March 7, 2021 – Lent , 3rd Sunday (Year B)
●● Exodus 20:1-17 ●● Psalm 19 ●● 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ●● + John 2:13-25 ●●
Title: God’s Top Ten.
[__01__] God’s Top 10 are the 10 Commandments.
There are Top 10
lists for just about everything. There are lists of the top 10 most viral
videos on the internet, the top 10 best songs or movies… there are even lists
of the best top 10 lists.
For many years, there was a TV and late night comedian David Letterman and one of his frequent comedy bits was
to do a top 10 list.
In April 2008, because Pope Benedict XVI was visiting NYC … Letterman imagined the Top 10 things that people said on the
streets of NYC when the Pope from Rome visited which included the following:
1.
From
NYPD officer: “Sir, when did you realize your
Popemobile was missing?”
2.
In
a coffee shop, the person at the cash register says…”I
don’t care who he is! He can wait for his cappuccino like everyone else.”
3.
In
Madison Square Garden arena: Wanna perform a
miracle? Help the NY Knicks win a basketball game…
[__02__] This is just a reminder that top 10 lists
summarize the world, they structure the world for us.
They bring things into focus for us. Also,
the number 10 is symbolic, not just symbolic in sports such as soccer or
basketball, but symbolic in the Bible.
[__03__] It is a reminder that in the symbolism of the Bible, 10 represents perfection and power. We also rate or evaluate or rank people and things on a scale of 1 to 10.
And, in the Bible, 10 signifies perfection,
not just in the 10 Commandments. There
were also 10 plagues in Egypt, representing God’s power.
The thing is – with a top 10 list -- we
are waiting for who’s or what’s going to be number one, what is numero uno on
the list.
In the 10 Commandments, the person of God is number 1: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery, you shall have no other gods besides me.”
So, this reminds us that all the other
commandments relate that 1 commandment.
And, that our following of the
Commandments makes God known – public – to others.
[__04__] Anybody remember the Hollywood movie “Raiders of the
Lost Ark” from the 1980’s with Indiana Jones?
In
the movie, there was a search for the ark of the 10 Commandments. It was 1936 and Nazi Germany was trying to capture the ark of the covenant because
they had heard it had magical powers and that it would make them invincible,
they would go “undefeated.”
Indiana
Jones has to rescue the ark to prevent this from happening.
At
the end of the movie, Indiana Jones brings the ark of the covenant back to the
Pentagon or Washington D.C. and he asks to see the ark. They tell him …no, it is now a government operation
and a research project, and “government property”
And, in the final scene, we see the
ark all boxed up in a government warehouse or crated up like inventory at an
Amazon warehouse and stored among countless other crates.
But, for us, the 10 Commandments are not just any other Top 10 list, or any other “box”. Following the Commandments brings us into relationship with God as our heavenly father.
So, on a top 10 list, we are always waiting
for who or what is going to be number 1.
Following the Commandments is always
about a language we speak and practice toward others. We follow Commandment # 1 – we love God - by
loving others. We also love others because they were created by God. We have the
same Father.
I’d like to give 2 examples, because
the Commandments give us a personal reason why we do what we do.
We love God and we love others.
We practice in other ways.
Let’s say you are a child and we are
all children in some ways and we are all children of our parents.
And, as a child, were you ever asked,
or are you still asked to do something because your mother or father wants you
to do so, or to get along with somebody that you did not like?
And, you did it - tried to - simply out of respect
for your mother or father.
Or, even today, do you or I not carry
out certain ways of living out of respect for our mother/father/parents, because
of their example?
That’s an example – analogy – of why
we love others, because they are loved by God who is also our father.
In a similar way, whenever we encounter someone with a child, we praise the child and love the child, not
because the child is our responsibility but because we love the person who is
caring for the child.
So, we show our love for the parent by
loving the child among us. Love is always inter-generational.
The 10 Commandments remind us of call to love God
is our heavenly father that he is # 1, and to love persons made by God.
[__07__] The Commandments are a top 10 list in which we are called recognize that # 2 through # 9 are connected with # 1, who is God, who is love, who wishes us to memorize this list, to do whatever we have to do to memorize it, save it on our phones, put it on our refrigerator, on our mirror, above our desk. There are at least 10 places to keep this top 10, or in the ancient language of Moses:
Lay up these my words in
your hearts and minds, and hang them for a sign on your hands, and place them
between your eyes.
(Deuteronomy 11:18)
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