Year B - Proper 17 (2009)The lessons this morning seem to be saying two opposite things about rules.In the Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy Moses says, "Give heed to the statutes and ordinancesthat I am teaching you to observe. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take awayanything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am charging you." Thisseems like a pretty strong statement that in some very important way rules are the essence of religion.Jesus seems to be saying the opposite. When the Pharisees ask Him, "Why don't your disciples keep theLaw of Moses?" Jesus says, "Boy was Isaiah right when he wrote about hypocrites like you: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teachinghuman precepts as doctrines.'" Here the law that Moses gave to the people as a commandment from Godseems to be demoted to mere human precepts that are not important. Jesus seems pretty clearly to besaying that something other than rules is the essence of religion.So what are we to make of this seeming contradiction?Certainly the Church has usually acted as if rules were the essence of religion. Lists of rules, the breaking of which was carefully categorized as mortal or venial sins are familiar to many who grew upas Roman Catholics.Protestant traditions, while often less systematic, have emphasized no less a lot of rules of morality andconduct that are supposed to apply across the board to human situations.I will say very strongly that the legalistic and heavy-handed way the Church has insisted on rules hasdistorted the purpose of the Church, driven many from it, and - ironically - seriously weakened theChurch's moral authority in society.I'd like to say four brief things about this matter that I hope will help your own reflections.First, the problem comes from where we begin. Jesus said, "There is nothing outside a person that bygoing in can defile that person." If we can't be defiled by eating ritually unclean food, neither can we besanctified by eating ritually pure food. Externals are externals. We are not automatically made better byattending church, or by giving up sweets for Lent.We cannot bargain with God by externals. We cannot say, "Well, I'll do this good act which will make upfor that bad act.” Externals always remain externals. We don't gain merit for following the rules, and wedon't earn demerits for breaking them. God does not judge by appearances.This brings me to the second thing. God sees the heart. God sees what our real motivations are. Godknows why we did what looks right or wrong. God knows - just as we really know what our real desiresare.The moral imperative must come from within, not from outside. It's not enough simply to do the rightthings; we have to want to do the right things. This is no great mystery, and every person in this roomknows what I mean from your own experience. What prevents us from holding to the New Year'sresolutions we make? You know what I mean. We can't keep our New Year's resolutions if we don'treally want to, and if we really want to exercise or to quit smoking, we won't wait until January first.We'll start exercising or quit smoking as soon as we perceive within ourselves the real desire to do it.When we start with the rules, the externals, thinking that they will save us, we will probably never getthere. We need to start with where the problem is - inside of us. The reason we don't do the right thing isthat we don't really want to. And the reason we are able to continue to do the good things that we do dayin and day out is not to earn rewards, but just because we want to do them for their own sake.That's why the first and great commandment is that we love God with all our heart and soul and mindand strength. If we love God, we will want to do the right things, and the problem of following the ruleswill be diminished because we will see clearly what is essential and what is not.Externals are externals, and the moral imperative must come from within, meaning that the only way wecan do the right things for any period of time is because we want to.And this brings me to the third thing. Morality doesn't have to do with our perfection as isolatedindividuals; morality has to do with our relationships - our relationships with God and with one another.