Lent

March 6, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. –Romans 4:13-17

We in the USA speak of law and order while it perhaps she be the other way around—order and law. The desire to bring order out of chaos derives from the needs of basic human interaction. We have traffic laws to help maintain an optimum flow of cars and trucks. While sitting in a traffic jam, it may seem as if those laws were not working but image what traffic would be like if they did not exist. These are formal governmental laws that are updated as needed and if we break them and are caught, we pay the consequences. I got a speeding warning the day they reduced the speed limit on a street near me from 35 to 25 miles and hour. I drive that road several times a day and while I try not to speed, I stopped paying attention to those signs on that road years ago and thus did not notice the new signs.

We also have informal rules, etiquette for example. Some of us were raised with family rules—hang up your coat, homework before screen time. And then there are God’s laws. Depending on how one counts them there are 613 or so Mosaic laws in the Hebrew Bible ten of which Moses reported were given to him directly by God. Jesus picked two from those laws to establish the foundation for all laws—Loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves*.  What we now call the Ten Commandments have served the test of time. Other of the Mosaic laws have modified with cultural changes. Cutting back on cholesterol and salt is more vital to our health today than say not eating pork because we figured out how to cook it without getting trichinosis. While some continue not to eat pork to honor God within their faith system.

God clearly desires that we live healthy, whole lives in communion with God and with one another. God just as clearly wants us to realize that God loves us just as we are and loves to help us grow in wisdom and in truth when we open our hearts and minds to God. One of my college professors drew a line across a blackboard and said that we could obey every rule in the book perfectly and that might help us climb right up next to that line but God’s grace and love fills any gap that exists between our works and God’s love.

Prayer: Thanks you God for filling the gaps that separate us from your love. Amen.

*See Matthew 22:36-40

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.