are both silly and tragic. When I read Paul’s description of his Jewish brothers and sisters who were essentially fundamentalist rule-keepers (I believe they exist among every religion), I always think of that semester on a fundamentalist rule-keeping campus. It’s a handy point of reference.

I also realized as I was reading today’s chapter that in my mind I often swap out the word “Law” (referencing all of the 613 commands of the Law of Moses) with “Rules.” I have many life experiences with rule-keeping and rule-keepers.

In today’s chapter, Paul argues with his rule-keeping friends that laws don’t matter when you die. He uses the example of marriage. If a woman sleeps with a man while she’s married to another, she is committing adultery. If her husband dies, she is free to marry another man. He then goes back to the previous chapter in which those who are baptized are spiritually and metaphorically buried into Jesus’ death and raised into Jesus’ resurrection. Part of the “death” into which I was buried is becoming dead to rule-keeping. Part of the “new life” into which I was raised is the spiritual fruit production.

Just as the death of a husband frees the wife to pursue a new relationship, Paul says that rule-keeping died on the cross with Jesus. With His resurrection, we now have a new life with a totally new paradigm. We are freed from rule-keeping in order to increasingly bear the fruit of God’s Spirit:

Love that is increasingly evident in my life by my…
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Self-control

If my life is focused on being a disciple of Jesus, walking in His footsteps, following His example, and obeying His teaching, then I will increasingly produce these “fruits” in my life and relationships with every one, every day. I no longer need rules. The fruit of the Spirit in my life is evidence that I and my heart are ruled by Christ.

As I meditate on this contrast in the quiet this morning, I find myself so grateful for the freedom I’ve experienced from rule-keeping. I pray for those who are still bound in rule-keeping to find the live-giving grace of Jesus. I’m motivated to spiritually fertilize, prune, and water my life so that I can produce more love and all its flavors.

By the way, I used “raspberries” in the title of today’s post because when it comes to fruit, I love the flavor of berries. Also, it made for catchy alliteration! 🙂

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Grace and Merit

4 Comments

Grace and Merit (CaD Gal 4) – Wayfarer

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Galatians 4:9 (NIV)

One of the cornerstones of Jesus’ Message is that salvation is by grace through faith. Grace is unearned and unmerited favor. It’s not something one works for, achieves by effort, or earns by good behavior. It is through faith because the saving grace is activated by simply believing that Jesus is God’s Son who died for sin and rose from the dead.

I have observed along my spiritual journey that this rather simple concept is one of the hardest things for human beings to truly accept.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to argue against the Judaisers who had convinced many believers in Galatia that they must keep all of the rituals and rules of the Law of Moses to know Christ. Paul argues that the rituals and rules, whether pagan or Jewish, are a type of slavery that never ever leads to spiritual freedom and salvation.

There is something in human beings that likes rules, rituals, and regulations. We like merit badges, certificates of membership, and achievement awards. There are lifelong church members I know who still believe that when they die God will have all of their works weighed on His divine scales. They believe that if the good outweighs they’ll get their ticket through the pearly gates.

When Jesus talked about the Day of Judgement He spoke of there being one decisive criterion. There are those human beings He knows, and those to whom He will say “I never knew you.” What is really fascinating is that Jesus described some of those He never knew as individuals who did all the religious rituals and righteous rule-keeping.

As I read through the chapter multiple times this morning I felt Paul’s frustration. Many of the Galatian believers had experienced the spiritual freedom of Jesus’ grace through faith. To go back to religious rule-keeping is like willingly taking on the shackles of a human meritocracy that never ever leads to spiritual freedom and the saving knowledge of Christ. Paul came out of that very human system, and he knows where it leads. I can feel the passion of his pleas to the Galatian believers not to fall into the merit trap.

