Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

• Matthew 5:17-20

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

• Philippians 3:1-11

“Take Saul of Tarsus as an example of Pharisaism; he says of himself in writing to the Philippians, ‘as touching the law, a Pharisee; … touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless … ‘(Philippians 3:5-6): Jesus Christ says as disciples we have to exceed that. No wonder we find His statements absolutely shattering. Our righteousness has to be in excess of the righteousness of the man whose external conduct is blame­ less according to the law-what does that produce? despair straightaway. When we hear Jesus say ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’, our answer, if we are awake is, ‘My God, how am I going to be pure in heart? If ever I am to be blameless down to the deepest recesses of my intentions, You must do something mighty in me.’ That is exactly what Jesus Christ came to do. He did not come to tell us to be holy, but to make us holy, un­ deserving of censure in the sight of God. If any man or woman gets there it is by the sheer supernatural grace of God. You can’t indulge in pious pretence when you come to the atmosphere of the Bible. If there is one thing the Spirit of God does it is to purge us from all sanctimonious humbug, there is no room for it.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (September 25, from Biblical Ethics)

I wrote early on with this blogsite that I was the proverbial good kid.  I did as I was told.  Even when I became injured, maybe requiring stitches, I was really trying to help.  My sister said that I was mouthy growing up, but I was nine years younger than my brother and she was a year and a half older than he was, two children before World War II and one more child, me, after my Dad was released from the military near the end of the Korean Conflict.

I may have been mouthy just to be noticed.  Otherwise, I was an introvert, often spending all day in my room using my imagination to keep me company – I think a lost art today due to tiny video screens that feed images to the child instead of him or her dreaming the images up in the mind.  I love that aspect of books, much preferring the book to the movie.

I guess the injuries while trying to help needs a little explanation.  We were about to be hit by a strong storm and my Dad had a load of equipment on a flatbed trailer.  We drove it to a gin near town, and my Dad thought additional tie downs were needed.  Since I was about 5 years old, I grabbed the rope and ran under the trailer so that my Dad could tie it off, but I lifted my head too soon and took several stitches on the top of my head.  About the same time, at least within a year or so, there was the remnants of a hurricane coming through and we stayed up all night keeping the turkeys from huddling.  When turkeys get scared, they huddle and stick their neck in the air.  A turkey can drown that way with their skinny necks and their heads lifted high.  I saw some turkeys gathering on top of a big metal feeder.  I had climbed those things before, so I could do it again.  But with the wind and the wet conditions, I slipped.  I still have the scar on my left leg.  It needed a couple of stitches, but it was the middle of a big storm.  I was a good kid, but I caused trouble in accidental ways.

But my point is that being a proverbial good kid is like being a Pharisee in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  You see a rule – follow it.

But there is a funny thing associated with being a Pharisee in that manner.  No one notices you when you follow a rule.  So what?  You did what was expected.  But once you slip up and miss the mark, you are noticed.

I used to watch a lot of American football on television.  My interest these days is in the final score, so I “watch” very little of any game, mostly studying to teach a Sunday school class while the game is on, only looking when there is a lot of excitement.  The announcers would comment that no one ever talks about the offensive linemen.  All that the offensive linemen ever do is block for the people that are holding the ball.  But then they miss a block, and the quarterback loses yardage for the team as a result.  Much worse, the quarterback fumbles or throws an interception, giving the ball to the other team.  The “idiot” that missed the block is pointed out.  And when those offensive linemen are holding instead of blocking, the umpire announces their jersey number to everyone in attendance and to the television audience.

Good little boys and girls are the offensive linemen of life.  They never get noticed until they make a mistake.

So, obviously, there must be something more to life.  I have known people who are such great rule followers that they invent thousands of rules just to show everyone how great a rule follower they are.  But if you have something wrong with your taste buds and you do not like milk chocolate, frankly not liking anything very sweet, you cannot gain “righteousness” by following a rule of avoiding milk chocolate.  I am not tempted to jump off a cliff.  Why would I brag about avoiding that temptation when the temptation never tempts me?

But that is what the Pharisees did.  When they had walked their allotment of steps on a Sabbath, they plopped themselves down on the path so that everyone in town could see that they were following the rules, only walking home after dark.  Now, if that is not sanctimonious humbug, I do not know what sanctimonious humbug is.

But following rules does not get you anywhere.  You are not noticed or praised for following rules, only noticed when you break a rule.  And we all break a rule here or there.  Have you ever followed a slow moving vehicle and you get more and more irritated because it seems that snails are passing you?  But then you look at the speedometer to justify how horribly slow the driver is in front of you, and he is actually driving the posted speed limit.  Yep, thought so, we all break a rule here or there.  So, life must be something more than that.

Jesus said that we must be even more righteous than the Pharisees, these people who perform sanctimonious humbug, the ones that plop down in the middle of the road because they have walked their allotment of steps that day.  Think what life would be like is Pharisees today could only drive 20 miles on Sunday.  You could drive to church and back, but if you had a sick child, you could not fully make it home from the pharmacy.  Thus, every highway in the area would be littered with cars who had to remain parked, in the middle of the road, until sundown.

And Jesus says that we have to be even more righteous than that?!

That would be impossible!  And that is the point that Paul makes in the beginning of Philippians 3.  We have to let go of our focus on the rules, the Law, the Flesh.  We must focus on the source of our redemption, our salvation, our freedom.  We must focus on Christ and Christ alone.  Only then can we have that salvation, that freedom.  Only then can we avoid sanctimonious humbug.

And something else happens.  There becomes a purpose in life.  The thing missing before was always there.  When you miss Jesus in the midst of your rule following, nothing seems to fit.  With Jesus, it all makes sense.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.