Series C
Freedom From Religious Rules,
Regulations and Rituals
Pentecost 12 Luke 13:10-17
Jesus means
freedom. Jesus means
freedom, not only from sin and guilt, but from rules, regulations
and rituals. These rules, regulations and rituals seem to originate
in the Bible but are merely cultural impositions on us. Jesus means
freedom from these particular religious rules, regulations and
rituals.
This morning I
would like to begin by telling you a fable. This is a very famous
fable from childhood, and I would like to take this fable and
slightly alter it to meet the needs of our day.
This fable happened
long ago, some one hundred and fifty years ago, when there was a
ship sailing from England to the United States. When you sailed from
England to the United States some one hundred and fifty years ago,
it was usually a safe journey but also had the potential of being a
frightening trip on one of those old large windjammers. It could be
unnerving crisscrossing the ocean on a windjammer.
As this old man
sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, his vessel was hit by a violent
storm that started to shatter all the sails. The masts toppled over
and slowly the ship was disintegrating. The old man threw his body
into a life raft and before anyone could get into that life raft
with him, that raft burst away from the main vessel. The raft set
out to sea with only this little old man. He was alone in the life
raft.
For two nights and
days, the storm beat against this small raft and finally one day,
the raft washed up onto an island shore. The man was alone on that
deserted island. As he
washed up onto that island, the man did not know what to expect. He
didn’t know whether or not there were renegade pirates on that
island. He didn’t know if there were going to be savages there. He
didn’t know if this was an English penal colony where they had
gotten rid of the undesirables from old England. There were none of
these.
Instead, there were
millions upon millions of Lilliputans, little people, about that
tall, about one inch tall. There were millions upon millions of
these Lilliputans, and Gulliver was dumbfounded. The Lilliputans
thought that Gulliver was a giant, a huge giant, cruel and mean. So
the Lilliputans began to wage war against Gulliver and they pulled
out their canons and they began to shoot at him. Their little wads
of mud bounced off of Gulliver’s body, as did the arrows from
their bows. The arrows were merely toothpicks which bounced off of
Gulliver’s gigantic body.
So, one moon lit
night, when Gulliver was asleep on a hill, the legions of
Lilluputans crept up silently with string and thread, and very
quietly tied strings around each of his fingers. Hundreds of strings
to each of his fingers and also to his wrists, elbows and arms. They
put strings and threads around his chest, around his knees, around
his toes. Every hair on his head had a string. The Lilluputans tied
Gulliver firmly down, and when Gulliver awoke the next morning, he
couldn’t move. He had been tied down by thousands upon thousands
upon thousands of silver thin threads.
Gulliver was sure
to die because he couldn’t feed himself. Gulliver was sure to die
because he couldn’t give himself water. Thus ends of version of
Gulliver’s Travels. Did Gulliver live? Did Gulliver die? You
complete the last epoch of the story.
One thing was sure:
Gulliver needed to be set free from the thousands upon thousands of
little ties and knots, strings and threads, that were holding him
down and killing him and his freedom.
The meaning of this
fable is obvious. It is the nature of human institutions, whether
they be government, schools, churches, social conventions; it is the
nature of all human institutions to put thousands upon thousands
upon thousands of little regulations on people in order to hold them
down, tie them down and control them.
For example, I
think you know what it means to work with the Federal Government. If
you apply for welfare or food stamps, or whatever you apply for to
the government, you know that there are miles of red tape, a myriad
of rules and regulations. A visit to the Federal office to apply for
food stamps is dreaded.
I could give you
hundreds of examples of this tendency. Merely talk with Dr. Charles
Salzer of our parish, who is Chief of Staff at a local hospital, and
he despairs at all the paper work required by the government for
Medicare or any other program. Dr. Salzer throws up his hands, not
knowing where to begin with all the paperwork that is now required
by the government for each hospital. So many rules and regulations.
Thousands of them.
