Good morning…
Last Saturday, I woke to this scene outside the front door of our Pennsylvania log cabin. A mess of feathers strewn about. The grass was covered with remnants of a struggle. I thought to myself, “Something has died here.”
Then by evening time, we were watching on TV the scene at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A mess of emotions strewn about. The farm show grounds covered with remnants of a struggle. I thought to myself, “Something important has died here.”
Tragically, a loving father died shielding his family from the bullet that took his life. Also dying was our thought that the Secret Service and local police agencies could keep our leaders completely safe from harm. We also witnessed the death of the old notion that “Sticks and stones can break our bones, but words can never hurt us.” Often the toxic words we plant grow like weeds, and those weeds, multiplying out of our control, can come back to bite us. I thought to myself, “Something really important has died here.”
I am very grateful that during this season our little summertime read lays out a life-giving pathway through our messy tumult. In a thin book about the size of my hand, Rueben P. Job identifies three simple rules that have the power to change our world.
In the past week, we have explored the first two rules 1. Do no harm. and 2. Do good.
“Jesus identified himself as ‘one who serves’ (Luke 22:27),” writes Job on page 43. “Paul said, ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another…outdo one another in showing honor…Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to the strangers (Romans 12:9-10, 13). It is not difficult to see how revolutionary the words and the lifestyle of Jesus and the early Christians must have seemed to themselves and to the world in which they lived. Their way of living was a radical departure from the accepted practices of the powerful and the weak. To walk with Jesus meant to focus on something larger than the individual and Someone larger than any human being or human institution. And that is exactly what it means today!”
“It is to choose to live in the reign of God NOW,” Rueben recommends. “To begin to live as a citizen of a new order in which God’s love for all creation is recognized and proclaimed in word and in deed…each one of us is the object of God’s love. Each one of us is embraced in the unlimited, saving, and transforming love of God.” (p. 47)
Rule number three is this: Stay in love with God.
“The first two rules are important and bring immediate results; but without the third rule, the first two become increasingly impossible,” explains Job. “Staying in love with God is the foundation to all of life. It is in vital relationship with God that we are enlivened, sustained, guided, called, sent, formed, and transformed. The writer of Psalm 127 declared, ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build labor in vain’ (verse 1a). We practice the rules; but God does the transforming, the renewing, and the building of the house – the house of our lives, the house of our church, and the house of our world.”
“While the first two rules are essential,” concludes Rueben, “the truth is, we cannot fix on our own much of what ails us. Legislation or committees will not solve our divisiveness, our woundedness, or our brokenness. The clarity we seek on a multitude of issues and the faithfulness and fruitfulness we long for cannot be manufactured on our own. Only living in the healing, loving, redeeming, forming, and guiding light and presence of God will bring the redemption, healing, transformation, and guidance that we so desperately need. That is why staying in love with God is the essential third simple rule.” (p. 48-49)
I ponder anew, “Something really, really important must die.” As our “Big I” dies here, God’s resurrection power expands throughout our everyday lives.
So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God (Romans 7:4-6, MSG).
…Sue…
