I have a thing about “rules.” Like most individualistic Americans, I’m not a huge fan of them. But like most Good Christian Women, I’m really good at following them.
Like that time they were doing road construction in West Duluth. My husband and I lived, worked, and worshipped in that neighborhood for several years. It’s fair to say I know my way around. But it wasn’t until I had dutifully followed the detour signs halfway around town, wasting fifteen minutes and way too much gas, that I began to wonder why I hadn’t just zipped onto the backroads and driven directly to my destination.
I was unthinkingly following “the rules,” putting policy before good sense.
Now, every society needs rules to function. When God established the people of Israel, he gave them rules and regulations to guide them–not because the rules themselves were intrinsically important (some were, some weren’t), but because Hebrew society needed a framework to run on, something that made sense in their culture. The rules weren’t always what God would have preferred (see Jesus’ comment in Matthew 19:8 about Moses allowing divorce because men’s hearts are hard), but they did stave off anarchy. God graciously met their society where it was at and gave people what they needed to function.
So I’m not talking smack about rules. But as a person who has sometimes mistaken her own personal or cultural “rules” for faithful Christianity, I am grateful when I’m challenged to look beyond them, and into God’s heart for people.
That usually happens when I listen to other people’s stories. When I listen hard, without getting defensive, whipping out prooftexts, or offering advice.
I am not always good at this.
I am afraid that at times, my “zeal for the Law” and desire for simple, uncomplicated answers has caused me to act like the rules themselves are more important than the human beings they were created for. I have been guilty of refusing to hear what people were trying to tell me about their lives (while pretending to listen, of course), because I didn’t want to deal with the implications of what they were saying.
Their problems were too big for my prooftexts.
But they weren’t too big for God. Or even the Bible, I have discovered.
I don’t think it’s any mistake that the Bible is full of stories–stories of brokenness and healing, stories of victory and failure. Stories of how God moved in the midst of colossal messes.
Stories that aren’t so different from the ones I hear on a daily basis.
When faced with sticky issues, we evangelicals are inordinately fond of whipping out our concordances and plucking proof-texts out of the Epistles. But what if we spent a more time sitting with the stories, mulling over the messes even godly people found themselves in, and looking at the ways God has worked in the past?
What if we prayed for wisdom to understand the principles God is trying to teach us throughout the entire, inspired scriptures, instead of relying so heavily on proof texts?
Like Jesus, we might wind up breaking some “rules.” But when we put God’s heart ahead of religious rules, we might also become a conduit for releasing God’s healing into crippled lives. It might even happen on the Sabbath.
How about you?
Have you ever offered a hurting person your interpretation of the “law,” when what they really needed was a listening ear?
Has anyone ever done that to you?
How can we do better?
“as a person who has sometimes mistaken her own personal or cultural ‘rules’ for faithful Christianity”
Just change that “her” to “his” and all I can say is OUCH, because it’s you and me both Sister. So you ask, “How can we do better?” I think the answer is in remembering that Paul told us the overarching rule under the New Covenant is:
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.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:9-10. See Galatians 5:13-14 for more of the same.)
I don’t like it when someone tries to comfort me with proof texts, so in order to love my neighbor as myself I should avoid doing it to others.
Tim
Amen! Have you ever read Walter Kaiser? I LOVE the way he explains the principles behind the law, kind of summing up your quotes from Paul.
I haven’t read Kaiser, but Andrew Farley gets into this as well in The Naked Gospel. Have you read that one? It was easily the most important book I read in 2011.
Wow, it’s so interesting that you posted this while we’re also having a comment/email conversation about the book, because that’s essentially our hope behind the book — that people will let go of their proof-texts (and with Catholicism, you don’t just have people quoting the Bible, but also the Cathechism and any Pope they can pull out of history) and realize that REAL people are struggling with REAL hurts, and walking with those people, or at least listening, is more important than being right. That’s never been our job, and it actually makes our lives MUCH easier to realize we don’t have to have answers (although it’s not always easy to sit with not having answers.)
This happens to me nearly every time I write a post for http://youngadultcatholics-blog.com. The first posts are almost inevitably from people trying to point out how and why I’m wrong. Whatever, I let them say their piece, I love free speech. But most people ultimately aren’t looking for instruction, and it can often drive people further from God even with the best intentions. But if you’re willing to listen, *let* me be wrong if I’m wrong, and *let* yourself be wrong, too, that’s when real connection and healing can happen.
Agreed. We can spend so much time and energy trying to “fix” people, when really, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit in their/our lives that does that. We can walk with people, listen and share, but doctrine isn’t going to heal anyone–doctrine isn’t Jesus! So excited for your book!
I remember an older Christian once finding out that the guy who just moved in across the street from him was a friend of ours. He asked if the new neighbor was a Christian and I said I thought not, but that the guy had been active in Young Life under my wife’s leadership and we still took him to church with us when he wanted. The older man asked why I hadn’t converted the guy yet. I replied, “Because I don’t do the Holy Spirit’s work for him.”