Readings:
Exodus 20:1-20;
Psalm 19;
Philippians 3:4b-14;
Matthew 21:33-end

Collect:
Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reflection:

The Ten Commandments. Three words, two of them very little, but together a mighty phrase.

Some are immediately challenged by these words to do exactly as they say. Those who like firm boundaries, who need to know what and who is right, may easily be tempted into seeing this as giving clear and direct rules about what we may and may not do. They may be, but how do they apply and to whom? So, a massive body of work arises interpreting what is within the law and what is without the law and how it applies, a task undertaken in every generation.

There are others who are content to do without all this law stuff. Just love. I’ve heard it said, “there is no law after Jesus who came to destroy the law”. I assume that when people think the law has been destroyed, they’re thinking of that phrase in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus says on a few occasions, “You have heard it was said …, but I say to you …” (Matthew 5:21, 27, 31-32, 33, 38, 43), occasions when Jesus teaches what it means to be a follower (and followers) of The Way. What “Jesus destroyer of the law” people miss in this passage is Jesus explicitly says he has come not to abolish, but to fulfil the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17).

I’ve also heard that “our civilization depends on the Ten Commandments”. Bold and dramatic claim, and it is surely true that all societies have some form of law by which people get along – the fairer the law, the better people get along. What we call civilized society must surely include honesty and respect for persons and provide ways of dealing with injustice, by which I mean when people and things are out of a right relationship. 

For all that, the Ten Commandments are first and foremost an expression of a covenant relationship, they are religious and they are instructions which at one and the same time describe the way God’s people live before God and live together. They are not about the words. They are about the attitude, the ethos, the approach to life behind all our thoughts and actions – who we are and who we wish to be and how we get along. It is not in the list we read today, but after worshipping God, underlying them all is “you should love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), quoted by Hillel, by Jesus and by Jewish sages ever since. They know only too well that the Ten Commandments are not only about laws, are certainly not to be abolished, and may well be critical to our civilization. They represent the basis of our life – our life before God and our life with each other.

Blessed are you, O Lord,
and blessed are those who observe and keep your law.
May we continue to seek you with our whole heart,
to delight in your commandments
and to walk in the glorious liberty given us by your Son, Jesus Christ,
in whose name we make our prayer. Amen

Barry Lotz