21 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 25, October 29,2017
Deuteronomy 34: 1-12 Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46
Lectionary Link
Moses was perhaps the most famous "lawman" of all time. He is associated with the event that occurred when the wise have evolved to observe human behavior and they knew that humanity needed help to live together well. When the very best of human behaviors are discovered, such behaviors need to be taught; they need to be promulgated. What good is a law if no one knows about it?
Laws can be the rules of tyrants to make societies run to the advantage of the tyrants. In such cases the rules can actually be laws of oppression. Such laws may result in the maintenance of order but they do not liberate the person because their force is the fear of punishment, particularly the punishment of exclusion from human society through imprisonment or excluded from life through the punishment of death.
The way in which Moses received the law was a revelation that God is interested in human beings. In fact, God cares so much for human beings, God wanted to teach men and women how to live well. God did not give laws to humanity as an initiatory hazing rite to let humanity know who the boss is and who makes the rules. God gave laws to humanity as the great insights for human development and evolution in living toward the spiritual side of personality.
The giving of the law was a gift of God to humanity to learn the very basics of how to live well. First, live as though one's own ego is not the only one in the world. Just because each of us has such individual unique existence who can be locked into idio-eccentric views of the world, God gave us laws to deliver us from solipsistic narcissism. The laws of God require the greatest human attribute of all, empathy. Going out of ourselves to realize that there are other selves, other creatures who have in similar ways the same kinds of feelings that we do.
The law, given to Moses, was given to be our teacher of our higher selves, the empathetic Selves that are needed for the enhancement of community life. How does humanity learn the magic of empathy? How does the individual become born out of being a solipsistic, narcissistic self and become able to "walk in another person's shoes?"
If I am an individual ego observing other egos, then as a peer, I can be tempted to think that competition among competing egos is the drive of life; so, I have to take care of number one.
The Law of God begins by asking us to honor the One God. Why is this important? It is important to challenge the lie that can easily come to the human ego; the lie that we are individual and separate beings.
Honoring the Oneness of God means that we accept God as the Community of all creation; we were created in community with God and for community with God and each other. The epidermis of our bodies can visually make us think that we are separated individuals moving as willful or random bumper cars through existence.
But if we can honor and love God as the great Community of all creation, we can stand before the Fire of God have our egos melted soft enough to be fluid within the Community of God.
Recovering addicts confess the help of a Higher Power to aid in sobriety. All of us need the sense of the Higher Power of God to be able to confess and live the togetherness of life. Love God with all your soul. This is the commandment which is not really a suppressing command, but rather, a confession and a declaration. The declaration to love God is the liberating experience of being freed from the experience of alienation and living into the full Community of God, who is one.
And with derivation, by loving God, we proceed to love our neighbors even as we are learning to love and honor ourselves.
The great law of God as the freedom from individual isolation into the fullness of Community with God and humanity, subtly got displaced into rules, rules of all sorts. There are 613 rules in the Torah, many of which not even known and certainly not practiced even if a very few really conservative Jews might attempt to honor them.
When rules get dislodged from the great teaching motives of God's law, legalism become the practice. Legalism happens when rules get made for administration of community and community roles. Order for all manner of society, public and private is necessary, but not to the over-shadowing of the winsome teaching purpose of the law.
When Jesus came, he found lots of people frustrated with the rules. He found religious leaders more interested in the enforcement of minutiae than proclaiming the teaching purpose of the great law of God.
The oracle of Jesus in the church reaffirmed the centrality of the great law. Jesus was not concerned with whether one could wear linen and wool together or doing healing work on the Sabbath; he was interested in the essence of the law: Love God, Love your neighbor. Love yourself.
There will always be rules and ordinances for all areas of human existence. And there is actuarial wisdom to have lots of rules. Rules and procedure aid communication and assist people being on the same page to complete the tasks required by human society.
But if rules gets so precious and so private to elite groups who know and keep rules to keep other people out of their society, then the teaching and the affirming purpose of God's law is lost.
Jesus observed this and so he upheld the essence of the law in its winsome teaching purpose. Love God. Love one's neighbor. Love oneself.
Friends, these are not negative suppressing juridical pronouncements; rather, they are the affirming confession that we can make and keep to live in the Community of the One God who declares us all to be neighbors, and asks us to live enhanced relationships with each other.
And God does not forget the individual. Love yourself. As you honor God. As you achieve empathy in loving one's neighbor, you and I can come to honor own unique selves.
Moses died, but the law lived on. Jesus died, arose, re-appeared, and ascended and yet the law of Jesus lives on for all who want it. What is the law of Jesus? It is same law as Moses. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Amen.
