+Toward the end of the Passion Gospel Jesus says: “It is Finished. ” For generations scholars have said that rather than an expression of defeat, these words were, for Jesus, an exclamation of victory, proclaiming that his work as God taking on the flesh of this world, as the man Jesus, was finished. That he had equipped his followers as best he could and that now it would be up to them…to us!
That makes sense to me----haven’t you ever finished a long and painful task and although exhausted and maybe even in pain, you’re able to look at what you’ve accomplished and say, with satisfaction, “It is Finished!”?
But you know what? I can’t help but “hear” these words of Jesus as being tinged with less triumph than scholars would lead us to believe.
I mean, look around the scene--EVERYONE but the women and the beloved disciple have abandoned Jesus----Judas has betrayed, Peter denied and the others? Philip, James, Andrew, Thomas and all the rest have left. They’ve slipped into the temple crowds, hiding as best they can, denying all that has been, securing their place back into the status quo.
How, in this scenario, can Jesus feel victorious?
His earthly life has ended--he’s taught all he could teach, he’s healed all he could heal, he’s challenged the temple authorities to the very end--- but the work?
The challenges to tyranny, the loving everyone, everywhere, no exceptions, the feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the broken-hearted? That work?
It’s so far from finished.
On this Good Friday we must admit that this work—this good and holy work is not finished and will not be finished, will not be complete—the victory of God will not be won until:
Our young people are safe in their schools, in their nightclubs, at their concerts.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
Those who don’t look like us aren’t automatically singled out as dangerous or bad or illegal.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The 130 million girls across this globe with no access to education will be able to go to school without fear and without reproach. That women will get paid an equal wage for equal work and that women and girls the world over will have full and complete control over their bodies. Always and forever.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
Our politicians will hold the public good uppermost in their minds instead of the contents of their wallets.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The horror of climate change is accepted as fact and all the strength and wisdom of this world is given over to protecting what is left pf this our island home.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
The lost are found, the blind see, the naked clothed and the hungry fed.
It won’t be finished, it won’t be complete, the victory of God will not be won until:
We---you and me---go out into the world and do the work Jesus has given us to do.
And what is that work?
It was given to us last night in Jesus’ Mandate (Maundy) to us:
To love.
Fully and Completely and Always.
To ask ourselves, not in the trite way of bracelets and t-shirts, but in the true and full way of Jesus on the cross, what would Jesus do?
Jesus would, Jesus does, forgive.
Jesus would, Jesus does, Love.
Jesus would, Jesus does, risk.
That’s what Jesus would have us do, too:
Forgive.
Love.
Risk.
Jesus’ work on earth was finished, but it was not and it is not complete. For Jesus is not and was not in this alone. We are the descendants of those who betrayed and denied and ran away. We are the descendants of those who screamed, “Crucify Him!” BUT we are also descendants of those women who stayed at the cross and in a few days will take that long trek up Calvary’s hill to the tomb. We are descendants of those loving, forgiving and risk-taking women.
May we, as we survey that wondrous and complicated cross, be strengthened to finish the work, to complete the task and to bring the dream of God to life, right here and right now.
Amen.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Palm Sunday--The World is Not a Hopeless Place
+What’s the point of all this? Of shouting “Hosanna” and then “Crucify Him!?”
What’s the point of Holy Week?
What’s the point of opening our hearts to all the sadness?
What’s the point of highlighting the betrayers, the deniers, the hiders, the liars, and the terrified?
What’s the point of lamenting the loss, the emptiness, the death of Love itself?
What’s the point of descending into the depths of the grave, of nothingness, of despair?
What’s the point of going through it? It’s violent, it’s scary and it’s depressing…
Just like the 6 o’ clock news.
Several years ago, The Rev. Rhonda Waters wrote a terrific article on why she and her husband bring their children into the fullness of all that Holy Week is.I think her words apply to all of us, especially at this time in our nation :
“The world is not a safe place. God knew that before the Word was made flesh. Jesus knew that before his flesh was subjected to violence and death.
