Proper 22 - Year A (World Communion Sunday) October 3, 2020
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Matthew 21:33-46 Panzer Chapel Liturgical Service
Rules for Really Living
This
year, we’ve been wandering thru the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old
Testament or Hebrew Bible. We’ve seen the relationship between God and humans
ebb and flow. Just to be clear, it’s the humans that can’t decide how much to
trust God. Again, and again, God offers the means to be in a full
and meaningful relationship. Again, and again, the children follow when it’s to
their benefit, and grumble when things don’t go their way. Over the last month,
we have seen the post-exilic Israelites moving through an untamed land, often
complaining and wishing themselves returned to their former life of slavery,
because – well, at least it was predictable. It is not until here, Exodus 20,
that God reframes the whole relationship. And it started with these ten rules.
Moses
received them and brought them to a very disgruntled people. These ten rules
encompass the spirit of what a relationship with God should look like. They
provide the framework for an alternative society. It’s God’s way of saying, “By
worshiping me, you are different, and so here’s how to live differently.” This
new community is held together not by a majority vote on common goals but
rather through common worship of the one and only God.[i]
Our
text begins with “I am the Lord your God” (20:2) and ends with focus upon “your
neighbor” (20:17). Here, God defines what it means to be one of God’s people.
It’s not just about proximity – we’re not God’s people just by following along
in the wilderness or claiming the name for ourselves. These rules are meant to
be lived in relationship with the God who gave them.
The
Israelites were not always impressed. Perhaps, like many a vision statement,
they thought them vague and unmeasurable. Maybe they just wanted to express
their independence by going their own way. Either way, there were many times
that the Israelites dropped and ball and lost their way (sorry for the mixed
metaphor). That’s why it’s important to come back to them today and see why
they continue to be a grounding point for the children of God.
Today
I would like for us to take this list we call the Ten Commandments and think
about them in a little different way. They are more than a list of do’s and
don’ts. They help define how to relate to God and to one another so that we can
live in grace and peace together.
It
would be easy to list each of the commandments and decide what action we should
take to better incorporate them into our lives. But first let’s put them in
today’s language… and to be even more radical, let’s look at them from the
backside, from the “shall” rather than the “shall not” side of things.
Old
Testament scholar Dr J Ellsworth Kalas, frames them this way.
1. You shall have no other gods before me can also be
heard as …God shall have all of you.
2. You shall not make for yourselves idols becomes… You
shall adore the mystery that is beyond comprehension.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord becomes… You
shall enter into God's name.
4. Remember the Sabbath becomes… The Sabbath will keep
you.
5. Honor your father and mother becomes…You shall accept
the blessing of the past so that you can have a future.
6. You shall not murder becomes… You shall embrace life.
7. You shall not commit adultery becomes…You shall
cherish the sacredness in you and your mate.
8. You shall not steal…You have been given all you need.
9. You shall not give false testimony…You shall bless and
be blessed by the truth.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s stuff… You shall
rejoice in your neighbor's having. (J. Ellsworth Kalas' book, THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS FROM THE BACK SIDE.)
This
is God saying, “I brought you out of the slavery of the past to the freedom of
the present. Don’t take our relationship for granted.”
· Idols… they can never reveal to you how big my love
for you is.
· Naming a day to worship me means that our special
relationship can grow stronger.
· Respecting others, whether parents or life or things belonging to someone else… means you will be blessed in God’s own time.
Everyone
who has ever been a parent or worked with children and teenagers knows about boundaries.
They set limits beyond which it is not acceptable to go. Experience and
research show that children given firm boundaries tend to be happier and more
secure than those who haven't. At our best, we give our children a great deal
of freedom within the boundaries we have set. We allow them to make their own
decisions and choices.
At the same time, we are always there, caring and guiding; we maintain our
relationship with them and expect them to respond – asking for help when they
need it, appreciating what is done for them, and learning from us. But when the
boundaries are broken, we also have to be there to bring them back in.
Appropriate consequences for boundary-breaking behavior must be set and adhered
to in order for the whole system to work.
I’ve
experienced the freedom of boundaries from both sides. My mom always allowed me
to use her as an excuse if my friends wanted to do something I was
uncomfortable with… just tell them your mom won’t say yes to that. And as I
have worked with youth and college students over the years, I saw them respond
positively to the boundaries that we set out. They wanted to know what was
expected of them, to be reined in when they got it wrong, and to be praised
when they got it right.
In
God’s eyes, the Ten Commandments represent the boundary: largely stated in the
negative, as boundaries tend to be, and setting out limits which must not be
overstepped. But they do not stand alone. The boundary (commandment) is not a
substitute for an on-going relationship with God; it provides the context for
it.
