Third Sunday of Lent (B) | March 8, 2015
Readings:
Readings: Exodus 20:1–17; Psalm 19:8–11; 1 Corinthians 1:22–25; John 2:13–25
Commandments; And, where to keep Them
There has been more talk in our town in recent years about the Commandments and where they should be enshrined: on civic property, or someplace else. I proposed some years ago and repeat myself today that placing monuments inscribed with the commandments someplace else might, in the end, safeguard religion, protect our religious freedom, and better define and celebrate who we are as the people of God.
The commandments are clearly religious in nature. They define not simply a social order or code of law, but our relationship to the creator. The first commandments define our relationship to God, calling us to acknowledge one God, the creator. We are to honor the holy name and imitate God’s creative genius, observing the Sabbath, pausing as God did on the seventh day, stopping labor, enjoying and admiring all of creation. (We Christians, since the resurrection on that first Easter Sunday, have transferred that observance to Sunday, the first day, sometimes referred to as the eighth day, when all the Risen Christ makes all things new.)
The remaining commandments define our human relationships, and are often seen as the basis of all civil law. This understanding prompts some to seek public display of the commandments. This may not be good religious reasoning.
It is unlikely that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai bearing the tablets of the commandments that the folks awaiting him below found any of the laws novel in any way. No one could have said, “Look, Martha, we can’t murder anymore! It is against the law now!” These commandments which define social order are much the same in any society which seeks civility and the common good. What was new when Moses descended with his holy burden was that now these laws defined not just human relationships, but God’s covenant within human activity. Our relationship to God is reflected in the way we attend to these laws. God commands us to keep these laws if we wish ever to see him face to face.
Asked which of the commandments was the greatest, Jesus replied: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt. 22: 37-40). If one loves God, then she or he will love neighbor as a consequence of the first love of God.
So, we Christians are to show our faith in our works and in our relationships. The letter of James makes that point: “I by my works will show you my faith” (2:18). When we Christians are dismissed from worship on Sunday, we may be told, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Our departure is not simply going home, but a commissioning: we are sent to bring the peace we have celebrated into the marketplace and our neighborhoods. We go to be agents and disciples of peace.
The commandments are not for us religious people first and foremost a code of civil law. They are the measure of how we keep covenant with God.
One can keep the social commandments:
- to stay out of prison;
- because it is a good thing to do and promotes my own welfare and the common good; or,
- to give evidence that I honor God and seek to do the divine will while keeping the covenant made with our ancestors and made new in Jesus the Christ.
We can keep the law for any of the reasons listed above. Religious people keep the law for the last reason, which we see as the most noble.
So, as our courts have ruled, these commandments are clearly religious in nature. Perhaps they do not belong in courtrooms or on other public property in a society where not all citizens share the same religious perspective. God himself tells us where these commandments ought to be enshrined: “I will put my laws in their minds, and writethem on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Hebrews 8:10).
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