Texts: Exodus 20.1-17 & John 2.13-22
There are two vitally important bits of social
theology before us in today’s readings. The
first is the Gospel story of Jesus chasing out the money changers in the temple. That story has inspired an internet meme in recent
years, which goes: “When people ask ‘what
would Jesus do?’, remember that the answer includes making a whip out of ropes,
turning over tables and hounding people out of temples!”
The question at stake is whether anger can ever be
justified. And the answer seems to be that
yes, anger at injustice or exploitation by powerful elites over ordinary people
very certainly can. That’s what the
money changers represented, you see.
There was a law, in Jesus’ time, that the offerings people made to the
temple, or the money they used to buy animals for sacrifices, had to be Jewish
money. Roman coins were a symbol of
occupation, and therefore only the Jewish shekel would do. So the money changers offered people a way to
change their roman coins – but they did so by charging a fee – and making a nice
profit for themselves. Many of the
people who used the temple were, of course, poor. This Temple Law therefore penalised every one
of them, to the profit of the money changers.
The same practice goes on today, by our banks and
our exchange bureaus. According to the
Bank for International Settlements, trading in foreign exchange markets
averaged US$7.5 trillion per day in April 2022.
It is challenging to find out how much profit is made from these
transactions – but you can be sure that the total runs into billions. Every time that a migrant worker in the UK (probably
working on minimum wages) wants to send money home to their family for
essential items like food or rent, the money-changers make a profit for
themselves. Every time a UK charity or
church wants to send money for famine relief, or to build water-towers, the
money-changers still make a profit. The
wealthy make a living off the backs of the poor. Again.
Is it any wonder that Jesus was angry?
The second item of social theology before us is the
10 commandments. In older times, we would have recited the commandments
together on all the Sundays throughout Lent.
And in Tudor times, the law of the land required that the 10
Commandments should be inscribed upon wooden tablets – and placed at the East
End of the church for everyone to be constantly reminded of them.
But, what can I say about them in just a few
minutes, here on a Sunday? I’m sure that
none of you would thank me for a 10 point sermon!
Well, let me be concise: the plain fact is that
today’s society couldn’t care less about the 10 Commandments! If you ask the typical man or woman in the
street what the basic rules of society should be, they will often say things
like ‘bring back the 10 Commandments’ – and then they will merrily go about
their lives in complete ignorance of what the commandments actually teach.
What do I mean?
Well let’s look at them in two groups – for we can split the 10
Commandments into two headings – just as Jesus did.
First, there’s the group of Commandments which are
about God, and our relationship to God. Worship
God only, don’t make graven images and idols, don’t take his name in vain, and
set aside a Sabbath day to rest and commune with God.
Secondly, there’s the group of Commandments which
are about how we live with each other – or, in Jesus words, how we can ‘love
our neighbour as ourselves’. So let’s look at those two groups – and
examine whether my statement, just now, that today’s society couldn’t care less
about them actually holds water.
First – the commandments about loving and
worshipping God. The word ‘worship’ is a
contraction of ‘worth-ship’ – in other words, giving something its worth, or
expressing the worth that we assign to a given thing, or person. So when some random oil paints, carefully
applied to some canvass, sell for millions of pounds, society is assigning a
worth to that painting. (It’s tragic,
isn’t it, that we assign much more worth to the scribblings of a dead artist
than we do to the life of living, but homeless person?) When a society revels
in celebrities, or expensive fashion, or the lastest car, it is giving
worth-ship to those things.
Ultimately, the thing we choose to make our personal
god, is the thing that we invest most of our spare time, resources and energy
into. Each of us must judge for
ourselves. But I guarantee that each of
us has, at some time in our lives, made something or someone else into a kind
of god. Something that commands all our
love, energy, devotion and spare time.
To any of us who have developed such a god (with a
small ‘g’), the Lord God Almighty, creator of the Universe, says to us,
“Oi! You there! Look over here!” The 10 Commandments invite us to put our
primary focus back towards the source of all things, towards the energy,
creativity, power and beauty that is actually at the root of everything which
we choose to make into a god. The facial
perfection of a film-star? It comes from
God, the ground of all beauty. The
wisdom of a great philosopher? It comes
from God, the ground of all wisdom. The
power of that twin-turbo super-charged car you love to polish? It comes from God, the ground of all power
and the author of physics. The mischievous
laugh of the grandchild or the pet you are obsessing over? It comes from God, the ground of all family
and love.
The 10 Commandments call us back to the source – and
to a right focus on God, who is the ground of all being. And then they encourage us to act in God-like
ways towards our neighbours.
The second group of Commandments are all about the
way we live together. Murder, adultery,
lying, stealing, and covetousness are all bundled together, along with the
command that we should respect and honour our parents – the older generation
who have much to teach the young. But murder, adultery, lying, stealing and
covetousness are so normal in our society, that we don’t even blink anymore
when we see them in our national life. No,
no-one cares anymore. We just accept our
leaders’ disregard of the 10 commandments without a second thought. We have lost the passion of the one we call
Lord who chased the thieving leaders of his day out of the Temple.
No, my friends, the hard and irresistible conclusion
has to be, as I said 10 minutes ago, today’s society couldn’t care less about
the 10 Commandments.
So?
What? What are we to do about
this? We have a choice. We have always had a choice. We have the same choice that inspired Moses
to bring these commands down from the mountain.
We have the same choice that Jesus gave to his followers. We can choose to roll over, let the lies, the
murder, theft, adultery and covetousness consume us, as it consumes our
neighbours. We can carry on shifting
our focus away from the source of all gods.
Or we can repent….turn around…and focus our lives, our attention, our
time and our devotion back to the centre.
To God, to author and perfecter of all things, and the ground of all
being. And that, my friends, is what
Lent is all about. Amen.
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