Easter 6 2015

6 Easter 2015

Only a couple of weeks ago I mentioned my reticence in preaching about love. My reasons for this effectively were that (first off) the Church has not done such a “bang-up” job when it comes to love—and even if there are times and places and permutations of the Church having loved well; those examples have not been nearly enough to live down the negative reputation.

Secondly, with the way we throw around the word “love,” it’s no wonder that it seems to have lost some of its currency when the Church says that we are about “Love.” Besides, when we do experience real, undiluted, 150 proof love—like God’s love—we’re left more than affected. We’re transformed, completely, and are left to spend our lives understanding it.

All the same such a life changing love also demands too much of us, and rather than risk adding to the chorus of people who would talk a lot about love, yet do nothing like it—rather than possibly further devalue love; I would just as well not push the subject too much.

With that being said, our Gospel reading today is one which is again certainly about love—in fact, it is this very familiar story of Jesus giving a New Commandment to love as he, himself has loved. And not only is this a discussion that is difficult to work around without discussing love, and being left to feel pretty inadequate (as I’ve said, love is difficult); but this is made even tougher to hear by the fact that it is a commandment…

  

Of course, in the reading, Jesus is giving this commandment to people who are more than familiar with Commandments. After all, these are Jewish people who were at that moment observing the Passover meal—a ceremonial meal used to commemorate their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and even becoming God’s People, and receiving the Law, the 10 Commandments. So, Jesus very conscientiously is giving this commandment with all of the authority of a prophet, but with the very power of God backing it. In other words, this is a serious thing, because rather than this being a “wish,” or the final request of a condemned man that these disciples should love one another—it is instead very much a commandment, a covenant law that these friends of Jesus should love one another as he has loved them.

Well, I’ve already given you an idea of why I think love is a difficult thing to live into, let alone talk about. But what do we think about a commandment?  Certainly between Sunday School and Charleton Heston, we have certain images which come to mind when we talk about the Commandments. We may even recall them from the Lenten season when we rehearsed these 10 Commandments every Sunday. However, what makes them so important?

Obviously, the belief that these were laws given to Israel by God lends them some importance. However, it’s also important to consider a bit more of the context to really get an idea of why any of this is important.

  

As you may remember, the story goes that after a couple of generations removed from Joseph—a son of Jacob, and eventually a man whom (through a number of misadventures) found himself appointed secretary of Egypt. We’re told that during a famine, of which Joseph was forewarned, he had made provision of the people of Israel to settle in Egypt.   

But, we’re told that generations later, a Pharaoh came to power “who did not know Joseph,” and Israel, the people that God had cared for all this time, were made slaves. It was then after about 450 years that God called Moses, and after some really impressive plagues, and being led by a Pillar of Fire by night and a Pillar of Smoke by day (even through the Red Sea)…God delivered Israel. And even though there were a number of times in their wandering that their memories of slavery seemed easier than freedom, God still called them to be the People of God, and made a covenant with them, and gave them the Law—the 10 Commandments.

Now, at first glance, these laws could be understood to be rules of conduct for the social ordering of God’s People. However, we need to keep in mind that God called the people to purify themselves and be prepared to receive this new relationship. More importantly, they were asked to consider seriously whether or not they wanted to become God’s People. So, there is this religious component, even to receiving these laws.

As to the laws themselves, they are presented in a format that is known as a “Suzerain Contract.” This would be a covenant agreement that is made between a feudal ruler, and a conquered state that is still internally autonomous—literally, it is a set of rules given by an overlord to those who have been conquered. So, in a real sense, God has not only delivered Israel, but has conquered them, and these laws are what is expected.

On the other hand, however, it’s not difficult to see that these 10 Commandments have less to do with legalities of civic responsibility, and are instead a commitment of the heart. These laws are about one’s relationship to God and one another. What’s more, because we’re told that these 10 things can best be summed-up by the command to love God with our whole selves, and our neighbor as our selves—it should be pretty clear what kind of God was calling Israel, and the kind of people the People of God are expected to be…

But there’s still more to all of this—because beyond all of the legal proceedings, and religious purification that was happening around the giving of the Law—what we cannot ignore, and what we can’t afford to miss is that in the midst of all of this, God is actually calling Israel to be his wife. So, in this way, the Decalogue (the 10 Commandments) are literally a marriage contract.

God said to Moses, tell my people to prepare themselves, “for I am coming down…” God not only made a promise to Abraham, but led his descendants Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And even after delivering Israel from Egypt, God pursued them, and eventually wedded the people of Israel. These Commandments, then, are meant to always be a sign to remind the People of God who they are, lest they forget.

In our Gospel reading today, then, we find Jesus and these disciples who he now calls friends, commemorating God delivering the Beloved wife, Israel, and giving them a new identity. They remember that they were given these Laws—this Rule of life—to be a kind of trellis that allows them to be shaped and grow more fully into this identity of the People of God—the Beloved of God.

But, as we commemorate every year in Holy Week, it was at this Passover meal that Jesus gave a New Commandment—love one another as I have loved you, and it will be by this love that the world will know that you are my disciples, he says.

Through Jesus, of course, we become heirs with Israel to God’s Kingdom. And just as Israel was delivered from their slavery in Egypt, so also we have been delivered from the slavery of sin. However, what we should never forget, is that for all of our illusions of freedom, we remain very much a people who have been made utterly captive by God. The kingdom of our ambitions have been thrown down, and the sovereignty of our sense of entitlement has been overwrought.

This is because we have been overpowered by God—overpowered by Love, in fact… All the same, we take our share with Israel in receiving the 10 Commandments as what is expected of us as citizens of God’s Kingdom.

As the Church, then, we also share in this identity of being the Bride of Christ—and, I suppose, we could say that along with the 10 Commandments, this New Commandment that Jesus gives is our marriage contract… It also should serve to remind us, lest we forget, who we are, and who it is that Jesus has called us to be as People of God—even as the Beloved of God.

However, it may be that having a little more context for what a commandment is only makes accepting this New Commandment of Jesus that much harder to live into… which only leads us to the more imperative question: how will we allow this Commandment, this “trellis,” to shape us and grow us to be the People of God?

And, yet, if we choose not to accept this Commandment, and live it, grow in it…then what will our identity be? In other words, if the Commandments remind us of our identity, and still we do not choose to love as Jesus loves, then, who are we?

Perhaps, like Israel, we might do well to have a little time to really consider what it means to be God’s People…