Lectionary Link
Moses was perhaps the most famous "lawman" of all time. He is associated with the event that occurred when the wise have evolved to observe human behavior and they knew that humanity needed help to live together well. When the very best of human behaviors are discovered, such behaviors need to be taught; they need to be promulgated. What good is a law if no one knows about it?
Laws can be the rules of tyrants to make societies run to the advantage of the tyrants. In such cases the rules can actually be laws of oppression. Such laws may result in the maintenance of order but they do not liberate the person because their force is the fear of punishment, particularly the punishment of exclusion from human society through imprisonment or excluded from life through the punishment of death.
The way in which Moses received the law was a revelation that God is interested in human beings. In fact, God cares so much for human beings, God wanted to teach men and women how to live well. God did not give laws to humanity as an initiatory hazing rite to let humanity know who the boss is and who makes the rules. God gave laws to humanity as the great insights for human development and evolution in living toward the spiritual side of personality.
The giving of the law was a gift of God to humanity to learn the very basics of how to live well. First, live as though one's own ego is not the only one in the world. Just because each of us has such individual unique existence who can be locked into idio-eccentric views of the world, God gave us laws to deliver us from solipsistic narcissism. The laws of God require the greatest human attribute of all, empathy. Going out of ourselves to realize that there are other selves, other creatures who have in similar ways the same kinds of feelings that we do.
The law, given to Moses, was given to be our teacher of our higher selves, the empathetic Selves that are needed for the enhancement of community life. How does humanity learn the magic of empathy? How does the individual become born out of being a solipsistic, narcissistic self and become able to "walk in another person's shoes?"
If I am an individual ego observing other egos, then as a peer, I can be tempted to think that competition among competing egos is the drive of life; so, I have to take care of number one.
The Law of God begins by asking us to honor the One God. Why is this important? It is important to challenge the lie that can easily come to the human ego; the lie that we are individual and separate beings.
Honoring the Oneness of God means that we accept God as the Community of all creation; we were created in community with God and for community with God and each other. The epidermis of our bodies can visually make us think that we are separated individuals moving as willful or random bumper cars through existence.
But if we can honor and love God as the great Community of all creation, we can stand before the Fire of God have our egos melted soft enough to be fluid within the Community of God.
Recovering addicts confess the help of a Higher Power to aid in sobriety. All of us need the sense of the Higher Power of God to be able to confess and live the togetherness of life. Love God with all your soul. This is the commandment which is not really a suppressing command, but rather, a confession and a declaration. The declaration to love God is the liberating experience of being freed from the experience of alienation and living into the full Community of God, who is one.
And with derivation, by loving God, we proceed to love our neighbors even as we are learning to love and honor ourselves.
The great law of God as the freedom from individual isolation into the fullness of Community with God and humanity, subtly got displaced into rules, rules of all sorts. There are 613 rules in the Torah, many of which not even known and certainly not practiced even if a very few really conservative Jews might attempt to honor them.
When rules get dislodged from the great teaching motives of God's law, legalism become the practice. Legalism happens when rules get made for administration of community and community roles. Order for all manner of society, public and private is necessary, but not to the over-shadowing of the winsome teaching purpose of the law.
When Jesus came, he found lots of people frustrated with the rules. He found religious leaders more interested in the enforcement of minutiae than proclaiming the teaching purpose of the great law of God.
The oracle of Jesus in the church reaffirmed the centrality of the great law. Jesus was not concerned with whether one could wear linen and wool together or doing healing work on the Sabbath; he was interested in the essence of the law: Love God, Love your neighbor. Love yourself.
There will always be rules and ordinances for all areas of human existence. And there is actuarial wisdom to have lots of rules. Rules and procedure aid communication and assist people being on the same page to complete the tasks required by human society.
But if rules gets so precious and so private to elite groups who know and keep rules to keep other people out of their society, then the teaching and the affirming purpose of God's law is lost.
Jesus observed this and so he upheld the essence of the law in its winsome teaching purpose. Love God. Love one's neighbor. Love oneself.
Friends, these are not negative suppressing juridical pronouncements; rather, they are the affirming confession that we can make and keep to live in the Community of the One God who declares us all to be neighbors, and asks us to live enhanced relationships with each other.
And God does not forget the individual. Love yourself. As you honor God. As you achieve empathy in loving one's neighbor, you and I can come to honor own unique selves.
Moses died, but the law lived on. Jesus died, arose, re-appeared, and ascended and yet the law of Jesus lives on for all who want it. What is the law of Jesus? It is same law as Moses. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Amen.
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