There are rules, and then there are Rules

 

2024 03 03 Sermon

Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22

You may have notices that there are several versions of the Ten Commandments floating around in English. For Jews, the first commandment is: I am the Lord your God. And the second commandment is: You shall have no other gods before me.

Since for centuries, the people we now call the Jews lived among people who worshiped many gods, so these two commandments make a lot of sense. God is saying to Moses, to all, “Among all the gods out there, I alone am your God, and you will worship only me!”

Our God had competition, back in the day. God still has competition, but it comes in the form of earning money, following sports teams, having the best possessions, knowing the most important people, and so forth.

Christians tend to put the first two Jewish commandments into one first commandment. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.

Decades ago, a pastor said, “If we obey the first commandment, all the rest will fall into place.” I agree. If we put God first in our lives, the rest makes sense. If we tend to make money, sports, possessions, or power our gods, we are not putting God first.

Over the years after Moses, the Jewish leaders shaped the commandments into 613 commandments, all explanations and applications of the first 10. They are included in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

Then later there were oral and then written interpretations of the commandments, as people sought to understand the commandments in new circumstances. How far could people walk on the Sabbath in this town? What foods were kosher when they moved to a new place and saw new foods?

… By Jesus’ time, there were rules aplenty about what was legal around and within the temple. One set of rules governed money. It had been determined that only Jewish temple coins could be used on temple grounds to purchase animals for sacrifice.

Since the land of Israel – then called Judea – was controlled by Rome, the general populace used Roman coins minted wherever they lived. So, there were tables where people could exchange their Roman coins for temple coins. (Today, when we visit other countries, we go to a Currency Exchange. It’s the same thing.) And, then, people could use those temple coins to purchase sacrificial animals from the pens on temple grounds.

As John tells the story, shortly after making the very best wine at a wedding, Jesus enters temple grounds and has a tantrum. This story is told at the end of Jesus’ life in the other three Gospels, but John chooses to put it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus is making two points here: first, the obvious one that the temple rules have turned the temple into a marketplace instead of a place to worship God. And, second, that Jesus’ own body will replace the temple. … At this point in the sermon, I needed to decide if I was going to talk about Jesus as the temple, or continue with the commandments. And it turns out, it’s the commandments!

… I want to be careful here to not unfairly criticize the Jews, and veer into antisemitism. The ancient Jewish leaders had made careful plans to be as respectful as they thought possible in their effort to put God first in their lives and in the lives of all Jews.

Jesus came to say that they were focusing on the wrong things. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the commandments, Jesus said that the first commandment was the greatest, but it is accompanied by another. They can be summarized like this: Love God, and love your neighbor.

As it happens, we were talking about this last week at Bible study, and we thought it should be amended to clarify it today to read, love God, and love ALL your neighbors.

… The example Jesus gives us at the temple that day serves as a reminder that the rules we establish may not be according to God’s plan and desires for our wellbeing.

We all make rules. In our families, we make rules. Dinner is at 6pm. No food in the living room. Shoes off at the door. Hang up your wet towels.

In our churches we make rules. At ULC we use the ELW liturgies, or we create our own. We have snacks after worship, and celebrate birthdays on the first Sunday of the month. We welcome everyone to the altar to receive Holy Communion. We offer communion every week.

… Sometimes, when churches want to change the rules, people get upset. The old hymnal, liturgy, and songs are the only ones they like. Only certain people are welcome at the altar for communion. Communion is too special to have it every week, once or twice a month is often enough.

I suggest that when we are making rules for ourselves, for our congregations, for our communities, that we consider Jesus’ response. The most important rules, commandments, are these: love God and put God first; and love all your neighbors.

I would suggest there are rules in our communities or state or country that might need to be changed in order to line up with Jesus’ commandments, but we will disagree on which rules those are. But … since we are in an election year, it is something to keep in mind as we choose our leaders.

So, instead, I encourage you to ponder this week the rules you have in your own lives. Do they help you love God and others? Do you need to change the rules you live by?

Amen