Let me give you a
second example of this tendency. Let’s say you are going to sell
your house and an FHA loan is being considered. The FHA comes out to
inspect your house, and they have the thickest rulebook you have
ever seen. Or, have you applied for a building permit at the city
recently?
It is the nature of
all human institutions, whether they are churches, schools or
governments, to start to make a shift. A subtle shift is made, where
the original purpose of the institution was to serve people, and
instead, the people start to serve the institution. It happens again
and again and again. The legal needs of the institution become
greater than the real needs of the people. A shift occurs and the
needs and regulations of the institution become greater than the
needs of the people.
It is precisely
that attitude of Gulliver being strapped down with thousands upon
thousands of little regulations that the Gospel lesson speaks about
today. In the Judaism of that time in history, their religion had
become a religion of a thousand rules and regulations. The original
purpose of the Old Testament religion was to help people meet their
spiritual and emotional needs. That is the purpose of the Old
Testament religion: to help people praise God and compassionately
serve one another. But instead, there were thousands of little
traditions that people could or could not do, and those regulations
became the preoccupation of the Old Testament synagogue.
Believe it or not,
a Jewish regulation in Jesus’ day was that a person could not be
healed on the Sabbath day of rest. Can you imagine such thoughts
today? All hospitals will care for patients six days a week but not
care for them on Sunday? Such thoughts would not “sell” in our
society today.
The gospel story
for today fits perfectly well with similar stories told elsewhere in
the Gospel of Luke. In Luke, chapter six, we hear similar stories
where religious rules and regulations for the Sabbath had become
more important than God’s commandment for love and compassion.
In the gospel
stories for today, Jesus is the liberator. Jesus is the liberator
who sets people free. Jesus sets people free, not from sin, and not
from guilt. Jesus sets people free from the thousands of rules and
regulations that started to tie people down, whereby religious
regulations became more important than compassion.
Let me tell you
three gospel stories from the Gospel of Luke. These gospel stories
belong together. Each of the incidents happened on the Sabbath day
and was a violation of the Sabbath rules and regulations.
The first story is
from Luke 6. Jesus and his disciples were walking along through the
grain fields on the Sabbath, and the Jews, like the government, had
hundreds of little rules and regulations, including laws for the
Sabbath. They had regulations such as: You couldn’t cook. You
couldn’t bake. You couldn’t’ pick up water. If your donkey
fell in a hole, you couldn’t pull it out. They had rules and
regulations that defined the word, “work.” You couldn’t work
on the Sabbath, and any actions such as baking, cooking, picking up
water, or pulling your donkey from a hole were defined by Jewish law
as being work.
Jesus and his
disciples were talking through a grain field. I can’t imagine
walking through grain fields and picking grain to eat, so in my
imagination, I have them walking through a pea patch and picking
peas. The disciples were walking through a field of peas and they
were hungry, so the disciples and Jesus picked some peas as they
walked along. They picked the peas, opened the pods, and popped peas
into their mouths. The Pharisees saw this and shouted at him,
“Jesus, you can’t do that. That violates our tradition. For one
thing, it is work to pick peas and secondly, it is work to open the
shell. You can neither pick food or open the shell. It is against
our laws. You can’t do work on the Sabbath. You’re not being
religious enough.”
Jesus said to them,
“You misunderstand. Human beings weren’t made to obey the
Sabbath rules and regulations. The Sabbath day of rest was made for
human beings. The Sabbath Day was given to us to worship God, relax,
rest, and recuperate. The Sabbath is to free us from all the work we
have been doing this past week. The Sabbath wasn’t made in order
so human beings had a bunch of rules and regulations to follow. The
Sabbath was made for us people, so we could rest and
rehabilitate.” To which the Pharisees said, “You can’t do that
on the Sabbath. It violates our rules and regulations. You can’t
do any work on the Sabbath, including picking grain to
eat.”
