Lent March 4, 2015
Scripture Reading: Psalm 19
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring for ever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.— Psalm 19:7-9
Perfect, sure, right, clear, pure, and true are the words used to describe the law of the Lord. These words are a far cry from the status of our laws today. I once wrote policy regarding a program being implemented to help the unemployed gain work skills. In the law and in the regulations that resulted from the law there was a laundry list of services that could be provided. I honestly cannot remember much more about the actual program, but we implemented all of the items in the laundry list. When the federal auditors came to review our program, they cited us for being out of compliance because we should have only picked one service. The key word about which we wrangled for months was the word “or”. The auditors interpreted the word as meaning we could only implement one of the services, my counter was that the word “or” can also mean “and” and it certainly does not mean only one unless it is combined with the word “either”. I was banking my response on my 7th and 8th grade teacher, Mrs. Gehring, who was a stickler for grammar. They were pulling out books of case law. As it turned out Mrs. Gehring was right.
While we do need rules and regulations to maintain order in society, we must recognize that they are not infallible and even God’s laws are opened to our very human interpretation. We must continually work toward being in touch with God so that our interpretations are guided by God and all of God’s laws are overlaid with love.
Prayer: Lord, teach me your way, help me always to try to understand the viewpoint of others from the point of your love for them. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.