Recently, I got really tickled when reading
a Wall Street Journal column which portrayed
an electronic company office supply tyrant named Sam .
Here’s how the Sam worked:
Tracking all supplies by date, Sam would refer to
his records of your last paper-clip withdrawal to
determine if you really needed a new box. He would
require the stub of an old pencil before he dispensed
a new one. And the remains of an old pen had better
show no signs of chewing, which might have sucked
the ink away from the tip. If it did, recalls Mr.
Phelan, Sam would instruct you to blow the ink back
down the tube toward the tip. (August 23, 2007
“Cubicle Culture” column by Jared Sandberg).
Clearly, rules dominated Sam’s life.
And Sam made sure he dominated the lives of others by
rigid adherence to those rules. A commonly used phrase,
“it’s easier to apologize afterward than to
ask for permission ahead of time” can either justify
inappropriate actions or can recognize that sometimes
rules, like the one the above-mentioned Sam imposed, really
do need to be broken. When thinking about rules, it is
generally fair to say that the greater the number of rules
that govern the situation, the less intimate or powerful
the relationship. We all know people who are so “prickly”
that we have to mentally list the rules we must not break
when being around them for fear of inciting their wrath
or condemnation. Sam certainly sounds like one of them.
With people like that, we rarely experience freeing or
fun relationships, but fear and careful adherence to the
rules of the day dominate time together.
I think the same thing plays out in our
experience of God. More rules, less relationship. In the
Bible, we see a lot of stories about Jesus busily “breaking
the rules” of the religious power-holders as he
went about his business of healing and teaching and offering
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. One of my favorite
stories happens when, on a Sabbath day, Jesus appeared
to be hanging out with a lot of those religion scholars.
Now, the Sabbath was the day set aside to honor God by
not working but resting and enjoying the fruits of one’s
labor. In order to make sure that the Sabbath was properly
honored, the more religious people had set up a series
of rules to make sure that people didn’t accidentally
work on that day. And sometimes following all those rules
was a lot of work!
In this particular story, Jesus was approached
by a man who was quite ill. Jesus, perhaps intending to
tease the religious leaders a little bit, asked them if
it was OK for him to offer healing on the Sabbath. They
didn’t answer, and Jesus did heal the man—and
clearly caused some offence in the process. He then reminded
them that doing good and relieving suffering are acts
that are always called for—much more so than following
the exact rules.
I believe we are called on to do the same.
There are a lot of “rules” that are set forth
that actually hinder relationship between us and God and
between us and being able to do good for others. The call
to truly love is a much higher call than the one to follow
all the rules about love that people have set up over
the years. We’re going to talk about this more on
Sunday—about those times when you have to break
the rules to offer God-love to others. Human love can
often be so tamed by rules that it is a safe place to
be. But God-love is a very, very different way of loving—and
the rules often fall by the wayside. Maybe we can break
some rules together and discover real God-love in the
process!
See you in church.
Christy
The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas, Pastor, Krum
UMC
Questions or comments about this article?
Please contact me at christy@krumumc.org
or phone the church office at 940-482-3482.