The world is not a safe place, but the Word was still made flesh and Jesus still taught the radical good news of God’s Kingdom, because the world is not a hopeless place.
we need no more proof than to watch the young people who are leading us into a better version of ourselves. THEY know that this world is not a safe place, but they will not let danger win.
God Bless Them.
They are living proof that, in fact, the world is a deeply loved and loveable place. The world is dangerous, can feel hopeless and yet the world is a deeply loved and lovable place.
Holy Week invites us to confront the depth of both of these truths.
As Christians, we need to experience Holy Week in its fullness… By participating in these days we learn that popularity is not all it seems, that service is a sign of strength, that empire will go to horrifying lengths to preserve itself, that innocent people are sometimes punished, and that good people sometimes suffer. We also learn that God loves the world anyway and that God’s love is always stronger than hate and injustice.
God’s love is ALWAYS stronger than anything THIS world can throw at us.
This is the journey of Holy Week, in which we emerge beyond the guilt and fear and pain in order to proclaim the victory of love, revealed on Easter but too often hidden from view in our daily lives.
The world is not a safe place, but it is a powerfully loved place. The liturgies of Holy Week give us a chance to not only hear but to experience both of these truths so that we can live wisely, compassionately, and without fear.”
I find Rhonda’s words eloquent and wise and I commend them to you.
Today I invite you to the observance of a Holy Week.
I invite you to enter the pain and emerge in the glory.
I invite you, not because I think suffering is noble, or because I think you don’t deserve your Easter chocolate without some Holy Week pain. No, I invite you because Holy Week exposes us for who we are--- fallible, broken, trying the best we can but often messing it up--- human beings.
Holy Week, in a very concentrated way, outlines what the human experience is all about:
We try. Really hard.
We have the best of intentions.
But we aren’t always that great at following through.
The fact is, we blow it. A lot.
We don’t always respect the dignity of every human being.
We don’t love everyone everywhere, all the time, no exceptions.
We don’t make time for God.
We sometimes forget God all together.
We shy from our faith outside these doors.
We love Jesus, but we really try to avoid talking about him.
We have a tendency to get caught up in the here and now of this world instead of the hope and promise of the next.
We feel terrible about the state of the world but often forget that the only way this world will change is if we set out to change it. One tiny act of hope and light and love at a time.
Holy Week teaches us that in spite of our failings, in spite of our misguided choices, in spite of us, God loves us.
Holy Week helps us learn that no matter how awful the pain, no matter how endless the despair, no matter how hopeless things seem, God will not be denied, Hope won’t disappear and Love? Love always wins.
So as we walk with Christ through these ever darkening days of Holy Week, keep the faith, be of good courage and know that God walks with us, cries with us and on Easter Morning, will rejoice with us.
Amen.
What’s the point of Holy Week?
What’s the point of opening our hearts to all the sadness?
What’s the point of highlighting the betrayers, the deniers, the hiders, the liars, and the terrified?
What’s the point of lamenting the loss, the emptiness, the death of Love itself?
What’s the point of descending into the depths of the grave, of nothingness, of despair?
What’s the point of going through it? It’s violent, it’s scary and it’s depressing…
Just like the 6 o’ clock news.
Several years ago, The Rev. Rhonda Waters wrote a terrific article on why she and her husband bring their children into the fullness of all that Holy Week is.I think her words apply to all of us, especially at this time in our nation :
“The world is not a safe place. God knew that before the Word was made flesh. Jesus knew that before his flesh was subjected to violence and death.
The world is not a safe place, but the Word was still made flesh and Jesus still taught the radical good news of God’s Kingdom, because the world is not a hopeless place.
we need no more proof than to watch the young people who are leading us into a better version of ourselves. THEY know that this world is not a safe place, but they will not let danger win.
God Bless Them.
They are living proof that, in fact, the world is a deeply loved and loveable place. The world is dangerous, can feel hopeless and yet the world is a deeply loved and lovable place.
Holy Week invites us to confront the depth of both of these truths.
