There are rules!

 

2024 09 01 Sermon

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

We start today by talking about rules. When my boys were small, they spent a week or two with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma always put a note on the wall that read: 1. Make your bed. 2. Put your dirty clothes in the hamper. 3. Wash (!!) your teeth after you eat. 4. Turn off the lights when you leave the room.

Here are a couple more sets of rules:

Baseball isn’t just a game, boys, it’s a metaphor for life; we dress alike, we follow the rules, we run in circles, there are winners and losers, and suddenly it’s over.

 Fundamental spelling rules: 1. U always follows Q. 2. S never follows X. 3. Every syllable includes a vowel. 4. I before E except after C. 5. Use CK after a short vowel.

 There are lots of rules in life, in the church, in the world. There are even rules about making rules. Perhaps the most famous set of rules is this one.

Moses was given tablets with 10 rules. By the time the Hebrew Bible was written in the 500s BCE, there were 613 rules in scripture. Over the centuries, the list of rules grew to include hundreds of oral and written explanations of how best to follow the original 10 rules.

Many of them helped keep the community healthy, like the rules about washing hands and dishes. Many other rules insist that care be given to the needy, to widows and orphans and strangers. By Jesus’ time, the Pharisees and other leaders began to expect that some of the rules that had been written for the priests and worship leaders should also be expected of the common people. It’s this dynamic that Jesus is resisting, that angers the leaders.

… In the Gospel reading, the Pharisees and Scribes are keeping careful watch of Jesus and his activities. They don’t like that he breaks so many of the rules they care about. In this case, some of the disciples have not washed their hands before eating.

We don’t know the setting, if it would have been easy to wash their hands or not. But these leaders are excited to have caught some of the followers not obeying the rules. They are so focused on the rules that they can’t hear the good news that Jesus is speaking.

We can be like that. There are two sets of seven deadly words in the church. One is TTWWADI – that’s the way we’ve always done it.  

The other is WNDITWB. We’ve never done it that way before. 

Both TTWWADI and WNDITWB grant us the security that we know our place in the church, and that we know those things that are important to us will always be there. But this is just what Jesus is saying. When we pay too much attention to the rules about how things are supposed to be, we fail to get Jesus’ message of good news for all people.

As Gloria Dei Lutheran Church begins its time of transition, we’re going to keep today’s messages in mind. We’re going to focus on what Jesus wants us to hear, and be open to changing the rules when it helps us tell others about Jesus’ love and God’s forgiveness.

…You will soon realize I love to tell stories, and the best stories are the ones we tell about how God has been active in our lives. You know the ones: when God sent a friend to hug you on the worst day of your life; when the trial treatment worked to cure the cancer; when you had more than enough lunch so you could share it with a hungry person; and so forth.

As we begin our relationship today, I’ll tell you a bit about myself – you can read some details in the Glorion. I’m married, I have cats, and so forth. I am more relaxed than Pr Ed when leading worship. I ask a lot of questions, especially at first when I need to know how we do things here. I wonder what happens if we break a rule. And I seek consensus.

I prefer to have committees do the work, instead of one or two people. So, soon I will ask for people to join me after worship to talk about worship planning, and another time I will look for folks who want to expand our use of social media, and others to tell me about stewardship, and so forth.

And I always think about who is not here yet. Especially, how can we connect with the neighbors who would be a good fit here? What activities can we add that would draw people to us? How can we make worship easy to participate in for the newcomer? How can we share Jesus with more people, so they want to join us here at Gloria Dei to help us do what we already do to meet the needs of hungry and hurting people?

… As we begin this time of ministry together, I acknowledge I will make mistakes, and I ask you to be patient with me, as I will be patient with you. I promise to pray for you and ask you to pray for me. Let’s work together to spread the good news of God’s love and forgiveness, even if it means bending some rules.