Lent 3, Year B Commandments

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight, *
O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. (Ps. 19: 14)

In the scene with Jesus in the temple today he is livid, driving out the money-changers with a whip and so forth.  Jesus came to the temple preparing for the Passover, a very holy time, and instead he is met with what must have seemed like a mockery of faith.  Imagine your church being turned into a shopping mall-not the parish hall mind you, but the actual church building.  Jesus is pretty upset about all of this, but it isn’t just about his need to purify the temple for his personal piety or personal relationship with God. 

No, it’s about how we act toward each other—are our commercial interactions more important than praying together?  And it’s about how we treat God’s house, and by extension, God.  Because in knowing how to relate to one another, we really learn how to be in relationship with God.  Community is a key part of the Christian journey.

There is a scene in the movie “The Way” that Alene showed us on Wednesday night that tells us a bit about community.  The traveling band of modern-day pilgrims are camping out one night, and in the morning, the protagonist, Tom, wakes up alone.  And he thinks to sneak off before everyone else returns, but Sarah, the Canadian woman, finds him.  In the middle of picking up his backpack, he drops his son’s ashes and Sarah reaches to pick them up. 

Tom defensively grabs them and Sarah whacks him one.  They both reel back just as their traveling companions return with breakfast.  Later that morning, Sarah approaches him, and before Tom knows it, she is sharing her story with him, a very painful story of loss and being an abused wife.  Tom, who had tried so hard to avoid this band of travelers and “go it alone” is unwittingly pulled into a community.  A community where they argue and laugh and debate about many things, including just how much one must suffer, or how easy we should make life on ourselves.  Tom wants to be mad, to be alone, but he is pulled into community.[1] 
Each one of us may have experienced something similar at some point in our lives. 

We wanted to be alone with our hurt, free of other people, and instead we were, sometimes, unwittingly pulled into a community, into various communities.  Somehow, today, you have found yourselves pulled into the community of this parish, whether it be just for this morning, or whether this is a place you’ve called your spiritual home for a long time.

And just like the little community featured in “The Way” have to sort out their norms, Christians also have been trying to work out what we think we should do or be in community for a long time now.  In the early church, when there were waves of martyrdom, there followed a period of time of questions—if a community-member didn’t offer herself or himself up to be martyred, but “blended in,” could they be reconciled to the church? 

They ended up going towards inclusion because, frankly, we wouldn’t have much of a church if we didn’t include those that chickened out once in a while, and we certainly wouldn’t be much of a church if we didn’t try to model God’s forgiveness.

So we are always trying to decide ways to be in community.  The most current manifestation of this is the whole debate over the Anglican Covenant, which is basically the fruit of some in our Anglican Communion saying “this is the way we should act.”  And, as you might expect of good Anglicans, there are a number of us saying, “It’s not particularly Anglican to tell someone else how to act.  We work it all out with scripture, reason and tradition, oftentimes situationally.”

But God did give us some tools to build community together.  And one of the most important sets of tools is the Ten Commandments, which we read earlier today.  Thinking about the historical context in which they were written, one might expect them to be out of touch with today, but through God’s grace they seem to speak to basic human truths.  How we live together in community.  Because when we break a commandment, it isn’t just about our individual relationship with God, but it affects our relationship with each other.  Craig Kocher talks about breaking a commandment being like tearing a piece of fabric, and that resonates with me.[2] 

The person who killed the head of school in Florida earlier this week, and then himself, didn’t just tear something in his relationship with God (although by God’s grace perhaps that tear has been repaired), but he tore something out of the fabric of that community.  The Jacksonville community is all coming together, to mend that tear.  Love can stop the gap, at least a bit.

So the ten commandments are not just about each of us following laws dutifully and individually, but they tell us how to be with each other, in order to repair, to re-weave the fabric of the world.  It may seem simple, but I believe that much of our Christian life is about how we treat each other—our families, spouses, church community, friends.

This being said, perhaps my challenge for you today, should you choose to accept it, is to spend some time this week meditating on the Ten Commandments. 

The Psalmist obviously loves meditating on them:

7

The law of the LORD is perfect
and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the LORD is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

8

The statutes of the LORD are just
and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the LORD is clear
and gives light to the eyes. (Ps.19)

Why don’t we follow suit?  Which one is the toughie for you, when you are honest with yourself?  What are the money-changers in the temple of your life?  In this reflection, I find that my current struggle is Sabbath time.  Usually the thing you struggle with is the shadow side of your strength, and I have to work hard at Sabbath time because, frankly I love my work in the church!  It is hard to leave church at church and not want to think, plan, and dream about projects to do while at home.  But I must do it!  Because God gives us Sabbath time to deepen our relationship with God and each other.  Because we need to lie fallow in order to be able to produce fruit. 

Your tough commandment may be different at different times.  Maybe you suddenly have it easy about the Sabbath, but gee you really are coveting your neighbor’s ox!  Or, to bring it closer to home, car, or fancy handbag?

This individual reflection may help you be a little more aware of how you are in your relationships—at home, at work, at church and with your friends.

You might ask, how can I be more loving and more just in these relationships, by honoring the commandments in a new way?[3]  Because we can’t forget the perfected commandments that we hear from Jesus—Love the Lord with all your heart and strength and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.  May we do just this, and may the world be more loving and more just, every day.

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[1] “The Way”, 2010.

[2] Craig Kocher, “Pastoral Perspective: Exodus 20:1-17,” FOTW Year B, Vol. 2.

[3] The “Loving and Just” language is from the Member Mission Institute, among other places: www.membermission.org.