"RESPECTING GOD" October 8, 2017

Exodus 20:1-20 Matthew 21:33-46 Monday morning, we awoke to reports of mass shootings at a festival in Las Vegas, and hour after hour, day after day, the circumstances of every person involved have been narrated to us. This was to have been an End of Summer Festival, a Concert of good feelings, which instead became a shooting gallery, literally of fish in a barrel. Over 500 wounded, 58 murdered for having been listening to music at a concert. Quietly, I have heard people say: “Why doesn’t God do something?” “Where is God?” Thursday, many of us joined together at a Memorial at the Catholic Church, where the readings were Psalm 23’s “Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want” and Ist Corinthians 13 “Faith, Hope and Love abide, but the greatest of these is Love…” Those are the passages I long to preach this morning, those are the comforting words we want to hear, instead, Lectionary requires reading The 10 Commandments and Parable of the Wicked Tenants, which ARE NOT COMFORTING these are Commandments to Respect God, living as Tenants in God’s Garden. The Gospel has been narrating this story of a Festival, told with increasing intensity. Growing up, my Grandparents had an old fashioned “Victrola” that as you cranked the handle, winding up the spring, the Victrola played faster and faster and faster, louder and louder, building to a crescendo. Like the Siren at the Fire Station… With CD players and Computers, I do not have anything to compare to that sound like the building intensity of the Gospel… The Festival Season was building in Jerusalem, thousands of thousands of strangers compacting inside the concentric stonewalls of the City, the City of David, Jerusalem, in Israel, at Passover, in the time of King Herod, under the occupation of Pontius Pilate of the Roman Empire of Caesar Augustus. There had been Anonymous Letters to the Editor in the Paper about Traffic, Congestion, and Parking. The Chamber of Commerce and property owners were anxious about rioting, trying to keep a lid on things, to quiet people, avoiding chaos. Jesus had become a Celebrity Superstar, surrounded by his Disciples, followed by crowds of fans, as he healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, cured the lame. The more he told people to “Tell no one” the more interested crowds grew. The more the elite and powerful were outraged, telling Jesus to stop his followers, the louder and more intense the crowds became. It was Passover, in Jerusalem, the Festival of God overthrowing the oppressors, and this was the time of Pilate and the Roman Legion, after John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod to satisfy his lust. Only the day before Jesus had had a Triumphal Arrival, a parade accompanied by children singing, peasants waving palm branches, everyone shouting “Have Mercy!” Last night, Jesus and his posse had slept outside the City on the Mount of Olives. The morning of the Passover Festival Jesus found a Fig Tree, but the tree was barren, and Jesus cursed the tree for going against its nature, providing No Fruit. Jesus went through the gates, into the City of Jerusalem, up the hillside toward the Temple Mount, and there atop the plateau, inside the walls of the temple Courtyard, outside the Temple were the Moneychangers, hawking their trinkets and stuff. Jesus cried out that this was Pure Commercialism, No Sacrifice to God for atonement of sins! There was a crash of tables, people running, Rams, Goats, Sheep and Lambs bolting, a flutter of escaping pigeons and doves. Different from his Parables, this one was really an analogy. A Parable leaves open correlations and meanings; an Analogy has direct application for these characters. Isaiah 5: 1-7 is an extremely well-known ancient love song, describing God as The Landowner who created a Garden. Sounds not unlike Genesis… This garden had a winepress and watchtower, surrounded by protective concentric walls, not unlike Jerusalem. For generations the Vines in the Landowner’s Garden produced the most abundant, most lush and beautiful grapes, dates, figs and wine. The goats the sweetest cheese. But here Jesus’ Analogy shifts… Isaiah prophesied that the Garden is corrupted becoming overgrown with weeds, the vines trodden by armies… With the Chamber of Commerce and the elected officials and property owners standing in front of Jesus with their arms crossed, Jesus makes the story about the Tenants, the Sharecroppers who refuse to respect the rights and relationship they have to the Landowner. At Harvest Festival they have no food to pay to the Landowner, and they beat and abuse those sent by the Landowner, finally the Landowner sends his own Son, and they decide to kill the Son rather than acknowledging what they owe the Owner. We said this took place at Passover Festival, going back the original Passover… The Hebrew people were slaves of the King of Egypt, suffering the genocide of their children. After 10 Plagues, God rescued the people from Pharaoh, holding back the chaos of the Red Sea for them to Pass Over, while the Angel of Death Passed-over Egypt. The people were anxious about food and water and enemies, because although Set Free from Pharaoh, for hundreds of years they had been slaves. Over time, heavily influenced by the Apostle Paul’s description that once there was LAW, there was knowledge of Sin, we have come to envision the 10 Commandments as a LAW CODE, and just like Speed Limits and Tax Codes, we look for how to get around Law Codes as not really applying to us. When Judy and I first married, we went to Grad School, for me Seminary. As newlyweds, we would come home and my father’s first question was invariably: “What are they teaching about the 10 Commandments?” What was never said at Seminary, and took me years to discern, is that the 10 Commandments had nothing to do with LAWS… Instead, the 10 Commandments is what it means to Respect God, how to live in covenant relationship with God rather than under the slavery of a King, a Pharaoh or Rome’s Caesars. Respecting God, living in relationship, is actually pretty straight forward: Love the Lord your God, having no other Gods. Worship no Idols. Do not take the name of the Lord God in vain. Honor the Rhythms of life, taking time for Sabbath every day, every week, throughout life. Honor your Father and Mother. Do not Lie. Do not Steal. Do not Murder. Do not commit Adultery. Do not Covet. Perhaps instead of seeking to be consoled and comforted this week, instead of our going to Festivals to celebrate all the stuff we possess, we need to recognize the blessing of our relationships, to re-order our lives respecting God.