Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Ex. 19:3-7, 20:1-17 (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last week, we heard how God saved Israel at the Sea of Reeds. To catch us up to our story today, we’re going to watch this closing scene from the Disney movie, “The Prince of Egypt,” which begins at the edge of the sea.
“Look!” Miriam says to Moses after God has saved them from Pharaoh and his army of chariots. “Look at your people, Moses! They are free!” she says. God has freed them from the hand of their oppressor. From Pharaoh, their oppressor. God is their Liberator.
The movie ends in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai, which also known as Mt. Horeb in Scripture. It is here where our story picks up today. Yet, we know there were many other scenes in between. Israel traveled from the shore of the sea through the wilderness. It was in the wilderness where they began to be afraid--fearing the future. Not knowing the future, they began to lose trust in God and to complain. About the lack of food. About the lack of water. As in our story last week, they even cried once again to go back to Egypt. To slavery. To return to live under their oppressor. In each scene, God hears their cries. And God answers them.
Finally, they reach their destination. Now, we know that Canaan--the Promised Land--is their final goal. But, in looking back, it is the story here at Mt. Sinai that is the climax of the Exodus story. It is here where everything happens. Where God’s first promise to Moses at the burning bush is fulfilled. Where the first request of Moses to let Israel go into the desert and worship comes true. And where God’s promise to form and shape Israel into a chosen people, or as in today’s lesson, to be God’s most precious possession--a kingdom of priests, a holy nation--is begins to be fulfilled. It is here at Mt. Sinai, where this forming and shaping begins. With the giving of the Ten Commandments. Or the Ten Words, which is what they were called in ancient times.
So, why would God give Israel these Ten Words? (I just gave you one hint!) There are a couple of reasons.
This summer, when we spent four weeks studying these commandments, we noticed that there are a variety of ways that they are numbered. There are also differences with the first commandment. In our Lutheran tradition, as with most other Protestant traditions, we begin with “You shall have no other gods.” But, in the Jewish tradition, the first commandment is “I am the Lord your God” - the same words we read earlier - “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery.”
For Israel, this first commandment is a reminder to them of who God is. And, in particular, it is intended to create a contrast between God and Pharaoh. Liberator vs. Oppressor. “I am the Lord your liberating God, who heard your cries--the cries of an oppressed people--and freed you from Pharaoh, your oppressor.” Embedded in this first commandment is this memory of who God is. Israel’s Liberator.
The second purpose, which I hinted at before, is also connected to memory. To the memory of who they were in Egypt. Enslaved. Beaten down. Pharaoh’s oppressed people. With no identity apart from their captivity. God’s purpose in giving Israel these Ten Words, or these rules, or these boundaries is to begin to form and to shape them into a new people. A kingdom of priests. A holy nation. God’s most precious possession. This was to be their new identity. The Ten Words were that vision of who they were to become. A people in loving relationship with God. And a people in loving relationship with one another. The Ten Words were God’s covenant with Israel and a promise of what God’s kingdom would be. If Israel kept them.
We know that Israel didn’t. When Moses came down off the mountain, he saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf. He saw that they had quickly forgotten who God was. And this is the ongoing story of God’s relationship with Israel throughout the Hebrew scriptures. A story of God, Israel’s Liberator, seeking to bring Israel back into relationship over and over and over again.
What does this story mean for us? As New Testament people for whom the Law has already been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, what does this important story in Israel’s history have to do with us?
We are living in the midst of turbulent times. These past few weeks have been one more example of this. The institutions we have placed our faith in over centuries seem to be dismantling. Our government seems to be splitting in two. The rule of law seems irrelevant. Our churches are diminishing. Society seems to be crumbling. Everything that we have known - the systems and the institutions that we have built - seem to be breaking down. Dismantling. It is a frightening time. But, what if? What if God is at work in this? What if?
