As part of our training to be foster parents, we were required to make a set of family rules. It seemed almost funny to come up with house rules, knowing we were wanting an infant or toddler at the oldest.
They’re broad and yet basic. Not super specific.
And of course, our first test of these rules, our first placement — two toddlers.
I considered reading all the rules to them (I think there are 7 or 8 rules) but in reality it wouldn’t make any sense to them.
Instead of focusing on the big picture rules, we have to daily remind them of the fine print.
Things like keep your drinks in the kitchen. Don’t take things from others. Don’t throw things. Don’t hit. Don’t climb on the back of the couch. Don’t chew on the couch.
It’d be great if the boys could skip all the fine print and just go straight to the main rules — afterall
I’m sure they’re a bit overwhelmed by the fine print. Lots of little rules here and there along the way.
But a foundation needs to be laid somewhere.
And I’m sure the first several days they spent with us they were certain they had found themselves in a home full of “Hey!s” and “do-nots.”
Not much fun — just lots of do-nots.
But along the way they’re learning the heart of the primary rules — without even realizing it.
Brian McLaren suggests in “A New Kind of Christianity,” that if we can change the way we read Scripture, it will have a profound impact on how we see and get to know God and our faith.
While we’ve come to read Scripture as a constitution (aka a list of fine print rules with articles and points meant to win debates and law cases), McLaren suggests we should read Scripture as a literary collection or library that retells the history of a culture and people.
Reading Scripture as a constitution causes a number of issues and misunderstandings. We tend to see Yahweh as a violent god full of rules and do-nots in the Old Testament and then seem to see him change drastically as a god of love and grace in the New Testament — as opposed to an unchanging God full of grace and love.
Even in the midst of all the rules Yahweh laid out in the beginning — he was still showing grace every step of the way.
McLaren suggests that the new way of reading (how Jews have read Scripture for centuries) show us that God doesn’t change, but it’s the understanding of a people and culture (and their literature) that’s changed.
It’s like reading a collection of math books. When you read the 2nd grade book, you’re told “You can’t subtract a larger number from a smaller one.”
But when you get to 6th grade, you’re told, “Today we’re going to show you how to subtract a larger number from a smaller number.”
Both are correct for their audience’s understanding. The principles haven’t changed — it’s student’s understanding that evolves over time.
And like the math books, as the Bible progresses chronologically, the Hebrew understanding of God continues to evolve, progress and change. (And we can still be a part of that changing understanding of God!)
Just like (I hope) the boy’s understanding of Laurie and I is changing and evolving as well. The more time they spend with us, hopefully they realize we’re not all about the rules, but about love and grace and watching out for their safety.
As a final note, Ephesians 2 speaks about this idea as well.
It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped.
Sometimes we have to start with the fine print, the rules, the regulations, the law — because without them we can never fully understand how grace and love abounds.
How else have you seen these ideas play out?