As Christians, we need to experience Holy Week in its fullness… By participating in these days we learn that popularity is not all it seems, that service is a sign of strength, that empire will go to horrifying lengths to preserve itself, that innocent people are sometimes punished, and that good people sometimes suffer. We also learn that God loves the world anyway and that God’s love is always stronger than hate and injustice.
God’s love is ALWAYS stronger than anything THIS world can throw at us.
This is the journey of Holy Week, in which we emerge beyond the guilt and fear and pain in order to proclaim the victory of love, revealed on Easter but too often hidden from view in our daily lives.
The world is not a safe place, but it is a powerfully loved place. The liturgies of Holy Week give us a chance to not only hear but to experience both of these truths so that we can live wisely, compassionately, and without fear.”
I find Rhonda’s words eloquent and wise and I commend them to you.
Today I invite you to the observance of a Holy Week.
I invite you to enter the pain and emerge in the glory.
I invite you, not because I think suffering is noble, or because I think you don’t deserve your Easter chocolate without some Holy Week pain. No, I invite you because Holy Week exposes us for who we are--- fallible, broken, trying the best we can but often messing it up--- human beings.
Holy Week, in a very concentrated way, outlines what the human experience is all about:
We try. Really hard.
We have the best of intentions.
But we aren’t always that great at following through.
The fact is, we blow it. A lot.
We don’t always respect the dignity of every human being.
We don’t love everyone everywhere, all the time, no exceptions.
We don’t make time for God.
We sometimes forget God all together.
We shy from our faith outside these doors.
We love Jesus, but we really try to avoid talking about him.
We have a tendency to get caught up in the here and now of this world instead of the hope and promise of the next.
We feel terrible about the state of the world but often forget that the only way this world will change is if we set out to change it. One tiny act of hope and light and love at a time.
Holy Week teaches us that in spite of our failings, in spite of our misguided choices, in spite of us, God loves us.
Holy Week helps us learn that no matter how awful the pain, no matter how endless the despair, no matter how hopeless things seem, God will not be denied, Hope won’t disappear and Love? Love always wins.
So as we walk with Christ through these ever darkening days of Holy Week, keep the faith, be of good courage and know that God walks with us, cries with us and on Easter Morning, will rejoice with us.
Amen.
The Rev. Rhonda Waters is incumbent of the Church of
the Ascension, diocese of Ottawa.
Anglicanjournal.com March 20, 2015
Sunday, March 18, 2018
With every tear we shed, God cries, too . Lent 5B St. Luke's, Attica
+The prophet Jeremiah writes: I will be their God and they shall be my people." And because of that promise, when I was a child When I was younger, I was sure that Jesus couldn't have really suffered on the cross. I rationalized that Jesus is God's son and God isn't about to let God's Son suffer such humiliation and agony, right?
But the truth isn't so sweet:
Jesus begged God to relive him from the horrors of Good Friday.
We don't talk about this much, but it's true.
On Maundy Thursday, in the garden, Jesus asks God to, if possible, remove this cup from him. On the cross he cries out, "my God my God why have you forsaken me?"
The author of today's Epistle writes: "Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard."
He was heard. If he was heard, why?
Why in the world didn't God save Jesus from such a painful death?
Well, the biblical commentator Delmer Chilton relates the following story to help us make sense of this:
He writes:
"When I was about 12 or 13 I was in the Boy Scouts. One night at Scouts we were running a race and I tripped, falling face down in the gravel on the side of the road [and] lodged a piece of gravel [in] my forehead.
The rural medical clinic was a mile or so down the road from our meeting place. The Doctor and my father were both assistant Scoutmasters so they gathered me up and took me [there].
The doctor was good but his bedside manner was a bit on the brusque side. As I lie there on that cold, hard metal table he came at me with a huge needle to numb my forehead. I'm still not very fond of needles, but then I was deathly afraid of them.
I looked over at my Daddy and began to cry out, 'Daddy, Daddy, daddy, please Daddy. Don't let him hurt me, please Daddy. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.'
The doctor threw a leg over me to hold me down, put his left arm down on my chest and proceeded to inject the needle. All the while I continued to cry and beg and plead for my Daddy to make him stop. And just as the needle entered I saw a tear in the corner of his eye. It was the only time I ever, ever saw him cry.