We like to think of ourselves as a free country. A nation where anyone might come and live freely. Much of this is true. And, yet, throughout our history, it can also be said that we have created our institutions to oppress. To do the work of oppression on our behalf. We only need to look at these photos to remind us of our history. A history of oppression. Not much different than Pharaoh in Israel’s time. Native Americans. African-Americans. Women. Japanese citizens. Gay and lesbian people. The poor. Immigrants. And more.
What if God is at work in this dismantling? What if God has heard the cries of the oppressed? What if God is saying, “No more, Pharaoh!” Let my people go! Let them go so that everyone--all humankind whom I have created in my image. Everyone. And all creation. Might. Live. Freely. Without oppression. In full relationship with me. And in full relationship with each other!”?
Because this is what God’s kingdom looks like. A kingdom covenanted with Israel. Fulfilled in a new covenant for us in Christ. A kingdom where God is sovereign and not Pharaoh. A kingdom described by these Ten Commandments, that is envisioned by these Ten Words. A reality of shalom--of wholeness. Of whole and complete love. Love of God. Love of self. And love of others.
This is the hope these ten words gave Israel. It’s the hope that they give us as we continue to move towards God’s promised kingdom--a kingdom of justice and peace.
May God grant it. Amen.
Preached October 7, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Pentecost 20
Readings: Matt. 5:17; Ex. 19:3-7, 20:1-17
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Exodus 20:12-16 (NRSV)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free. Amen.
What. Does. Freedom. Look. Like?
Over these past few weeks, we’ve been working our way through the Ten Commandments. Or, as I like better, God’s Ten Words. Given to Israel on Mount Sinai. Given to Israel after they had been freed by God from slavery in Egypt.
It’s probably not too difficult for us to imagine what this freedom might have looked like them. Their enslavement had happened gradually. Over hundreds of years. When everything they made with their hands eventually was no longer theirs, but taken by the Egyptians. Where, over time, they lost hope. And they began to feel as though there was no longer a future for them. That everything they owned or that they made had been taken away. Even, after time, their dignity and self-respect.
And, then, unexpectedly, they were freed. We can only imagine what that must have felt like. When Miriam danced with joy and excitement on the shore of the Red Sea, we can begin to get a glance at what freedom looked like for Israel.
What does freedom look like for us today? We, who claim to live in the freest country in the world. What does freedom look like for us? Any ideas? Call them out.
Now, here’s another question for you. What is freedom for? That may be a more difficult question. Any ideas?
What would you say to me if I suggested that the commandments are what freedom looks like? Would you think I was a little confused perhaps? After all, how can freedom look like commandments? How can freedom look like rules and boundaries? And, in particular, for us Lutherans who believe that it is only through God’s grace that we are freed--by the Gospel and not by the Law. How is it that the Ten Commandments are what freedom looks like?
Perhaps the best answer to this question is in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. It is there that we read over and over and over again that we are freed not by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Over and over again. We are freed by faith, Paul writes. For freedom Christ has set us free!
Paul writes that we can’t rely on the law for our freedom, but solely on Christ. It is through Christ’s action that we receive freedom. Just as Israel received freedom through God’s actions.
So, then, how does freedom look like the commandments? Like the Law?
Paul continues on. Since you have been freed by Christ, now use that freedom. Use it to submit to your neighbor in love. Because freedom isn’t true freedom without boundaries. Freedom isn’t when our children fear gun violence in school, but when we take steps to ensure that they are safe. Freedom isn’t when newly-arrived asylum-seekers have their children torn away from them, but when we seek to ensure that families are preserved and children protected. Freedom isn’t when one feels so alone and hopeless that suicide is the only option, but when they are sought out and loved. Freedom is not the endless satisfaction of every sexual impulse, but the commitment of two people to each other. Freedom isn’t when the powerful take whatever they want, but when we respect the property of others and do our best to help them maintain and keep it. Freedom isn’t when the strong dominate the weak, but when the bodies and lives of all people are respected.
