A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at
Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey
March 15, 2009
(The Third Sunday in Lent)

Text: Exodus 20:1-17

—Exodus 20:1-17, NRSV

Sharing some thoughts about her exuberant young daughter a while ago, the Rev. Victo-ria Atkinson White wrote: “My eight-month-old daughter is an avid crawler. She has the syn-chronized movement of her limbs down to an art. She can dart across a room faster than I ever imagined was possible. This can be adorable at times, like when we are reunited after some time apart. She will hear my voice at one end of a room and scurry as quickly as she can to fall into my arms to greet me. But she is as fickle as she is fast. If in the midst of her crossroom race, she hears our dog bark or perks her ears to the ring of the telephone, my hoped-for greeting is gone. She is, to put it mildly, easily distracted. Thankfully, her easily distracted nature is due to her young age and her stage of development. Sometimes I wish I could claim the same in my short-comings, but I know better.”

On the journey of Lent, it is easy to get distracted. During this season, we are often en-couraged to give something up or invited to add something new to our lives to help us focus our relationship with Christ in these forty days. Perhaps we are trying to “supercharge” our disciple-ship in preparation for the grandest celebration of the Christian faith: Easter Sunday. But just as a child must crawl before he or she walks, we too must journey through Lent before we place the white cloth on the cross and gather to celebrate the risen Christ.

So here we are, almost halfway through Lent. If you gave up chocolate for Lent, you may by now have snuck a few candies…or at least you have been very tempted to do so. If you prom-ised yourself you would exercise every day, you might be considering skipping a day or two…“just to give yourself a break,” you know. If you committed to fasting for one meal, one day per week and to give the money you save to a ministry that feeds the hungry, it may be get-ting difficult to pass the refrigerator. If you have taken on extra Bible reading and devotions, or are participating in a study group, the disciplines may be challenging. If you were powerfully motivated to confront a major addiction—alcohol, narcotics, nicotine, sex, or even food—and chose Ash Wednesday as the day of independence from that which has enslaved you in so many ways, you may even be finding great trials and temptations that can distract you from staying the course of your convictions on the threshold of the 20th day in this season of Lent.

The Lenten journey is not always an easily traveled path. It is uncomfortable and de-manding to focus on the rough spots of our humanity in our desire to be more Christ-like. We would much rather focus on our strengths than on our weaknesses, especially in Lent. In this sea-son, it does not take much for us to be distracted.

We know from the earlier verses of Exodus that the early journey of Moses and the Isra-elites out of Egypt’s slavery has brought them through the wilderness to the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses summons the elders to prepare them to receive a word from God. And the people respond appropriately, saying they will do everything (Hear that?!) everything God asks them to do.

What comes next are the 17 verses we received just a few minutes ago—the Scripture passage that has shaped nations, groups and individuals for millennia. God offers the “bounda-ries of all boundaries” to help focus the Israelites through their wilderness wanderings. He gives them the Ten Commandments to help lessen the distractions on their journey to the Promised Land.

It is important to note at this point that God is not forcing the Ten Commandments on the Israelites out of anger or a sense of retaliation. They have not misbehaved or turned their backs on God—even though they will do so many times as the story in Exodus and the rest of the He-brew Scriptures unfolds. Rather, God gives them these words out of grace and love. God begins the conversation by reminding the Israelites of their unique relationship: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God recalls their close connection before laying out these new “boundaries of all boundaries” for them. Grace and love, you see, precede restrictions and guidelines. They are the foundation for this new kind of connection with God and with each other.

Grace and love are critical to the deliverance and the fulfillment of the Ten Command-ments. It is not as if they are easy to accept. The Israelites will come to be trapped in a cycle of denying God, starving, feeling lost, and wanting to kill their leaders during their forty year so-journ; but here, close to the beginning, the Holy One gives them boundaries for their relation-ships with God and with each other for their time in the wilderness and beyond.

God nurtures the relationship between the Israelites and God’s own self through the first four commandments. In a firm but loving way, God invites the Israelites into an exclusive, inti-mate, and holy covenant.

Through the final six commandments, God sets the boundaries for healthy and respectful community among the Israelites. God knows they have a long journey ahead of them. They will spend generations wandering in the wilderness. The guidelines must be set. The rules must be in place, lest chaos lead them further and further away from the Promised Land. A lack of food, misguided leaders, a jealous God, and grumbling persons are enough to distract any group of people by themselves, but when added together, disaster can reign.

All ten of the commandments are important, and each is significant either alone or taken as a part of the collective group. However, the way we relate to the first four commandments in-forms how well we will relate to the latter six. The same is true in our relationships. Our relation-ship with God informs our relationships with others. If we focus on our relationship with God and take seriously the commandments referring to our commitment to God, the other command-ments will seem less like rigid rules or forced boundaries and more like natural outpourings of our own Christian journey.

Just as we are in the midst of our Lenten journey with the goal of Easter a few weeks ahead, this passage speaks to us from the journey of the Israelites who wandered in the wilder-ness searching for the Promised Land. While the distractions we face today are certainly differ-ent, they are nonetheless all around us. The Israelites probably wished many times that they could “be there already.” And for us, we might think life would be so much easier if we skipped from sweet baby Jesus in the manger at Christmas to the risen Christ celebrated on Easter Sun-day. Or perhaps we are tempted to skip Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and go directly from the “Hosannas!” and waving palm branches of Palm Sunday to the “Alleluias!” and blossoming lilies on Easter Sunday.

But there is important work to be done during Lent, especially as we draw closer and closer to Easter. This 40-day journey is given to prepare us for the holiness of Easter and make us more Christ-like during the rest of the year. God’s words of love, grace, and the “boundaries of all boundaries” help us to continue along the path and keep us focused on the goal. May these words help guide you on the remainder of your Lenten journey—distractions and all.

PRAYER
We hold fast to your mercy, O God, for we know that just as you delivered those who wandered in the wilderness, you will certainly deliver us. We hold strongly to your love, O God, for we believe that the Holy One who died, died for us. We hold tight to your promises, O God, for we are assured that we serve a God who always keeps promises. With the gifts of your mercy, love and promises, we continue our Lenten journey with you, O God—fully revealed in Christ. Amen.
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