Back to Work

It's been a somewhat restful, somewhat productive week of holidays. This Sunday is the Regional Rural Worship service at Trinity United, at 11:15. A common theme from the lectionary readings (listed here) is the sense of time and urgency. This is particularly relevant given our current situation of visioning and imagining our next course of action.

Happy March Break

I'll be off for a week of holidays, spending March Break with the kids, doing little bits of this and that around the house, with a few day trips mixed in.

Rev. Birchall is covering any emergency pastoral needs and I'll be back to work, refreshed and ready for the approach to Easter next Monday.

(And it is a lucky coincidence that college basketball playoffs begin this week too).

In the meantime, be well,
Kenji

sermon excerpts: "Promises in Stone"

Ten Commandments, carved in stone, considered a testament to God’s covenant with the Israelite people as brokered by Moses. It is in this development of the covenant that we see that people are required to become more active and participatory in their relationship with God. ... This one, at Mount Sinai, is the more rigorous understanding of a contractual obligation. The people live by these rules and God follows through on the promise of attendant care, rewards and benefits. Should the people renege on this deal, God has the legal right to opt out of the relationship and leave them to their own devices and the scheming of their enemies.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. But we know in our life, and in life thousands of years ago: nothing is carved in stone, nothing is black and white. We live in a world full of grays. ... We could investigate the loopholes and questions of each of these 10 commandments. And I’m not saying that I disagree with any of them, it just seems a little sneaky of God to force the people to live by these rules when they’re so open to interpretation and context. It’s like we’re being set up to fail, that there’s always going to be a way for someone to say that we’re not obeying these laws.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. Which kind of laws are they? Ones that are changeable and depend on people’s agreement and participation? On one hand, yes. But they are universal and unchanging in the sense that we do not break faith with others, by taking their possessions, subverting their relationships and besmirching their reputations. No community can break these commandments and survive as a life-giving gathering of support and care.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. Permanently revered in the Ark of the Covenant, treasured and fought for many times over. Not so much for the ambiguous instruction they contain, but what they represent. The permanence of God’s care for us, a commitment to journey with us, the expectation that we question and wonder and think of our own answers.
These commandments teach that we all participate in our faith, in the expression of permanent unchanging truth of God’s love for justice, equality and fair treatment of all.

* * *

We look at many of the instructions about the reality of one true god, Sabbath keeping and preserving the sacred secret nature of YHWH’s name and find that these laws are specific to the Jewish reality of escaped slaves trekking through the wilderness. What connection or use do these laws have for us in our present day and age?

The preservation of trust within a community – of prioritizing the importance of God, one god, worthy of worship and praise. We keep faith with one another, through honesty and trust. Theft, betrayal, slander, murder, jealousy, these things all undermine a community.

God was trying to preserve the community and identity for a people that were struggling. They didn’t have a geographic home, there was no stable economy, the leadership structure was just beginning to emerge, how were they going to survive 40 years in the wilderness?

Focusing on their relationship with the divine, keeping the bond of trust and reliance on one another. That’s what the commandments intended to do – keep the community together while they faced great hardship and uncertainty.

The same goes for us: economic instability, emerging leadership strategy, uncertainty about the years ahead or where we’re going … and still we have a wealth of strength and resources – we have each other.

for Mar. 15 - Exodus 20: 1-17

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

* * *

What feelings, questions, thoughts and prompts to personal action arise from this scripture?
What about hymn suggestions or ideas for Children's Time? Share them as Comments below or in an email, and help shape Sunday's worship service.