June 8, 2008

Doing Good Without Following the Rules

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26
 

Breaking all the Rules – Pastors on Motorcycles

If our church is to thrive and be effective in ministry, we’re going to have to break some rules.

Jesus broke rules, even though he claimed to be a stickler for rules.

Jesus says his disciples will follow God’s laws even more strictly than the most pious people in society. Slide

In this passage, Jesus breaks the rules, and God’s laws.

Rabbis were concerned with purity. Didn’t even eat with sinful people.

Jesus hung out with the wrong crowd, and people called him a drunk and glutton. Slide. Jesus replies that the people who are most lost are most in need of God’s grace.

Jesus is approached by a ruler. Not Jairus, not someone from the synagogue. Ruler asks Jesus to raise his daughter from the dead.

Touching a dead body makes Jesus ritually impure. He needs to purify himself when he’s done. Slide

He is approached on the way by a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years. She was ritually impure. She was breaking the law by being with other people and touching Jesus’ clothes.

She made Jesus unclean. Law prohibits Jesus from continuing on to raise the dead girl. Slide

Jesus does not follow purification ritual. He goes and raises the girl from the dead.

This sequence didn’t compute. If Jesus was ritually impure and didn’t purify himself, God would not empower him to raise a dead person to life.

For all the talk about strictly obeying God’s laws, Jesus shows that announcing God’s kingdom sometimes required him to bend the rules.

Bending the rules in Matthew isn’t a way of challenging God’s authority. It isn’t done out of disregard.

When Jesus breaks the rules, he does so in order to help someone, to heal or minister to someone.

People come first. If people reflect God’s own goodness, then helping people is equivalent to honoring God. God’s laws are made for people, not vice versa.

Church has rules, sometimes unwritten. Sometimes rules get placed ahead of needs of people.

We have broken rules in the past in order to carry out our mission in a changing world.

Hired a Cubs and Bears fan to be the pastor.

Music.

Renting space to mentally ill people.

Hispanics.

We’re open to taking risks and bending rules if it advances God’s kingdom.

We’ll need to bend some rules in the future in order to carry out our mission.

Unwritten rule in the church – give the people what they want so they’ll keep coming and supporting the church.

Think of what Jesus’ ministry would have been like if he followed that rule!

Instead of asking, “What ministries can we do and be comfortable?” we will have to start asking, “What kinds of things can our little church do to help the people of Waukesha see the kingdom of God?”

God’s calling on our congregation is a higher priority than our own comfort. Sure, we want everyone to feel comforted at church. But not always.

Sometimes God will give us a good kick in the pants and say, “I want you to help those people see who I am and what I can do for them.”


Second Rule to Break: Hang around with people your age.

Elderly need to consider being involved in ministry with children.

Unwritten rule in church – you only have to be involved in children’s ministry as long as y our children are young. After that, you’ve put in your time.

Younger people need to be available to support the elderly in our congregation as they age.

We’re really missing the boat if we say, “Well, I’d love to help, but I have a job and I have kids.” You wouldn’t look God in the face and say something like that, would you?

If you do, make sure I’m not anywhere near, OK?

Final Illustration: Stella

Doing things by the book always sounds like a noble policy. But remember, Jesus didn’t always do things by the book.

There he was, God incarnate, and he went around breaking the laws that God had revealed to Moses. But whenever he did so, it was because it’s more important to love God and love your neighbor as yourself than it is to follow all the rules.

This church is a strong, healthy congregation with a bright future. Imagine the day in the not too distant future when Kylan is chair of Trustees and Elizabeth chairs Christian Ed. Mackenzie will serve communion with Cheryl and Jay’s daughter.

And who knows, maybe our new pastor will be a young Burmese woman named Jasmine. I know it’s hard to imagine, but I hope you get the point.

We have a lot of work to do. But God has given us this treasure of people. God has entrusted us with reaching out to the people of our community. And we will do that, even if our methods are sometimes unconventional.