Yesterday I was asked about my daily ritual of this chapter-a-day meditation, blog post, and podcast. I have been doing it for a long time. Is it not a religious ritual? Yes. However, the discipline of meditating on a chapter, writing my thoughts, and publishing them is rooted in a desire to channel the love, grace, and spiritual freedom I have experienced in my relationship with Jesus into my ongoing spiritual health. Believe me, I have not earned anything by doing so. By the world’s blogging standards, the humble number of subscribers and followers I have after doing it for so many years is a complete and utter failure. Yet, I’ve never done it to earn anything. I’ve done it to daily give something. The love of Jesus that I have freely received and experienced compels me to keep doing so, And, wouldn’t you know it? I find that I am spiritually filled in the process of doing so.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Stupid Question (Or Not)

2 Comments

Stupid Question (or Not) (CaD John 5) – Wayfarer

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
John 5:6 (NIV)

Thirty-seven years he’s been an invalid. His family carried him to the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem and dropped him off to chill with all the other handicapped people.

Archaeologists have identified the place. I’ve been there. Historians tell us that the handicapped would often congregate around pools and springs in ancient times. Gentile shrines of that day, dedicated to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, often contained pools. The pool of Bethesda was said to have had healing properties. It was believed that when the water in the pool appeared to have been “stirred by an angel” the first person into the water would be healed. Archaeologists say the pool was roughly the size of a football field. Imagine how many handicapped and lame people would be along side waiting for an angel to stir the water. Besides, it was the Passover, and hundreds of thousands of spiritual pilgrims were in the city that week.

There he sat on his mat in the crowd, as he had been doing every day for…how many years? I have to believe he knew the regulars. They were his homies, his posse, the other “broken” people who were a drain on their families and society in general. The lame, paralyzed, blind, deaf, and dumb masses had all been told that something was wrong with them. Not just physically, but spiritually.

“You must have sinned.”
“Your parents must have sinned.”
“Bad seed.”
“Cursed by God.”

So they would gather and wait for Gabriel to stir the drink. Had anyone really ever been healed by dropping in the drink when they spied a ripple? What if they couldn’t swim? Archaeologists say the pool was 20 feet deep. Are you really going to throw yourself in to drown? I don’t think there was a lifeguard.

Into this scene walks Jesus. He’s still relatively unknown in Jerusalem, especially among the masses of Passover pilgrims. He walks up to the man and asks…

“Do you want to get well?”

On the surface, it appears a stupid question to ask a handicapped person.

The further I’ve progressed in my Life journey the more I’ve come to appreciate the endless depth of that question.

“Do you want to get well?” Because being handicapped has become your identity. These are your people. This pool is your home. Do you really want to leave the only life you’ve known for almost 40 years?

“Do you want to get well?” Because being handicapped has made you special all these years. No pressure to provide. Everyone is required to care for you. Do you really want to go back to being just another regular schmo like the minions who pass by the pool and pretend not to see you every day?

“Do you want to get well?” Because the moment you step back in your family’s house they will say, “You’ve got to get a job tomorrow morning and start contributing instead of taking from the family all these years.” Seriously, do you want to labor every day in the quarry with your brothers, or would you rather just hang here with your homies?

“Do you want to get well?” Because there’s all sorts of passive aggressive power in playing the victim card.

“Do you want to get well?” Because being an oppressed minority can be an addictively powerful drug that justifies all sorts of nasty thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors.

“Do you want to get well?” Because it’s really more comfortable to remain as you are rather than face the challenge of becoming the healthy, true self God is asking you to be.

Perhaps it’s not such a stupid question after all. Perhaps this is the question I should ask myself in all the stubbornly broken places of my own life.

Jesus heals the man. Reaching down to give the man a hand, Jesus says, “Pick up your mat and walk.” Jesus lifts the man to stand on suddenly sturdy legs, then slips anonymously into the bustling crowd of passover pilgrims.

The man is immediately condemned by the religious leaders for breaking code 356, paragraph 6, sub-section 2, line 8 of the religious law book: Carrying your mat on the sabbath “day of rest.”

