How Heavy Is Your Rule Book?

christian faith personal growth Jan 18, 2022

              Ever felt tempted to throw the rule book at somebody, but you couldn’t because it was too heavy to pick up?

Blame Ur-Nammu. Never heard of him? Not to worry. Neither have any of your friends or family – unless they’re into history, archeology, or trivia. The first two reasons are admirable; the last is annoying.

              Ur-Nammu was a Sumerian king of the city of Ur, located in modern-day Iraq, whose kingdom suffered from several misbehaving subjects. Enough of them that he wrote laws detailing what constituted an offense and its corresponding punishment. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, many of the crimes rampant four millennia ago are still common today.

Laws, one might conclude, seem insufficient to change human behavior.

              Yet law has been with us from the Beginning. Not stone tablets chiseled with decrees about cutting off noses, knocking out teeth, ruining croplands, and other acts too horrific to repeat. Not an employee handbook of 2,351 bullet points instructing on everything from where to park to how to request sick leave. Most definitely not a 269-page, 8 pt. font, city regulation manual detailing where to park your car, place your garbage container, and plant your garden. Just one verbal instruction. “Don’t eat from this one tree.”

Even one rule proved problematic.

              The difficulty isn’t the presence of law. History has decisively and unanimously ruled the absence of laws does not produce peace, love, and perfect harmony. What’s a people to do? The question is ancient, but about halfway back to the time of Ur-Nammu, a different king supplied a new answer.

              Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Two instructions. That’s it. Not two dozen. Not two hundred. Not two thousand. Just two. One more than in the Beginning. Simple enough. And yet…

              …even two rules prove problematic.

              At least for me. And, I’m guessing, maybe for you, too. It’s not that I disagree with these. I understand the why. It’s the how I spar with. Yet since all of life’s responsibilities and purpose and priorities can be summarized in these two directives, it’s best if I stay in the ring, even when life throws a mean upper cut.

               Sometimes what Jesus doesn’t say is astounding.

As in when he gives Peter a warning about betraying him, but he doesn’t say anything to Judas except (essentially) “Get on with it.” What? No last-minute admonition? Desperate plea? No, “Stop! You don’t realize what you’re doing. You’re going to regret this more than you can possible imagine!” Therefore, when Jesus says, “This is important,” that’s code for “Sit up! Listen closely! Turn off the TV! Put down your phone and pay attention!”

              First, Jesus says we are to “love” God. This directive to “love” isn’t just a synonym for “know” or even “believe in.” It’s not a repackaging of the first two of the original Ten Commandments – to worship no other gods or fashion any idols for worship. It’s more, expressed not by symbols of addition but of exponents. It’s positive, “You shall,” not negative, “You shall not.”

It’s a calling: the authority of a drill sergeant infused with the sweet whispers of a lover.

              For a teacher whose audience was often bewildered by what he left unsaid, this time Jesus speaks with exceptional breadth. Not only are there four specific areas listed but each is preceded with the qualifier “all.” There’s no wiggle room here. No “Well, what does he mean by ‘heart’?” With the second commandment there was space for debate. “Who counts as ‘neighbor’?” Not so with the first. There’s not a single area of life that doesn’t fall within one of the four categories listed: heart, soul, mind, strength.

              What then does this look like in every day -- boots on the ground, toddler with a tantrum, spouse with an attitude, colleague with a demand, mailbox with a bill, parent with an illness, sibling with an addiction, church with a division, application with a rejection, ______(write your situation here) -- life? That’s what we’ll dig into this year! Not just theoretically or theologically, although we’ll include the latter. But practically. For if there’s one truth about us, we are people of the dust.

We’re made to be “earthy” while possessing the spirit of life which transcends all that is earthly.

              Get ready! Get set! We’re gonna’ grow!

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