Show Me

Based on Luke 24:36-49

Missouri is famously known as the “Show Me” state. There are many stories about how Missouri got this moniker. The one that is most likely the right story, according to Missouri’s government website, goes like this:

The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.

“Show me, don’t tell me”, “seeing is believing”, these are often heard phrases that point to our need for evidence to support what people are asserting to be true. Certainly, for those who are skeptical and don’t want to be duped, they are unwilling to take things at face value. They want to see the data. They want to go and see for themselves. They want video evidence. Especially if the stakes are high, we want claims and assertions to be backed up with facts and evidence. Nobody is going to trust a Coronavirus vaccine just because a drug maker says it is effective. There needs to be a lot of evidence to support that claim before the vaccine is injected into the arms of millions of people. People are found guilty in court trials based on evidence, not on what someone claims. There must be proof to back up the accusation. But what do you do if you know something to be true, but you can’t produce any evidence to back up your claim? I shudder to think of how many perpetrators of assault have never been held to account for their actions because there was no evidence to back up the claim. Sometimes truth claims have to be believed without visible evidence. You have to take it on faith and trust that what the person is telling you is the truth. That’s easier for some to accept than others.

Let’s consider what the disciples of Jesus had to contend with after Jesus rose from the dead. They were blessed with physical evidence that demonstrated that Jesus truly was alive. He showed them multiple ways that it really was him and not a ghost. He had them see the wounds in his hands and feet. He let them touch his body. He ate a piece of fish in their presence. This was clear evidence that he was alive again. The disciples did not have to take the word of the two disciples who said that they were with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. All the disciples could see for themselves physical evidence that it was true. Jesus is alive.

Having seen for themselves that Jesus is alive, Jesus now opens their minds so they could understand the scriptures that were written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. Which scriptures were these? Oh, how I wish Luke had been more explicit! Which scriptures did Jesus point to when he opened the minds of his disciples? Maybe from Moses Jesus pointed to Numbers 21:8-9, “So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.” Or Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, and by his bruises we are healed.” Or Psalm 22, “Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn.” Whatever the scriptures were, we see a process unfolding. Jesus had pointed to the scriptures while he was with them but they didn’t understand. They had to have some experiences first. They had to experience Jesus being arrested, beaten and executed. They had to endure the grief and confusion of the immediate aftermath. They had to experience Jesus standing in their midst as the resurrected Christ. It was after these experiences that they were ready for Jesus to then open their minds so they could come to an understanding of what the scriptures said about Jesus. Experience is followed by or informs the interpretation of scripture as their minds are opened to a clearer understanding.

The disciples are now equipped. They have had these experiences. They have seen with their own eyes and touched with their own hands the resurrected Christ. They have received from him these scripture based teachings that demonstrate who Jesus is as the messiah who suffered and then rose on the third day, the one from whom repentance and forgiveness of sins can be obtained. Once they are empowered with the Holy Spirit, they will begin in Jerusalem and then move out into the rest of the world proclaiming Jesus and witnessing to their experience. And from generation to generation this witness of the resurrected Jesus has been passed down up to this very day. Billions of people on earth currently believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that in his name there is forgiveness of sins. 

Still, there is that nagging need for evidence. Jesus gave the disciples physical evidence of his resurrection. He enabled them to understand the scriptures. But the disciples could not bring Jesus along with them when they went out to proclaim the message. Jesus left. For people to believe the disciples they are going to need some kind of evidence to back up these claims without having the evidence, which is the physical presence of Jesus. How will they do this? How will they be able to back up their claims to a “seeing is believing” world?

I think this passage from Luke gives us a few clues of the evidence that the disciples will have available to demonstrate the truth of what they are saying. The good news for us is that what evidence they had to use is also available to us as we continue this work of bearing witness to the resurrected Jesus.

I talked about this last week, but notice that when Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples the first words he speaks are, “Peace be with you.” Jesus is the giver of peace. In the midst of confusion and fear, Jesus offers inner peace. This is one of the pieces of evidence that the disciples carried with them as they went about their work of bearing witness to Jesus. They experienced much persecution and abuse. But when faced with great resistance, they possessed an inner peace that Jesus bestowed on them. It was that inner peace that provided evidence of the truth they were proclaiming. And if the many stories of the martyrs are to be believed, in which Christians were tortured and killed in many creative ways, and faced their suffering and death with an inner peace and calm, that is some powerful evidence.

So, Jesus gives the disciples peace as evidence, and he gives them the capacity to forgive sins. I immediately think of how Jesus models this when he is on the cross and looks down at his accusers and says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That capacity to forgive is also a powerful form of evidence. When the disciples contended with their own suffering and abuse as they gave witness, they had the capacity to offer forgiveness to their accusers and abusers. Evidence of the risen Christ.

There is one more piece of evidence that Jesus supplies to the disciples that is hinted at in verse 49. Jesus said to them, “I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” What is it that the Father promised? The Holy Spirit, which descended on the disciples as they were gathered together in that room on Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the resurrection. The presence of the Holy Spirit within the disciples is a powerful demonstration of evidence. The book of Acts catalogues many of the ways that the Spirit provided evidence to support what the disciples were saying about Jesus. For us, we can look to the fruits of the spirit as the ways we can provide evidence of at least our trustworthiness: the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

This is the big point that I want to make. Our mandate is to bear witness to the good news that Jesus is the messiah and that in his name there is forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. The evidence we possess to support this claim really lies in our character. Lacking the physical evidence of Jesus walking around with us, the only way our witness can be convincing is by a demonstration of our trustworthiness, our personal credibility. We build and demonstrate that credibility in our capacity to maintain inner peace in the midst of chaos, the capacity to forgive people, and the demonstration of the virtues that manifest the Holy Spirit. These are the evidences that we provide to support our claim that the resurrected Christ is the savior of the world.

There’s another popular phrase coined by St. Francis that perhaps many of you have heard: “Preach the gospel at all times, use words only when necessary.” So much wisdom in that statement. For people to come to belief in the gospel they have to experience it first and then be given the language to unpack and understand what they have experienced. It’s the same process that we see in this passage from Luke. The disciples had to experience for themselves the grief of losing Jesus and the joy of seeing Jesus with them again before they could comprehend the words about Jesus in the scriptures. Experience leads to openness and understanding. This is the method that we are called to embody in our daily lives. In a way, our lives become the evidence of the truth of Jesus. We become known as followers of Jesus by our love. And as people experience us, and the Spirit stirs up openness to receive our words, we may yet have that necessary opportunity to speak with words the good news that in the name of Jesus there is forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God along with the promise of everlasting life in our own resurrected bodies.

