Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Obedience As A Four Letter Word.

Today our younger students, ages 3-10 spoke about one of their favorite subjects: Obedience. Growing up I distinctly remember the concept of obedience, the need to obey those who were older and wiser as one lesson I did not want to learn. Adults seemed to only lord their authority over children and people at church always emphasized that if I loved God that I should always do what he says. As a child obedience was always abstract and distant while the enforcement of a rule was always up close and personal. Now that I am older and pondering each day my Christian faith, I see that it is the rules that must be placed at a distance and the idea of being obedient that must be closer to my heart on a daily basis.

Let me preface this by facing that there are definite rules handed down by God that we are called to follow.  You can start of course with the Ten Commandments. These handy guidelines for life are essential in helping us to understand our relationship with God and with those around us. But we should also look to the simple, but very difficult, commandment that Christ offers. When he tells us to "Love our neighbors as ourselves" he is not disregarding the old Law. He is placing it in a language that crystallizes the essence of the message: love. Love is at the core of the rules God has asked us to follow. Love is also at the center of our obedience to him. As Saint Paul says so famously "If I have not love...".

So then what is the relationship between obedience and love. I prefer to begin by looking at whom I am called to obey. Is is someone who knows more than me, has authority over me, is seeking to guide me? If the answer is no then obedience is not required. If the answer is yes then I must examine my relationship with them and seek ways to obey. In looking at the relationship with our parents and those who take care in raising us we realize that more than anything they seek to protect, guide us, and mold us into strong and healthy individuals. All things that grow require nurturing and guidance. I remember a tree that was planted in my front yard fifteen years ago. As a sapling it needed the constraints of guide ropes and stick in order to help it grow straight. At first it may have seemed that we were hurting the tree and desiring to simply mold it into something that we saw that a tree should be. But in reality we were trying to help the tree become the best tree it could be.

Such is the same with God and us. He is not seeking to infringe upon our free will. Our free will is a gift from God that makes us the most unique of all his creations. But that will is not perfect and needs limits. It needs constraints and guides that help us to see how to become the best human beings we can be. In a Christian sense this goes deeper to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ. Christ serves as our model of obedience because he had the option and the opportunity to defy God's will but instead chose, through a perfect and sinless will, to follow God's plan of salvation through to the end.

In a practical sense this requires an enormous amount of humility. Unfortunately in our society humility has not been a trait greatly praised and promoted. Instead we are to proud of ourselves in all things, revel in our rebelliousness, and declaring any supposed authority of God as unjust. If our own authority, our own ways of living and loving one another are so good, then it begs the question: why have we not advanced in our humanity?

The answer is simple. We still need God as a guide. We still Jesus Christ to serve as our savior and our example. If we had the power to do so ourselves then we would have done so long ago. In the end, obedience is not about following a set of arbitrary rules. It is about learning how we are to love God and one another. It is about humbling ourselves to the point where we can admit that we don't know what is best for in every moment. It is saying "Lord not my will, but your will be done."

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