So…
Some of us have been having a rousing
discussion about the Ten Commandments. Well maybe it wasn’t rousing exactly but
it was serious enough I guess.
Did you know it used to be the practice
of some churches to read the Ten Suggestions before worship so as to put people
“in mind” as they said of their sins, so that when it came time to give thanks,
they actually had a pretty good idea of what they had to be thankful about!
Yes, we can and should be thankful for
our children and for running water, and for sunshine for all those good things.
But some worship leaders thought we should
perhaps be thankful for some big ticket items too, like forgiveness,
justification, and perhaps salvation, not just whatever we are having for
dinner. So, what is it you are most thankful for?
The conversations about the law and it’s
use in Christian life also resulted in some folks admitting that they are
really not sure that the younger generation really doesn’t understand how
sinful they are. And they certainly don’t understand how awful they should feel
about themselves.
Now this just might be me having grown
up in the 1960’s, but it seems like this has always been a generational thing.
Because I remember adults in the 60’s be-moaning the “free love” movement of
their children as a sign of the end of times.
And I remember conversations with my father
about how his parents’ generation was scandalized by guys and girls dancing
together, going to movies, two-piece bathing suits, and girls in pants.
Strangely, it is now those very “free
love” children from the 1960’s who are amazed at how awful their children are,
and don’t even talk about those grandchildren! It seems we are very much at our
core deeply moved by the “law”.
So what is the role of the law in the
Christian community?
If we are free from the weight of the
law in Christ, unhitched as it were from the “yoke that leads to death”, no
longer connected to this idea of works righteousness, that somehow we can be
good enough to please God just because of how almost saintly we are; how are we
to act, live, function now if not as law keepers.
I mean, if there is no speed limit for
Christians, what is to keep us from speeding? How fast can we drive, because,
best I can tell, there is a speed limit and people drive whatever speed they
want anyway.
What is there to keep us from being bad,
even as follower of Christ, if the law isn’t in force and being strictly
enforced.
Some people believe that the only way to
be sure you are in the right on your salvation tally, is to keep on keeping the
law.
The beauty of that is that it also gives
you a good way to be sure you are a Pharisee. Because if you can see you are
keeping the law and all its nuances, and your neighbor, or children, or spouse
isn’t, you can be holier than Thou sanctimonious.
There is the story of the very self-righteous
old lady who used to spend her time pointing out how she wasn’t at all like her
neighbors who were a bunch of sinners. She was always careful not to gossip
though, because that is a sin. She always couched her information sharing as a
prayer concern, for her poor misled neighbors.
She, it seems, in particular picked on
one guy who was out too late at the local bar.
Finally, one day he had had enough, and
so he started parking his pickup truck outside her house every night.
And you were there some amazing prayer
requests that next week, if you know what I mean. (People thought he was in
sleeping with…)
The Apostle Paul sees the problem and
decides to help the Galatians understand. He says, “My friends, you were chosen
to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use
it as an opportunity to serve each other with love.”
In other words, just because you been
set free from the law doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want. Nope. You
have instead been invited by the love of God shown to us in Jesus, to be a
lover! To love others just as God has loved you.
You are invited to instead of living a
life in fear of the law, and its consequences, to live a life of joy as you celebrate
your freedom to love others in Christ.
Breaking the law leads to death. Paul
has made this clear so many times in his writing. All the law does is make it
clear how incredibly guilty we are as sinners. We can’t escape condemnation by our
works because we cannot and never could keep the law.
We are amazingly selfish, self-centered,
worried about us and ours, and never ever completely concerned about what God
is concerned about .
We fail. We fall short. We even, as
Jesus makes clear in the gospels, fail not only the letter of the law, do not
murder, do not commit adultery, but also fail the spirit of the law when we call
our brothers and sisters idiots, and lust after each other in books, on the
internet, TV and movies, and in person!
Nike says in its commercials “just do
it”!
Our motto should be “we can’t”! We can’t
keep the law! Instead we are judged by it. And to make it all as hollow as
possible, we then decide we should judge each other just to make it worse.
But love, Paul argues, changes the
equation, because we can love each other, because God has first loved us. We
can’t keep the law, but we can love each other.
So the question we should all be asking
is, how?
What could we do as individuals and as a
community that would be loving. Take a look around you. What I am asking you to
do is not easy, I get that. But you and I need to love these people and the
world God has set us in!
Jesus, as an act of love, took off his
robe, put on an apron and washed his disciple’s feet. Then he took up bread and
the cup and said, this is my life given for yours.
We can do this! We can love one another!
So, what shall we do first?
Amen.
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