Exodus 20:1-17

I can remember when I had to memorize the Ten Commandments as a fourth grader in Sunday School. We had to be able to say these ten laws in order even though we didn’t really know what they meant. No one would explain to us what “Thou shalt not commit adultery” meant. Did it mean that we were supposed always remain children and not become adults? If so, then our parents, teachers, and other adults were in big trouble. Did it have something to do with sex? But what was sex?
When I got to be an adult and knew what adultery meant, there was that adult Sunday School class that decided to study the Ten Commandments and vote on which ones were still relevant and should still be kept. They were still mainly a list of things I wasn’t supposed to do with little other meaning.
Then I decided to preach a series of sermons on them. As I began to study them and their meaning for the ancient Hebrews, I realized that they were a set of living commandments that still spoke to us about God’s faithfulness to us and what it means to be in covenant with God. God’s grace had already been offered to the Hebrews and these commandments set the stage for how the Hebrews were to live in relationship with God.
Today the Ten Commandments are a hot topic. Should they be posted in our courthouses? They are the basis of our law codes. We are a Christian nation. The debate goes on.
But for now we are in the middle of Lent and reflecting on God’s covenants with humanity. How do they speak to us in that context? Are they to plunge us deeper into our remorse and repentance or are they to lift us up to see that God’s promises are true and that God is faithful? What is their story for us today?

Mark 1:21-28; Deut. 18:15-20

Eleven years of my ministry were spent serving a church that is about 1 ½ miles from Western State Hospital, the psychiatric hospital for the Puget Sound region. It was not uncommon to have patients from the hospital join us for worship or wander into the church during the week just to visit with someone or play the piano. Sometimes someone would talk at an inappropriate point in worship. At times the congregation would take under its wing someone who had become consistent in attending worship. The presence in church of persons with mental illness was just a fact of life. I can imagine though that some churches are not as comfortable as that church was with ministering to those with mental illness.
Also I just watched a movie entitled “Lars and the Real Girl” which is a beautiful movie about a man struggling with mental illness. Lars has such serious social anxiety problems that it causes him physical pain to be touched by another person. The movie is about the way that his church and his community surround him with love and support as he struggles.
Here in the scripture readings for this week we encounter two images: God calls out prophets in our midst and that the greatest of those prophets is also a man who reaches out to heal.
So I read these passages and wonder what does this passage have to say to our world concerning who Jesus was and who we are as the body of Christ? What does it say to us about God’s radical hospitality that reaches out to this one who is untouchable? What does it say to us about holistic healing of body, soul and relationships? What happens today if we accept this invitation to be God’s partners in practicing prophetic healing of persons and/or institutions?

1 Samuel 3:1-20

The call of Samuel begins with the words “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” As God calls Samuel, the divine word is “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears it to tingle.” When was the last time you felt a “tingle” in your spiritual life? When was the last time you experienced hope to such a degree that you tingled all over? When was the last time you felt forgiveness touch the very core of your being? We spend so much trying to disconnect from the pain and suffering of our world that we also find ourselves disconnected from the hope and joy as well.
Maybe we can’t feel that way because we are moving through life too fast. Are we numb to world? Are we afraid to truly experience life for fear of getting hurt or lost? Are we afraid to listen for the word of God because we are comfortable and think God will ask us to do something we don’t want to do? Maybe we feel the tingle of fear more than the tingle of hope.
Or is there more to our inability to hear the voice of God? Have we turned our backs on God’s way? Have we chosen to move through life making choices that are contrary to God’s way and God’s promises? Have we left God’s way of peace, justice, and mercy for the ways of the world – violence, war, selfishness?
God is still there with a word for us. God is still doing a great thing for the world. Do you hear God's voice?