Succinct but expanded

The simple can be profound and more significant than you think at first

Introduction

When I first started driving I already was overwhelmed by trying to do so many things at once. Checking mirrors, seatbelts, seat adjustment, park brake, selecting neutral checking around the vehicle and all this before I even started the car. Then I had to drive it and at the same time keep in mind all the laws that governed what I had to do whilst driving a vehicle on public roads. There is possibly 300+ road rules in Victoria in the road rules 2017 edition. Do you know them all?

I only wish that there could be a couple of rules and I could handle that easily.

You know a couple of rules like, Give way to the right and when you drive think of others so that you don’t put them in any danger.

I think those rules are good. Give way to the right applies to every uncontrolled intersection and roundabout. Traffic lights certainly help at busy ones.

Drive in such a way that you dont endanger others. That rule covers so many things. Don’t be drunk, don’t be affected by drugs. Don’t speed. Dont be distracted by devices or people in the car. Be courteous to other drivers. Be patient when people make mistakes.

Body

On the way to Soul Plus Food on Thursday.

We were pulling up to a roundabout when unexpectedly we had to stop. Not in the usual sense, in that there was a long line of cars waiting to enter the roundabout and not because people were at the roundabout waiting for traffic before proceeding. No, two cars stopped one behind the other at least 30 meters from the roundabout. Not because they were broken down. I looked carefully and saw the driver of the first car was at the drivers window of the car behind.Looking at his expression and distorted features and gestures he was extremely unhappy with the other driver. They did not have a collision but something ticked off this driver. His solution to the problem he perceived was to get out of his car and give the other driver a piece of his mind. And the piece of mind he gave the other driver was very angry and very ugly.

And that in a nutshell is why we probably have needed 300+ road laws. The problem is not speed, not unroadworthy vehicles, not drugs. The problem is us. We are the reason we have so many laws.

The good news is that with a change of heart, we end up not having to worry about laws because with a change of heart we can be changed so that we do what is right.

In contrast ,Twice on that same day I was a recipient of kindness showed to me on the road. In stark opposition to the road rage I witnessed: which incidentally included me being cut off by the two drivers as I tried to pass them on the inside, two other drivers stopped to allow me to get into the flow of traffic and allow me to turn into a side street. That made me feel so good, that when another driver was struggling to make a turn into a street they wanted to go down, I also stopped to let them in. This is a good point to note.

Violence creates more violence but love and patience produces more love and patience.

The Bible advises us to behave in this way when things go wrong. In the book of Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away anger: But a harsh word stirs up anger.”

In the NT, Paul writes in the letter to the Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice:”

The road rules work sufficiently well to keep some semblance of order on the road, but we need a whole lot of them. And that just governs our road usage and as you saw from my earlier story that still does not prevent people from behaving in less than reasonable ways.

What about laws that govern taxation so that our government has enough funds to provide services and facilities to our communities. There are 50 acts containing legislation on both a federal and state level and thousands of pages of laws. Have these laws prevented Tax fraud? What about civil laws governing how we treat each other in community? Again there is no finite number of laws but a series of acts, containing thousands of pages of description, laws and penalties for the law breaker. Acts like the family violence Act, Personal safety intervention orders act and the Wrongs Act. Have these prevented civil disobedience? Today, compared to 50 years ago we have significantly more Acts and consequently more legislation and more laws than in the 1970’s. In fact as government continues to be more involved in our lives, the complexity, detail, technicality and wide-ranging do laws become. In fact since the ‘70’s we have about 300 to 500 more Acts with their various associated laws.

The number of regulations that govern us is mind boggling and still the level of wrongdoing has not slowed down. Its as Jesus said, that it is not enough to know the laws but more importantl as to how you interpret them? Its found in Luke 10:26 “And he said unto him, What is written in the law?” “How do you read it?” This by the way is an answer given to Jesus by a lawyer just before he launches into the story of the Good Samaritan. But the answer the lawyer gives Jesus, to the question, How do you read it? Is profound. Shame he did not do it himself. But his answer is the solution to the excess of laws we are inundated with. The answer pushes aside personal circumstance and preferences and demands a new way of living life. Luke 10:27 “how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

The lawyer knew what Jesus was asking. He knew Jesus was asking how do you interpret the basis for the law? What does it mean? And so his answer is perfect.

