Rules and Relationships

The story of the Bible is one of God saving us from ourselves. It is like a Shakespearean tragedy with a twist. We are the tragically flawed, but the perfect character is the one that makes the sacrifice. The most phenomenal part about the whole thing, is that he does this to save us. More than anything God desires a relationship with us, and that we have good relationships with one another. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. It is a tragedy to see the Bible taken as "God's instruction book" and used to destroy relationships.

The first sin of mankind was giving in on a temptation to a false promise: To know good and evil; to be like God. The consequence was broken relationships with God, and lives filled with misery. Man used his newfound "wisdom" to try to judge God and his wife (don't try this at home). God gave us 10 simple rules, but we couldn't even follow those. More rules followed, and more transgressions. By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, we think we have it all figured out. Our "holiest" men, the Pharisees, tell the Son of God how it really is. Jesus breaks a number of their silly rules, and relates to people in amazing ways. Not only that, he performs miracles to bring the outcasts back in to society, and heals the relationally broken, even raising the dead.

Jesus chose the twelve brightest scribes to be his disciples, right? No. He assembled a motley crew of folks who would be with him wherever he went. 2000 years later, we have the Bible in hundreds of different languages. What reason do we have to think we can understand good and evil any better? We do have the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is it guides us in our own lives, and helps us know right from wrong. It is also something we can share with others in community, but the Spirit doesn't tell us when others do wrong.

The tragedy of The Church is that it spends so much effort in trying to figure out good and evil, and not enough time living in relationships with real people. The rules in the Bible are there for a good reason. They're meant to help us in our relationships with one another and with God. They tell us how to relate. They are perfect. We, however, are not. If we are honest with ourselves, there are a lot of "rules" in the Bible that we don't understand. There are probably even more rules that we think we understand. Maybe it's time to let go of that temptation to know all good and evil. We have the Spirit to guide us on our way, and maybe that's enough. Maybe it's enough to know what is good and evil for me to do.

The situation with my father and Spring Arbor University is just one more example of a broken situation, a broken relationship. Can I point a finger at one side or the other and say "you've done this?" It would be only too easy to blame the serpent for all our tragic flaws. It isn't easy (is it possible?) to understand what God's divine law really says here (and only slightly easier to understand U.S. Law). What we can do is focus on doing something positive, mending our own broken relationships.

God, I pray that you would be with my parents, Spring Arbor University, and lawyers for both parties as they attempt to mediate tomorrow. Let your Holy Spirit guide the situation and work in these relationships. I pray that in the middle of this mess, You would receive the glory, and that Your will would be done. Amen.