It Starts with Trust

Based on John 20:19-31

My heart goes out to those disciples. They found themselves in a situation that must have felt way over their heads. Three years before they were leading ordinary lives. But now they find themselves gathered together behind locked doors in fear of their lives. And they weren’t sure what their next move would be. Should they lay low until people moved on from the scandal of Jesus who claimed to be the messiah but now was crucified and buried? Should they make a break for it and scatter to the winds, live in hiding? It must have been a scary time.

But then things got even more intense. Jesus appears before the disciples. Locked doors would not keep him from standing in their midst. He makes it clear to them that although he can just show up, materialize out of thin air, that he is not a ghost. He still possesses a body. He eats fish in front of them. He really is alive! And then he says to them, “Just as the Father sent me, so I send you.” And he breathes on them, just like how God breathed on Adam and Eve back in Genesis, making them alive. Something deep is happening here, like some kind of new creation or something. The Spirit of Life is being blown into their bodies. The disciples are commissioned and empowered to go out into the world to continue what Jesus started. Of course, as we learn, Thomas wasn’t there for some reason and missed the whole thing. He had to deal with the rest of the disciples talking about all this and feeling frustrated that he missed it. It didn’t help that he refused to believe them unless he could see Jesus for himself. That’s showing quite a lack of trust in his fellow disciples. Did he think they were making all this up? Why would they lie to him? Well, after all, what happened was a mind-blowing experience.

There is so much here to take in. In fact, there’s too much to include in one sermon. I want to zero in on what Jesus did to prepare his disciples to get out of that room with the locked doors and into a world that was not safe to continue the work of reconciling the world to God.

First, let’s consider the mission that Jesus gives the disciples. He said to them, “Just as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This is where the link is made, where the disciples are invited in to join this great work. What again did the Father send Jesus to do? John 3:16-17 gives the answer. God loved the world so much that God gave the Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. God sent Jesus into the world to save the world. How is the world saved? Those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life. It is all about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who believe are reconciled with God. Their sins are forgiven. This is the big mission. God wants to be reconciled with humanity. The reconciliation is made possible by believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

So, while Jesus was going about his life, he demonstrated in all kinds of ways that he is the Son of God, from turning water into wine, to raising Lazarus from the dead, to rising himself from the dead and now standing before the disciples eating fish. And the next week, when Thomas sees Jesus for himself, he falls to his knees and says, “My Lord and my God!” That’s the confession of truth that saves, that forgives sins and reconciles people with God, believing that Jesus is who he says he is.

Now, he is going back to heaven. Somebody has to keep talking about Jesus, bearing witness to who he is so that others can come to belief and be reconciled with God. That’s where the disciples come in. Jesus is commissioning them to go and tell what they have seen and heard. But it’s not just about testifying. When Jesus gave them the commandment to love one another just as he loves them, he said the world will know they are his disciples because of their love for one another. It’s more than talk. It is their love for each other that will draw people in. Talk and action go together in this work they are being commissioned to do.

Now that all sounds great. But the disciples are going to need some assistance because the world behind those locked doors is not a safe place. Jesus himself was mocked, beaten and crucified. It would be foolish for the disciples to go out there and think that people will come around and accept the truth of Jesus. To be honest, most people will likely be like Thomas. If you can’t show me Jesus, then all I’m hearing is a delusion or a made up story. No one is going to take these disciples seriously. How will anyone believe them? On its face, what Jesus is commissioning them to do seems like a fool’s errand.

Jesus supports them in two ways. First, he breathes on them the Spirit of God. The very Spirt of God now dwells in their souls. It’s like they have been born anew. They are qualitatively different because of the indwelling of the Spirit. They are possessed by the Spirit just as Jesus is possessed by the Spirit. In a way they have become colleagues with Jesus. They are possessed with the same Spirit, the Spirit of Life. This is what is going to make it possible for them to get out there into a disbelieving world and witness to what they have experienced even as they love one another as Jesus loved them.

The second thing Jesus does is give them peace, that is, an inner peace. When Jesus gave them peace, that does not mean that their lives are peaceful. Far from it. These disciples, when they leave the room with the locked doors, are going to be as lambs among wolves. They will experience a lot of abuse. Many of them will be killed. All of them will be laughed at and not taken seriously. There will be nothing peaceful about their lives. Yet, they will have an inner peace in the midst of the chaos. Maintaining that sense of inner peace, as they love one another, and as they bear witness to what they have experienced of Jesus, this all adds up to a powerful witness. And although there will be plenty of people who will not believe what they are saying about Jesus, there will be those who will be moved by their peacefulness, their love, and their unrelenting firmness that what they are saying is true. Those people who will come to believe in Jesus because of their witness, not because they saw Jesus for themselves, will be blessed indeed.

How did you come to believe in Jesus? Who bore witness in your life? I was blessed to have so many people early in my life tell me about Jesus. But what they told me wasn’t just information. It wasn’t about making arguments to prove to me that Jesus was real. No, they told me about their relationship with Jesus. They spoke of how with Jesus they found meaning in life. They spoke of how much it meant to them to know that they were loved by Jesus. They spoke of a relationship. And those who told me of their relationship with Jesus were people who had a peaceable spirit about them. They were loving people. These were people that not only told me about Jesus, they loved me. They made me feel safe, accepted, wanted. As I look back on my life, it should not be surprising that I came to belief in Jesus as a teenager because by that point I had been told enough times about Jesus from people who loved me that I could trust that what they were saying about Jesus was true. I didn’t have to see Jesus for myself because I trusted those who were telling me about Jesus.

Isn’t that how we come to believe in Jesus for ourselves? At the root of it, for us to believe in Jesus we have to trust that what people are saying about Jesus is true. We have to trust them. We have to have faith that Jesus is not a fairy tale or a made up story but that there must be something to it because people have been talking about Jesus for 2,000 years. And when people who love us, who we trust, tell us about their relationship with Jesus, that can be convincing. That’s how the work continues: when people who have come to believe in Jesus bear witness to their belief with a peaceable spirit and in the context of expressing love for others.

Here is our challenge. As we make our way in this world, can we commit to be a people known for our love? It seems to me that before we can have a platform to tell others about Jesus we need to first establish that we are safe and trustworthy. It is by cultivating that peaceable spirt in the midst of the chaos of life that helps set us up as trustworthy witnesses of Jesus. It also requires expressing love. People are more apt to trust you, listen to you, believe you, if you are a loving person. And people can tell if your love is authentic or if you are being manipulating or fake. Love can’t really be faked. So, you see, for us to continue the work that Jesus started, we have our own work to do. We need to nourish the capacity to hold an inner peace in the midst of chaos. We need to authentically love others. All of this lays the foundation from which we may have the opportunity to bear witness to how we have come to believe in Jesus.