The purpose of the law is not your best life now, but your neighbor’s best life now. And, since we’re stuck here waiting the fullness of all of God’s kingdom to be re-knit into a new creation, God says to us, “As long as you’re here in this condition, love your neighbor.” And, then God says, “Let me be explicit. Make sure everyone gets a day off each week. Take care of your parents and of the elderly. Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t have sex with someone else’s spouse. Don’t hurt your neighbor or damage their reputation with your words. Don’t desire your neighbor’s stuff. That’s how you love your neighbor.”
The point of the law is not to make our sinful souls into self-help projects, but to turn one neighbor towards the other. It’s not about self-improvement, but about neighbor-improvement. Note that in our first reading, which we have heard every Sunday for the past three Sundays. Note that in it Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the second greatest commandment after loving God. The law is like a fence around everything our neighbor values (and we value): property, relationship, reputation, and life.
What are the things that you value? What are the values that you think are basic to living together in community? Perhaps it’s valuing diversity. Perhaps it’s respecting the voices of everyone, regardless of wealth or power. As we move through the rest of our worship, I invite you to find that Post-It note in your bulletin and to write down those things that are important for us to live in community--not just here in this place, but also in our world. Then, as you leave today, there is a map of Oldham County on the wall in the fellowship hall. I invite you to post them there. On the place where we are in community together.
Because, dear friends, the law isn’t about us. It’s about our neighbor. That is the good news of the second table of the commandments. That God loves our neighbor so much that God gives us the law. And, that God gives our neighbor the exact same law.
We have been set free in Christ to love God and to love and serve our neighbor. May we do so today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives. Amen.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Exodus 20:3-11 (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from our jealous God, and from our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last week was the first of four Sundays that we are spending in studying the Ten Commandments or, better, God’s Ten Words given to Israel as they entered into a covenant. An agreement. A mutual agreement.
These Ten Words are God’s vision of what an ideal society looks like. A society that is well ordered. Where it’s people are tuned into God and into each other.
Today, we are moving more specifically into the commandments. Jewish tradition has it that the Ten Words were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Now let’s remember the context. Israel had been enslaved in Egypt. Through Moses, God delivered the people from slavery, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and to Mount Sinai.
This journey to Sinai has not been easy. In fact, there are times when it has been downright hard. After Israel successfully came through the Red Sea, escaped the Egyptian army, and then celebrated on the other shore, it was not long before they began to regret leaving Egypt. It was not long before, in their fear and bewilderment, they began to have second thoughts about all of this. And they began to quarrel with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?” they challenged him. “Why?” they cry out in their fear and bewilderment.
These past few days, Bill and Chris and I were in Fort Wayne attending synod assembly. We listened to several speakers, attended workshops, worshiped, listened to wonderful music and had a pretty good time. One of the first speakers was a woman named Peggy Hahn. She is an assistant to the bishop in the East Texas-Louisiana synod of the ELCA. She is also the executive director of LEAD, an organization that works to grow the Christian leaders who grow faith communities.
In her address to the assembly, she talked about the three R’s of Christian leadership: Resistance, Relationships, and Remarkable. I actually think that they also describe the Christian life.
Resistance. This is what Israel was in the midst of when they began to quarrel with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? It would have been better if we had stayed in slavery!” This is what happens with change. Whether it is change in our personal lives or change here in this community, we resist it. Why? Why do we resist change so much? Because it is scary. It is unknown. And when we move into the unknown all of that fear and bewilderment begins to grow and we begin to resist. To push back. To argue just like Israel. Why? Why do we have to change? Let’s just go back or stay the way we are.
The interesting thing is about resistance to change is that is can actually be resistance to the one thing that can bring hope. Look at Israel. In each response to their fear and bewilderment, God was right there. Working. Bringing water out of a rock. Delivering quail and manna each day for food. Bringing them safely to Sinai, into God’s presence, and into a covenant relationship with God--this jealous God. This passionate God. The word that is used in Hebrew for this covenant relationship is the same word that is used in the marriage covenant. Where two people express their love and fidelity to each other.
