Lent
March 16, 2015

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. — Jeremiah 31:31-33

My mother taught school the year I was in the second grade. Thus, we three children road to and from school with her. One evening after school we stopped at the one general store in my home town and all went into the store. I knew exactly what I wanted and ran immediately to the freezer area, got an ice cream on a stick, and apparently went straight to the car to eat it. Now as I look back on it, I realize that I must have known it was not the right thing to do or I would not have gone directly to the car. Actually going directly to the car without my mother was not acceptable behavior either.

When my mother arrived at the car and found me licking my ice cream, she asked me where I got it and I told her, she asked me who paid for it and squirming I said, “I thought you would.” I then received a brief but complete explanation about the harm we do to others when we steal from them.  She then took the unfinished portion away from me, escorted my back into the store, showed it to the store owner, and explained that I had taken it without paying for it. I solemnly said I was sorry and told him I would never, ever do anything like that again. Mom paid for it and we left. I do not remember her saying another word and I think I can honestly say that since that time I have never knowingly taken anything that was not mind. The lesson, thou shalt not steal* had been written on my heart.

Laws and rules may be meaningful in general, but they do not move to the level of God’s laws until we recognize and take responsibility for the harm that our making them or breaking them can do to others.

Prayer: O Lord, help us to live justly and to create a just society. Amen.

*Exodus 20:15

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.