Just know that this is not something you are meant to do by yourself. The disciples were gathered together when Jesus came. He didn’t sidle up to each disciple one by one. He commissioned while they were gathered together. This is a group activity and not a solo effort. We are gathered as a community of faith so that we can help each other develop the capacity to receive that peace that Jesus gives us, and so that we can assist each other in loving well. The work of bearing witness to Jesus is something we do together. Yes, you will have one on one conversations. But never forget that you belong to the community of believers. We are all in this together.

With Gratitude to the Three Women

Based on Mark 16

They were ready to go, these three women. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had gathered together the spices to anoint Jesus’ body as soon as they had the chance. They could not do it on the Sabbath because it is a form of work. So, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, they could do nothing but wait. Wait for the sun to rise on the first day of the week so that they would have light to work with as they made their way to the tomb. But as they walked to the tomb early that morning, they tried to figure out together what to do with a big obstacle to fulfilling their loving act of devotion. There was a very large stone that blocked their entrance to the tomb. And they were not confident that they would have enough strength to move the stone themselves. They could use the strength of some men. But where were they? Where were the men disciples? They were in hiding, afraid of being associated with Jesus for fear that they might also be arrested and maybe even crucified themselves. Whether the women didn’t think they would be arrested or their devotion to Jesus outweighed their fear of what might happen to them, they were determined to make their way to the tomb to properly anoint Jesus’ body. And when they got there, they would just have to do their best to get that very large stone moved out of the way.

As they approach the tomb, they are surprised to find that the stone has already been rolled back. Have some of the male disciples come to move the stone for them while under the cover of darkness? At any rate, that must have been a relief to them to have that obstacle removed so that they could enter the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.

As they enter the tomb they are surprised again. They find a young man sitting on the right side. He is dressed in a white robe. Who is this? Let’s pause for a second and focus on who this young man is. First of all, our tendency is to identify this young man as an angel. After all, in the other resurrection stories we find in the gospels it is an angel that is identified as the one who talks to the women. But Mark is very precise with his details. He does not identify this figure as an angel. He specifically identifies him as a young man who is dressed in a white robe. As we remember about Mark, he is very sparse with his details. Each detail is weighed with meaning. So, if this is not an angel but a young man, who is he and why is he sitting inside the tomb?

If we follow the story back to the garden when Jesus was arrested, we find another young man. In 14:51 we read, “A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.” Who is this young man? Could he be the same young man sitting in the tomb who is now dressed in a white robe? Let’s think about this white robe. The last time we heard of a white robe was when Jesus was on the mountain with Peter, James and John and was transfigured before them. His linen robe became so dazzling white, whiter than anyone could possibly bleach it. Is this young man dressed with a similarly dazzling white robe? What is going on here?

I have heard it explained to me that the young man who ran off naked is actually a parable. This figure represents all the disciples who fled from Jesus. The young man running away naked symbolizes the disciples running off and leaving behind their loyalty to Jesus. They left behind their identity as disciples, symbolized by the simple linen tunic. But now, after the resurrection, the young man who represents the disciples is back and he is dressed in the white robe of Jesus’ transfiguration. The young man represents a symbol of hope, of restoration. The disciples who abandoned Jesus will return to Jesus and take on his dazzling white robe. The disciples who fled will become the ones who represent Jesus in the world. Those who abandoned Jesus will draw close to Jesus again.

Now, back to the story. The women walked into the tomb expecting to anoint Jesus’ body. But instead, they see a young man dressed in a white robe sitting where Jesus’ body is supposed to be. Another surprise. What is going on? They are alarmed. But the young man tells them not to be alarmed. He knows that they are there to anoint the body of Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. The young man is the first to announce, “He is risen.” The young man says to them, “Look, he is not here. See, he is not where they laid him.” If you think proclaiming that Jesus was alive again was shocking, the next thing the young man says is possibly even more shocking than that. The young man says to the women, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” OK, we have to pause here. What the young man has said is so heavy with meaning that this one sentence could become a sermon in itself. Let’s just break this down very quickly.

First, he tells them to go tell the disciples and Peter. Why is Peter separated out? Some have said that if you compare the sin of Judas and Peter that Peter’s sin was the worst. At least Judas was honest about and acted on his decision to abandon Jesus. The other disciples merely run away to avoid being arrested. But Peter, the one who often took the lead in proclaiming his devotion to Jesus, the one who, when Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet, wanted his hands and head to be washed as well to demonstrate his commitment to Jesus, when faced with the question of whether or not he was a disciple, publicly stated three times that he was not. His betrayal was the most disappointing and hurtful. When Peter did it and realized how he utterly failed Jesus, he broke down and wept bitterly. Peter’s betrayal was so profound that he was no longer even classified as a disciple. He was expelled from that group. Even still, after the resurrection, Peter will be welcomed back into the community. His betrayal, as painful as it was, does not keep him out. He will be restored into the community again. What amazing grace. No matter how far someone runs away from Jesus, there is always the possibility for restoration.

Second, the young man says Jesus is not going to Jerusalem. He is going to Galilee where the disciples first met Jesus. They will see Jesus again back where it all began. It’s like they will be starting over in their relationship with Jesus, except this time they will be relating to the resurrected Jesus. Something new is about to begin. Their fellowship will be renewed back where it all started. Sometimes, for restoration to take place with Jesus, you have to go back to where it all began when you first came to know Jesus in your life, to recapture and reclaim that first love.

But third, this is the shocking part. The young man told these women to go and tell the disciples all of this. Women are given the instruction to be the first to announce that Jesus had risen and that he would see them again in Galilee. For women to be entrusted with this kind of information and the responsibility to declare it to the men flips on its head how men and women related to each other in those days. These women are being empowered to do what only men were allowed to do. Women would never be entrusted with this type of information. To now go and tell the men what is happening and what they need to do…this crosses all kinds of gender norms of the day. Would they have the courage to speak up? Would the men even listen to them? This direction to go and tell is way out of the comfort zone of these women.

A trip to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body has now become something completely different. What the women thought they would be doing has completely gone in a different direction that they would have never conceived. Understandably, when the young man tells them not to be alarmed that goes right over their heads. They are freaking out. And, just as the disciples did in the garden, the women flee from the tomb. And they don’t tell anyone anything. Who would believe them? What does all this mean? We can’t underestimate the impact this experience had on these women. The emotional impact is massive. Wonder, fear, hope, anticipation, alarm, anxiety, all these feelings. It is all so confusing. They are going to need some time to sit with this experience, talk it through, and figure out what they are going to do. This has rocked their world and they will not be able to move on until they can process it together.