And, that, after all is what the first table of the commandments is all about--these first four commandments. They are an expression of love and fidelity in our relationship with God. God is saying to us, as Luther wrote, “...Let me alone be your God, and never search for another.” And if you lack anything, “look to me for it and seek it from me.” Or whenever you suffer misfortune and distress, crawl to me and cling to me. I, I myself, will give you what you need and help you out of every danger. Only do not let your heart cling to or rest in anyone” or anything else.
It’s about trust.
Luther, in writing about the first commandment, says that “to have a god is to have something in which the heart trusts completely.”
What do you trust in? Who or what is your god? Is it money or property? Your bank account? Those are pretty easy to identify as things that distract us from God.
Or perhaps it’s your family. Or your hobbies. Or church. Or religion. Things that we think of as good but that can still become all-consuming because they, too, can take us away from our relationship with God.
There’s that second R.
Relationship. It’s about how we order our lives and whether or not they are ordered first around our relationship with God. Because if our relationship with God is not healthy, then our relationship with others will also not be healthy.
This is why God gives us God’s divine name. For us to call out to God. For forgiveness. To sing out in thanksgiving and praise. To cry out for deliverance and healing in the midst of our fear and bewilderment. God’s name. Poured out and marked on us in our baptisms. That we spend a life of faith learning how to use properly.
Relationship. It’s also why God gives us the Sabbath. Not necessarily Sunday. But, any day during the week when are to be unbound by work and from the power that others have over us. When we are unbound by technology, which keeps us working 24 hours a day. To be unbound and to have full and free lives in the presence of God and in community, where we continued to be formed and reformed as God’s people and then sent out to love our neighbor. One day each week. Because God’s gracious intrusion into human existence was not a one-time event, but to be a regular, ritualized reality to experience and deepen our relationship with God and with each other.
But, see, here’s the thing. It is impossible for us to keep these commandments. I know, right? Crap.
But that’s where the third “R” comes in.
Remarkable.
You see our jealous God, our zealous God, our passionate God, loves us so deeply and desires us so much and is so tuned into us that, when we fail to tune into God through our distraction or our doubt, or our failure or our sin, God, through Jesus, steps back in. Fixes it. And draws us back to God. Back into relationship with God, so that we can then be in relationship with our neighbor.
Remarkable.
Today, we are commissioning a new Vision Team to begin a process of imagining where God is calling our congregation to further ministry here in Goshen, Kentucky. It is a process that will very likely result in change. And times of fear and bewilderment, where we may not know what the future will bring.
But, this is where the Three R’s can remind us of the promise of these first Four Commandments, these First Four Words of God. That in the midst of our resistance to change, God will be steadfast in God’s relationship with us, even in our doubt. Because God is simply remarkable.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Preached June 3, 2018 at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Pentecost 2
Readings: Matt. 22:34-40; Exodus 20:3-11
On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Exodus 19:1-6, 20:1-2 (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator; Jesus, our Redeemer; and the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier. Amen.
Welcome to this day! It is the first Sunday of four that we will spend thinking about the Ten Commandments, or the Ten Words, as they are called in Judaism. It’s also Trinity Sunday, which is the one Sunday of the church year in which we attempt to explain and to celebrate the Trinity.
Can you think of something else we’re celebrating this weekend?
That’s right! Memorial Day! What does Memorial Day mean to you?
Yes, it’s a day of remembering. We’ve been doing a lot of remembering. Last week, we celebrated the festival of Pentecost. When we remember the sending of the Holy Spirit--the Advocate that Jesus had promised to send to the disciples after his ascension. You may remember that we heard that it wasn’t an accident that there were large crowds in Jerusalem on that day. It was no coincidence. They had come to the city--to the temple--to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavu’ot. This was a holiday of remembering for them, too, just like Monday’s holiday is for us.
Do you remember what the Jewish people were remembering? Yes, it was the remembrance of God’s giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Fifty days after the Passover. Fifty days after Israel had been freed by God from slavery in Egypt. They had passed through the wilderness and reached Mount Sinai. It was at Mount Sinai that Israel entered into a covenant with God--the promise we just heard in the reading from Exodus 19: That, if they obeyed God and stayed true to God’s covenant, then they would be God’s most precious possession out of all the peoples. Israel would be a kingdom of priests for God. A holy nation.
