Whew, what a day already. I’m a little bit behind my Saturday schedule. Because I had a funeral and a wedding within the space of a couple of hours. OK, I’ll admit, my greatest fear was that I would get mixed up in all the dearly beloveds. Burying a relationship and seeking vows from an urn. Didn’t happen, thankfully, but I worried.
It was a unique experience, I have to confess. I’ve done multiple funerals, and a day of weddings in the past. But one of each, kind of unusual. I just need a baptism and communion, confirmation to make it complete! Funny you should mention that ... Tomorrow is Confirmation Sunday at Aldersgate. And it World Communion Sunday. And two of our confirmands were just baptized a couple of weeks ago. So, there.
Now, if I was smart enough I would tell you what brings all those things together. I means besides they are all rituals of the church. But as much as I tried, I couldn’t think of a thing. Except that they were all about drawing lines.
Wait, what? Lines. Boundary lines. We were talking about life and of death this morning. We were reflecting on the weaving of a covenant this afternoon. We are redefining family at worship tomorrow. And we are sketching the circle around a table of sacrifice and grace. We’re drawing lines this weekend.
The problem is that we usually see that as a negative. Drawing lines is about limitation, we feel. It is about right and wrong, in and out. Don’t fence me in, we complain, don’t cramp my style, don’t get all up in my grill ... actually I don’t think they say that any more. But you get my point. Drawing lines goes against the great American value of freedom. We put the words “no limits” on the rear windows of our pick up trucks. We wear them on our jeans. It is not just a slogan, it is how we define ourselves, how we understand ourselves.
Yet, in our rational minds we know that boundaries, that rules are good things. And that is why we reluctantly accept them. Like a kid who wants to play late into the night but trudges up to bed anyway, we say that the lines are good for us. Like broccoli, or cod liver oil. Close your eyes, and open up. Here it comes:
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ... 7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ... 12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
Oh, right. Those rules. Those lines. Got it. Sigh. We suppose it is for our own good. Right?
Well, I have to wonder. Is God one to bring the whole nation of Israel out into the wilderness for a time out? Is this conversation started with a wag of the divine finger and slow shake of the holy head, displaying disappointment and the prelude to punishment? Are these ten words given because the people of God have proved unworthy, have fallen short of the ideal of who they could be, who they were intended to be? Are they being grounded by these words? Restricted, chastened, reproved by the law? Take your medicine, you won’t like it, but it’ll be good for you in the long run.
Or is there something else going on here? What if we took a whole different approach to the lines thing? What if we saw them not as limitations but as definitions? What if we looked at this moment in the history of the people of God not as punishment for less than stellar behavior, but as a gift because of a greater than imagined love?
Sure there are boundaries in the covenant of marriage, but who would call them a punishment? Instead it is a new way of being, a new way of living and loving. We are redefined when we make that commitment to love and to cherish. We make promises that don’t constrain us so much as set us free to love. We aren’t hampered by the lines that are drawn so much as we are encouraged to go deeper and higher, to love more profoundly.
Baptism and confirmation are about making vows to love as well. The lines that are drawn are about finding your way into the fellowship and family of the church. It is about making a commitment to serve and to participate and gather with the community of faith. It is about claiming that in this journey that is life and faith, we acknowledge that we need support, we need companionship, we need a community to surround us as we make our pilgrim way.
Communion draws the lines and invites all to be inside. It isn’t about separation, it isn’t about better than or holier than. It is about invitation and inclusion. It is about welcome and hospitality. It is about a table of grace and finding your way in.
The ten words are not so much commandments that we ought to follow reluctantly or not, as they are descriptions of the kind of people we can choose to be. The people who love God (Words 1 through 4) and who love neighbor (Words 5 through 10). I had a Hebrew teacher in seminary who said we should retranslate them not as “Thou shall” or “Thou shall not” but as description “You are the people who have one God” and “You are not the people who kill and steal and bear false witness.” That is just who we are and who we are not. God doesn’t say jump through these hoops and I will love you. Instead God says my love for you will shape you into these kind of people, this kind of community. “So that your days may be long.”
How long? Into eternity. We drew the lines this morning at the funeral as well. The lines of welcome into the heavenly home. And what we thought was a line, the line that divides life and death, was only a doorway, only a corner to turn, that brings us into a new reality. But the lines of God’s people define us here and there. God announces where the lines are for us to live well now, but also so that we will be at home in eternity with God. So that we will recognize the place when we get there.