Mark’s gospel ends here. What happens next? I’m thinking of Paul Harvey who would tell these amazing stories about people we know. He will identify their name at the end of his account and then say, “And now you know the rest of the story.” It’s almost like Mark could have added that line to the end of his gospel, “And now you know the rest of the story.” Obviously, at some point the women were able to clear their heads, step into their authority, and tell the men what happened and what they need to do. And the men heard them and believed them. They got the message to Peter. They went to Galilee. They saw Jesus. The community was restored. The disciples symbolically put on their dazzling white robes and represented Jesus in the world. And 2,000 years later, here we are. Today, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and the promise that one day we will all wear our dazzling white robes in that land on the other side of the Jordan with all our kin who have gone before us, let us give honor and gratitude to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who together were able to confront their fear and with courage complete their assignment, to be the first to declare to the world, Jesus is risen.

Wave Your Palm Branch

Based on Isaiah 50:4-9

It’s a hard life as a prophet. Poor Isaiah. God was giving him messages of encouragement to those who were weary. And what thanks does he get? He gets his back struck. He is insulted and spit on. And, as one who has a beard, I particularly grimace at this. People pull out the hair on his cheeks. Wow, that stings! But just imagine how that happens. Someone probably has to come from behind Isaiah to hold his arms back while someone else forcefully holds his head steady while a third person, looking at Isaiah in the eye with a smirk on his face, grabs a chunk of his beard and pulls it out while the others are laughing at him. Ugh.

It is baffling to me. Isn’t it to you? Every morning, God wakened Isaiah’s ear to speak to him a word that he could then pass on to those who were weary. He is allowing himself to be used of God to lift up the downtrodden, to encourage the discouraged. Isaiah is speaking a good word. Why would anyone be against this? Why is it that the God inspired words Isaiah is speaking would inspire others to treat him so terribly? It is a mystery to me.

Regrettably, we don’t know the specifics of what Isaiah was saying or who those people were that persecuted and abused him. We are only left to guess. Was what Isaiah said to lift up the weary provocative in some way? Was his message that lifted up the oppressed and downtrodden sound threatening to those in power? It can’t be the case that it was the weary ones who would do such a thing to the one who is encouraging them. So, are the ones who spat in his face and pulled out his beard thugs hired by the powers that be to try to intimidate Isaiah and get him to stop speaking his message? We are just left to guess.

We do know throughout history that those who speak words of comfort to those who are weary, who proclaim good news to the poor, experience resistance. Sometimes the resistance comes from people who have been manipulated or don’t understand what it’s about. Sometimes the resistance comes from high places.

This being Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, we are reminded of how Jesus as a prophet experienced something similar to what Isaiah had to endure. When Jesus began his public ministry, as we find recorded in the gospel of Luke, he read a passage from Isaiah, the first few verses of Isaiah 61, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is good news to the poor, the downcast, the weary. And many of them were happy to hear it, demonstrated by the waving of the palm branches as Jesus triumphantly enters into Jerusalem. But not everyone felt the same way. And, as we will be reminded on Friday, Jesus will be mocked and spit upon. He will have his back whipped and beaten. But he will not have his beard pulled out. It will be much worse. He will be nailed to a cross and left to die of asphyxiation in public view for all to see. Those who were threatened by the prophetic message of Jesus saw to it that he could no longer speak.

But Jesus knew something his enemies didn’t know. Just like Isaiah, Jesus knew that God would vindicate him. He knew that his enemies would be overpowered. God won’t prevent the persecution and abuse. But God’s truth will be vindicated. Jesus, like Isaiah, set his face like flint and with confidence made his way through the suffering and abuse. And on Sunday morning, Jesus was vindicated. The power of death was broken. Liberation for those weighed down by the powers of sin and death was secured.

William Wilberforce was a British politician who became convinced by friends and colleagues that slavery was a moral evil and not of God. He was convinced to introduce legislation in the parliament to end slavery in the British empire. That’s what he did. And he was laughed at. No one in parliament took him seriously. Some, of course, had financial interest in the slave trade, so they were not about to end this evil system. Year after year, Wilberforce introduced legislation to end the slave trade and year after year he was ignored. For twenty years, Wilberforce persisted. He did it in spite of the ridicule because he knew that it was the right and moral thing to do. He was convinced that his position was ordained of God. Slowly public opinion also shifted. Finally, in 1807, parliament acted and the slave trade was abolished. One month after his death, in 1834, slavery itself was abolished in most of the empire.

Martin Luther King initially planned to follow his father’s footsteps and be a Baptist preacher. But destiny opened the door and he stepped into the arena to become a drum major for justice. We are all familiar with his oratorical skills and the clarity of his moral call for equality and justice, not just for black people, but for poor whites as well. Yes, his early work was around ending segregation and insuring that black people could vote. He had many champions for this cause along with many who resisted mightily. King was arrested numerous times. He was beaten. He was stabbed. His house was fire bombed. But he persisted because he knew that he was doing God’s will. He carried the message of a prophet. And although there was resistance from all corners, there were many triumphs along the way.

But then King began to expand his prophetic message. He called for the end of the war in Vietnam. He challenged militarism. Drifting away from the Republican party he started identifying himself as a Democratic Socialist. He called for the federal government to be the employer of last resort, to guarantee every American a job or a basic income so that poverty would end. He sought to bring poor white people together with people of color in a poor people’s campaign. All of this prompted more and more pushback. People told King he needed to get back in his lane. He was sounding like a communist. And as he worked to organize sanitation workers in Memphis he was assassinated. Martin Luther King was a prophet. He spoke a prophetic word, inspired by the gospel, with the firm conviction that every human being is a beloved child of God who possessed inherent dignity. He carried a vision that guided his passion, which was to create beloved community. But when he was assassinated, there were a lot of people in America who thought to themselves, “Good riddance. He had it coming.” Many white people cheered.

Isaiah, Jesus, William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, were prophets. They fulfilled their prophetic role in the face of resistance confident that in time they would be vindicated. It was their conviction that God, who was the source and inspiration of their message, would see them through. And even if they lost their lives, God’s message and God’s will would someday be fulfilled. The abuse each of them received was different. It varied in severity. Wilberforce was laughed at and not taken seriously. Jesus was crucified. God’s prophetic message of good news to the oppressed, the binding up of the brokenhearted, the proclamation of liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, the proclamation of jubilee, it continues. Messengers are lifted up and brought low. The message persists. God’s truth marches on.

Maybe right now you are saying to yourself, “Thank God I am not called to be a prophet.” The life of the prophet is not an easy one. It takes a lot of courage, endurance, and persistence. It’s not for everyone. But I don’t want to let us off the hook. Do we sometimes find ourselves in situations where we could speak up for the weary, offer good news to the poor, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, but we are too afraid to speak up? Are we worried about offending someone? There are more times than I want to acknowledge where I failed to be prophetic because I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers or because I was worried about being offensive or too political. I don’t think I’m alone.