So, to help Israel stay true to the covenant, God gifted them with the Torah. Or the Law. We often think that this is just the Ten Commandments. But, it was much, much more. The video we are about to watch will help us better understand what the Torah meant to Israel. It will also help us understand what the Torah meant to Jesus.
Let’s watch.
Perhaps the biggest challenge we have as Protestants is that we don’t quite understand what to do with the Law. We teach that we are saved by faith and not by our works--not by the things we do. That we are saved simply through our faith. That we can’t earn our own salvation.
Yet, what we heard in the video is that the law is all about relationships. About our relationship with God. And about our relationships with each other, with our neighbors. Even with our enemies.
It seems perfect that we should begin this series on the Ten Commandments today, on Trinity Sunday. This day when we celebrate the Three Persons of the Godhead. Three distinct persons--each with its own nature, each with its own purpose, each unique, and yet one. Unified with each other. In relationship with each other. You see, the very nature of God is relational. And, it’s this same God that has created us to be in relationship. To be in relationship with God. And to be in relationship with each other. To love God and to love our neighbor.
Luther wrote in his introduction to the Ten Commandments that the person who knows the ten commandments knows all of scripture: love God, and love your neighbor.
The Law teaches us and leads us how to live into God’s unchanging goal for us. God’s vision about what a just and safe a society looks like. A vision of a world of shalom, of wholeness. A vision of a world that is properly ordered--that is tuned into God and into each other.
The Formula of Concord, which is one of the principle documents based on God’s Word that we as Lutherans confess and affirm, lays this out clearly for us, as believers.
“We believe, teach, and confess that, although people who truly believe in Christ and are genuinely converted to God have been liberated and set free from the curse and compulsion of the law through Christ, they indeed are not for that reason without the law. Instead, they have been redeemed by the Son of God so that they may practice the law day and night.”
This is why the Law is still important for us. Because it is the ideal--God’s ideal vision--that we are called to live into. We, who have been freed from our own slavery to sin by Jesus’ dying on the cross, are freed, then, to love and to serve our neighbor.
Because it is always about relationship. With God. And with each other. Always.
Amen.
Preached May 27, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Pentecost 1
Readings: Matthew 22:34-40; Exodus 19:1-6, 20:1-2
Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.
You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves.Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do.
If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves. Their devotion is worthless. True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us. James 1:19-27 (CEB).
Words.
That’s what we’re going to talk about tonight. Words.
Words are pretty powerful, aren’t they?
They have the power to build people up.
They have the power to tear people down.
Words can create. Words can destroy.
Words have power. Words have the power to transform.
God’s Word has the power to transform.
We know of the power of God’s Word in creation. With simple words, God transformed chaos into an ordered world. With simple words, God created humankind in God’s very own image.
In the Hebrew scriptures, God’s spoken word calls Israel to live as his holy people. God’s Word promises blessing and judgment. Through God’s Word, God reaches out to his people and expresses his emotion toward them. God teaches Israel, through the Word, about who God is and how to live in relationship--both with God and with each other.
This is the basic premise of the Ten Commandments--which in the time of Israel was known as God’s Ten Words. It is in these Ten Words that God teaches Israel and us about what it means to live in a full and loving relationship with God and in relationship with one another. The Ten Words aren’t about shaming us or tearing us down. Instead, they lift us up, they encourage us to live into our relationship with God and with each other in the way God intends for us.
But, mostly, the Ten Commandments--God’s Ten Words-- teach us about love.
Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew as he summed them up: “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.”
I am a regular listener of a weekly program on NPR called “On Being.” Krista Tippett is the host of this program and she regularly brings on guests who talk about many of the central questions of human life. What does it mean to be human? How do we want to live?
About a year ago, she had a guest on her program--Dr. James Doty. Dr. Doty is a brain surgeon who teaches neurosurgery at Stanford University. He’s also a researcher and is the founding director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.
