REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Worth Repeating
  • My Book
  • FAQ

The Rules

8/19/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Either you are a rules person or you are not. I am. How do I know this? My daughter unearthed this truth among some personal artifacts found in our storage room. One box contained items we retrieved after my mother’s death. She had saved a drawing I made in Kindergarten of a boy riding his bike through a stop sign. I was apparently scandalized enough at that age that someone would break the rules that I made a record of it. I wonder what a psychiatrist would say about that? He likely would say I am somewhat predictable, and likely not too much trouble to deal with. 

So yes, I am a rules person and it is an easy admission. Moreover, I am willing to bet most people are rules-oriented. Why? Take a look around at any best sellers list, the books people are drawn to. Among the titles you will see a myriad of variations on a theme: The Seven Rules of… The Three Rules of, the Twelve Rules of, The Four Principles of, The Laws of…. You get my drift. You likely have bought one of those books because you wanted to simplify your life. In short, rules are things we do not have to think about and re-arbitrate. They follow the pattern of things already established. We see them unfold in life, and come to some unbending conclusions. 

Consider this: you wake up this morning, and everything you encounter has to be reassessed as to what it is, what it will do, and what it means… it would be exhausting. You would break down after one day because you would be obliged to think over EVERYTHING all the time. No moment of rest would be possible. Fortunately, rules allow you to NOT have to reinvent the wheel. You can tuck those things away because you already have a picture of basic reality in your mind. you KNOW how things act and react without having to figure it all out. 

My own three girls tell me stories about their friends dating; how they see men, how men mess up, how dissatisfied they are with the current culture where men no longer want to woo woman. I tell them they are quoting from that dating book entitled “THE RULES” by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, originally published in 1995. We have moved on and many more books have been written, but apparently those rules are somewhat universal to gender. Here are a few rules from that book, as advice for young women dating. Don’t ask him out on a date, don’t split the cheque on a restaurant meal, don’t call him before he calls you, always be the one to end the date first, don’t open up too fast, etc etc. You were nodding. See what I mean? Basically my daughters are unwittingly quoting rules from a book they have not read, because those rules have long been written into the code of human conduct. 
​
There are people who died over what were considered to be unbreakable rules. Sir Thomas More, was martyred under King Henry VIII when he did not fall in with the idea of the king becoming head of the church in order to facilitate his fast and frequent divorces. There is a famous exchange in the play “A Man For All Seasons” between Thomas and his son-in-law Roper who was a lawyer. It is where we get the term “Devil’s Advocate”, for people who would be willing to defend the Devil himself. Roper was willing. He thought rules kept everybody safe, and you could beat the Devil at his own game because even the Devil is subject to the same laws he insists everyone else keep. 

Of course, the Bible is the rule book for Christians. There is the Ten Commandments as revelation given to the Jews, as cornerstone of the Old Covenant as recorded in the Old Testament. There is also that thing Roman Catholics call natural law, appealing to Jeremiah 31:33 where God promises a new covenant.  “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Those laws are natural because no one has to tell us to obey them. Those laws are written on the human heart.

When it comes to rules, we are living in strange times. The unwind of the Trump presidency, was the widespread observation that truth had taken a beating. People were aggrieved that he could casually deny statements that were on public record. This tactic even has a name: gaslighting. It means that you mess with people’s heads by denying the truth and therefore removing the bedrock of your opponent’s arguments. If you cannot appeal to basic reality, what can you appeal to? Who then makes the rules? Welcome to anarchy. It is at our doorsteps, and ignoring the rules is to blame. 

Should we be disturbed by this? Yes and no. I am confident myself that basic reality will always win the day. You can only lie for so long before you begin to look ridiculous. Life follows certain rules. Perhaps you have to live long enough to see that. Getting older and reading through the book of Proverbs, (wisdom for living, and yes, rules) will have you nodding your head and saying uh-huh. 

For Christians, we don’t have rules, we have promises which is something much better. In theological terms, we call this a new covenant, a new deal. Will God break his own rules? This is interesting because a covenant establishes something better than the rules, a relationship that is entirely on purpose, because of a decision to love no matter what. Think marriage if you cannot wrap your head around the idea of a covenant. 

It also brings in that old motif of Blood in the Bible. Why is blood binding? Because basic life and relationship spring from blood. We understand the finality of blood. The spilling of it means the end of something, and the beginning of something new. A will for example, only comes into effect once someone has died. Blood oaths are binding in law because few people would willingly do harm to themselves. 

The original covenant where God makes promises to Abraham is found in Genesis 15:1–15. Abraham sees a vision from God. God commands Abraham to prepare an animal sacrifice, as an image of peril. No one will willingly put himself at peril, unless he is swearing an oath. A blood oath demands that you will meet the same fate as the dead animal if you break your word. Accordingly, Abraham prepares the dismembered parts of an animal, and a vision of God as a flaming torch walks through this image of peril. His blood oath via sacrifice shows that he is serious. Of course, we know this to be typology - an image of the New Testament, written in the stories of the Old. God established a new covenant, when he put himself in peril in the form of his son, Jesus on the Cross. It is an ancient image of why God’s promises are serious, lasting, and not subject to change. 