At this point I could call on us to be courageous, trust in God and speak that good news, proclaim that call for justice and liberty. But that may be asking too much of us. There just isn’t very many Isaiah’s, William Wilberforces and Martin Luther King’s in the world. And, of course, there’s only one Jesus. So, I want to leave us with a word of grace. If we don’t have enough courage to speak up like a prophet, can we at least champion those who do? Can we not hold with respect those who do take the risk to speak hard truths into the public square and call for a moral revival in which every human being is treated with dignity? Even if the message that the prophet speaks does challenge us, provoke us, unsettle us. Can we at least commit to be the ones who wave the palm branches and not be the ones who cry out, “Crucify!”?

With God there is Hope

Based on Jeremiah 31:31-34

This past Wednesday was St. Patrick’s Day. This day has become an excuse for people to drink an excessive amount of alcohol, wear green, and celebrate all things Irish. No Irish person in America back in the 19th century would have any idea how much Irish culture would be celebrated in this country. Back then, Irish people were fleeing Ireland which was being ravaged by the potato famine. For survival, they risked the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to come to America, a place where they hoped they would be able to carve out for themselves a better life.

I am sure that it was better for the Irish over here than it was over there. But that doesn’t mean it was a great life for Irish people. The bigotry they experienced from the English didn’t magically disappear on this side of the Atlantic. The Irish in America were widely discriminated against. I have seen a cartoon from the late 19th century of an Irish character, lanky, wearing a disheveled long coat and a large top hat, an extended nose, hunched over, and his skin tone was dark shaded. Not everyone in America in those days would classify Irish people as white. They were driven into ghettoes, prevented from anything other than menial labor, and stereotyped as drunks, crooks and disease ridden. It was a brutal existence.

But the Irish that came over to America kept carving out a space for themselves. They clung to the hope that one day their children and grandchildren would have a better life. I doubt if anyone told their kids that one day an Irish Catholic would be president, or that the Chicago River would be dyed green, or that there would be parades celebrating Irish culture all over the country and t-shirts that said, “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.” But there was hope that one day the Irish would claim their place in the American experiment. There was hope that future generations would thrive in this land of promise and possibility. Hope is what kept them going during those times of turmoil in 19th century America.

There was a time several years ago when Kim and I were facing financial ruin. We took advantage of access to easy credit, loaded up our credit cards, and then found ourselves struggling just to make the minimum payments. We seriously contemplated filing for bankruptcy. It was stressful. All that debt weighed very heavily on us. But we had hope that eventually we would claw our way out of this mountain of debt. We went through a debt consolidation process. We also got a surprising windfall when my mother’s sister passed away and left me and my sister a sizeable inheritance. As a result, we were able to get out of that deep hole we had dug for ourselves. We hoped that our finances would some day recover. That kept us making the sacrifices necessary to get to a better place.

This is the power of hope. In times of struggle and turmoil, when it seems everything is against you, the obstacles are huge, breaks are not coming your way, when despair is lurking to pull you down into the abyss. But hope…hope is what has the power to lift you up and pull you forward. Hope is what keeps us believing that one day things will be better.

Israel found themselves in a terrible situation. They were in desperate need for hope. Jerusalem was razed to the ground. The Temple, the center of Jewish religion, was demolished. Not one stone left on top of another. The best and brightest of Israel had been force marched to Babylon to live in exile. Everything was in shambles. God’s chosen people had lost the land God had given them. It appeared they were literally a God-forsaken people. It was a time of unspeakable loss.

Israel knew they were to blame. They knew that as a people they had failed in their loyalty to God. They didn’t faithfully keep God’s commandments. They worshipped other gods. They oppressed the widows and orphans in their midst. They knew that God was punishing them for their overall failure to be faithful and obedient to the God who had delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.

As a people, they had been in this situation before. But this was bad. I mean they were decimated. Their future looked really grim. The question that had to have been on many of their minds was, “Has God forsaken us? Do we have a future?” I imagine that there was a real concern that a line had been crossed. Perhaps there was no return. Maybe God was finally through with them. They would all die off in Babylon. God would go choose another people who would be more faithful. It was just a matter of time before Israel would fade away into the dustbin of history.

So, Jeremiah went into action. He offered his people a word of hope, a promise that Israel does have a future. Jeremiah told the people that God has not given up on them. God is faithful. God’s love is steadfast. And this is what God will do at some point in the future. God will write the law, not on tablets of stone but on the tablet of the heart. In that day everyone will know God, not just in their heads but in their hearts. Israel will intuitively know what is the right thing to do. Their hearts will be in the right place. And God will forget the sin of Israel. It will be a fresh start. God will see to it that the people will know God and live the right way. Never again will the people be punished for their rebellious hearts because God will make their hearts right. God is bound and determined to have this people, Israel, be a people who will love, be faithful, and obedient to God’s commandments so that they can be a light to the nations, a vessel to bless the world.

Now, Jeremiah tells them this is what God will do in those days. That’s an open-ended time period. He didn’t give a specific time of when God would do this. And truthfully what Jeremiah said would happen still hasn’t come to pass. God hasn’t written the law on the heart of Israel. The future society that Jeremiah is describing is a vision of utopia, a perfect society that only exists in the imagination. It is aspirational.

Did Jeremiah give false hope? Remember that Jeremiah didn’t make this up. He is a prophet who speaks on God’s behalf. Who is to say that this prophecy won’t come true some day? Whether or when this God inspired, utopian vision ever becomes reality, maybe the more important point is that God will not give up on Israel. This is what Israel needed to hear in their time of turmoil, that all was not lost, that God still loved them and was committed to them. Israel needed to hear a word of hope so that they would not fall into the depths of despair. And God, through Jeremiah, gave them that word of hope. They did have a future. Things will get better. God will make a way for them.

Skipping ahead about 500 years, Paul was writing his letters to his churches. Some of those letters he wrote while sitting in a jail cell with chains wrapped around his legs. He wrote about faith, hope, and love. Faith and love are super important. But sometimes what we really need is hope, especially when times are tough and the future uncertain.

In life we sometimes find ourselves in terrible situations and wonder if there is any hope. All the options are bad. The goal you set for yourself appears to be way out of reach. As you lay awake in the middle of the night and run through your mind all the conceivable possibilities to get you out of the jam you’re in, nothing seems to work. The problem is so big, so much out of your hands, that there is nothing you can do to fix it. All appears hopeless.