During the interview, Dr. Doty spoke at length about his research, which studies the physical connection between the brain and the heart, how each organ affects the other, and how powerful this connection is. It’s amazing work.
One thing they’ve discovered, for example, is what happens to the brain when one practices compassion, when one speaks and responds to others in a way that builds people up rather than tears them down.
Each of our brains contains the amygdala, which is the very primitive, basic part of our brain that houses our tribal “fight or flight” instinct. When we are threatened, this part of our brain sends a message--either to stay and fight or to flee.
In their research, Dr. Doty and his colleagues have discovered that, when someone practices compassion with others, there is a physiological change in the brain. The amygdala--this primitive part of our brain--begins to shrink. And, as a result, we begin to see ourselves and the world with greater clarity. And we begin to approach others and the world with a more open heart. The more one practices compassion, the more the physical body changes and inclines one toward practicing even more compassion.
What is even more amazing, though, is the work he has done with gang members--work of compassion and love that not only seems to transform these gang members, but, in the process, has transformed Dr. Doty as well.
That is the gift of living into the Ten Commandments, God’s Ten Word. The more we love God and one another, the more we are all transformed.
In the animated movie Despicable Me, Gru is a world class villain. But, his reputation has come under attack. And so, to maintain his reputation, Gru devises this elaborate scheme to steal the moon. In the process, he kidnaps and uses three young, orphan girls as pawns in his outrageous plan to steal the moon and assure his reputation as the biggest, baddest villain in the entire world.
As he carries out his plan, however, Gru unknowingly becomes affected by these three little girls and by the love they show him. In the process he is transformed. In the process, they are all transformed.
Let’s watch.
It is this work, the work of coming alongside other people, people who, just like us, are created in the image of God...it is this work that, through Christ’s saving act on the cross, God has freed us to do.
You see, being a believer isn't just about hearing God’s words. It is about doing God's word, about doing God’s Ten Words.
Have you ever noticed in scripture that with God’s Word there is always action connected to it? God speaks and the world is created. God pledges to deliver his people and rescues Israel from Egypt. God promises through the prophets that he will send a Messiah and Mary gives birth to Jesus. God’s Word is always connected to action.
It is to be the same with us. With God’s Word and with the simple elements of the earth--the water, the bread and the wine--through these simple elements God acts to work faith in our hearts, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And, through this gift of faith, God acts to transform us. To free us. To free us, then, to act. To become the righteous people that God already sees us to be. To free us to be transformed into vessels--the vessels of clay that Paul writes about in 2nd Corinthians. Vessels of God’s love.
Now our clay may be weak and our vessel may be a little broken, yet God, through Christ, uses that brokenness and our weakness and turns us into doers of God’s Ten Words. Doers of love. Doers of God’s transforming love.
“You must be doers of the word and not hearers only...”
May we all begin to see the Ten Commandments as that guide to our relationships--to our relationship with God and with all others. And to be more than simply hearers of those Ten Words, but doers also. God grant it. Amen.
Preached March 8, 2017, at Grace and Glory Lutheran Church
First in a series of five sermons on Luther's Small Catechism, Midweek Lenten Service 1
Readings: Exodus 34:27-28, James 1:19-27
We like to think of ourselves as a free country. A nation where anyone might come and live freely. Much of this is true. And, yet, throughout our history, it can also be said that we have created our institutions to oppress. To do the work of oppression on our behalf. We only need to look at these photos to remind us of our history. A history of oppression. Not much different than Pharaoh in Israel’s time. Native Americans. African-Americans. Women. Japanese citizens. Gay and lesbian people. The poor. Immigrants. And more.
What if God is at work in this dismantling? What if God has heard the cries of the oppressed? What if God is saying, “No more, Pharaoh!” Let my people go! Let them go so that everyone--all humankind whom I have created in my image. Everyone. And all creation. Might. Live. Freely. Without oppression. In full relationship with me. And in full relationship with each other!”? 