Whoever Makes the Rules…

Whoever makes the rules wins the game.- Molly Bloom

The world seems to have changed overnight. The world is changing because the rules are changing rapidly, drastically and often dramatically. Some are cheering, while others are grieving. But truthfully, most of us are holding our breath waiting to see what will trickle down to our reality. The implications of all the changes have yet to play out. While we suspect who the winners will be, and hope to be among the fortunate, we already see some of the losers. Marco Rubio, the newly confirmed Secretary of State, holds one of the most important positions in the U.S. government. As the senior member of the President’s Cabinet, he is responsible for carrying out the President’s foreign policy decisions and advising the President on issues of international concern. At his confirmation ceremony, Rubio stated: “Everything we do must be justified by the answer to one of three questions: Does it make us stronger, does it make us safer, and does it make us more prosperous?” These three questions form the rubric that the administration will use to guide decisions and actions: in other words, the framing of the new rules for the game. I wonder who the “us” are in this rubric.

At the end of Rubio’s speech, he invoked the Name that is sacred, giving thanks to “Almighty God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The next day, at the National Prayer Service held at the Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde also invoked the Name as she pleaded with the President: “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” None were surprised when the President denounced her comments: “She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way.” Yet, one could argue that the soft spoken bishop was merely asking the President, who sat in the front row in her house, to consider the house rules. Actually, she was asking the President, who was sitting in the front row in the house of the Lord, to consider the Lord’s house rules. The stark contrast between the administration’s perspective and Bishop Budde’s plea should leave us pondering whose rules reflect the One who bears that sacred Name.

How many have invoked the Name to justify the rules we use to play the game? Today, I encourage anyone reading the words of this letter not to trust your pastor, or a bishop, or a Secretary of State, or a President to set the rules. There is only One who defines the house rules in the house of the Lord. Remember, Jesus teaches us that the rules matter, that the ends never justify the means. So, if we claim the Name… if we wear His cross… if we call upon His grace in time of need… if we claim to be His disciples… then there is only one set of rules that should govern our day and define our allegiances. Consider God’s Word:

• Exodus 20- "You shall have no other gods… no idols… the Name is sacred… keep the sabbath… honor your mother and father… do not murder… do not commit adultery… do no steal… do not lie… do not covet."
• Matthew 22:36-40- “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
• Luke 10- Parable of the Good Samaritan- “Which was the good neighbor?... Jesus replied: ‘The one who had mercy…’” [Note that Jesus used the Samaritan as the example of a good neighbor. To the Jews, the Samaritans were hated, reviled, unwelcome foreigners.]  
• Matthew 5:44- “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.”
• Micah 6:8- “What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” 
• Luke 6:36- “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” “Blessed are the merciful”- Matt 5
• Matthew 25- “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.”

Perhaps the Biblical rubric to guide our actions should be these three questions: Does it make us more just, more merciful, more loving?

This past week marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. That concentration camp in Poland was a part of the Nazis’ “final solution” to the “Jewish question.” Ruth Cohen, and Auschwitz survivor, returned for the first time. In that camp, she lost mother and father, sister and brother. At 94, this was her first trip back, because facing the horror has been too great. When asked what we could do to keep this from ever happening again, she said: “Love. Love would never allow this to happen.” Imagine if love was the rule that defined the game.

Today it would seem that the politicians define the rules. But for those of us who bear the name of the Savior, there is only One who calls the shots. “Choose today whom you will serve… As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

With you, learning to play the game by His rules,
Anita