Exodus 34:1-9, 27-28
A homily for the people of
APLC San Antonio
March 8, 2017
Grace and
peace to you from Jesus who is the Christ.
Amen.
As you’ve no doubt heard, this year is
the 500th commemoration of the Reformation, that tumultuous period
of protest and advocacy as some pastors and other church leaders sought to
change and to reform the unjust systems which governed the lives of the common
people in Europe at the time…primarily, the church. (That’s why we are called Protestants. Our traditions were born out of protest.)
As we go through this Lenten season, we will be spending Wednesday nights
hearing and thinking about some of the good work which our unwitting founder
did…we’ll be talking about Martin Luther’s small catechism, and tonight we talk
a little about the Ten Commandments.
Luther was frustrated about the faith
formation that was (or more accurately was not) happening in Saxony and
Meissen. He wrote, “Dear God, what
misery I beheld! The ordinary person,
especially in the villages, knows absolutely nothing about the Christian faith,
and unfortunately many pastors are completely unskilled and incompetent
teachers. Yet supposedly they all bear
the name Christian, are baptized, and receive the holy sacrament, even though
they do not know the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, or the Ten Commandments! As a result they live like simple cattle or
irrational pigs and, despite the fact that the gospel has returned, have
mastered the fine art of misusing all their freedom.
O you bishops! How are you going to answer to Christ, now
that you have so shamefully neglected the people and have not exercised your
office for even a single second...Shame on you forever!” (Luther was a passionate man.)[1]
But he wasn’t wrong. For us to call ourselves Christian in any
organized meaningful way, we must first proclaim Jesus is lord, but then also
have a basic understanding of what exactly that means. So Luther wrote Luther’s
Small Catechism and distributed it so that heads of households and pastors
might teach everyone in their home or in their parishes what it means to be a
follower of Christ. Lutherans of all
stripes use the Small Catechism to teach the basic tenets of Christianity still
today. How many of you had to memorize
the whole thing for confirmation? Or for
seminary or college? Me, too.
In our scripture reading tonight, Moses
takes two tablets of stone up the mountain as God has commanded and stands
before the Lord. And the Lord says, “God
is a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply
true…forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But not ignoring sin.”
Moses falls to the ground and worships
God and says, “God, if you see anything good in me, please go
with us. And although we are stiff-necked,
hard-headed and obstinate, forgive us our sins.
Own us and possess us.”
And God says, “Alright, Moses, but write
this down. By these words I’ll make a
covenant with you and Israel.” And Moses
wrote down the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”
And Moses wrote them down as a whole
bunch of “you better not’s”. With the
exception of the 4th commandment, all of these commandments are written
in the negative.
But Luther takes these commandments, the
words of the covenant as written down by Moses, and in the tradition of Jesus,
he flips them. Turns them upside
down. Makes them positive and expands
them.
“You shall have no other gods” becomes
“we are to fear, love, and trust God above anything else.”
And then Luther uses the first
commandment’s explanation to explain and expand the rest of them.
Each commandment begins, “We are to fear
and love God…” so that we call God’s name in times of praise and thanksgiving, so
that we regard the Word as holy, so that we respect those in authority (which
doesn’t mean blindly agreeing with them; not calling their bad behavior or lies
or inaction into accountability is very disrespectful…of them and of
those whom they have been called to serve.)
We are to fear and love God so that we help our neighbor in satisfying
their physical needs (food, clothing, shelter, sanctuary.) We are to fear and love God so that spouses
respect one another and that our sex lives are healthy and loving, so that we
help our neighbor improve their means of making a living, so that we defend our
neighbor and think the best and kindest of their actions, so that we help our
neighbor keep what is theirs, and so that we help our neighbor keep their
relationships in good standing.
It’s a bigger job than those “shall not’s”
would have us believe. Because those Ten
Commandments when lived out in the tradition of Jesus are counter-cultural,
completely contrary to the systems we encounter in the world. Even though some of those systems positively
insist that they are “Christian”.
If you call out or protest or push
against or seek to reform systems that would attempt to control or condemn your
neighbor in the world today, you get called all kinds of names that are
meant to hurt: “radical”, “activist”, “bleeding-heart”.
Because somehow, though we are assured through
scripture that God cares for the little ones and that God expects us to risk
ourselves and our privilege to care for them, too, we are terrified that if we
help our neighbor or share what we have…there won’t be enough left for us.
But God’s faithfulness through the ages shows
us that God will always care for the little ones. Even if we become the little ones. And part of God’s care is nurturing
communities where those who have, care for those who don’t have.
A few weeks ago, the week before my first
sermon as your pastor, I was talking with some Texas colleagues at the
Tri-Synodical Assembly and this “fear and love God so that…” language came
up. In the course of conversation, we
agreed that this must mean, “fear God more than you fear conflict” and “love
God more than you like making people happy”.
This means we take risks, dear ones.
We are called and commanded to risk our well-being and our reputations
for the sake of the little ones, for the sake of the neighbor, for the sake of
the gospel.
We seek God by serving others.
Even if it feels risky or scary, we fulfill
our responsibility in God’s covenant by living into the upside down expansion
of the law through the tradition of Jesus.
We fear and love God above everything else…and we love our neighbors and
the little ones as well and as much as we love ourselves.
And God loves us all.
Amen.