A
child who has been given firm boundaries, but without a healthy relationship
with his or her parents, may grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong,
but without the social skills to function well in community. In the same way, a
religion based on the Ten Commandments, but which lacks a relationship with the
living God, risks being strong on condemnation, and useless at relating faith
to the real world.
We
are mistaken if we think that God gave us these rules only to keep us in line. God
gave the rules to frame what it means to be in relationship with the One who
created us. God doesn’t just want us to obey. God wants us to worship Him, and
to be so in love with him that this love spills out into the rest of our lives.
Worship on Sunday morning isn’t the box we check off and say, “OK, that faith
thing is done for this week.” Hopefully, it’s a time to get refueled for the
business of living out our faith in the world every day, in every way.
Bishop
Rueben Job was a United Methodist bishop born in Jamestown, ND. His path to
ministry and the episcopacy was remarkable. He dropped out of high school at
age 15 to work the family farm when his father had a heart attack. He said he
would have been happy to be a tiller of the soil for his whole life. But his
family and his church saw more.
When
he was 22, he left the farm for Iowa, where on the first day he met his future
wife. With her help and a group of strong tutors, he graduated from college and
seminary and in 1957 left to serve his first appointment back in North Dakota.
Imagine his surprise when he arrived at the parsonage, where his furniture had
been unloaded and left and was greeted by three elderly parishioners who
asked, “Can you preach in German?”
Over
his 58-year ministry, he served local churches and as a USAF chaplain in
Germany, wrote over 20 books and was the World Editor of The Upper Room, an arm
of the UMC publishing house. He was later elected bishop, and still maintained
his place as a quiet activist, a contemporary mystic, a gentle
prophet, and the spiritual guide to hundreds and thousands.[ii]
His most
popular book was a thin volume still in demand today – Three Simple Rules. In
this small and mighty work, he reminds us of our call to ministry and service
to God: "do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.” In it, Bishop Job writes, ‘The rules are simple,
but the way is not easy. Only those with great courage will attempt it, and
only those with great faith will be able to walk this exciting and demanding
way.’[iii]
Through
Jesus, in words to the gathered followers at the Last Supper, God promised we
would never be alone – and look – we have the Holy Spirit and the community of
faith to prove his promise true. And yet we have not always kept our promises. Don’t
you think that God is sad when he looks down on creation and sees all the ways
that we have made our relationships with one other negative – the ways we have
pitted ourselves against one another and erected boundaries, tall and wide. Left
vs. Right – Democrat vs. Republican – Black vs. White -- Liberal vs.
Conservative – Jew vs. Muslim – Christian vs. Christian – Me vs. You... the
list goes on and on.
Over
time, we have been fooled into the belief that “freedom” means we can live life
any way we want. Through these Ten Commandments, God defines freedom as the
freedom to be who God has created us to be. Our freedom comes from being bound
to God. We no longer have to write our own stories from scratch. We’re now
freed into the service of the God who makes our lives mean more than we could
make them mean on our own. This is true freedom.[iv]
When
we come to the Lord’s table together, we say many things. We say that we
believe in the possibility of forgiveness, not just ours, but also the ability
that God gives us to forgive others and ourselves. We say that we believe in
the openness of God’s love, which invites to the table all people who seek
God’s peace and will, even if it’s not OUR will. We say that we believe that
God’s miraculous love is more powerful that our hate or greed or lust put
together, and that we want and need the healing power that coming to this table
will bring to our lives.
In
the Gospel lesson, Jesus criticizes religious leaders who are more interested
in their own status and power than in caring for God’s people. Jesus tells the
story of a group of tenants who murder their landlord’s messengers. Instead of
being faithful caretakers of the vineyard, they impede the landowner from
receiving a full harvest from the land. And they pay the price.
God
has entrusted this wonderful life to our care. We are the tenants of God’s
vineyard. When God seeks an accounting, how do we measure up?
As
we celebrate the Eucharist on this World Communion Sunday, let us give thanks
for the millions of Christian people who come to the Lord’s Table and say, “Let
us be one.” Many things divide us, but if you take nothing else away with you
today, remember this image … of sitting together at a huge family meal. That
comes as close as I can think of to what it would mean to truly be the united
body of Christ.
There are rules for living, and for all of them, we give thanks. And then there is grace. And for it we get life…life everlasting… Amen.
Peace, Deb
[i] Will
Willimon, “God’s People at Worship,” Pulpit Resource, Vol. 48, No. 4, Year A,
2020.
[ii] Bruce
Ough, “Reflections on the Life and Witness of Bishop Rueben Job,” https://www.dakotasumc.org/news/reflections-on-the-life-and-witness-of-bishop-rueben-job
[iii] Rueben
Job, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, Abingdon Press, 2007.
[iv] Will
Willimon, Ibid.
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