Maybe there are times when we are in hopeless situations. Last spring, graduating seniors hoped to walk across the stage at their graduation or have fun at the senior prom. That didn’t happen. Maybe you had planned to take a cruise last summer. Didn’t happen. If you have a D in English and your only shot of getting an A is how well you do on a final exam…pretty hopeless. Toys R’Us discovered that in the era of online shopping, having huge big box stores filled with toys is not a good business model. If your favorite team in March Madness is down by 30 points with one minute to go in the game…that’s a hopeless situation.

But just because we find ourselves in hopeless situations does not mean there is no hope at all. God is known by many names. And one of those names for God is hope. God is a god of hope. As Paul wrote in Romans 15, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Hope is not determined by circumstances but is something that flows within us by the power of the Spirit. We can possess hope even in hopeless situations. With God there is always hope.

When Jeremiah gave to Israel that vision of hope, he didn’t tell them that everything would go back to the way things used to be. He didn’t say there would be a rebuilt Temple and a restored Jerusalem. He said that what God was up to was establishing a new covenant. Now in some ways the covenant is the same. God is the one who initiates it, like all the other covenants we have been reviewing these past few weeks. God is still committed to Israel. God still has commandments that God wants followed. But in other ways this covenant is different. The law will be written on their hearts. All their sins will be forgiven and forgotten. No one will have to teach them to know God because everyone will intuitively know God. God will still be their God. They will still be God’s people. But it will not be like it was. God is establishing something better. God is establishing greater possibilities for covenant faithfulness. This is where their hope rested, not in repeating the past but in the establishment of something different, something new, something better.

This is what hope is about. Hope is about trusting that things will be better some day. Being better means they won’t be the same. Things will be different. Not a copy of the past. Not the realization of a utopian fantasy. But things will be better. Somehow God is going to work it out, open up new possibilities that bring about better outcomes, life that is more flourishing, community that is more aligned with God’s desires. This is what hope is about, trusting that tomorrow will be better than today.

As we emerge from the pandemic, I am here to tell you that there is hope. God has been at work through this season, establishing new possibilities for a future that is better than the past. One big example is how we as a church share the gospel. Before the pandemic, if someone wanted to be engaged in worship with us and hear a message from God’s word, they would have to show up on Sunday morning in a building. But now, because many of our churches were closed for the sake of public health, churches were forced to take worship and the sermon to the digital space. All of a sudden, access to worship and the hearing of sermons blew wide open. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection could participate. And as churches are returning to in person worship, online worship is not going away. The potential to reach more people who for whatever reason would never go to a church building or simply could not worship on Sunday morning now have opportunities to be inspired by worship and grow in their understanding. Through the Facebook platform discipleship groups can be formed where people can share their thoughts and questions, where prayer requests can be made, where planning can happen for outreach events. Meeting platforms like Zoom allow people from across the country, even the world, to come together for worship, for education, or strategizing without the expense of travel. These modes of connection that came to the fore during this pandemic is generating new possibilities for bringing people together, sharing the gospel, and growth in discipleship. The barriers of distance and buildings are dissolving. The Spirit of God is at work. With God things can be better. We do have a future with hope. It will be different. Because it will be better.

This is our hope, that God never gives up on us. No matter what we go through in life, God never forsakes us. We don’t know how things will work out. We don’t know when things will return to normal, whatever that means. And I’m wondering if we want things to go back exactly to the way they were before the pandemic. But if we trust in God, trust that God is with us, then we have hope. And hope is not a small thing when everything around us is changing, things are falling apart and the losses pile up. Loss is part of the process of restoration, the bringing to pass of something better, of something closer to what God has desired all along.

Gaze Upon the Cross and Be Healed

Based on John 3:14-21

        Have any of you been bitten by a snake before? How about a spider bite? Bee sting or wasp sting? Those hurt, don’t they? The sting or bite is painful enough, but as the venom starts working its way through your body, the pain gets worse and worse. For some, the body reacts to those stings and bites so badly that if they don’t get medical treatment quickly they may die. The sting is bad enough. But that poisonous venom, that’s what really hurts.

Sin is sort of like getting snake bit. I believe that’s what Jesus has in mind when we hear these words from the gospel of John. Jesus compares his saving work with when Moses lifts up a bronze serpent in the desert. Sin and being snake bitten go hand in hand. You see, sin is more than just doing something bad. Sin is more like poisonous venom that lingers in you and will harm you, even kill you, if an antidote isn’t applied. Sin is like snake venom coursing through your veins.

When Jesus talks about Moses lifting up that bronze serpent in the desert, he’s referring to this story we find in Numbers 21:4-9:

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

We can see how Jesus takes this story from Israel’s past as a symbol for what happens when Jesus is lifted up on the cross. The bronze serpent, when gazed upon with faith, brought healing. Just so, Jesus, the one who took on himself all the sin of the world when lifted up on the cross, brings healing to those who look on him with faith. They receive healing from the poison of sin. Yes, Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that no one might perish, but have everlasting life.

This is the good news of the gospel! We can be healed from the corrupting poison of sin by looking upon Jesus and believing in faith that he can heal us. There is healing for our sin-sick souls. All who look upon the crucified Jesus in faith will be healed,

Yet, so many people refuse to do this. So many people refuse to acknowledge the depth of their sickness and their need for healing. They know their lives aren’t right but they don’t realize how messed up they really are. They think that if they just try harder, that somehow everything will work out all right. Most of you have heard of Alcoholics Anonymous. The program has twelve steps toward recovery. The first step in the program is to acknowledge that you need help, that you don’t have enough power to help yourself. Many people acknowledge that their lives are a mess. But they will not acknowledge that they need help. It is hard to admit that you are helpless, that you can’t do life by yourself. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t have enough strength. We can’t make it through life on our own. We need help. The first step toward healing, whether it be from addiction or from sin, is to admit that you need help.

What today’s scripture teaches is that those who admit that they are powerless over the effects of sin and are humble enough to stand in the glaring light of God’s truth, warts and all, trusting in the healing power of Jesus, that they will receive healing from the poison of sin that is ruining their lives. This is such a crucial step, to humbly stand before Jesus, completely vulnerable, aware of how sick you are, hoping that Jesus won’t reject you but will heal you. John Wesley spoke of the “almost Christian.” An “almost Christian” is one who believes that Jesus saves us from sin. But the “almost Christian” has not become humble enough to stand before Jesus, fully aware of how much they need to be saved, and trust that Jesus can heal them. An “almost Christian” believes Jesus can heal. A true Christian believes that Jesus is healing them.

