Sermon March 7th. Preaching Texts: Exodus 20: 1-7, 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25, John 2: 13-22, Collect for the Third Sunday of Lent (B). Rev. Andrew Christiansen. St. Mark’s Cathedral
“You give us long enough to argue over something and we will bring you in proofs to show that the Ten Commandments should never be ratified.” –Will Rogers[1]
Will Rogers was obviously satirizing the dysfunction one may find from time to time in government or in humanity in general, but he was may making a point:
Even the most irreligious person today who never steps foot in a church would not deny that these commandments clearly guide us in the right ways and describe some basic fundamentals on how to live. Who could deny that even after thousands of years since they were carved into stone, that they still speak to what is universally recognized as basic right versus wrong in our world.
You shall no other gods before me.
You shall not make any graven images
You shall not take the name of the Lord you God in vain
Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy
Honor your father and your mother
You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness
You shall not covet what is not rightfully yours.
When I read or hear the Ten Commandments, I often am reminded of which ones that I have broken! Maybe you think of that too or feel that way when you read or hear the Ten Commandments. Maybe you can think of the times where you were affected by someone else in your life breaking one of these commandments (after all, God’s rules are more than a checklist for an individual but involves his vision for us in how we are to live our lives together). I have found that these rules often convict me showing where I have fallen short, and to what areas in my life, both currently and in my past, that I have not lived up to. I think of the moments in my life where I relied too much my own self to know what was best for my self, as if I knew it all, as if I had all the answers and nothing else to learn. This ignores that life constantly presents each of us with situations and dilemmas where our choices and how we order our lives matter not just for our own selves and healthy living (which is important) but also in regard to relationship to our neighbor, to God, and the people we share our lives and this world with. Even kingdoms and governments have fallen when things like what we see proscribed in these commandments have not been followed, where people disregarded a higher wisdom or wisdom of the ages that offers to save us from our own self-interests. The commandments speak to us both at the most individual, micro level and to a much larger picture.
And indeed if we focus too much on the Decalogue as a list of isolated commandments, we fail to miss how interrelated they are and how they can be beautifully summed up to into two, as Jesus put it “Love God and love neighbor” of which he taught us the entire law hangs on. When we see it as merely a list, even if it is a good list, we may try to shrug off that one or two we have severely fallen short of upholding… because after all nobody is perfect, but we keep the rest of them without a problem, so no big deal right? But this way of looking at the Ten Commandments only leads us to a type of self-righteousness that looks to find what is to see how are others are more wrong than we are (or how we are more right than they are) or what is wrong with other people and other things outside of our own selves rather than taking a true and honest look at our own selves. As the minister Nicky Gumbel says, “We are very good judges for the mistakes of others, but very good defense lawyers for our own mistakes.” Obviously, we must start first with an honest look at our interior.
When we do this. We realize something that is upsetting, at least initially, but ultimately prepares our hearts for a powerful change and redirection of our interior. We realize the words that we prayed together only moments ago, the words of our collect that say “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves”. Maybe this hits home. Maybe for some of us here in this third week of Lent disciplines have realized we have already overestimated ourselves a bit. Maybe we fudged a bit on what we originally were determined to do or refrain from doing this Lent. But you know, if we could help ourselves, even just a little bit, then Christ died for nothing. This is what so much of this world cannot understand, because it flies in the face of everything we are so often taught and even tell ourselves. The message of our culture so often says you have it within youto prosper, to find fulfillment. I remember walking into a major chain bookstore a few months ago and seeing the entry way lined with books on self-improvement and self-help. I see so many similar things of a similar nature that I could just stream off Prime or Netflix at any given minute that claims to offer secret, the “wisdom” to true self-fulfillment and to evade all of life’s tough struggles and baggage. But the message of the Cross, as Paul reminds us today, is counterintuitive to this. The message of the Cross is a foolishness, the “foolishness of our proclamation” as Paul says is only foolishness to the eyes of a world that cannot understand it. It is the proclamation that the cross, which is a symbol of death and destruction is the very means by which life has broken into the world”.[2] The world that the crucifixion happened in could not in all their wisdom fathom that something so immutably perfect and powerful could present itself form of crucified person emptied of self. The wise look for the solutions to the toughest struggles and toughest questions in their lives only to scramble and grasp at anything, as meager or shallow of a philosophy it is.
