In the Book of Armaments, chapter 2, verses 9-21 we find the following teaching:
And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'
While I concede that these words are slightly extracanonical and may require future councils and presbyteries to determine whether they find their proper place within the lectionary cycle, there is a significant observation that the Christian church of today can draw from them.
Numbered lists in systematic theology are dumb.
They are useful when you have to pass a seminary exam, or write a three-point sermon, or teach a catechism class and you want to make sure your largely uninterested teens have some sort of coherent answer when their parents ask what they learned today during the drive home from church.
Beyond those five…
Three, sir!
…three there is little use for numbered lists. In fact they can be damaging.
Case and point: let’s consider the three purposes of the Law.
Right from JC himself (Calvin for you non-reformed reprobates). We are taught that the Law serves three functions: it teaches us (and thus convicts us of) our sin, it restrains the sin of world, and, as justification and sanctification remove the curse, it becomes our means of grateful and praiseful living.
I’m good with all three. That Calvin kid was on to something.
Here’s my problem: there are many other purposes of the Law. The Scriptures are filled with them. Take a read through Psalm 119 (go ahead, I’ll wait) and you’ll find five or six more.
But we’ve been taught three. The three that fit within our simplistic systematic theology of atonement and then we turn them into weapons of conformity.
We do that by lobbing the Law towards others. The Law convicts YOU of your sin, must be used to restrain YOUR sin, and exclude YOU if you don’t conform with MY interpretation of it.
Let’s be honest. There aren’t three uses of the Law. Forget grace or gratitude. There is only guilt. YOURS.
This is the Law…
…that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
I’m pretty sure God isn’t grinning here.
That’s because the Law isn’t meant to be a weapon nor was its purpose to impose one group’s interpretation of morality on another.
I’ll be clear here: interpreting adultery to include homosexual sex is bad exegetical work (I’ve already demonstrated this, go back and read, again I’ll wait), ridiculously vague (what is homosexual sex, anyway?), and ultimately the inappropriate projection of a human worldview upon another in the name of God (thus violating the first three commandments, not to mention six and nine).
That’s not what the Law is for.
There’s this other JC. (Jesus, maybe you’ve heard of him.)
It’s Saturday and he and the boys are walking through the fields. I’m going to make an assumption here that they were walking around the edges where the poor were permitted to glean.
It’s early in Jesus’ ministry so the jars of nard are probably not plentiful and the disciples were hungry. So they picked some heads of grain. Maybe they ate it as they walked or they were going to grind it up and make some bread with it later. Unimportant detail.
What is important is that the Pharisees were watching and harvesting on the Sabbath was a clear violation of their interpretation of the fourth commandment.
forget about the biological realities of hunger
ignore that keeping the Sabbath was never defined to include this
justice, mercy, kindness, forgiveness…nah.
These were Sabbath breakers. 1. 2. 5…
Jesus responds to their inappropriate use of the Law with the following:
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. - Mark 2
He then asserts his Lordship over the Sabbath reminding the Pharisees that their attempt to be Lord here is something to be concerned about…
…but notice what he says about the Law. It was made for us.
A fourth use of the Law: for our benefit. It’s not about appeasing the almighty smiter, it’s not about cultural conformity, it’s not about judgement and guilt based on Babylonian interpretation.
It’s to promote our flourishing.
Humble bragging about your piety with judgement masquerading as “love” by pointing out the “error” of LGBTQ+ people certainly doesn’t do this.
It’s lobbing a hand grenade. It’s declaring that you are Lord of the Sabbath and Jesus is not.
And it’s demonstrable, measurable, and real. The inappropriate interpretation of the Law and subsequent imposition degrades, harms, and stifles the children whom God loves.
You want to know whether or not your interpretation is a good one: look to its effect. Parents disowning children. Stumbling blocks that cause those who want to follow Jesus to stumble. The throwing of stones, real and metaphorical, at LGBTQ+ people.
Demonization. Division. Death.
Sounds like love to me.
God didn’t give us a Book of Armaments.
Doesn’t mean we didn’t add one to the canon last June.