On the Journey We Follow God’s Word
Third Sunday of Lent, Year B ~ Exodus 20:1-17
Kenwood UMC ~ March 15, 2009
Allie Finkle loves rules. She says that the “reason why is, rules help make our lives easier. For instance, the rule about not killing people. Obviously, this is a good rule.”[1] Allie is nine, and she is the main character in a series by Meg Cabot called Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls that my daughter Kate has just started reading.
Allie’s not so different from all of us. While we may not LOVE rules, most of us would acknowledge that they do help make our lives easier. Allie says she especially likes science and math because they have a lot of rules—“like the one about gravity….[and] like that five minus three will always be two.”[2] But she isn’t so crazy about the things there are not rules for—like friendship, for instance.
Allie kind of hits it on the head. Rules make us feel secure. They make choices easier, they make traffic flow, they make ordering in restaurants smooth. But, wow is it difficult when we get into those situations where there aren’t any rules. Like friendship. Or dating. Or marriage. Or faith.
Wait, there are rules for faith! We just read them a few moments ago. The ten commandments. Those are our rules. Follow those, and we’ve got it made, right? No more questions.
If only it were that easy. First of all, some of those commandments are harder than they look. Honor your mother and father—what if I’m an orphan. Or if my mom or dad aren’t really deserving of honor? And, you shall not murder—does that apply to the spider I squashed with my shoe this morning?
Sometimes faith involves a little more than rule following. But I would also argue that the ten commandments are not just rules for us to follow. That would be far to simple for this God we worship. The ten commandments do more than just tell us how to behave. They remind us that we are in a relationship, a relationship with a God who loves us and can show us how to find a life of righteousness. You sang about that this morning, right kids?
And that brings us to our practice for this week. Here at Kenwood this Lent, we are examining a different practice each week, a practice which can help us draw closer to God on our journey of transformation. And this week our practice is to obey—to obey God’s life-giving Word.
Now, there are a couple of assumptions in that practice—the first is that we know how to obey and the second is that we find God’s Word life-giving. Let me touch on each of those for a moment.
For those of you who have trouble with obedience—I’m right there with you. I’m glad it was taken out of the wedding vows before I had to do that myself. But as I have gotten older and hopefully wiser, I have come to understand that obeying a loving God is very different from obeying rigid rules, or obeying an authority you don’t entirely trust.
God is completely trustworthy. And God’s rules are full of love and mercy. Obeying them does not have to be a burden, but something that gives us life. That’s one of the reasons we chose to include a bit of a different reading of the commandments this morning alongside the more traditional reading. And that reading was focused not on shall nots, but on celebrates. Celebrate love, celebrate images of God, celebrate God’s name, celebrate the wonders of God, celebrate those who love you, celebrate by seeking life in each person—celebrate. I can obey rules that invite me to celebrate. Those rules can truly become a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
And when I celebrate, I discover that’s God’s rules, God’s Word, is life-giving. Now, I specifically used the term God’s Word because I want to push us this morning beyond the Ten Commandments. It is way too easy to follow the Ten Commandments and say, OK, I’m done. God’s Word, as it is found in the Bible, is far more rich and complex. And following God’s word requires time and study. But when you devote time and study to God’s word, you begin to discover that it is a source of life.
If you do not currently have a practice of following God’s word through regular study and formation, I want to invite you to discover one. I’ve placed a few resources on this table up here for you to take a look at—I will be glad to help you order one if you are interested. I would also encourage you to think about a long term study of scripture, through Disciple Bible Study, Companions in Christ or other classes which begin here at Kenwood each fall.
The closer we draw to God’s Word, the more we learn about it, the more it illuminates our path. And the more it lights up our path the more it becomes a source of transformation in our faith journey—and the easier it becomes to obey. I invite you to pursue the practice of discovering a relationship of obedience with God’s word as part of your Lenten journey.
Our hymn of response affirms our belief that God’s word is a light on our journeys of faith. It is number 601 in your red hymnals, “Thy Word.”
[1] Meg Cabot, Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day (New York: Scholastic, 2008), p.1.
[2] Ibid, p. 2.