It is hard for us to admit how bad it is, how sick we really are. It is hard to let the light of God’s truth shine on us, in those dark places where we try to keep things hidden. We try to avoid being honest about how messed up we are by thinking to ourselves, “I’m not that bad a person.” We wouldn’t say we were as pious as Job but we are good people. But let’s look at Job for a minute. Job was so pious even God was bragging about him. But when the time of testing came, eventually, Job grew angry with God. The testing revealed in Job the sin of pride. Job could not understand why God was letting this happen to him. He didn’t deserve it. He demands of God to explain Godself. Then, God finally answers Job by blowing him away with a string of questions that reveals to Job how arrogant he was toward God. The light of God’s truth shined brightly on Job. But instead of being defensive, Job recognized he had messed up. Job said to God, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I had heard of you, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” In spite of how pious he was, so pious God was bragging on him, the glaring light of God’s truth made Job realize that he was not well at all.

Dorotheos, a great spiritual teacher from many centuries ago, taught from experience that the closer we draw to God, the more evident it becomes to us of how sinful we truly are. We all live with blinders on, even those of us who have given our lives to Jesus. We have heard and believed the gospel, but have we seen God? If we did, would we not realize just how corrupt we still are? Surely, like Job, we would despise ourselves and repent in dust and ashes if we stood before the glaring light of God’s truth. We would beg to look upon the cross of Christ and be healed from the poison of sin coursing through our veins.

We have to let the light of God’s truth shine upon us. It will be painful. Like you, I believe in Jesus. I trust in Christ alone for my salvation. But when the searchlight of God’s truth gets flipped on, I join Adam and Eve and run for cover! Am I the only one? How hard it is to be completely honest before God and acknowledge how sin sick we are, even as believers. In Psalm 26:2, the psalmist sings, “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind.” How many of us would want to endure that kind of test?

For many of us, including me, we have to increase our trust in the power of Jesus to save us from our sin. We have to trust not in our own goodness, but rather trust in God’s mercy, who sent Jesus to be the one who can draw the poison of sin out of us. This is the good news for us: we can’t save ourselves, but God can save us. God has provided the remedy for the sin sickness that is killing us. We can look upon the cross and be healed, believing that if we look on the cross and trust in the healing power of the cross of Christ, that we will have everlasting life. The poison of sin is drawn out of us when we gaze upon the cross of Christ. That is what Jesus taught. And it is a mystery. We don’t know how it works. But it is what God has revealed to us. The cross of Christ is the means by which we are healed from sin. The more we can truly believe that with all our heart, the more we are able to let our lives stand before the bright spotlight of God’s truth and be able to say, in the words of an ancient prayer, “Do not look on my many sins, but have mercy on me, O God, in your loving compassion, and save me.”

I know it can be scary. It’s scary to acknowledge that we are hopelessly messed up. It’s scary to confront the painful truth of ourselves. It is scary to acknowledge that our lives, which may last seventy, eighty years, even longer, are but a puff of wind, a flower that blooms during the day but at night dries up and withers away. It is scary to admit that all our hopes and dreams, our successes and disappointments, our goals and plans, are but a flash in a pan. The years of pain, rejection, and abuse we are inflicted with, the wearing away of our bodies, all leads to death. It’s scary to admit that we are going to die.

Sarah Foulger offers a powerful perspective on this. She finds it interesting that God has Moses make a bronze serpent, that which the people feared most. The people didn’t want to see poisonous snakes. They were frightened of them. Those poisonous snakes were the source of so much death. But, if they could muster up enough courage to gaze upon what they feared, the poisonous snake, then they would be healed. If they could confront their fear and realize that the power of God can overcome what they fear, then they would be healed.

Foulger makes the connection for us. We fear rejection. Christ was rejected. We fear pain. Christ suffered. We fear being abused. Christ was abused. We fear death. Christ died. As we gaze upon Christ on the cross, we realize that our fears of abuse, pain, suffering, rejection, even death, can all be overcome because we can know that God does not condemn us. God does not condemn us, God loves us. God does not reject us. God forgives us and claims us as God’s children. We come to realize that God’s love for us is steadfast. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. We discover that the poison of abuse, suffering, rejection, and death has lost its sting in Christ who conquers. We need not be afraid of anything because perfect love casts out fear. And to live without fear is to live a full and abundant life.

This is the gospel. We can stand in the glaring spotlight of God’s truth and allow our life, our thoughts, our deeds, to be tried by God. We can be assured that we will flunk that test. Yet, God loves us anyway because God knows of what we are made. God knows that we are but dust and ashes. We can be assured that God loves us, in spite of our many shortcomings. We can always look upon the cross of Christ and be healed.

Keeping the Commandments

 

Based on Exodus 20:1-17

           These past few weeks, as we have made our journey through Lent, we have been reviewing a few of the covenants we find in the scriptures. Two weeks ago, we considered God’s covenant with Noah and all air-breathing creatures. This covenant marks God’s promise never to destroy the earth again. There are no obligations on our part. We can simply trust this commitment God has made. Last week we reflected on the covenant God established with Abraham and Sarah. In this covenant, God does give Abraham an obligation, which is to walk with God and be blameless. Abraham achieved that obligation by trusting in God and being faithful. As a result, God fulfilled God’s obligation by making Abraham the father of as many children as there are stars in the heavens, that from Abraham and Sarah have come a multitude of nations. Jews, Christians and Muslims claim Abraham as a patriarch.

            In these two covenants, we have seen a narrowing of focus and an increase in responsibility. For the covenant with Noah, that covenant was for pretty much all of creation and creation had no responsibility. For the covenant with Abraham, this covenant is for a multitude of nations and it does come with an obligation to walk with God and be blameless, that is, to live our lives trusting in God and being faithful.

            Today, we are going to reflect on a third covenant which, like the two before, was initiated by God. This is the covenant that was established with Moses and is for a particular people. The Moses covenant is for the people called Israel, more broadly, the Hebrews, all the people who were enslaved in Egypt but whom God delivered. Even more broadly, the Moses covenant is for the Jews, a particular people, the chosen people of God. We will see that this covenant, which is more targeted than the previous two, also has a greater level of obligation to be met by the recipients of this covenant. These obligations are condensed into the Ten Commandments. We are going to spend some time today reflecting on these commandments, not in great detail, that would take too long. Instead, we are going to look at the framework of these commandments and see how they are helpful for us in our own living, even though they were not given specifically to us but are a gift provided by God to the Jewish people.

            Someone once came up to Jesus and asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” And Jesus answered, “The greatest commandment is to love God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength. But there is another one equally important, which is to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. If you follow these two commandments, you are living right.” Love God, love neighbor. The key word is “love.” If you live a life of love, then you are living within God’s will. It could not be more simple, right? Well, it’s easy to say. It’s easy to remember that living right means to love. But it’s not always easy to do. We sometimes don’t feel very loving. There are some people we find extremely hard to love. We have had our love spurned and it broke our heart, making us leery of making ourselves vulnerable again. Sometimes love requires doing difficult things. Love is easy to say, a word that gets thrown around a lot. I love you and I also love rocky road ice cream. Love has the power to transform the world. Love also can be demanding. Love is what makes life worth living.

