The Rev. Robert Lundquist Lent III 3/19/06 St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Our lessons today about Law. Though we in this culture are often more focussed on rights, freedoms and privileges, God has given Law to structure our relationships – with God and with each other.

The Ten Commandments – they are much more important than the argument about whether or not they should be displayed in classrooms, courtrooms and other public places. There are some 218 commandments spelled out in the Hebrew scriptures, but these ten, the ones portrayed as carved in tablets and brought down Mount Sinai by Moses were absolutely revolutionary. The Ten Commandments changed the very concept of human relationship with the Divine. They changed the world.

I don’t mean to give short shrift to Commandments 6 – 10 (which deal with our relationships with each other), but the first five are all about how to live with God.

I am your only God. In a polytheistic time and culture you might imagine that an image of Yahweh would be added to a family altar with other deities. In this commandment God says, “With me you cannot hedge your bets. With me you are all in. With me you can have no other gods.” We still find our lives filled with the temptation of other gods – money, status, fitness, recreation. “You must have no other gods,” says the Lord.
You must have to idols. Not even representations of Yahweh. Not even graven images of these Ten Commandments. You must worship no thing, only God. [How ironic that some would worship the idea of posting these with the idea of coercing an adherence to these ancient words…]
God’s very Name is holy – use it wisely. For names have power. Do not misuse this gift from your Creator.
Sabbath: before these Commandments people worked seven days every week. There was no day of rest, no opportunity to “recharge the batteries.” There was no time set aside for the community to worship together. In this fourth Commandment we are reminded that God set an example, resting after the completion of Creation. Are you more important than God, that you have to work all the time? Set aside 1/7 of your week in order to worship and recreate.
Honor your heritage. Christians tend to see this commandment in terms of relationship with others, in particular with one’s parents. But I believe it has to do with treasuring our heritage and our origin. “Remember who you are, whose you are, and where you came from,” is an appropriate thought to carry with you. This is how you honor your heritage, beginning with your mother and father.

6-10 are the “shalt nots,” of course. The things you are not to do to your neighbors. They are like a fence, a boundary. I’ve been asked, “Why aren’t all the commandments stated in the positive?” Because telling you what not to do gives you maximum freedom. “Don’t play in the street!” “Don’t put your hand on the hot stove.” These are the “shalt nots” from our childhood, and function in the same way as #6-10. And for thousands of years they have shaped community life enormously.

One note: respect the language! Teach these lessons wisely. I have heard a young child, 7 or 8, say this in response to the question, “Who is God?”: “God is someone who rewards those who love Him and punishes those who don’t.” From where do such ideas spring? Look again at the passage from Exodus, about God punishing children for the sins of the parents, but rewarding the faithful for a thousand generations. These are strong and dangerous words – take great care when you teach them! For this is not the language used by Jesus in speaking about God.

God’s care for us is echoed in Jesus’ actions in the reading from John. It may look like a temper tantrum, but it is actually a story of God’s love. The great German theologian from the last century Gerhard von Rad wrote that prophets express not only the word of God, but also the emotions of God. In the temple Jesus is a prophet. He says, on God’s behalf, “The exploitation of people is wrong! God opposes graft, corruption, unrighteous profit.”

Now we’re not talking about bakes sales in the parish hall, and Girl Scout cookies for purchase after the service. Jesus was confronting the misuse of religion in service of commerce. In Jesus’ time all Jewish men had to pay a temple tax each year – and the tax had to be paid in temple currency. The money-changers made a large profit changing Greek and Roman money for temple coins. And the animal sacrifices had to be creatures “without blemish.” Somehow the priests never approved of doves and lambs brought in for sacrifice; they only accepted those sold in the temple. One scholar notes that a bird in the marketplace that cost the equivalent of 15¢ would sell for $15 in the temple courtyard. And this corruption affected the poor most severely.

Remember, this is only chapter two in the Gospel of John – Jesus has come from Cana, the site of his first miracle, changing water to wine at the wedding feast. His confrontation at the temple is premeditated, for he takes time to make a whip out of cords. Note that he uses it to drive the beasts out. He overturns the tables, and rather than releasing the doves from their cages, he orders them out. He physically injures no one, and I’m sure business returned to normal the next day, after the coins were sorted and the livestock rounded up. But Jesus had made his point. God was not ignorant of the desecration of the Temple, and God was not pleased.

The late former Presiding Bishop John Hines remarked, “Jesus wasn’t crucified because he said, ‘See the lilies of the field and how they grow.’ Jesus was crucified for saying, ‘See the thieves in the temple and how they steal.’” In our day there is more separation between the religious and financial aspects of our lives, but the sacrilege is not that far away. The devastation to pensioners and small investors wrought by the Enron and WorldCom rocked our economy. People like Pat Robertson continue to reap millions with a mix of religiosity, trickery and scams. Evil is still with us. The temple still needs sweeping.

And our bodies as well. When Jesus spoke of the temple being destroyed and raised again in three days, we was speaking of himself. Ridding ourselves of the distractions, the mixed motives and the self-delusions is the work of Lent. For we follow a Savior who was consumed, who was afire with the love of God. “Take up your cross, and follow.”

Amen.

A Parish For All People!