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Year B - Proper 17 (2009)

The lessons this morning seem to be saying two opposite things about rules.
In the Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy Moses says, "Give heed to the statutes and ordinances
that I am teaching you to observe. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away
anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am charging you." This
seems like a pretty strong statement that in some very important way rules are the essence of religion.
Jesus seems to be saying the opposite. When the Pharisees ask Him, "Why don't your disciples keep the
Law of Moses?" Jesus says, "Boy was Isaiah right when he wrote about hypocrites like you: 'This
people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching
human precepts as doctrines.'" Here the law that Moses gave to the people as a commandment from God
seems to be demoted to mere human precepts that are not important. Jesus seems pretty clearly to be
saying that something other than rules is the essence of religion.
So what are we to make of this seeming contradiction?
Certainly the Church has usually acted as if rules were the essence of religion. Lists of rules, the
breaking of which was carefully categorized as mortal or venial sins are familiar to many who grew up
as Roman Catholics.
Protestant traditions, while often less systematic, have emphasized no less a lot of rules of morality and
conduct that are supposed to apply across the board to human situations.
I will say very strongly that the legalistic and heavy-handed way the Church has insisted on rules has
distorted the purpose of the Church, driven many from it, and - ironically - seriously weakened the
Church's moral authority in society.
I'd like to say four brief things about this matter that I hope will help your own reflections.
First, the problem comes from where we begin. Jesus said, "There is nothing outside a person that by
going in can defile that person." If we can't be defiled by eating ritually unclean food, neither can we be
sanctified by eating ritually pure food. Externals are externals. We are not automatically made better by
attending church, or by giving up sweets for Lent.
We cannot bargain with God by externals. We cannot say, "Well, I'll do this good act which will make up
for that bad act.” Externals always remain externals. We don't gain merit for following the rules, and we
don't earn demerits for breaking them. God does not judge by appearances.
This brings me to the second thing. God sees the heart. God sees what our real motivations are. God
knows why we did what looks right or wrong. God knows - just as we really know what our real desires
are.
The moral imperative must come from within, not from outside. It's not enough simply to do the right
things; we have to want to do the right things. This is no great mystery, and every person in this room
knows what I mean from your own experience. What prevents us from holding to the New Year's
resolutions we make? You know what I mean. We can't keep our New Year's resolutions if we don't
really want to, and if we really want to exercise or to quit smoking, we won't wait until January first.
We'll start exercising or quit smoking as soon as we perceive within ourselves the real desire to do it.
When we start with the rules, the externals, thinking that they will save us, we will probably never get
there. We need to start with where the problem is - inside of us. The reason we don't do the right thing is
that we don't really want to. And the reason we are able to continue to do the good things that we do day
in and day out is not to earn rewards, but just because we want to do them for their own sake.
That's why the first and great commandment is that we love God with all our heart and soul and mind
and strength. If we love God, we will want to do the right things, and the problem of following the rules
will be diminished because we will see clearly what is essential and what is not.
Externals are externals, and the moral imperative must come from within, meaning that the only way we
can do the right things for any period of time is because we want to.
And this brings me to the third thing. Morality doesn't have to do with our perfection as isolated
individuals; morality has to do with our relationships - our relationships with God and with one another.
Morality is neither a list of rules nor a personal whim. Rather, morality is relational. Morality is what the
relationship requires.
Every relationship has its duties and responsibilities.
Sometimes it fills us with joy to fulfill those duties; sometimes it's a great chore, as any parent or spouse
or friend or church member knows. What makes it possible to keep going when things get rough is our
deep-seated desire to maintain the relationship no matter what. Without that desire to do the right thing,
we'll bail out of the relationship, as the divorce courts and every parish's file of inactive members can
attest.
Externals are externals; they can't save us or damn us. The moral imperative arises from our deep desire
to do the right thing and maintain our relationships. And here is the final point. Morality is defined from
within our relationships, meaning that what is moral is what the relationship demands. But morality is
expressed through externals. It is not enough for a parent to say, "I love my baby." That declaration is a
travesty unless the parent is there day after day, living up to his or her responsibilities toward that baby.
It's what comes out of us that shows others and us what we really want. It's what we do and how we
order our lives that demonstrate who we are.
Christianity is our baptismal relationship with Jesus' Risen Body the Church, and that relationship is
expressed and made real through a life of external actions and signs which manifest that relationship.
These actions and signs can be summed up as the moral precepts which we teach our children, but, as
we are teaching them, I hope we always remember that the rules we are teaching have grown up out of
the relationship. Without the relationship the rules are lifeless and meaningless.
Rules are not the essence of the faith. The essence of the faith is our baptismal relationship with the
Body of Christ. The essence of the faith is our conversion, which brings our will into conformity with
God's will so that we do the right things because we want to. The essence of the faith is a relationship
with the Church which has changed and is changing us.
Like all relationships, in order to be real, our relationship with the Church has duties and
responsibilities. These are not imposed on us from the outside, but they grow out of our relationship
with God's Church the way the duties and responsibilities of marriage and family life are inherent in
those relationships.
Externals can't save us. The desire to do the right thing comes from within. The right things to do are
defined by the demands of the relationships we are in. And those relationships only become real and
important when we use externals to organize our lives to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of those
relationships.
We are not talking about a book of rules or a bunch of ideas that we have to say we believe. Look at
today's Collect: "Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us in all
goodness, and bring forth in us the fruit of good works."
What that prayer is talking about is the growth and development of a relationship and what can come out
of that relationship. These things are not accomplished overnight. They are accomplished as we let God
graft the love of His Name into our hearts so that more and more we really want to do what God wants
us to do. And these things are accomplished as we express our desire to live in relationship with God's
Church by a life of devotion to the duties and responsibilities of faithful Christian practice.

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