Two edged sword

Deuteronomy 4:1-2,5-9

             This passage and the accompanying reading for today from Matthew (not attached) to me represents a two edged sword. 

             When Jesus walked the earth, he clearly had a penchant for engaging the religious authorities for the rules and rubrics they had created under the guise of their authority and leadership. He railed against them. It was if he was saying he came to abolish the law. Yet he specifically says he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

               As humans, as a person and as religious groups, we tend to like laws. They give order to our lives. They can give us a sense of community. I am sure many of the ancient Hebrew laws were intended for that reason as well as simply for survival. They lived in a desert and hostile land with enemies all around them , not unlike today. 

             Today we need laws, otherwise there would be anarchy. As my dear father would say, we need laws because common sense can't be taught. Like, to stop your car or exercise caution at an intersection and look both ways. 

            In that regard, I recall the wee hours of the morning my own daughter was born. I was driving  as quick as I could to the hospital. I came to a big intersection where I had a red light. I carefully assessed the situation, looked all around for other cars (there were none) and I stepped on the gas and proceeded through the red light. I broke the law! I had often used this story in my religion classes to speak to how we are called to obey the law, particularly the laws of God. We are called to take them very seriously but not to the letter in such a way that we do not use the brains God gave us.  It is for this reason that the two great commandments are much harder to fulfill than simply obeying the

Ten Commandments handed down by Moses. Thow shalt not kill then takes on a whole new meaning. Killing of anothers' spirit is just as serious as physically taking a life. Secular law may not say so but as believers we are called to behave in a higher plane.

              Another example I have used before is abstaining from meat on Fridays. This universal law now only applies in Lent. If the stupidity of this universal law being demoted to 'Lent only' status, it becomes more apparent how stupid it is when it is further dispensed with if St. Patrick's day falls on a Friday in Lent.

               Rubrics and rules are man made.  They can and should be adhered to only as long as they make sense and do not impede our journey to wholeness, to genuine love and the will of God (which is love). 

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 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 with which I am charging you.

See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lordour God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children