yesterday I suggested that rules are meant to be broken. I wasn't suggesting that anything goes but rather that rules have a common tendency to produce reactions in us that can be legally "correct" but lacking in compassion.
The story from Luke's gospel - Luke 13:10-17 - reminds us of the contrast between Jesus' instinctive and immediate response to a crippled women and the response of the religious leader of the synagogue. In interpreting this event in Jesus' life I suggested the following guideline: when obeying a rule (any rule) produces a response lacking compassion we must immediately place that rule under careful scrutiny and ask if it still has any value.
rules usually begin with good intentions in mind but soon the community forgets the original intention of the rule and begins to enforce the rule as if it were "from God". Keeping the Sabbath holy is about rest and celebration of life - not a joyless convention of not working. Jesus extends Sabbath Rest (healing) to a women who had struggled for years. This was his instinctive reaction - not to be faithful to a rule, but rather to be faithful to the "Rule" of compassion - love God and neighbour.
I concluded with a searching question: when something unexpected (out of the ordinary/against the rules) happens, what is my instinctive reaction?
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Hi Barry I thought your sermon yesterday was brilliant. Thank you for putting it across so well. How beautifully you verbalised that by keeping our eyes firmly on Jesus and not on the rule!)and what He would do involves being faithfully compassionate(and in so doing being faithful to what God desires of us). Thanks again. Jenny B
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