SCRIPTURE: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
TEXT: 7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. THEME: INTRODUCTION The events of the attacks on Israel and the retaliation on Hamas made me reflect on the story of Noah. The details of the story are not as important as the themes. Avivah Zornberg says that the people in Noah’s day stopped connecting with each others and lost their humanity. In the story before the ark, their intermarriages created offspring that were considered monsters. A monster is label given, to make another human being deemed as less than, with diminished respect and treatment. One of the basic characteristics of being human is connecting with each other which is exemplified in the story of Noah while he doesn’t even utter a single word. The flood represents a reset to start over because of the irreconcilable relationships. This story ends with God promising not to destroy the world in this fashion again. Some say not by water but the next time by fire. Actually, it could mean that vengeance for vengeance’s sake has no end. The only things that can bring this cycle of hurt to an end is forgiveness. The capability to forgive the hurt inflicted upon us, by giving up our right to hurt back can open up conversations, restores our humanity and has the potential to bring about peace. A group of supporters for Israel showed up at our state’s building to encourage support to Israel, while a smaller group of supporters for Palestine gathered. This reminded me of the Egyptians who perished at the closing of the Red Sea. These souls were also loved by God. The shouting from one group drowned out the other. When we lose the ability to communicate with others, we lose our ability to connect with other human beings. There is a long history of hurt inflicted on each side along the Gaza Strip, of claiming the land for their own, and losing it, and reclaiming it. Both sides have legitimate claims to it with a long list of generational hurts. Reparations will not sooth these deep wounds, only the forgiveness of hurt will. SCRIPTURE This brings us to the passage for today. We can see it as the commandments of God given to a people to stay the course. But it is not obedience to a set a rules that saves us. These are the acts of a God who loves us. So Jesus sums up these ten commandments into two; love God and love each other. But we can simplify these commandments even further, to just one, verse 7; “not to use the Lord’s name in vain” or to “Carry our relationship with God as an example of what it means to be in relationship with God.” How do we carry our relationship with God? In its original language, Hebrew uses the verb ‘to carry’ or ‘bear.’ The same verb used to ‘carry’ or ‘bear’ the ‘ark of the covenant’ across the Jordan into the promised land. How do we carry our relationship with God in our lives? Through the book of Exodus we have captioned the compassion of God. Initiating a rescue for these slaves in Egypt. God’s feats of strength that cause a Pharaoh to relent. Protective cloud and warming pillar of fire guide and form the people of God out of slaves. Fed daily by God and living water to drink these people are ready to know what the rules of this Compassion. It is for them to be compassionate with; Love, relationships, stewardship of resources, sharing, generosity, kindness, help, forgiveness, respect and living in peace. Carry this Compassion of representing God to the rest of the nations. It is as if we have an Invisible brand or tattoo that identifies us as God’s. So everything we do is a feature role as God’s representatives. God is not seen in our obedience to the So, commands, but in our living of them So, This is what Jesus does. Jesus is not living a life that is obeying a bunch of commands, but is gracefully living his relationship with God among us. This is where we have gotten our relationship with God wrong. We think it is about settling our account with God in a balance of sin and grace. It is not. It is about a compassionate God who loves us and this compassion that helps us to improve the quality of our love with others. APPLICATION Yesterday Carl and Becky Ashizawa, from Logos Book Store in Honolulu were the conduit for Bible publishing companies to donate Bibles to those affected by the Lahaina Fire. They shipped Bibles out to us and we stored and displayed these Bible in our sanctuary for churches to come and get what they wanted. Their generosity, hard work, cheerfulness and devotion to get the word of God into the hands of those whose lives could find meaning and life from the word of God was displayed in what they did. They didn’t have to wear a Christian T shirt, or cross around their neck, they carried the name of Christ in what they did. Our sanctuary, in its beauty and stained-glass windows, carries the name of a compassionate God. Its light and color speak about a resurrected Jesus in its main panel, not a debt canceling payment. How differently we live our lives when we focus on the living as people who are loved to live with resurrection promise rather those who have a paid admission. I was surprised by the number of people who dropped by and came in, just because we had the doors of the church open. Some had theological conversation, others wanted to know History, another came to pray and connect with the holy, and others came for Bibles to share with their fellow sojourners of the fire. CONCLUSION After 400 years in Egypt, the descendants of Abraham are returning to Canaan and discover that there are people who are living where their family used to live. This represented the God of Babylonian times, and Israel’s culture and physical needs. The bloody battles to reclaim ancestral lands become the demonstration that Israel carries the name of God. A part of their Humanity is lost, as there are no connections, conversations, negotiations, treaties, or alliances made with the present inhabitance of ‘their’ land, only hostile take overs. Israel is unified at this time but as they settle in and spread out over the land, their interest move towards other things as they once again become captives in the future by the Roman Empire. War and hostile takeover is not the only way to show that God is with them. This is the result when we fail to connect with others and lose our humanity. Seeing the image of God in others, gazing upon their wounds, seeing their humanity restores our humanity. Understanding that their needs are the same needs we have, and the wrongs we have done in the past, we both have much to be forgiven for, so that we can begin to figure out a future. Or else, the more powerful violence will prevail, for a false peace, while beneath hurts will festers into another retaliatory strike for justice is made towards some other false peace. Listen to the hurt and feelings being expressed, see the humanity of other human beings, and carry the name of God in this chaos towards creating a shared hope through the mending of relationship in forgives.
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