"Foundations" March 4, 2018

Exodus 20: 1-17 John 2:13-22 What if, The 10 Commandments, Baptism, Marriage, Communion, Ordination, Worship, all that we think of as representing our Faith, were not our Highest Ideal, but the very Foundations, the root identity of our relationship with Christ? What if, The 10 Commandments, Baptism, Marriage, Communion, Worship, the Cross, represented a Foundational Counter-Cultural Challenge to our humanity? Regardless where it came from, as humans we have a desire for self-preservation and survival. We desire to take what we want. We have to be taught both not to bite, not to scream, not to covet what others have, and taught to share. We have natural lusts, and angers, and we must to be taught the limits of our roles, because without this, we would steal, and undermine relationships, and we could kill. These humans were the kind of creatures in chaos, God destroyed with the Flood. Slavery, is not only to use the abilities of another, but to break the spirit and the will. The Empire of the Pharaohs enslaved humanity as beasts of burden, as property for breeding, labor, power, slaves had no identity, no rights, they lived for Pharaoh. The origin of our English Word: Lynching, comes from Charles Lynch, founder of Lynchburg, VA, who tried to break the will of offenders by floggings and executions. When God set the people free, they turned to Moses saying “You are now Pharaoh, tell us what to do, tell us how to live, give us food and water.” The Commandments provide a counter-cultural foundation to form a different people. A people not focused on self-preservation, but on relationship to God. A people who treat God as unique and holy, to be worshiped and loved. A people who did not treat every day as disposable as every other, but stopped regularly, to reflect and recognize how blessed we are to live with God. A people who did not rebel against and attempt to kill or abandon their ancestors, but honor their parents. A people who did not commit violence against others for sex, or belongings; who value the truth and will not lie Who treat neighbor as extension of your world. What a stark difference, to having it all, winning at all costs, living life for today only! Yet, as human beings, just as it has taken me several minutes, to describe and having to describe, that the Ten Commandments are Counter-Cultural to our Natural World, we have difficulty passing on the idea of contrast. In order to protect ideas from one generation to another, we institutionalize and make Laws not only to preserve what we think are our ideals, but Laws to protect Laws. And we use shame and isolation, ostracizing, intimidation, as means of protecting our institutions. The Gospel of John begins with this beautiful prologue about Jesus’ relationship to God and to the world, as having existed with God before time and space, being one with us, and one with God in perfect communion. Jesus is Baptized by John and begins his ministry with John’s Disciples… Then in the Second Chapter Jesus goes to a Wedding and on the Sabbath to Worship. Could there be two more foundational acts? Is this important to the Gospel? The author identifies this as “On the 3rd Day” the first and only occasion other than Easter’s resurrection where the day is identified as “On the 3rd Day.” In contrast to Chapter 1, where we have the eloquent poetry of In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; in the Second Chapter there is a shift to the expectations and reactions and shame of people. Just as today, the focus of events at a Wedding are not about the Couple or their Marriage, but about The Reception. There is a scandal, because the affair has only just begun and they have already run out of wine! Can you imagine the gossiping that was going to follow in the Square? “What a terrible wedding, they did not even have enough wine! How can you toast the couple, how can you wish them well, or offer blessings, if there is no wine!” Forever after, they would be remembered as being the couple whose friends and family did not care enough even to provide wine to toast them. Now recognize, Jesus did not simply turn water into wine, there were SIX Stone Jars there for the Rite of Purification, but that rite having been done, the Stone Jars like the Wine, were exhausted. The Miracle of this story is not only about the Quality of the Wine, but the Super-Abundance; where there was limitation, emptiness, now there is more than could ever be exhausted. And despite Jesus saying “Tell No One” you know what was said in the Market, the following day… “What an amazing way to begin married life, after it seemed everything they had was exhausted, the best was yet to come! That is a Marriage blessing! Surely God will bless this couple for generations.” At the time Jesus was in Judea and Galilee, Worship of God was no longer about our Communion with God, honoring God, or reflection upon what God has done; instead Religion required that to atone for your sins you had to pay a sacrifice. Traveling a long distance to come to the Temple, people did not have a bull or sheep with them. So Religion became institutionalized as the raising and selling of animals. Because the Temple was located within a State occupied by the Greeks, now part of the Roman Empire, to buy an animal for sacrifice you first had to convert your Roman and Greek Currency to Jewish Currency to buy an animal for sacrifice. Imagine the stock yards of pigeons, sheep, goats and cows, the smells and sounds, all being raised to pay for your sins. According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, this is the final event causing Jesus to be arrested, he challenged the authorities of religion. Here in John it is one of the first, identifying that Jesus’ Foundation was challenging the basic precepts of what we believe and do and why. In America today, one of the most threatening issues, is how many people are addicted and die from heroin and opioids. Coming home last week, I heard an article on NPR identifying that challenges our basic assumptions, during the Vietnam War 20% of the Troops were using drugs and there were fears of what would happen when they returned home. Yet, the incidence of continued use was exceedingly rare. What the researchers found was that the opposite of Addiction was not Sobriety/ Purity: be it to Opioids, Heroin, Alcohol, Porn, Gambling. Addictions all correlated to isolation and loneliness. As human beings we have a need for something in our lives, if shamed and alone, isolated, we turn to one of these vices. But the opposite of Addiction is: community, connection, what we call Communion.