The author concludes by remarking:
"I was heard, oh yes, I was heard [by my daddy]. And I was denied. Just like Jesus. [But that doesn't mean I wasn't loved. I was. Just like Jesus]. This is the great and wondrous mystery of our faith:
Wherever we are, God in Christ has been; fully, completely, totally."
Think about the most scared, lonely, and troubled you've ever been.
Jesus has been there.
Think about the moments when you've felt ignored and abandoned by God.
Jesus has been there.
Think about all the times when you just didn't know if you could do what you needed to do.
Jesus has been there.
The Promise of the Gospel isn't that if you're a Christian life will be easy. The Gospel isn't about ways to make your life work out in a way pleasing to yourself.
The Gospel is the call to follow Jesus to the cross and beyond:
To follow Jesus in serving the poor, the needy and the ignored.
To follow Jesus in reaching out to the despised, rejected and hated.
To follow Jesus in standing up for those who are oppressed by abusive systems of injustice.
To follow Jesus in fighting against evil and darkness always and forever.
And sometimes-sometimes-- following Jesus to the cross means we'll suffer for our commitments, that we too will be rejected and scorned as much as those with whom we take our stand.
Yes, Jesus calls us to follow him into all of this. Crying tears of lament, wishing the cup could be taken from us.
It's not an easy way.
It's not a painless path.
It's not likely to be smooth sailing.
It's the Way of the Cross.
The promise of the gospel is that where God calls us to go, Jesus has already been, and as we go, Jesus goes with us.
So my friends, I offer you a late Lent challenge. Spend this week preparing yourself to enter into the full anguish of Holy Week-not because you are masochistic and wish to experience pain and suffering, no….I invite you to enter into the anguish God experienced as a parent to Jesus. I invite you to spend the rest of Lent holding onto Jesus' hand as he walks through his terror, as he walks through our betrayal, as he walks smack dab into death and then through the grace of God, comes out the other side.
I invite you to shed a tear with our Divine Parent, a loving God who knows the only way to be with us is to walk with us, through everything: even the anguish and the pain.
Yes, Jesus had to suffer. Not because God is mean, and not because we should feel guilty for his death. Jesus had to suffer because we suffer, and God needs, God must, God LONGS to share that with us.
This is the beauty of the incarnation, it is the truth of the crucifixion, and it is the miracle of the resurrection: no matter how troubled our souls may be, Jesus knows our pain. And so does God.So, as we enter into this last week before the Holiest of all weeks I ask you to remember that with every tear we shed, God cries, too……because God is our God and we are God's people. Always. And forever.
+
The basic outline of this sermon was taken from a blogpost I read several years ago :
Two Bubbas and a Bible: http://lectionarylab.blogspot.com/2012/03/year-b-fifth-sunday-in-lent.html]
But the truth isn't so sweet:
Jesus begged God to relive him from the horrors of Good Friday.
We don't talk about this much, but it's true.
On Maundy Thursday, in the garden, Jesus asks God to, if possible, remove this cup from him. On the cross he cries out, "my God my God why have you forsaken me?"
The author of today's Epistle writes: "Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard."
He was heard. If he was heard, why?
Why in the world didn't God save Jesus from such a painful death?
Well, the biblical commentator Delmer Chilton relates the following story to help us make sense of this:
He writes:
"When I was about 12 or 13 I was in the Boy Scouts. One night at Scouts we were running a race and I tripped, falling face down in the gravel on the side of the road [and] lodged a piece of gravel [in] my forehead.
The rural medical clinic was a mile or so down the road from our meeting place. The Doctor and my father were both assistant Scoutmasters so they gathered me up and took me [there].
The doctor was good but his bedside manner was a bit on the brusque side. As I lie there on that cold, hard metal table he came at me with a huge needle to numb my forehead. I'm still not very fond of needles, but then I was deathly afraid of them.
