Sermons for the Month

"No Rules"
DATE: July 11, 1999
SERVICE: Pentecost VII
TEXT: Romans 8:1-11
"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

A rebellion has begun, and commercials are responsible. Watch your television closely, because it is inciting you to riot.
Check it out. A recent Isuzu Rodeo commercial says: "The world has boundaries. Ignore them." The Isuzu roars over road signs that say "Obey" and "Rules." The message is clear: Rules are bad; breaking them is good.
In another spot, Isuzu depicts a bald and oppressive elementary school teacher yapping at the children to "stay within the lines" while coloring. Why? Because "the lines are our friends."
The current proclivity to ignoring rules, lowering or removing standards, is pervasive. (Not that such a message is new. This ad is the grandchild of "The Dodge Rebellion" commercials of the '60s.) You can see it everywhere:
* Foster Grant sunglasses: "No limits."
* Prince Matchabelli perfume: "Life without limits."
* Outback Steakhouse: "No rules. Just right."
* Columbia House Music Club: "We broke the rules."
* NFL video game: "No refs, no rules, no mercy."
* Comedy Central: "See comedy that breaks rules."
* IBM: "Rules? What rules?"
* Merrill Lynch and others push the "Know no boundaries" mantra.
* In the movie The English Patient, we are told, "In love there are no boundaries."
* The Spice Girls purr, "The rules are for breaking."

"Away with standards," these messages proclaim. A great many advertisers now routinely appeal to the current sensibility, which is ironic and hip and attuned to the message that rules, boundaries, standards and authorities are either gone or should be gone. In an article called "The selling of rebellion" (U.S. News & World Report, October 12, 1998, 18), John Leo observes that even "the U.S. Army used the theme in a TV recruitment ad. 'When I'm in this uniform I know no limits,' says a soldier -- a scary thought if you remember Lt. William Calley in Vietnam or the Serbian army today."
Some analysts say all this chattering about rule-breaking is a part of the baby boomer ethos. "Boomers always have broken the rules," observe J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman in their book Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing. "The drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll of the '60s and '70s only foreshadowed the really radical rule-breaking to come in the consumer marketplace of the '80s and '90s."
It is possible -- and there is growing evidence -- that GenXers and the Millenium Generation are embracing more traditional values. But John Leo reminds us that the forces of rebellion are strong: "Pop culture is dominated by in-your-face transgression now, and the damage is severe." As long as rule-breaking propaganda sells Izuzus, businessmen will use this approach to push their products.
Why are we such suckers, seduced by the siren song of standard-free living? Is it because we like to flex our financial muscles in the consumer marketplace of the '90s? Is it because we get a rush from remembering the rock 'n' roll rhythms of the '60s? Is it perhaps we are waxing nostalgic for the flappers of the 20s? Or is it because we have always liked to walk on the wild side, to walk "according to the flesh," as Paul said back in the '50s?
There you go! The apostle Paul knew that we liked to break rules and indulge our selfish passions, not just in the 1950s and 60s, but way back in the original '50s ... you know, A.D. 50.
"They were filled with every kind of wickedness," says Paul of the people who did not see fit to acknowledge God. "Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless" (Romans 1:29-31). Sounds like an evening of prime-time television, doesn't it? While none of us is guilty of every one of these sins, we have to admit that we do indulge ourselves in a juicy handful of them from time to time:
* Envy? Sure, when the neighbor brings home a new car.
* Deceit? Sometimes we tell a story that is not quite true, regardless of how we define what "is" is.
* Gossip? Only when the scoop on the coworker in the next cubicle is too good to keep to ourselves.
* Boastful? Today we call it "self-esteem."
* Rebellious toward parents? Kids, be honest -- you've been there, done that.