And we’ll go on living between the lines that God has drawn.
Shalom,
Derek
It was a unique experience, I have to confess. I’ve done multiple funerals, and a day of weddings in the past. But one of each, kind of unusual. I just need a baptism and communion, confirmation to make it complete! Funny you should mention that ... Tomorrow is Confirmation Sunday at Aldersgate. And it World Communion Sunday. And two of our confirmands were just baptized a couple of weeks ago. So, there.
Now, if I was smart enough I would tell you what brings all those things together. I means besides they are all rituals of the church. But as much as I tried, I couldn’t think of a thing. Except that they were all about drawing lines.
Wait, what? Lines. Boundary lines. We were talking about life and of death this morning. We were reflecting on the weaving of a covenant this afternoon. We are redefining family at worship tomorrow. And we are sketching the circle around a table of sacrifice and grace. We’re drawing lines this weekend.
The problem is that we usually see that as a negative. Drawing lines is about limitation, we feel. It is about right and wrong, in and out. Don’t fence me in, we complain, don’t cramp my style, don’t get all up in my grill ... actually I don’t think they say that any more. But you get my point. Drawing lines goes against the great American value of freedom. We put the words “no limits” on the rear windows of our pick up trucks. We wear them on our jeans. It is not just a slogan, it is how we define ourselves, how we understand ourselves.
Yet, in our rational minds we know that boundaries, that rules are good things. And that is why we reluctantly accept them. Like a kid who wants to play late into the night but trudges up to bed anyway, we say that the lines are good for us. Like broccoli, or cod liver oil. Close your eyes, and open up. Here it comes:
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ... 7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ... 12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
Oh, right. Those rules. Those lines. Got it. Sigh. We suppose it is for our own good. Right?
Well, I have to wonder. Is God one to bring the whole nation of Israel out into the wilderness for a time out? Is this conversation started with a wag of the divine finger and slow shake of the holy head, displaying disappointment and the prelude to punishment? Are these ten words given because the people of God have proved unworthy, have fallen short of the ideal of who they could be, who they were intended to be? Are they being grounded by these words? Restricted, chastened, reproved by the law? Take your medicine, you won’t like it, but it’ll be good for you in the long run.
Or is there something else going on here? What if we took a whole different approach to the lines thing? What if we saw them not as limitations but as definitions? What if we looked at this moment in the history of the people of God not as punishment for less than stellar behavior, but as a gift because of a greater than imagined love?
Sure there are boundaries in the covenant of marriage, but who would call them a punishment? Instead it is a new way of being, a new way of living and loving. We are redefined when we make that commitment to love and to cherish. We make promises that don’t constrain us so much as set us free to love. We aren’t hampered by the lines that are drawn so much as we are encouraged to go deeper and higher, to love more profoundly.
Baptism and confirmation are about making vows to love as well. The lines that are drawn are about finding your way into the fellowship and family of the church. It is about making a commitment to serve and to participate and gather with the community of faith. It is about claiming that in this journey that is life and faith, we acknowledge that we need support, we need companionship, we need a community to surround us as we make our pilgrim way.
Communion draws the lines and invites all to be inside. It isn’t about separation, it isn’t about better than or holier than. It is about invitation and inclusion. It is about welcome and hospitality. It is about a table of grace and finding your way in.
The ten words are not so much commandments that we ought to follow reluctantly or not, as they are descriptions of the kind of people we can choose to be. The people who love God (Words 1 through 4) and who love neighbor (Words 5 through 10). I had a Hebrew teacher in seminary who said we should retranslate them not as “Thou shall” or “Thou shall not” but as description “You are the people who have one God” and “You are not the people who kill and steal and bear false witness.” That is just who we are and who we are not. God doesn’t say jump through these hoops and I will love you. Instead God says my love for you will shape you into these kind of people, this kind of community. “So that your days may be long.”
How long? Into eternity. We drew the lines this morning at the funeral as well. The lines of welcome into the heavenly home. And what we thought was a line, the line that divides life and death, was only a doorway, only a corner to turn, that brings us into a new reality. But the lines of God’s people define us here and there. God announces where the lines are for us to live well now, but also so that we will be at home in eternity with God. So that we will recognize the place when we get there.
And we’ll go on living between the lines that God has drawn.
Shalom,
Derek
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