3 Lent 2018

Sermon Outline
Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston
3 Lent 2018
The Rev. David C. Dearman

“The Rule of Love: When the Commandments Are Written on our Hearts”

I. The 10 Commandments: the Core of God’s Law

The idea of “right and wrong” is common to humanity

Any drive up to Houston along I-45, and you will identify someone doing something clearly wrong! Speeding, going too slow, driving recklessly, failure to secure items on a truck bed.  What if most people did not obey traffic laws?

The Code of Hammurabi predates the 10 Commandments by hundreds of years

Ancestors in faith saw the 10 Commandments not as the edict of an earthly ruler who was in turn authorized by God, but as God’s law written by the finger of God...a divine gift

The Commandments so revered that the tablets were kept in the Ark of the Covenant….in the most sacred place in Solomon's Temple, the Holy of Holies

II. 10 Commandments in Lent

Anyone who considers the commandments and comes away feeling successful and smug has been deceived

Three examples:

1. You shall have no other gods before me (Our “ultimate concern” so often something different)

2. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy (difficult in a 24/7 world)

3. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor (desire and being self-centered pull us toward jealousy)

III. Bottom Line: we are measured and found lacking every time

IV. The Cleansing of the Temple

John places early in Jesus ministry to show that Jesus replaces the Temple, like the wine replaces the water in Cana

For Christians, obedience to God’s Law is important but it is not at the center of faith

For Christians the center of our faith is the Cross (what saves us is not our own obedience to rules but our trust in Jesus whose death paid the price for sin.)

The Law helps to convict us, helps us to know in our bones that we have fallen short and are called to repent and seek renewal of life.

V. Today’s story of Jesus is just dust and ashes unless we also ask what Jesus seeks to cleanse from our own lives.

The Grace of God is no cheap Grace...it comes with a spirit who drives us into the wilderness of repentance and renewal, of forgiveness and call to change, from death into life. ...and we are moved by the spirit in this way again and again

VI. The 10 commandments are a gift from God: Jesus Seeks to Write them on our Hearts

the rule of law is central to living in any community...but the commandments are not the power of God. The Power of God is always the Cross. In the end, the power to transform us is Love...that is the power by which each of us will be healed, love is the light we are asked not to hide under a basket, love is the pearl of great price, Love is the new commandment given to all who would put their trust in Jesus. When we answer the call to Love God and Neighbor, this is the move from the commandments being written on stone, to being written on our hearts. Amen.