The First Commandment and Martin Luther's explanation of it from the Small Catechism:
You shall have no other gods.Click through for our devotional discussion.
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
These short sentences show Luther's gift for being blessedly, wonderfully annoying. We had this commandment down cold! We have no graven images. We don't pray to statues of part elephant-part lizard before we eat food. We don't sacrifice our family members to altars of flame as some folks did back in the Old Testament times. We go to church! We only call God, "God"! We have kept this commandment perfectly!
Until, that is, Luther comes along with his yakety-yak about fear and love and trust above all things. It's perfectly possible to break this commandment all to pieces while calling God our God, going to church every Sunday, and remaining completely statue-free. All we have to do is consider all the things that we depend on and trust in more--or at least in a more tangible way, evidenced by our priorities and actions--than we depend on and trust in God.
If somebody said to you, "I'm either going to take all the money in your bank/retirement accounts or I'm going to take your Bible/church/faith stuff" how long could you hold out? For a day you'd make it easily...as long as you knew they were putting the money back. How about a week? A month? What if it was forever? I suspect most all of us would elect to keep the money, probably muttering an excuse about being able to find the faith stuff in other ways anyway.
What do we really depend on to keep us happy and secure?
Jesus' first words to his disciples after returning from the dead--the words which announced the founding of a new age and a new Kingdom--were, "Peace be with you!" God gives us peace every day. We share it with each other in church. Every time scripture condemns us it also hastens to comfort and assure. God sent his Son to die for us so that we might know his overflowing, abundant love...that we might be connected to him forever. Eternal love and eternal joy are his gifts to us, our inheritance as his children. He gives us all this and yet how many of us walk around unhappy and unsettled, thinking that only having this situation resolved or that ill cured will truly bring us peace? How many of us hold grudges against family or community members because they did this or failed to do that? We'll only be happy when they do differently or when they admit it and apologize. How many of us otherwise smart, confident, together, grown-up people become a snarling 13-year-old the instant mom (or mom-in-law) says a certain trigger-laden phrase? How many of us dream about how much better life would be if we could just win the lottery or have the Publisher's Clearing House prize van come to our door?
What do we really depend on to keep us happy and secure?
We know that we should fear and respect the Lord the way we fear and respect a parent, doing what he asks out of reverence and awe. We know that we should love the Lord the way we love a parent, doing what he asks out of gratitude and appreciation. We know that all God asks is that we act kindly and with justice, feeding the hungry, clothing the cold, housing the homeless, embracing the lonely...loving all of his children just as he does. How many of us detour around those duties because they're not comfortable or convenient? How often have we tossed them--our responsibilities, our neighbors, and with them all of that fear, respect, and adoration we're supposed to bear towards God--because we had something better to do? How often have the costs been too high and the rewards too low? How often have we stomped away claiming it's our own life to do with as we wish? How often have we simply forgotten?
What do we really depend on to keep us happy and secure?
God gives us everything: life, breath, daily bread, purpose and meaning, continued existence now and even beyond the gates of death. He has put no conditions upon his love, electing to suffer with us, endure us, forgive us and embrace us again. How often have we lifted up one expression of his love above all others, above anything else in the world, above him even? "This is more important than anything else...anything I have, let alone anything that anyone else holds dear. This must not be touched. It must not be taken from me or changed in any way I do not approve of. This is mine...the source of all my joy and desire." How like us to take God's best blessings and use them against him in an effort to replace him!
What do we really depend on to keep us happy and secure?
Not only do we fail to keep the First Commandment, we are utterly, gleefully, and in most cases unabashedly First Commandment breakers! In ways big and small we place the things at the center of our existence, in a place only God rightfully occupies. I'm not sure we can help it. Like Peter trying to walk on the waves we feel the winds of the world pick up and we instinctively grab for something.
Our devotional practice this week is to ask God for help. Where we sink like Peter we also cry his, "Lord, save me!" Pray that God will help you trust. Admit out loud that there is so goodness apart from him...that all the good things in your life have him at the center. Ask him to help you see him in more people, times, and places so you will know how to serve and can be assured that he is there. Then take a hard look at the things in your life, particularly the ones you are fearful about and are hoarding. Ask God to help you find a way to give more of them, to depend on them less obsessively, to put them in their proper place. Have a frank conversation with a spouse or friend or pastor about them, admitting out loud that you know you depend on X too much and you want to be able to let go and hold onto faith, trusting instead of fearing. It's a scary step, but a huge one. Finally, and most importantly, pray that God will continue to forgive us for our lack of faith and love us anyway.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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