The second incident
is also from Luke 6. It
was on the Sabbath day again. Jesus and his disciples had come to
the synagogue to worship. There was an old man right outside of the
synagogue who had a withered hand. According to the Gospel of Hebrews, one of the apocryphal
gospels of that time, the old man was a stonemason. The stonemason
couldn’t work because he had withered hands. Jesus came to heal
him and the Pharisees said, “You can’t do that. You can’t heal
a man on the Sabbath. That violates our rules and regulations.
According to our law, you can help people if they are getting worse,
but you can’t help a person get better when they are sick on the
Sabbath. That violates our law because our law dictates that you
can’t do any religious work such as making a man better or healing
a person.” Jesus shook his head and said, “That is absolute
nonsense.” Jesus then healed the man.
The third incident
is today’s gospel lesson from Luke 13. It was the Sabbath again.
Jesus was again teaching on the Sabbath. There was a woman in the
synagogue who had serious back problems for eighteen years. She was
crippled up, bent over and could not stand up straight. Back
problems. Yes, many of us have serious back problems and this
lady’s back problems were serious. Jesus healed her. Bingo. She
was healed. He laid his hands on her and she was healed instantly.
BUT. There is always a “but” in the story. The story continues:
BUT, there was a ruler of the synagogue who was indignant towards
Jesus because Jesus had healed the woman on the Sabbath of
all days. That self-righteous legalist said, “God worked six days
a week and rested on the Sabbath. You should have healed the woman
on the six days dedicated to work and not on the seventh day
designated for Sabbath rest.” Jesus answered the man, “You
hypocrite, you phony. Don’t all of you untie your ox or ass on the
Sabbath and lead it to water. It is work to untie your ox or ass. If
you can untie your ox or ass on the Sabbath, doesn’t it make sense
that a sick person can be healed on the Sabbath?” When Jesus said
this, his adversaries were ashamed because Jesus made them look like
fools. The common people were glad that Jesus healed the sick lady
even if it was the Sabbath. They were also secretly pleased that
Jesus had put down those religious, self righteous Pharisees who
loved their religious laws more than being compassionate to those in
need.
In all three of
these stories, Jesus means freedom. From other sermons and Bible
lessons, we know that Jesus means freedom. He frees us from the
sinfulness of our lives. Jesus also frees us from the guilt that
binds us. But in today’s stories, Jesus means freedom and he frees
us from the rules, regulations and rituals…from those customs that
we have become convinced are the will and purpose of God. In order
for us to be religious or spiritual, we are to follow our religious
customs, our rules, regulations and rituals. But Jesus frees us from
all customs that interfere with helping people praise God and be
compassionate to one another.
In each of these
three stories, the rules, regulations and rituals for the Sabbath
had become more important than doing the compassionate will of God.
As we all know, far
too often, the primary purpose of the church is to preserve its
religious customs, its rules, regulations and rituals. The primary
purpose for many Lutheran churches is to retain our Lutheran
heritage. For Presbyterian churches to preserve their Presbyterian
heritage. For Baptist churches, to preserve their Baptist heritage.
We have our rules and regulations here at our congregation and we
quietly impose them on people who belong. Sometimes, it begins to
feel like the purpose of the church is to preserve our religious
customs, rules, regulations and rituals, more so than doing the
compassion of God. The rules, regulations and rituals take on a life
of their own, and preserving the rules, regulations and rituals
becomes more important than doing and being the compassion of God.
I would like to
give you a series of illustrations today where Jesus means freedom.
Jesus means freedom from our religious customs that we think are
somehow God-given but are not. I would like to give you several
examples of this from my own personal history, that are part
of my real world experience with rules, regulations and rituals that
feel like the will of God.
First example.
Years ago, but this happens even today, I called on a person at the
hospital when I was a young assistant pastor. I listened to the
person, prayed for that person, gave Holy Communion to that person,
and the person asked me as I left the door, “And when will the
pastor be calling on me?” I wasn’t the real pastor. Pastor
So and So was the “real pastor,” and when “real pastor”
called, the angels of God finally came into the hospital room.