The good news of the Gospel is that God didn’t want mankind to be subject to the rules, so he sacrificed himself in order to establish a new rule. We are no longer bound by law, but by grace because Jesus saves us from the rules. We can rely on God’s own promise that he will redeem the world, because God is the original rule breaker. Now that is some heady theology, and good news for rebels and sinners, world-over. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    A Display Of His Splendour
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Ad Man
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    All I Got
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Roads
    All Saints
    Almost
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    And A Little Child Shall Lead Them
    And Make It Beautiful
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    An Officer And A Gentleman
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    As Simple As Sunshine
    A Tale Of Two Crosses
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Baby Boom
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Bad Math
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Barcode
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Beauty On Purpose
    Being Different
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Best For Last
    Better Mousetrap
    Betty Toop
    Beware Of God
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Bit Part
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    Brazier
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Call To Prayer
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Cant
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Car Wash
    Chaos
    Cherry Picking
    Cherry Top
    Civil Disobedience
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Click Bait
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Colour Blind
    Coming To My Senses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Crazy
    Creed
    Crooked Made Straight
    Crucified Man
    Curated
    Curse Of Adam
    Damascus Road
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Data Overload
    Day Of The Dead
    Deliver Us From Evil
    Deposit Of Faith
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Dog House
    Doing Church
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Doing The Math
    Do It Yourself
    Dominion
    Dominus Vobiscum
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    English Leather
    Ensign
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Exiles
    Experience Wanted
    Faithful Servant
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Feeling It
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Five Minutes
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Season
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    Forward
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Gateway
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    God Calling...
    God Save The Queen
    Going In!
    Gone But Not Forgotten
    Gone Fishing
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Great Reset
    Grocery - A Short Story
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hammer Time
    Hands And Eyes
    Hands On
    Happy Rooster
    Hardwired
    Hearing Voices
    Heavy LIfting
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    Hid In My Heart
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Hodge Podge
    Holy Disorder
    Holy Father
    Home Economics
    Hymn Stories
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    If You Go I'll Go
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    In Code
    Incomplete
    Individual
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In Praise Of Culture
    In Praise Of The Middle
    In The Details
    In The Spirit
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    It's All A Stage
    I Will Remember
    Jackass
    Je Me Souviens
    John Henry
    Judge Not
    Jurisprudence
    Just A Few Words
    Just Have Faith
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lawn Nazi
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Lessons In Empathy
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Licking The Spoon
    Like A Flint
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem Ipsum Dolor
    Lost And Found
    Lost In Translation
    Luck Of The Stable
    Made To Dance
    Madonna
    Magical
    Make A Baby Laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Manifest
    Manwich
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles In Spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Meat Power
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Messiah
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    Moving Parts
    Mr. Good Enough
    Mr. Resolve
    My Neighbour
    Mystery Of The Cheshire Cat
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Needed Time
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    Obsessive
    Offended
    Oh Jerusalem
    Old Growth
    Old White Men
    On Adult Admission
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Orwell For Our Times
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particularity Of Place
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pea Game
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prepper
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner
    Promises Promises
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Psalter
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Rainbow
    Recognition
    Red Haired Step Child
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Resin
    Restoration
    Resurrection
    Retro
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sad Face
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Scrooge's Bedsheets
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove Tuesday
    Silent Witness
    Slippery Slope
    Small-c
    Small Graces
    Sock Monkeys
    Someone To Watch Over Me
    Song For The Lowly
    Sore Afraid
    Special Language Store
    Squat
    Squeeze Gently
    Starting With What Is True
    Status Quo
    Still True
    Street Food
    String Too Short To Be Saved
    Strongman
    Sufficient To The Day
    Superstar
    Take A Punch
    Takedown
    Talking Head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling The Story
    Thanksgiving
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    The Crossing King
    The Evil Day
    The General
    The Great Mystery
    The Harrowing Of Hell
    The Joys Of Hash
    The Man Who Was Always Right
    The Other Place
    The Place Beyond Knowing
    The Quickening
    The REAL Jesus
    The Reason For The Season
    Therefore Choose Life
    The Rules
    The Secret History
    The Stand That Wouldn't Stand
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    This Is My Body
    This Is The PLACE
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Time Warp
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tin Hat
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unlikely Saint
    Unmedicated
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    U-Turn
    Value Added
    Veni Vidi
    Virge 'n Mary
    WASP
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Doesn't Kill You
    What Lazarus Knew
    Wheat Gum
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Where Art Comes From
    While You Were Sleeping
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    Worthy Is The Lamb
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Worth Repeating
  • My Book
  • FAQ