I looked over at my Daddy and began to cry out, 'Daddy, Daddy, daddy, please Daddy. Don't let him hurt me, please Daddy. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.'
The doctor threw a leg over me to hold me down, put his left arm down on my chest and proceeded to inject the needle. All the while I continued to cry and beg and plead for my Daddy to make him stop. And just as the needle entered I saw a tear in the corner of his eye. It was the only time I ever, ever saw him cry.
The author concludes by remarking:
"I was heard, oh yes, I was heard [by my daddy]. And I was denied. Just like Jesus. [But that doesn't mean I wasn't loved. I was. Just like Jesus]. This is the great and wondrous mystery of our faith:
Wherever we are, God in Christ has been; fully, completely, totally."
Think about the most scared, lonely, and troubled you've ever been.
Jesus has been there.
Think about the moments when you've felt ignored and abandoned by God.
Jesus has been there.
Think about all the times when you just didn't know if you could do what you needed to do.
Jesus has been there.
The Promise of the Gospel isn't that if you're a Christian life will be easy. The Gospel isn't about ways to make your life work out in a way pleasing to yourself.
The Gospel is the call to follow Jesus to the cross and beyond:
To follow Jesus in serving the poor, the needy and the ignored.
To follow Jesus in reaching out to the despised, rejected and hated.
To follow Jesus in standing up for those who are oppressed by abusive systems of injustice.
To follow Jesus in fighting against evil and darkness always and forever.
And sometimes-sometimes-- following Jesus to the cross means we'll suffer for our commitments, that we too will be rejected and scorned as much as those with whom we take our stand.
Yes, Jesus calls us to follow him into all of this. Crying tears of lament, wishing the cup could be taken from us.
It's not an easy way.
It's not a painless path.
It's not likely to be smooth sailing.
It's the Way of the Cross.
The promise of the gospel is that where God calls us to go, Jesus has already been, and as we go, Jesus goes with us.
So my friends, I offer you a late Lent challenge. Spend this week preparing yourself to enter into the full anguish of Holy Week-not because you are masochistic and wish to experience pain and suffering, no….I invite you to enter into the anguish God experienced as a parent to Jesus. I invite you to spend the rest of Lent holding onto Jesus' hand as he walks through his terror, as he walks through our betrayal, as he walks smack dab into death and then through the grace of God, comes out the other side.
I invite you to shed a tear with our Divine Parent, a loving God who knows the only way to be with us is to walk with us, through everything: even the anguish and the pain.
Yes, Jesus had to suffer. Not because God is mean, and not because we should feel guilty for his death. Jesus had to suffer because we suffer, and God needs, God must, God LONGS to share that with us.
This is the beauty of the incarnation, it is the truth of the crucifixion, and it is the miracle of the resurrection: no matter how troubled our souls may be, Jesus knows our pain. And so does God.So, as we enter into this last week before the Holiest of all weeks I ask you to remember that with every tear we shed, God cries, too……because God is our God and we are God's people. Always. And forever.
+
The basic outline of this sermon was taken from a blogpost I read several years ago :
Two Bubbas and a Bible: http://lectionarylab.blogspot.com/2012/03/year-b-fifth-sunday-in-lent.html]
Monday, March 5, 2018
Following the Commandments Commands Us to Lose it Every Once in Awhile. Lent 3B St Paul's Springville, March 4, 2018
+I totally get Jesus losing it in the temple.
This Christianity business is tough work---we're to love everyone, everywhere, no exceptions. We're to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, welcome the lonely and visit those in prison. We're to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter. That's the Christian way…
But so often it's not the church way.
Which is why it's BRILIIANT that the lectionary designers-the folks who determine what bible readings we hear each Sunday---paired the reading of Jesus Losing it in the Temple (our Gospel) with The Ten Best Ways to Live a Healthy and Moral Life (the Ten Commandments in our reading from Exodus).
You see, the Ten Commandments are a great guide---one could even say they're civilization's first Self Help Book (or tablet!)!
They help us keep our side of the street clean.
They help us maintain our focus…
That's the real link between today's readings.