Second example. I
grew up on Norwegian legalism back in Jackson, Minnesota. In this
Norwegian legalism, I learned that I was not supposed to dance,
drink, or smoke. I was not supposed to go to the bowling alley
because it was next door to the pool hall, and the pool hall was a
very sinful place. I think this was because o+
f the smoke hanging
in the air above those green tables, and of course, because of the
bar at the far end of the pool hall. We could play the card game,
Rook, but not bridge. We could drink wine but not beer or vodka.
There were all kinds of things that we permissible and not
permissible. I grew up on Norwegian legalism in my childhood. … In
young adulthood, I remember pastor who loved to drink beer, but he
was always careful not to leave beer bottles in his trashcan but
boxed them up and returned them to the store in the next larger town
where he bought the beer. This young pastor wanted to protect his
privacy of enjoying beer, so his parishioners would not know.
A third example of
rules, regulations and rituals that we thought were the will of God.
It was deemed true that certain people were more religious than
others, by the degree of their association with the church. The more
Christian people were especially those who loved their Norwegian
heritage and came to worship more often; those who didn’t
weren’t quite as religious. Someone could be a skunk, but if he or
she came to church sufficiently, he or she was a forgiven skunk.
A fourth example.
Don’t date or marry Roman Catholics. My sister married a devout
Catholic and it was clear to me that this was a violation of God’s
will for our lives. We were to date and marry Lutherans, not
Catholics.
A fifth example.
The years passed, but the same principle applied. I remember here at
Grace that a divorced person was asked to be on the church council,
and this upset certain members of our congregation.
They said, “Divorced people can’t serve on the church
council because they won’t be good role models for our
children.”
A sixth example. It
was more than twenty-five years ago that a black man and white woman
got married and almost everybody in the local congregation had a
snit over that. The pastor, the family members, the parents, the
children. This was heresy, for a black and white woman to get
married. It violated all the rules of God’s law.
A seventh example.
You can’t be a male, wear long hair and be a Christian. The
“long hairs,” as they were called then, were tolerated but not
fully accepted into the church. This situation was complicated by
the fact that a favorite picture of Jesus showed him wearing long
hair, and of course, looking very Nordic, and white and thin faced
with a well-proportioned nose. Even having a portrait of the actual
Jesus wearing long hair, “long hairs” violated our customs, the
ways we did things.
An eighth example.
You can’t be too poor and come to worship. It violates our rules,
regulations and rituals not to be clean, well pressed and come to
worship. In the old days, you actually had to wear a suit and tie if
you were an adult male for that was the customary dress. Rules,
regulations, rituals.
Ninth example, we
can’t use contemporary music. God created the organ for worship
and we are to be lead with this magnificent instrument. The guitar,
drums and bass guitar are not quite instruments of the devil but
coming close.
Tenth example, the
kids of unchurched families are too noisy, misbehaved and irreverent
during our worship services. These kids need to be taught reverence
the way we know and define reverence from our childhood.
Eleventh example
from my life. Only men can be Lutheran pastors and only men can
serve on the church council. Women can teach Sunday School and serve
socials but not be preachers or leaders in the church. We will not
accept women pastors because men pastor are more effective than
women pastors. We will not accept women as youth directors because
men are more authoritative than women as youth directors.
Besides, women can get pregnant, have children, and they
won’t be as effective as men who won’t be so tied down with the
children. By the way, let’s put change tables for babies only in
the women’s bathrooms since the men rarely use them.
All of these
traditions are traditional interpretations of the Bible and ever so
subtly, those religious interpretations and traditions become more
important than living out the compassion of Christ.
Jesus means
freedom, not only from sin and guilt. Jesus also means freedom from
our interpretations and customs at what we think Christianity should
be. In the Biblical stories for today, Jesus is forever freeing us
to worship and compassionately serve our fellow human beings, in
this time, this place and this culture. Amen.
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