Loved Enough To Be Told
Pentecost 16a, October 2, 2011 (Exodus 20:1-20 with Philippians 3:4b-14 in the bg.)
How many of you like being told what to do? (discuss briefly) Does it depend on whom is giving the order/command? If the source of the command is my children I'm not usually so happy in complying. But occasionally if I am really up against it and need help – if it's a computer question, a technology question – I'm open to their direction, as sort of information. But if it's just a command or an order that they are giving me, "Do this!", or "Don't do that!" well, usually I am not so compliant. Sometimes I do what I want to do WHEN I want to do it. Can you identify? But does such self(ish) action ever get us into huge trouble - what my grandmother used to call deep doo doo?
When our oldest daughter Chelsa was a toddler, just beginning to walk and run we developed a few rules or commandments. The first was this: she must never cross the street without first asking permission from one of her parents or her babysitter. Let me tell you, the cars raced up and down that street.
We issued this command for two reasons. Firstly, we loved and love Chelsa: with all of our hearts, minds and strength – just as those of you who have children or grandchildren love them with all that you are. Secondly, we gave this command to Chelsa because we know Chelsa. She loves puppies. She was and is a curious person. So if our tiny two or three year old saw a puppy across the street – or a floating balloon or almost anything that caught her fancy, she would lurch into high gear crossing the street to investigate, to touch, to see, to pet to sniff. Never mind that cars could be screaming by! Chelsa at that point was purely absorbed in whatever had caught her fancy. Everything else was adiaphora.
So we gave her the command. We sat her down. We held her hand. We looked deeply into her eyes. We told her how much we loved her. "BEFORE YOU EVER CROSS THE STREET HONEY, YOU MUST COME AND ASK MOMMY OR DADDY IF IT'S OK! Do you understand? She vigorously nodded her head adding words, "Yes mommy. Yes daddy."
But do you think, giving Chelsa the command, even from all the love that we have for her, ensured that she would keep, that she could keep that command? What might happen if three amazing dogs came by, or if a horse stopped in the neighbor's yard across the street? God forbid that one of those musical ice cream trucks pulled up across the street.
How about us? How are we dealing with commands, particularly those that come to us from God, WHO LOVES US SO MUCH?
Some people try to keep them. Some people think that they do keep them. The rationalizations may proceed: I haven't killed anybody. I haven't stolen anything from anyone (at least anything that matters). I go to church, well, sometimes. I am at least as "GOOD" as the next person.
Chelsa could have said, if she had the capacity to rationalize as an adult when she was three, "You know Dad, I only occasionally cross the road. Just about all of the time I don't cross the road. Sometimes I even ask permission before I cross the road." Nevertheless the consequence of "crossing the road" even one time without asking permission (checking for safety) could have meant the loss of her life.
Did you hear the preface to the Ten commandments of our first lesson? God is speaking to a people God deeply loves. God has recently delivered these people from Egyptian slavery and oppression. Before God gives them any commandments, any directions for living together, God has already actively loved them by giving them new life. It is from this life-giving love that God gives them commandments, so that they may have life, so that they do not unnecessarily harm themselves or others. They are God's children! That is their identity. Their identity is a gift which cannot be discovered by looking at their own effort or achievement.
So, God speaks to them: "I am the Lord your God, who brought out of the land of Egypt." Is it possible that God is speaking to you, to me? "I am God, your Lord, who gives you life and the capacity for freedom. I give you freedom in terms of relationship with me and endless possibilities in terms of relationships with others... This is good news, wonderful news. This is what theologians call GRACE!
But such freedom gifted from God to us is not license. Such freedom is not privilege without responsibility. Such freedom is lived in the realities that we are not God. Let me say that again. Such freedom is born to our reality that we are not God. God alone is God!
Our most pressing problem is that too often we try to live as if we are God. Then we do what we want when we want. The result is often pain and hurt for others and ourselves. We consume the earth as if it were ours, without any regard for God or others. We eat and drink too much or too little. We speak angrily disregarding God and others. Our words, seemingly so little, cut to the core damaging others and our relationship with them. Then we may take others for granted, even those who love us. Sometimes we hurt ourselves and others by thinking or acting as if everything depended upon us. Then we refuse to rest disregarding God's command.
Like little Chelsa years ago, having the command, even though it's offered in great love, doesn't enable us to keep it. When we don't keep God's commands, there are consequences. Sometimes the consequences are grave. . .
But even then God continues to work for new life for us and others.
Today Kaelyn is baptized. Baptism is all encompassing and risky. Whether we realize it or not baptism is something God does in and through us. In Baptism we are washed, even drowned to old realities. In Baptism we are reborn children of God. That's right, I said, CHILDREN OF GOD.
Who am I? Who are you? Long before I was a pastor, a father, or even a friend, I was a child of God. God is my Father and Mother. And God in Christ links me to this world God so deeply loves. God seeks to direct all of us away from death and self-centeredness to new ways. Such ways lead to life for us and others. These ways actively resist anything or anyone that isn't God, that seeks to be God for us.
There are so many things that vying to be God for us, to have that most important position in our lives. Such things may even ordinarily be beneficial, but when elevated to #1 status in our lives actually suck life from us and others. They can be anything: from our work, to our families, to possessions, to achievements, to how others think about us. None of these things are God. But if we allow them to become our gods we will be hurt, disappointed, harming others.
So, be careful. Remember this. You are not God. I am not God! But God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ loves us, with a love that is deep, bold and abiding. Because God both cares for us so deeply and knows us, observes and experiences our inability to keep that good and perfect law, God chooses to become human. In Jesus, God's Son, hope dawns. To be sure, we are to work at keeping the commandments. But like my beloved Chelsa we don't always manage this. Even then, often God delivers us from ultimate catastrophe so that there can be new life, forgiveness, opportunities to experience new life again, here, now and ultimately forever.
Listen for God speaking to you today, directing, even commanding. There are other forces seeking to direct, to control us, forces far stronger than our own will.
May our eyes, ears, minds and hearts be opened. By God's grace may we be open to God shaping our minds, and wills so that we will not resent God's good and gracious commands. After all by God's grace we along with Kaelyn are children of God, being loved and forgiven! And we all CALLED to be part of God's unfolding effort in Jesus to embrace and care for one another and this universe. Will we pray?
Lord help us to be receptive to your commands. When we fail, forgive us. By your grace give us, even now, a new opportunity to respond to your goodness - for Christ's sake, Amen.