Jesus was cleansing the temple---ridding his Father's, our Creator's, house of trash. Clearing the way so the focus of the worshippers would be on God instead of on stuff, on worry, on pettiness, on all the things of this world that distract and destroy our love for God, our neighbor and ourselves. Jesus was furious because Jesus knew the ten commandments-he followed them, he added to them---and he knew that the money changers and the sacrificial animal vendors were thinking about their bottom line instead of God's ten best ways to live. He knew that the sacred festival of Passover had become a commercial debacle, distracting people from love of God.
Which brings us back to the Ten Commandments. Following these guidelines keep us focused on the things of God instead of on those things that are NOT of God.
1. Love God and Love people. People are God's creation, so loving people is loving God. And that is good.
2.God Loves us beyond all reason, so don't worship other gods and don't confuse stuff with God. [This is a big one because we easily confuse stuff with God.] Seeking happiness and security, a sense of worth from the stuff we have (or the stuff we want) instead of seeking our joy, our contentment in the one who is always ready to give us that security: God.
3. And speaking of God: Be serious when you say God's name. Don't toss it around as an expletive or in exasperation.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy…make one day solely for those whom you love, including God. These relationships need nurturing, our relationship with God, with all our loved ones: devote one day a week to this nurture.
5. Honor your parents and all who raise you. There is no more important job than raising children. We must always honor those who devoted themselves to our growth, our health, our well-being.
And now we get into the don'ts. But these don'ts seem pretty reasonable:
6. Don't kill. And don't stand for the killing of others! (yes this means standing up and speaking out against the greed of our politicians taking precedence over the safety of our children. More on that in a moment.)
7. Don't break your commitment to your spouse, your partner, your husband, your wife!
8. Don't steal.
9.Don't lie.
10. Don't want what others have, be happy for them and be content with you and what you have.
These are GREAT guidelines. We really can't go wrong if we follow them. Of course, we often confuse everything, complicating things. It really is as simple (not easy, but simple) as these best ways to live: keep our focus on God and on all those things in life which are God-given: love of family and friends, respect for creation, respect for each other. The Ten Commandments, if taken seriously, keep us from getting too self-absorbed, keep us from getting too distracted, keep us from getting off track.
And sometimes? Sometimes when we take them seriously, when we maintain a commitment to them, we will get angry. Just like Jesus.
We, followers of Jesus in the 21st century, better get angry at Christians---ourselves included--- who don't have the courage to take the action needed to DO SOMETHING about these mass shootings that have so infected our country. How can Christians, people who profess to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior let people with ill intent so easily acquire rifles adapted to kill quickly and massively? How can we, as followers of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, as followers of the Creator who is the source of all Love stand off to the side? We can't. We musn't. We shouldn't.
Look back at the ten best ways to live, take a good long look at our baptismal covenant where we promise to respect the dignity of every single person, where we proclaim Jesus as our Savior, where we commit ourselves to lives of light and love---we cannot stand by why the safety and security of children in school, party-goers in a nightclub, concert-goers, college students and church goers is at risk.
Jesus believed in the ten commandments. Jesus followed the ten commandments and Jesus made a bit of a scene when he found his father's, our creator's honor being violated.
As followers of that same Jesus, as lovers of that same God, shouldn't we, too? Shouldn't we scream and yell until our children can go to school without being murdered in cold blood? Shouldn't we rant and rave until we have quality mental health care available to all of God's children? Shouldn't we stomp our feet and yell our heads off in the face of politicians who would rather maintain a flow of money into their campaign coffers rather than protecting the people they've been elected to serve?
I think the Commandments of God, the teachings of Jesus leave us no choice. Our faith, our creeds, our very belief system demands that we must. Because if we don't, who will?
Amen.
This Christianity business is tough work---we're to love everyone, everywhere, no exceptions. We're to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, welcome the lonely and visit those in prison. We're to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter. That's the Christian way…
But so often it's not the church way.
Which is why it's BRILIIANT that the lectionary designers-the folks who determine what bible readings we hear each Sunday---paired the reading of Jesus Losing it in the Temple (our Gospel) with The Ten Best Ways to Live a Healthy and Moral Life (the Ten Commandments in our reading from Exodus).