I mulled that over in the quiet this morning. The religious rule-keepers are suffering from a very different sickness and paralysis of Spirit. It is, nevertheless, very real. Completely ignoring the miraculous power that has been displayed and the life-changing event that the man has experienced, they squint their beady little self-righteous eyes to pick at a minor infraction of their fundamentalist rule-book.

I’ve observed along my own journey individuals and groups with this same spiritual illness.

“Do you want to get well?”

In the quiet this morning, I’m considering the possibility that I know more people who would answer the question with either “No,” or “But, I’m not sick” than the number of those I know who would sincerely answer, “Yes, I do.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Of Corruption and Cravings

1 Comment

Of Corruption and Cravings (CaD 2 Pet 1) – Wayfarer

Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:4 (NRSVCE)

I ran across a quote yesterday by the Roman stoic, Seneca. He said, “all cruelty springs from weakness.” What fascinates me about this quote is the fact that Seneca was an advisor and tutor to the Roman Emperor, Nero, who was perhaps the most cruel of all Roman Emperors. It was Nero who burned followers of Jesus alive around his garden to provide light for his parties.

Certainly, Seneca had plenty of opportunity to witness cruelties we can scarce imagine in today’s world. It would appear that he failed in his tutoring of Nero. Nero eventually demanded that Seneca commit suicide, a cruel request to which Seneca stoically complied.

I decided to take a quick break from the chapter-a-day journey through Psalms and to finish this week with Peter’s second letter to followers of Jesus. The date of this letter is the subject of much scholarly debate, but in today’s chapter Peter claims to know that his death is soon in coming, and it is generally believed that Peter (and Paul, btw) was executed during Nero’s cruel persecution of Jesus’ followers whom he used as a scapegoat for a massive fire that burned much of Rome in 64 AD. Ironically, Nero’s subsequent scapegoating and persecution of Christians in coincides with Seneca’s ordered suicide in 65 AD. The playwright in me finds an intriguing storyline there.

“All cruelty springs from weakness.”

The quote came to mind once again this morning as I read Peter’s words “the corruption in this world because of lust.” My brain immediately paraphrased it as a parallel to Seneca’s observation:

“All corruption springs from lust.”

Corruption is everywhere. It’s particularly visible at this time as it is during all elections. Politicians and power brokers (on both sides of the aisle and in every arena) obfuscate, deceive, stretch truth, speak in white lies, and hypocritically change positions with the prevailing winds of circumstance and poll numbers. All of those dark ads with ominous tones and carefully chosen photos intended to make their opponents look like criminals as the ad itself bends the truth out of context to make it look as damning as possible. All of the bright ads making themselves look like saviors, and shining examples of goodness and light. It’s corrupt and it springs from lust for power, position, and money.

Along my life journey, my perspective about sin has changed. When I was a child I thought it was simply about rules and obedience. Between parents, school, church, and community I was taught a list of rules to follow and a fairly strict guideline for right and wrong, good and bad. As I got older, I found that I broke some rules religiously no matter how hard I tried not to. I also found that if I keep certain (easy) rules in public where others could see them, then it blinded others to the “ugly” rule breaking I did in private and outside of the public eye. That’s corruption, too. It’s a personal form of the same hypocrisy and corruption found in politics on a much grander scale.

This is what led Paul to write to Jesus’ followers in Rome: “Everyone sins and falls short of God’s glory.” Or, as Bob Dylan sang it in his modern psalm quoting Paul quoting the Sage of Ecclesiastes:

“Ain’t no man righteous. No, not one.”

I began to realize that the problem wasn’t the rules, the problem was my appetites. Some appetites were easy for me to control, but other appetites were seemingly insatiable. An appetite out of control is a craving, a lust. Appetites are natural, but an unchecked lustful craving of that appetite which leads to indulgence will always end in corruption of some form.

It’s easy for me to point to the unbridled lust for worldly power, wealth and prestige found in Nero and present day politicians. But, that only diverts your attention to easy targets and away from me. It is my out-of-control appetites which wreak havoc on my life. My appetite for rest turns into slothful passivity. My appetite for food turns into gluttony. My appetite for sex turns into pornographic proclivity. My appetite for security turns into greed and an insatiable desire for more of everything. My appetite for safety turns into a never ending quest to avoid all pain and suffering.

