Spiritual Hiccups - That's Not What the Rules Say

The other day I ran across this quote in Richard Rohr's daily meditation.  "When you lose the mystical level, you always become moralistic as a cheap substitute."  (You can sign up to receive Rohr's meditations here.)  Religion is often associated with morality, and not without reason.  Certainly God created the world and us to live in certain ways, and practices of fairness and basic morality are a part of living a life that is pleasing to God.  But while morality is a part of one's faith life, no one should ever confuse morality for faith.  Abiding by the rules is a poor substitute for a life lived "in Christ." 

It is curious how some folks who are so insistent that being Christian requires a "personal relationship with Christ" will then speak of Christian faith in terms of doing what the rules in the Bible say.  While relationships may require certain sorts of patterns and ordering behavior to support them, no relationship can be reduced to keeping the rules.  Jesus himself makes that clear in today's gospel.

The Old Testament laws on marriage, divorce, and sexuality are still brought up with some regularity in modern debates about sexuality.  But Jesus characterizes some of these commandments as little more than accommodations to our "hardness of heart."  And as Jesus speaks on marital relationships, he makes a rather startling claim.  He says that divorcing one's wife is to commit adultery against her.  But if you look at the Old Testament commandments in question, adultery is a crime that can only be committed against a man.  Old Testament adultery is essentially a property crime in that it damages goods that belong to some man.  But Jesus completely redefines the marital relationship here, changing it from a contractual agreement governed by laws and rules, to a mystical union.  And that brings me back to Richard Rohr's comment.  "When you lose the mystical level, you always become moralistic as a cheap substitute."  

I don't know many people who would dismiss the need for rules and morality in human affairs.  But just as no marriage can be what is should be simply on the basis of following the rules, so life with God can never be what it should be simply on the basis of rules.  Or as the Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians as he speaks on our freedom in Christ, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against such things."  And I might add, there is no law or rule that can produce such things.

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