            Love is also a great way to understand what the Ten Commandments are all about. These commandments are more than just what you see on some billboards when you are driving down the interstate or something people argue about being displayed at county courthouses. These commandments are not meant to be an exhaustive list of do’s and don’ts. No, these commandments emerge from a central, core commitment, which is love. These commandments serve as a set of guidelines that help us understand what living a life of love looks like. They are a teaching rubric. Let’s dig in to these commandments and see what we can find.

            These Ten Commandments come out of a specific context. They didn’t just fall down from the sky. God saw what the Egyptians were doing to the Hebrew people, how they were enslaved and oppressed. So, God called forth Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and to go toward the Promised Land. God initiated all of this. God saw their oppression. God raised up Moses. God worked amazing signs of power. God led them through the wilderness. God brought them to their land of freedom. God did all of this.

            Now that God has done this, delivered the Hebrews from bondage and is leading them to the land of freedom, the question for Israel becomes, “How can we demonstrate our gratitude? Because you have chosen us and have become our God, how do you want us to serve you?” See, this is an important point to remember about the Ten Commandments. God acted first to save the Israelites from slavery. God acted first by claiming them as God’s chosen people. Israel was the recipient of God’s gracious act of liberation. It was only natural for people to want to know how the God who delivered them wants them to live. They couldn’t just say, “Thanks, God. We’ll take it from here. Why don’t you go on and find some other people to save.” That’s ridiculous. They owe their freedom to God. Without God they would still be enslaved. It was only right and natural for them to want to know how they might serve the God who freed them. So, God provides the people with these commandments so that they have some direction on how to properly love God and love one another as the community of God’s chosen people.

            What God gives Israel in these commandments is a kind of hedge. By that I mean a boundary line. If you stay on this side of the hedge all is good. But if you cross over the hedge you are straying into dangerous territory. One way to look at these commandments is God saying to Israel, “Whatever you do, make sure you obey these commandments. If you do these things, stay within the lines, you’ll be good.” Also, note that these commandments are all about action. They are about worshipping God instead of other gods. They are about not making idols. They are about keeping the Sabbath, honoring your parents, not killing, not committing adultery, not coveting your neighbor’s stuff. These commandments are all about how to live your life. There is nothing about having correct beliefs. These commandments are about how to do life together. They provide a container that keeps community together, ordered, healthy, safe, and life-giving. They provide boundaries that make possible the flourishing of love for God and neighbor as yourself. The commandments, when followed, establish community life founded on love and on the inherent dignity of every person and even the dignity of animals and of the land when you consider the practice of Sabbath-keeping.

            So, what about us? God gave these commandments to the Jewish people. They were not given to us Gentiles. Are we meant to follow them as well?

            First of all, the God of Israel is our God too. As Christians, who have been delivered from sin by the saving work of Jesus Christ, a Jew from Palestine, we direct our praise and adoration to the same God who delivered Israel from slavey in Egypt. Just as God, through Moses, delivered Israel from slavery, so God, through Jesus, has saved us from slavery to sin and death. As a response to the salvation God has made possible for us, do we not want to serve this God? Do we not want to know how to live together as a community that is delivered from the power of sin and death? These commandments can serve as a teaching rubric for us as well, to guide us on how to serve the God who saved us and how to live together as a delivered community.

            But also, let’s face it. The Ten Commandments provide an excellent code of conduct for us. They are not all inclusive. They don’t cover every possible ethical challenge. But they do give us enough guidance so that we can understand what loving God and loving neighbor looks like. They serve as boundary markers for us. We can be confident that if we abide by these ten commandments that we are on safe ground, that we are living lives that honor the God who delivers us.

            Still, we acknowledge that abiding by this code is not always easy. For example, in these days it is a challenge to keep the Sabbath. Long gone are the days when everything was closed on Sunday. It takes a great deal of determination to honor the Sabbath day by simply setting everything down, not do anything but simply be, to rest and delight in creation. Taking a day to do nothing feels so wrong in a society that drives us to always be using our waking hours in a productive way. Sabbath is a practice that reminds us that we are human beings and not human “doings.” It is just really hard to resist the pressures of society and take a day where we just play and set aside the to do lists. Then there is the command not to kill or is it murder. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to face the ambiguity of this commandment. What is the right word? Should the Hebrew be translated as kill or murder? It probably can’t prohibit killing because, as we see in the history of Israel, when they entered the promised land, there were already people living there. Ethnic cleansing took place, we cannot deny that. God killed a lot of Egyptians in the process of liberating Israel. So, the commandment must mean not to murder. But even if you kill someone as an act of self-defense or to prevent that person from killing someone else, isn’t that still the taking of a human life? Doesn’t the life of that person that you killed matter, have value? These are just a couple of examples of how the Ten Commandments are an excellent code of conduct. But life is often messy and the application of these commandments are not always easy.

            God knows how hard this is for us. God knows the power of sin is still active and effective. God knows how we struggle sometimes with knowing what is the right thing to do as well as the struggle of actually doing what we know is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing is not always easy. God knows that sometimes we harm others without meaning to. God knows that sometimes when we are hurting, or confused, or tired, or angry, or afraid, that we are not our best selves and say and do things that we later regret. But there is still hope for us. We are still saved by grace. God is still quick to forgive when we confess our sins. The Spirit of God is at work in our hearts, slowly working within us, healing us, making us wiser, stirring up our conscience, sanctifying us. We are all a work in progress. And the work that God has begun within each of us will be brought to completion. We have hope.

            So, my invitation for us this week is to review these ten commandments and to consider which of them we need to work on. Is there a particular commandment that you struggle with? I think if I took a poll a majority of us would acknowledge that keeping the Sabbath is at the top of the list. But maybe there is another commandment that is pulling for your attention. I’m going to read a paraphrase of these commandments and I invite you to notice which one of these is calling out for you to spend some time with.

 

Worship only God.

Do not worship idols.

Do not manipulate the use of God’s name.

Keep the Sabbath.

Honor your parents.

Do not commit murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal.

Do not lie.

Do not covet what other people have.

 

            Which one of these speaks to you as the one you need to focus on? Is there someone you can talk to about this, who can encourage you and keep you accountable? If you are drawing a blank, I invite you to keep thinking about it. Talk to God about it. Ask God to help you keep your commitments to this code of conduct, even as you express deep gratitude to God, who is merciful, patient, forgiving, who loves you with a perfect love and will never abandon you.