But if we think we can help ourselves even in a little then Christ died for nothing. The toughest struggles and questions of our lives are there to remind us that we need a power outside of our own selves to save us, to guide us, and to heal us. Wee need a power outside of our own selves to “Keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all the evil thoughts which may assault and hurt our soul.” Theologian the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon says of this collect, “The usual tendency in our prayers is to ask God to help us, to aid us, to assist us and to strengthen us. All well and good, but sometimes hidden in such verbal requests is the general idea that we can do so much for ourselves and we only need God to come along and give us the extra push, to top up our strength. But in this prayer we begin by recognizing as we meditate before almighty God our Father, that in fact we need more than a push and a topping up: we need his help, power, grace and strength completely and wholly. For we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves in the real battles of life against adversaries much stronger than we are.”[3]
The Commandments are God’s desire for our bodies and our souls, and by having these laws, this Decalogue, written on our hearts, is not merely to have been given a list of rules form a magistrate. This is not an executive order signed off by a detached earthly official who we will never personally encounter. These are laws written for us to be on our hearts, by a God who desires to dwell in our hearts and be with us. A God who says “I am here for you to lean on in your time of life’s toughest and most difficult struggles. Put your trust in me. Surrender yourself to me. For your ways are not my ways”[4]
And in this truth, we see a wisdom that our world declares foolishness, but is the only wisdom that can face ‘the real battles of life against adversaries much strong than we are’ and we can begin to take hold of the mystery in which God works and is for us. God sees things through in each of our lives, in a wisdom that this world cannot always understand, in a way that is counterintuitive to the way we so often see, in a divine wisdom, indeed that the world sees as mere foolishness. It is in the Cross and in the constant example that Jesus sets for us where the wisdom-as-foolishness is made known. In our Gospel reading, Jesus’ wisdom is seen as foolishness after he cleanses the temple, a temple that had been there for generations- when he claims that if torn down it will be rebuilt in three days. Jesus is seen as a fool because they do not realize when he says Temple, that he is not talking about a building, but he referring to himself. He is the paradox of Almighty God revealed in flesh and blood. And in this flesh and blood, time and time again, Jesus models for us what it is to surrender one’s self and put one’s trust in someone higher. Though he was equal with God and was God, he emptied himself as the Scripture says.[5] He submits to the will of our Heavenly Father even in times of life’s deepest struggles- even in the darkest time of his own life when he is in the garden on the night before his crucifixion, where after praying to be spared if possible, he says “Amen.” “Not my will, but your will, O Father, be done.”[6] By his holy submission, we will find that our own life in God’s sight may indeed involve inconvenience and maybe even suffering, but we will also find an answer of wisdom that the world deems foolish: to that know that even when we find ourselves facing adversity, we have inwardly in our souls a God who is for us. This is the great paradox to which Paul speaks about, when he preaches to his fellow Christians about the “foolishness of the Cross.” “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
The other great paradox is that Law that tell us God’s expectation for people that would make this world a better place if we could follow these rules all on our own, is a law that is fulfilled and completed perfectly in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. This is Jesus’ word of ‘It is finished’. It is finished for us. The temple of his body has been broken and raised. We have a God who is not detached but comes to us in person, who desires our hearts, who comes to show us power through weakness and self-surrender. In the times of despair and futility, may we look upon his foolishness as wisdom and not stumble. For the key and answer to our lives’ toughest questions, for our hearts’ longings and desires, and what our souls ache for is found in a perfect submission to the One whom we are always walking in the sight of. And that is something none of us can do on our own. For it is in our times of struggle, anxiety, estrangement, and sadness, where God is closest to us. It is in those moments, where our comfort is found in the one who is revealed in Christ, God-made-flesh, who not only stands with but carries the brokenhearted, who renews the humble in spirit and revives who have faced the utter realization that they are powerless to help themselves. This season of Lent is a reminder of an invitation that is present for us now and in any season of our life, the invitation for those who have come face to face with our own mortality, and the invitation for all us who have thrown our hands up in the air trying to navigate the problems of our lives all on our own, to say to the Lord “Take this burden from me”, and to be renewed and walk in new life.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[1] From the book: Will Rogers’ World: America’s Foremost Political Humorist Comments on the 20’s and 30’s and 80’s and 90’s
[2] Pastor Hearlson from https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-1-corinthians-118-25-5
[3] https://www.pbs.org.uk/the-bcp/second-sunday-in-lent
[4] Isaiah 55: 8-9
[5] Philippians 2:7
[6] Luke 22:44, Mark 14:36
The Carpenter's Nail 