You see, the Ten Commandments are a great guide---one could even say they're civilization's first Self Help Book (or tablet!)!
They help us keep our side of the street clean.
They help us maintain our focus…
That's the real link between today's readings.
Jesus was cleansing the temple---ridding his Father's, our Creator's, house of trash. Clearing the way so the focus of the worshippers would be on God instead of on stuff, on worry, on pettiness, on all the things of this world that distract and destroy our love for God, our neighbor and ourselves. Jesus was furious because Jesus knew the ten commandments-he followed them, he added to them---and he knew that the money changers and the sacrificial animal vendors were thinking about their bottom line instead of God's ten best ways to live. He knew that the sacred festival of Passover had become a commercial debacle, distracting people from love of God.
Which brings us back to the Ten Commandments. Following these guidelines keep us focused on the things of God instead of on those things that are NOT of God.
1. Love God and Love people. People are God's creation, so loving people is loving God. And that is good.
2.God Loves us beyond all reason, so don't worship other gods and don't confuse stuff with God. [This is a big one because we easily confuse stuff with God.] Seeking happiness and security, a sense of worth from the stuff we have (or the stuff we want) instead of seeking our joy, our contentment in the one who is always ready to give us that security: God.
3. And speaking of God: Be serious when you say God's name. Don't toss it around as an expletive or in exasperation.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy…make one day solely for those whom you love, including God. These relationships need nurturing, our relationship with God, with all our loved ones: devote one day a week to this nurture.
5. Honor your parents and all who raise you. There is no more important job than raising children. We must always honor those who devoted themselves to our growth, our health, our well-being.
And now we get into the don'ts. But these don'ts seem pretty reasonable:
6. Don't kill. And don't stand for the killing of others! (yes this means standing up and speaking out against the greed of our politicians taking precedence over the safety of our children. More on that in a moment.)
7. Don't break your commitment to your spouse, your partner, your husband, your wife!
8. Don't steal.
9.Don't lie.
10. Don't want what others have, be happy for them and be content with you and what you have.
These are GREAT guidelines. We really can't go wrong if we follow them. Of course, we often confuse everything, complicating things. It really is as simple (not easy, but simple) as these best ways to live: keep our focus on God and on all those things in life which are God-given: love of family and friends, respect for creation, respect for each other. The Ten Commandments, if taken seriously, keep us from getting too self-absorbed, keep us from getting too distracted, keep us from getting off track.
And sometimes? Sometimes when we take them seriously, when we maintain a commitment to them, we will get angry. Just like Jesus.
We, followers of Jesus in the 21st century, better get angry at Christians---ourselves included--- who don't have the courage to take the action needed to DO SOMETHING about these mass shootings that have so infected our country. How can Christians, people who profess to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior let people with ill intent so easily acquire rifles adapted to kill quickly and massively? How can we, as followers of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, as followers of the Creator who is the source of all Love stand off to the side? We can't. We musn't. We shouldn't.
Look back at the ten best ways to live, take a good long look at our baptismal covenant where we promise to respect the dignity of every single person, where we proclaim Jesus as our Savior, where we commit ourselves to lives of light and love---we cannot stand by why the safety and security of children in school, party-goers in a nightclub, concert-goers, college students and church goers is at risk.
Jesus believed in the ten commandments. Jesus followed the ten commandments and Jesus made a bit of a scene when he found his father's, our creator's honor being violated.
As followers of that same Jesus, as lovers of that same God, shouldn't we, too? Shouldn't we scream and yell until our children can go to school without being murdered in cold blood? Shouldn't we rant and rave until we have quality mental health care available to all of God's children? Shouldn't we stomp our feet and yell our heads off in the face of politicians who would rather maintain a flow of money into their campaign coffers rather than protecting the people they've been elected to serve?
I think the Commandments of God, the teachings of Jesus leave us no choice. Our faith, our creeds, our very belief system demands that we must. Because if we don't, who will?
Amen.
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