In the quiet this morning, as I ponder these things, I return to Peter’s letter. My rule-keeping self saw faith and salvation as the end result of obedience. By being obedient to the rules, I thought, I would arrive a place of being good enough to be acceptable to God. But that’s just the opposite of what Jesus, and Peter after Him, taught:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
2 Peter 1:5-9

Faith in Christ, salvation, and the cleansing of sin is at the beginning of the journey. It is the motivation. It is the spiritual catalyst that pushes me forward into increasing measures of goodness, knowledge, and appetite control. Not because I’m trying to earn something with my goodness, but because I’ve received something priceless in the gift of forgiveness, grace, and mercy that Jesus freely offers.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Of Rules and Appetites

Leave a comment

Of Rules and Appetites (CaD Ps 24) – Wayfarer

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
    And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
    who do not lift up their souls to what is false…
Psalm 24:3-4b (NRSVCE)

The further I get in my life journey, the more I’ve come to understand that the black-and-white behavioral rules of the most strictly religious groups are really about social control in which an institution or group exercise authority over another. The goal and benefit is a sense of order, collective security, and control. Within this type of system, the individual’s role is simple and strict obedience to the group’s behavioral rules (those written, and those insidiously unwritten but understood) under the threat of public shaming and being socially ostracized from the group. This type of system exists as religious fundamentalist sects and denominations, fraternal organizations, gangs, cults, secret societies, and the systemic equivalent can even exist in businesses, corporations, sports teams, and community organizations.

Systems like this have existed throughout history and continue to this day. It is this type of system with which Jesus conflicted in the Temple when he overturned the moneychangers’ tables and railed against the Temple’s religious cabal. It was this conflict that led them to treat Jesus as a threat who was to be ostracized and executed. It is the same system out of which Paul transitioned to becoming a follower of Jesus. Paul also was considered a threat they needed to ostracize and execute.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. It doesn’t really matter which system we’re talking about. They all operate the same way and follow the same basic systemic rules.

The problem with this type of system is that it chains the individual to the group rather than freeing the individual from self. Behavior modification is not about spiritual health but of social order. The individual tries to control behaviors rather than be spiritually transformed. Paul recognized that all the behavioral rules of the system only created more rulebreakers sneaking around in the dark breaking the rules and trying not to get caught.

Scholars believe that today’s psalm was a song David wrote to be sung as the people entered God’s Temple in Jerusalem. If you read it and imagine the Hebrews carrying the Ark of the Covenant (cue: Raiders of the Ark Theme) into the Temple as they sing this song you get the gist. It starts by asking the question: “Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?” (That refers to Zion, on which the Temple was built) and then “Who can stand in his holy place?” (That would refer to the “Holy Place” within the Temple as designed and prescribed through Moses).

The lyric of the song then describes who may do these things. The description is that of a good person, but here’s where translation from the original language (Hebrew) to English can make a huge difference. In verse 4 the English phrase “do not lift up their souls” has an original Hebrew physiological imagery that references the throat. Some scholars argue that the word picture here is more like “nursing an appetite” and the Hebrew word translated “false” is rooted in the idea of “empty” or “vain.” So it’s really about those who don’t nurse their appetites for things that are empty.

In the quiet this morning, that’s what really struck me. What I’ve learned along my journey is that all the religious and systemic rule keeping does not address the real issues of Spirit that lead to transformation. Keeping the rules so as to appease my church leaders, parents, college, pastors, teachers, and peer group in the attempt to avoid being shamed and ostracized did not transform my soul.

What really led to transformation for me was when I realized that all my human appetites were good and created within in me by God. Paul realized it too when he said “Nothing is unlawful for me. It’s just that some things aren’t beneficial.” My appetite for food, for drink, for pleasure, for rest, for sex, for relationship, for security, for peace, for affirmation…all of them are good and part of what God created in me. It’s when I “nurse my appetite,” any one of them, and indulge my good and healthy appetites in empty and unhealthy ways that I hurt myself. And, I bring the unhealthy results to every relationship and system in which I am a part.

