Second Presbyterian Church

"Rules & Regulations:
Preaching From the Gospel of Luke"
April 25, 2004

Upcoming Events

Worship Schedule

Sermons

About the Church

• Accessibility to the Church

• Directions to the Church

• History of the Church

Church Staff

Groups & Organizations

• Boy Scouts of America - Troop 175

• Choirs

• Presbyterian Women

• SPY (Second Presbyterian Youth)

Committees

• Building & Grounds

• Church Growth

• Congregational Care & Fellowship

• Education & Nurture

• Finance

• Office & Personnel

• Stewardship

• Witness & Service

• Worship & Celebration

Ad Hoc Committees

• Architectural - Engineering

• Building Fund

Presbyterian Internet Sites of Interest

Virginia Links

• Virginia Cities

Web Site Statistics

Site Map

Second Presbyterian Church Homepage

Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2004 » Sermons for April 2004 » Sermons from the Series on Luke

#16 in the Series on Luke
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Exodus 20: 8-11
• Luke 5:33 - 6:11

Are rules and regulations really needed? I grew up in the 60's, the time when the Baby Boomers were adolescents and their hormones were wildly pumping. It was a time in which we protested segregation; it was a time when we protested the Viet Nam Conflict. It was a time when we protested rules and regulations. It was a time when we protested convention and tradition. Men grew their hair long, very long. Women burned their bras. Too many smoked pot and, yes, they did inhale! All institutions were considered oppressive and suspicious, especially the government, the military-industrial complex, and the churches. All these institutions wanted to do was to tell us what to do and tell us what we are supposed to believe.

Those of us who maintained a religious connection would look to Jesus and we would impose our Boomer values upon the man who wore "Galilean Gliders." (Our word for sandals). And what did we see in Jesus? We saw a bonafide "non-conformist!" And the passages of Luke that I read today were good examples.

In those days there were rules, strict rules about fasting. There were strict rules that limited what you could/could not do on the Sabbath. Rules that, when read by a Boomer, meant experiencing "Oppression!"

Well, we got into a lot of trouble with that kind of attitude. It created changes in our culture that were positive, and some that were not so positive. A few of the positives were: We got to vote at the age of 18, because it seemed ironic that we could be drafted to fight in war, but were too young to vote! We made it much more possible for women and men, Blacks and Whites to share more professionally and educationally.

But Boomers created some negatives as well: Rock and Roll degenerated into hard rock and acid rock in which music no longer had harmony, but sounded chaotic and random, probably reflecting the state of the confused and lost minds that have sprung from this process. The chaos has spread throughout the communities so that people are required to lock their houses and automobiles. In my memory, there was a time when you locked your house when you went away on vacation. You didn't have to take the keys from your car. The Boomer generation in adolescence was a time in which pot smoking and using other illegal drugs began to increase at a skyrocketing pace. Timothy Leary was a strong proponent of LSD, the illegal hallucinogen that created so called "new insights and expanded horizons." It was the time when cocaine began to have a major underground market.

Boomers and their clamor for change were received with shock and horror by the older generation, the ones who survived the Great Depression and WWII,. Our hair was too long! Our manners were non-existent. Our values were too loose, and without responsibility.

And Boomers were sick and tired of all the rules and regulations. Skirts must be below the knee. Dress, or Suit and tie were absolutely expected when attending church. Everybody was watching and telling you whether or not you were behaving. The older generations were not excited about seeing rules changed; rules in which they had placed so much investment.

The Pharisees and Scribes were also not excited about Jesus breaking the rules and regulations that they so fervently required of everybody to do. It kept them in authority. They could remain the important movers and shakers. And this "whippersnapper," Jesus, comes and allows his disciples to eat when others fast. He allowed them to pluck grain on the Sabbath (plucking grain = harvesting = work= therefore a Sabbath "no-no"). There were a lot of magicians who went around performing "healings." The rule was: no one was to practice his trade on the Sabbath and that included healers. Therefore, Jesus broke the rule several times when he felt compassion for someone's pain and illness and healed him. But he broke the rules!

This brings us to today? What are we to do with traditions, regulations, and rules? Without any rules and regulations at all, the world would rapidly slip into anarchy and chaos. People would drive their automobiles on whichever side of the road they felt like driving. People would say and do whatever they felt like, regardless of how it would effect someone else. I tell you, if I could make it to an airport alive, I am not sure I would dare fly in an airplane. The pilots would not have to have training or be regulated. The air lanes would not exist. You could land, take off from the taxi way if you wanted. No one would have to bother to inspect or repair the airplane; there would be no safety standards.

Yet there are rules and regulations that are trivial and time consuming. They feel oppressive and limit our freedom.

In church we need to have some rules and regulations, but we need to have a Spirit of how things are meant to be. A congregation that develops rules, regulations, let's call "forms," needs to have "purpose" from which to guide these "forms." Forms, the way we do things at church, become shallow when they are there just to be there and the purpose for our existence as a congregation becomes vague.

Jesus was the personification of God who had come in the flesh to redeem, not only Israel, but the world. Jesus Christ is the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day. HE IS our reason and purpose for existence! Without Christ the Christian community has no reason to be here, including Second Presbyterian Church. As it is, Jesus of Nazareth IS the Christ, risen from the dead and who lives in heaven with God the Father. The Holy Spirit attests to this in our worship and in our individual hearts!

He is our purpose and He is why we worship! And whatever we do, in or out of the sanctuary must reflect our joy in a Redeemer who has redeemed us to eternal life! And our rules and regulations are, but small ways in which our worship is enhanced, or disenhanced! Our form, our rules and regulations, our worship practice need to be constantly examined to make sure that we are offering the best possible worship to God that we can.

Rules and regulations, some help; some hurt. When we are clear what we are about, a community that worships the living Christ, then our form -the way we worship- becomes an opportunity to enhance, rather than to oppress. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.