August 26, 2007

Balancing People and Rules

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Luke 13:10-17

Matt Murphy – caught Barry Bonds’ 756 homer but can’t keep it.

Are there times when the needs of humanity overshadow laws?

Question in today’s passage – Can you break the law in an effort to do a good thing?

Luke’s Concerns (Slide)

Jesus teaching in the synagogue on Sabbath – he’s an authority on Jewish law.

Jesus notices crippled woman; interrupts teaching.

Jesus heals her – she gives glory to God.

Ruler of synagogue thinks Jesus is working. Against the law Jesus is teaching.

Ruler tells people in the crowd not to come to the synagogue for healing on Sabbath.

Jesus criticizes the inconsistency of helping and animal but not a person on the Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath: “I created chill!”

His detractors were humiliated – the crowd cheers.

What would it be like if religious leaders successfully shut down emergency services on Sunday?

Why wouldn’t our society allow those kinds of restrictions if we’re Christian?

Passage challenges us to think about balancing people and principles/rules.

Three ways we can apply this to our lives:

First, don’t use rules or religious principles to oppress other people.

Church is notorious for using rules to exclude people: women, minorities, people with divergent viewpoints.

Debates within the ABC regarding abortion, homosexuality involved more than discussion. Passing rules to exclude dissenting voices.

Second: We must not abdicate the responsibility to think critically about the Bible and how it affects the people around us.

Jesus tells people not to blindly follow the law of Moses.

Christians who claim to follow “God’s laws” and interpret the Bible literally are wrong to avoid asking, “How does this affect other people? Is the way I follow this law actually loving my neighbor?”

People who think critically about their faith and develop a compassionate sense of right vs. wrong have a more profound faith than those who say, “The Bible says it, I believe it, that’s the end of it.”

We don’t need to choose between having a deep faith and having compassion for other people.

Having compassion for other people takes place if you have deep faith.

Deathbed Baptism at U of Kentucky – This pastor had the opportunity to save a man and almost killed him instead because he insisted in immersion.

People are more important than rules in the Kingdom of God. This is not to say that rules aren’t important. Jesus would have been the first person to tell people they should not work on the Sabbath.

But when rules get in the way of loving your neighbor and having compassion for other people, then the way you follow rules needs to change. The days when the church could just lay down a bunch of rules and say, “Everybody needs to follow these rules because they’re from God” – those days are over.

Life is full of all kinds of grey areas; our sense of right and wrong is much more complicated than we ever imagined it would be. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s been complicated for a while. It’s complicated because people matter.

That’s not just a modern concept. It’s not the fault of a secular society trying to impose its values on the church. Jesus taught us this lesson two thousand years ago. And it’s our responsibility to keep exploring just how to continue putting people first today.