Messages, Meditations, and Musings on the Life of Faith by Rev. Dr. Scott E. Olson, Interim Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Preston, MN

Sunday, October 7, 2018

"Freed to Live, Laugh, and Love" - Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Freed to Live, Laugh, and Love
Pentecost 20 – Narrative Lectionary 1
October 7, 2018
Grace, Mankato, MN
Exodus 19.3-7, 20.1-17; Matthew 5.17

Forty-six plus years later I can still remember being dropped off at Gustavus by my parents for my first year of college. Now, I had a pretty good home life, but I was looking forward to this next step toward adulthood. I was ready to leave home, or so I thought. For the first time in my life, I was truly on my own. I was free to do whatever I wanted when I wanted with whom I wanted. Yet, I can still recall that when the first blush of freedom wore off, I experienced a mild panic. What do I do now?

Moses has led God’s people out of slavery from Egypt into freedom and presumably they are on their way to the Promised Land. But before that can happen, God has them make an important and lengthy stop along the way: Mt. Sinai. God does this for two interconnected reasons: first, the Israelites have gone from a nomadic tribe experiencing oppression and slavery with its own structure to a numerous people. Second, they need to understand what freedom looks like under these new conditions.

In Egypt, their primary identity has been as oppressed slaves who were told what to do, when to do, and how to do it. Only secondarily and vaguely did they have an identity as God’s people. Now, that’s radically changed. So God calls a “timeout” on the journey to clarify their relationship, with him and with each other. In effect, God says, “I am the one who brought you out of Egypt, and this is how we’ll live together; are we agreed?”

The important point to remember is that the Ten Commandments were—and still are—a gift to God’s people. Yet, we don’t see them that way. Even when they are not etched on stone, we tend to view them that way. We are apt to use them as a bludgeon to beat each other over the heads instead of as a remembrance of who we are as God’s people and how we were formed to be in relationship with God and each other.

My parents didn’t give me any commandments when they dropped me off at Gustavus. In fact, I don’t remember anything they said. But they probably didn’t need to say anything because they had already done their work, instilling me with the values I needed to live. Honesty, hard work, fair play, a sense of humor, gratitude for where I was, and of course, love were among them. These were gifts I didn’t always realize they’d given me. When I remembered them, I did pretty well, but if I forgot them, life wasn’t so pretty.

We all need values, guidelines, “Commandments,” whatever you want to call them. They remind us who we are and whose we are while helping us live together in a healthy way. That’s why the church council has been working hard on taking the information you have given to them, and with some guidance, proposed five core values of Grace Lutheran Church. Those core values are:
1. Hospitality – we declare that “all are welcome” and we back that up with an open building, open Communion table and lots of food.
2. Compassion – this is love in action and means “to suffer with” someone. We do that with each other and members of our community, near and far.
3. Community – this has a two pronged meaning. We build relationships here and we reach out into our community doing likewise.
4. Integrity – this is something of an aspirational value, that we strive for, and it means that we consistently act upon what we believe.
5. Faith – we are a community of faith striving to follow Jesus Christ.
You’ll be hearing more about these proposed values in the months ahead. Meanwhile, remember that through Jesus Christ are God’s people, freed in Christ to live, laugh and love. Amen.

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