Face it: We do let sin take control of us from time to time; we do allow our passions to overwhelm us. We like to slip around standards, follow our desires and live a life outside the lines.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul calls this "life in the flesh." It's a life of complete carnality, an existence that is dominated by selfish passions. But there is a catch, according to the apostle: This life of No Rules is NOT a life of total freedom. In fact, it is quite the opposite. When we do only what we want to do -- indulging ourselves in envy, deceit, gossip, boasting, rebelliousness -- we become slaves to our desires. We discover that we cannot enjoy a carefree existence of Foster Grant sunglasses, Prince Matchabelli perfume, Outback Steakhouse, Columbia House Music Club, NFL video games, Comedy Central, Merrill Lynch, The English Patient and the Spice Girls. When we live without limits, we become slaves of sin. And that's no fun, because sin leads to suffering and death.
Mickey Mantle was interviewed shortly before his death. He had been a hero on the ball field, but not such a superstar outside baseball. After his playing days ended, he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic to deal with the consequences of a lifetime of alcohol abuse. Part of his struggle involved the loss of his son, Billy, who had died of a heart attack while suffering from Hodgkin's disease, a genetic disease which had killed Mantle's father and grandfather at an early age.
In the interview, Mickey Mantle said, "One of the things I learned at the Betty Ford Clinic was why I was depressed. I wasn't a good father. I always felt like I wasn't there for my kids like my father was for me." Mantle had lived without limits, drinking too much and ignoring his family, and in the process he had become a slave to sin. Now one of his sons was gone, and he was feeling guilt and emptiness -- a terrible suffering to experience before death (personal correspondence from Kent Winters-Hazelton). Fortunately, there is a way to escape the seductive snare of slavery to sin. "To set the mind on the flesh is death," says Paul, "but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (8:6). The apostle invites us to live according to the Spirit, to become actively involved in the community of faith, where God dwells as a creating, redeeming and sustaining Spirit.
If we walk this way -- on the God side instead of on the wild side -- we find ourselves free of the law of sin and death (8:2). Living free in the Spirit, we discover that the same God who raised Christ from the dead gives each of us a share of his new and abundant life.
So who's got No Rules now?
Who's got the true "Life without limits"?
Life in the Spirit involves a great deal more freedom than life in the flesh. Indeed, the liberty of life in the Spirit is that we are so attuned to the mind of God that our will wants only the will of God.
The marvelous paradox of our faith is that life in the flesh -- which seems to be a rules-free existence, pushing the boundaries, knowing no limits -- is really a life of bondage to sin. Life in the Spirit, on the other hand, is a life of freedom to do the will of God, to do the will of a God who is always breaking rules to make the world a more just and loving place!
You really want No Rules? Then try living in the Spirit!
"For freedom Christ has set us free," says Paul to the Galatians. "Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (5:1). If we live by the Spirit, we are guided by the Spirit, and we are free to enjoy the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
There is no law -- no RULE -- against such things! As members of the Spirit-filled Christian community, we are free to enjoy these marvelous gifts. No one can stop us. True freedom comes when our spirits are inclined to God's will, and the fetters of external restraint become obsolete. Some of you might be thinking: "This is great! I can be a Christian without rules! This is Freedom! License! Liberty! Cool!"
But hold on for a second. Before you start trashing the Ten Suggestions, and before you sign up for that class in situational ethics, and before you enroll in the Dennis Rodman School of Public and Private Morality, check it out: We're talking no rules--not no responsibility. There's a difference. Remember the little kite that wanted to be free? It loved the freedom of flying! No rules! Just soaring with the birds, dipping and waving with abandon, catching an updraft here and a downwind there. Thrilling! Exciting!
Until one day the little kite decided it didn't want to be tethered to a string; it didn't want to be connected to Someone else who was holding the line.
Snap! The little kite was free! No rules, no responsibility! And no life! For within minutes, it was hopelessly entangled in the branches of a tree. Life would never be the same. The irony is that the little kite had more freedom when tethered to the line that was held by Someone who knew how to pull the strings!
The Holy Spirit is a great string-puller, and we're a whole lot better off understanding that. If you are ready for "life without limits," come along. We have been called to freedom, and warned only to avoid using our freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence. Through love we are to become slaves to one another. There is no limit to what we can accomplish together.
Ready to follow a leader who says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh." Get in step with the Lord God. He has done what the law could not do -- he sent his own Son to condemn sin to death. God broke the rules in order to break our bondage to the powers of this world.
A rebellion is certainly raging, no doubt about it. But it is being led by God, not by Madison Avenue. If we join this righteous riot, we'll find that a free and truly abundant life in the Spirit can be ours.
AMEN