Statutes and Ordinances

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Ordinary 31/Pentecost 23B

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

Text: Deut. 6:1-9

Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ²so that you and your children and your children’s children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. ³Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, ⁹and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Finish your vegetables.

One more bite.

Chew with your mouth closed.

Always say “please” and “thank you”.

Ladies first.

Be considerate.

No running.

Use your inside voice.

Let others go first.

Be polite.

Be respectful.

Make your bed.

Put the lid down.

Clean up after yourself.

We surround ourselves – in fact, we structure ourselves – by nature of the rules we live by. They are rules that we cannot remember NOT knowing, NOT hearing repeated on multiple occasions – sometimes daily, sometimes weekly. But they are rules that we know are there. They become part of who we are. They mark how we live. They are multitudinous – they are legion. They cover all aspects of our life – from how we treat strangers to how we treat family. How we address our elders or how we carry on a conversation.

We are by nature a people who live by rules, some more than others. I was in the office of an immigration attorney this past week, and in the course of the conversation I couldn’t help but notice the preciseness with which he chose his words. And as he spoke, he would tend to things on his desk, ordering them and straightening this or that piece of paper or pen or pencil.

Our text this morning quotes Moses’ words to the people of Israel as he lay on his deathbed. He is distilling the experience of his life into these simple words: The Lord your God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The wording varies slightly from translation to translation, but its essential meaning remains the same: God is YOUR God – and God is ONE God. Love him with everything you have.

The lectionary selection for the Gospel reading for today is from Mark, chapter 12, verses 28 through 34. In that passage, Jesus is asked a question by a scribe sent by the religious leaders.  Their intent, as has been noted before, was to trick Jesus into answering a question that would in some way incriminate him. This exchange is familiar: the man asks Jesus “what is the most important commandment?” Jesus answers with the words from Deuteronomy, and then goes on to quote from Leviticus 19:18. The portion we’ve become so accustomed to hearing is actually the second part of the verse. In it’s entirety, the verse reads: “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord’” It is interesting to me that the specifics of the command (do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people) have been disassociated from the main body of it? While I can see the validity of doing that – the command is not intended to be limited to NOT doing ONLY those things, but any number of other things – keeping those two in mind kind of gives us an idea of the groundedness of the command – the ‘real life-ness’ of it. The intent seems to be ‘loving your neighbor’ means NOT doing certain things – things you can think of that would come quite easily if the situation arose – and DOING other things – just as real-life as you can get – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison … welcoming the stranger… they are all a part of how we express our love for God.

That is what it comes down to. We are to Love God with all we have. And DOING that can ONLY TRULY be expressed by how we love our neighbor, our relative, the stranger and the one in between.

So what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

The rules we follow, whether we name them or not, express who we are, what our values are, what we believe and who we trust. If we examine ourselves honestly and deeply, putting words to those unspoken assumptions about how we do church, what are we telling those around us about our Lord? Are we communicating that he is only attentive on Sunday mornings between 9:45 and noon, and Wednesdays at 7, so be here then, or you are not going to belong? Do we communicate that there is only one way to express our feelings for and about him – by the words and music of beloved hymn writers and musicians from two, three or four hundred years ago, with a few exceptions that were penned in the first half of last century – but which can only be sung to the accompaniment of a piano and/or an organ, otherwise they are not reverent enough and have no place in worship? Do we communicate by the way we respond to people who are not dressed like us that it is okay to visit, but if you plan to come regularly, THIS is the way to dress? Do we exclude by attitudes and comments that disparage the different style of song, or dress, or speech? Is that the message of Christ’s love – of GOD’S love – for humanity, as we understand it?

It is terribly easy to fall into the trap of familiarity; of being comfortable with one form – of worship, of praise, of prayer, of being community – when in fact we are called to embrace what Paul came to understand and embrace – that God doesn’t care what our rules are, as long as the overarching rule – the underlying rule – the rule from which all other rules are born – is the rule of Love and Grace.

And to live out our love for God means to show that love for God through our love of our neighbors. THAT is the MOST tangible and palpable way we can show what it means TO love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength.

Let’s pray.