It’s not about me behaving for acceptance in a system. It’s about me being the person, the true and healthy self, God created me to be. It’s about what Jesus said when He told His followers to nurse their appetites for the things of God, and not for the things of this earth (including the safety and acceptance of a human system). How can I “love my neighbor as myself” if my unhealthy indulgence of natural appetites is leading to my continual self-injury and disrupting my relationships, my work, my family, and my life?

What appetite am I going to nurse today? That’s the question as I head into the weekend.

Have a great weekend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

It Was Never About the Rules

Leave a comment

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Hebrews 7:18-19 (NIV)

When our daughters, Taylor and Madison, were young girls they were subjected to a fairly substantial system of rules. There were moral rules (don’t lie, don’t take what’s not yours, don’t hurt another person, et al). There were rules of health and hygiene (wash your hands before meals, no snacks before meals, cover your mouth when you cough, take a bath regularly, et al). There were rules of the family system (do what mommy or daddy says, put away your toys before bed, say your prayers, et al).

Taylor and Madison were both good kids, though they were certainly not perfect. Let me make two very important points:

First, I love Taylor and Madison dearly, but not because of the perfection with which they obeyed my rules! I love them because they are my daughters. They are God’s uniquely beautiful creations. They are inherently lovable, valuable and capable beings.

Second, the rules that I as a father subjected them to as young children had nothing to do with earning my love. Certainly there was a measure of pride and joy when they were obedient (which they did most of the time), and there was disappointment and even anger if they willfully disobeyed (trust me, I have stories). However, neither their obedience nor disobedience had any effect on my underlying love for them. The rules were about teaching them how to live healthy, productive lives, how to successfully live in relationship with others, and how to contribute meaningfully to the lives of others and the world as a whole.

In today’s chapter, a very similar distinction is being made that is critical to our understanding of both God the Father (God for us) and Jesus, God the Son (God with us). The law of Moses (that would include the Big Ten commandments and the more than 600 other rules) was the guiding force of Hebrew religion. The Hebrew priests, descendants of Aaron, along with the descendants of the tribe of Levi were in charge of these rules and the rule keeping. Rule keeping became the focus of the Jewish people as if being perfectly obedient to the rules put you in right standing with the Father. But no one became a perfect person by religiously adhering to a set of rules.

A priest is a “go-between.” Some one who represents others, intercedes for others, mediates for others, sacrifices for others before God. Jesus perfectly fits the definition of High Priest, but the author of Hebrews continues to make a very important distinction, that Jesus was not a High Priest  in the traditional, Law of Moses prescribed genetic line of Aaron. Jesus was a High Priest in the line of the cosmic, eternal, mysterious figure of Melchizedek.

Why is this important? It tells us that perfection of religious rule keeping was never the point to earning God the Father’s love any more than my love for Taylor and Madison being hinged on the perfection of their keeping the rules of my house. We are loved by God inherently because we are His uniquely beautiful, lovable, valuable, and capable creation. So loved, in fact, that Father God (God for us) made the ultimate sacrifice of sending Jesus (God with us) to free us from our silly religious rule keeping and to show us the deep, abiding, full, limitless, abounding, abundant LOVE that defines God. When conversing with God the Father, Jesus used the word “Abba” which is defined more commonly as we would use “Daddy,” “Papa,” or “Pops.” Jesus came as Priest, Mediator, and Sacrifice so we could understand that kind of loving relationship with Father God.

This morning I’m thinking about the ways that the rule-keeping paradigm keeps sucking me back into its false economy. I’m mindfully pondering how I actively continue my process of understanding “Abba” and digging into my relationship with Him. I’m reminding myself this morning of the reality that I know deeply as a father of Taylor and Madison: It was never about the rules, or the rule keeping. I am loved inherently for who I am as God’s child.