In a previous message I shared, I looked at the value of the 10 commandments and it was my goal to identify that the law has a couple of purposes.

The first to highlight human moral failure and spritual need.

The second to act as a guardian for us until Christ came and then it pointed us toward justfication by faith.

Once Christ is found by an individual ,then the law can be viewed as though it is a platform to build the rest of your Christian experience upon.

In much the same way a builder lays down a foundation for a home. The foundation must be layed first so that the rest of the home can then be built. Once the home is finished we then move in and start enjoying life. We don’t live amongst the piers, pylons and footings. We live above ground. Life takes place in the living room, kitchen, sunroom, bedroom and beyond , spilling outside the confines of our homes and property.

The law in the Christian experience lays a foundation from where the rest of our life and transformation springs from. So, just as a child we are taught the basics of life, how to feed ourselves. How to dress. How to clean ourselves. How to walk and how to read. Our parents or guardians teach us this so that one day we can become independant and live life as an adults. We start living above ground and our Godly lives spill out into the community surrounding us.

The law becomes that platform which the rest of our experience is based upon.

This is where the real satisfaction and fulfillment of Christianity flows from. When the law has thoroughly convinced us of the need of a relationship with Jesus, our next step is to become a disciple. A follower of Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, we get to a place where we don’t just act in certain ways but we think in entirely different ways. Here is an example. From Matthew 5.

What I mean by my title Succinct but expanded is that Jesus had an extraordinary way of taking life and summing it up in two short commands by the which ,if they were followed closely would essentially do away with every other law that has been created to take into account the multitude of laws we are now subject to.

As an illustration of what Jesus does to transform our thinking from the rudimentary law of the 10 commandments. Lets consider the last commandment about coveting. Remember what Paul once said about this, that he would not have known that coveting was wrong except that the law had pointed it out. But now, let’s consider this law in light of what Jesus said about your neighbour. That is to love your neighbour as yourself. What if we considered this law not in the context of not doing something to avoid wrongdoing but instead by doing something to manifest rightdoing. So how do we do that? Well instead of coveting that neighbours Lamborghini Harakan, Gucci handbag, weedfree lawn, palatial residence or the neighbours husband or wife. What if we allowed the power of Jesus gift to us in the person of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds? What if we allowed Him to change our hearts? What if we simply said to God, remove my selfish heart and help me to think differently. So, when God does this and He will because its His intent to change us to more accurately display the life of Christ in us. Instead of hankering after your neighbours blessings, you will take from your blessings and share them with your neighbour. What if instead of not killing, we lived lives that brought people back to life by sharing the good news, by healing people, emotionally as well as mentally and physically. What instead of creating idols for ourselves we simply sat at the feet of Jesus, in the figurative sense, and prayed more and read more about the life of Jesus and worshipped him instead of our temporal hobbies, like gardening and painting and tripping around. Not that these are bad in themselves , but if they take away time from Jesus and reduce Him to being just a part of our lives iinstead of the whole of our lives, we have made an idol.

As we leave today and we reflect on the simplicity of the two great commandments, let us recognise that they are profound and filled with limitless possibilities to show love to God and our neighbours. And just in case you missed it in the message earlier and are tempted to ask who is my neighbour like the lawyer. Everyone here is your neighbour. Everyone down the street is your neighbour and everyone you meet in life is your neighbour. Someone to be supported and helped by you. So friends, we do not need many laws we simply need the ones Jesus gave us and ask Him to change us so that we can make the most of them. So lets start living more often above ground and love people more than we have ever loved them before. Live life above the foundation of your faith. Amen.