The Celebration of Gods Law

To love God's law

March 2, 1997

Psalm 19

A man named John Killinger began a book about the Ten Commandments (TO MY PEOPLE WITH LOVE, Abingdon, 1988) with a remarkable parable:

A village was being plagued with disaster after disaster. The reason was that someone had planted land mines all over the countryside. People were constantly being killed or maimed.

Then one night a village elder had a dream. In that dream he saw a map of where every land mine was hidden. He awoke and wrote the map down, and gave it to the people. They were absolutely delighted and grateful. And they memorized the map.

The Ten Commandments are like that: they tell us what to avoid...those actions and attitudes that would blow us and our world of faith and love apart. God's great Laws are like road signs that say more than, "Don't do this! Don't go there!" They also say, "Life lies is in this direction! We are true wisdom!"

Psalm 19 is the voice of faith responding to a God who is big enough to make the stars and fill the heavens, but still who cares enough to speak! People of faith can't get enough of a God who loves enough to show His people how they should live! God's Law is precious to people who make it life's business to seek to know God.

The great novelist, Chaim Potock, gives us Gentiles insights into the tremendous love that religious Jews have for Torah, the Law of Moses. During certain days of the year the giving of the law is celebrated with singing and dancing. Members of the congregation take turns in dancing with the sacred scrolls in thanksgiving to God. [When is the last time you saw a Christian dancing with the Bible?] Torah is the most prized possession of any worshiping congregation. If a scroll of the Law is burned in a synagogue fire, or damaged beyond repair, the whole congregation mourns; a funeral is held; the damaged remains are buried in a regular cemetery with genuine grief for the loss.

Sometimes believers make costly choices to keep God's Law:

But many common, ordinary citizens refuse to cheat their way to promotions; refuse to sacrifice their families on the altar of selfish ambition— and no one knows except God. These are people who have their values on straight!

Never feel sorry for people who put God's will ahead of their own. That is not sacrifice. That is common sense! "What does it profit?" Jesus asked.

We can bring a genuine humility to God's Word

We can come to Him saying, "Speak, Lord, and you servant will listen, and obey, and follow." {I am still thinking about LAST week's text, and what it means to (1) Deny self; and (2) Take my cross, and (3) Follow Jesus>}

Genuine faith begins when we are willing to agree with God. God's standards are not our own; either his Word stands in judgment of us, or, as we think, we stand in judgment of the Bible. We consciously or unconsciously let God know what we expect of HIM!

Paul says (I Co. 1) that the Jews demand a sign and the Greeks desire wisdom. And somehow we all fall into one if not both of those categories: we begin by telling God what we expect of Him. Jews want "experience" — the proof of a "feeling;" Greeks want "doctrine" — an "airtight understanding"

In the little microcosm of the universe where I have lived for a few years I see both Jews and Greeks making their demands. Right-brained people, and people of naive faith, and people brought up on strong emphasis on experience demand signs, and things happening, and excitement— and that is understandable. Left-brained people, and people aware of the depths of literary criticism, and people well read in world philosophies look for keen argument, and can usually find flaws in just about every gospel presentation over made.

There is only one message: that message is the word of the cross.

Until we have been to the cross there is no other message that matters. Not health, or wealth, or spiritual experiences. Nothing!

Will Willimon says "We've made place of worship into a neighborhood supermarket. Get out of bed, get dressed up, open the hymnal, sing the songs, keep your eyes open, stand for the benediction...say hello to God, go back home. "

We all too often go shopping in the worship place for what we want, instead of what God has for us.

Willimon goes on: "...We do not stand, in Lent, before the mirror of our own morality. That would be an easy thing. We stand before a righteous, demanding, accusing God. His standards are not our own. His demands intrude upon our easy complacency, overturning tables, setting wild birds loose, clanging coins on stone floors. His presence is a sting of the whip upon the neck. He barges in here and drives us out of our burrows of religious seclusion.

This is exactly what took place in the Temple, as seen in John 2: Jesus told the people there that they were not worshiping as they should. And when the authorities asked him, "What sign can you show us for taking such authority as to upset the tables and drive out the cattle we brought in here for sacrifice and profit?" Jesus replied with the enigmatic message (to them) of the cross! And they did not understand a word Jesus was speaking! For the cross only makes sense when it is heard with faith!

While people continue to stand in judgment of the Word, and make demands of miracles or esoteric revelations from their God, the heavens remain silent, and there is no delight in God's law.

But when , whether Jew or Greek, we look to the God of creation with faith, and when we come humbly, seeking to listen with the ear of faith to the God who speaks, we will find. to paraphrase another, that 'God is there, and He is not silent.'

If we come listening, and kneeling down in our hearts before the God whose name is I AM THAT I AM, we will hear him say, "If anyone— if YOU will come after me, deny yourself! Take up the cross! Follow me!"

THE HOLY COMMUNION

The Law Read and Confession Made

The Lord Jesus Christ has said to us: "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This if the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Shall we pray:

Search us, O God, and know our most private thoughts. Try us, and show unto us the deepest motives, the real state of our hearts. Forgive us where we have been selfish, or insensitive, or sinful in any way. We cannot keep the Great Commandment, and truly love You, O God, with all our heart, soul, and mind unless You in mercy grant

to us the grace of Your indwelling Spirit. We cannot love each other as we should unless Your love is shed abroad in our hearts.

Brothers and sisters, let us search our hearts. In silence let us ask God to draw us near to Himself so that we can come to his table with confidence.

We do not presume to come to this table, O God, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your great mercy and grace. Grant us to eat the Bread of heaven, and drink the blood shed for the remission of sins, that we may live in Christ, and Christ may live in us forever. Amen

Let us confess our faith:

The Nicene Creed (ST # 14)

The Informal Invitation ("This is not my table . . . ")

Holy and gracious Father; in your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin, and were worthy of death and hell, you, in your mercy sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to You, the God and Father of all.

He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

The Words of Institution

On the night in which he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had give thanks to You he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, "Take eat: THIS IS MY BODY, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper he took the cup and when he had give thanks he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you; THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink this, do it in remembrance of me: Amen

We praise you for the mystery of our salvation! We truly believe

Bless these emblems, O God, and make them to us the Body and Blood of your Son, spiritual food, and spiritual drink of new and unending life in Jesus Christ.

And now, together, we pray, as Jesus taught us:

Our Father which art in heaven . . .

Now, humbly we receive the Gifts of God for the People of God