February 27, 2010
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
“Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments…” Deuteronomy 26: 17-18
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45
Piety
Psalm 119:1-8
Happy those whose way is blameless, who walk by the teaching of the LORD.
Happy those who observe God's decrees, who seek the LORD with all their heart.
They do no wrong; they walk in God's ways.
You have given them the command to keep your precepts with care.
May my ways be firm in the observance of your laws!
Then I will not be ashamed to ponder all your commands.
I will praise you with sincere heart as I study your just edicts.
I will keep your laws; do not leave me all alone.
Study
“Change.” It’s a subject about which we hear a lot of during the season of Lent. Today, we see an added dimension to change. Change is not just a one-way street. Moses drives home the point that our relationship with God really is about “exchange.” Jesus then adds an exclamation mark.
When we consider the concept of exchange, think in terms of giving and receiving at the same time. On holidays and special occasions, we use the term “exchange gifts” with those we love. When someone gives a gift, they also receive a gift. There is an interchange where both people meet and share.
Moses outlines the interchange between the people and their God. The people have a responsibility: “to observe [God’s] statutes and decrees…with all your heart and with all your soul.” When we walk in God’s ways, then the Lord will make you “a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised.”
The laws were well known and laid out pretty extensively in the books of the Hebrew Bible especially in Leviticus. The people and their religious leaders knew what was expected of them…until Jesus comes along and raises the bar.
The notes to the New American Bible on today’s Good News remind us of these rules. “There is no Old Testament commandment demanding hatred of one's enemy, but the ‘neighbor’ of the love commandment was understood as one's fellow countryman.” In the Hebrew Bible, hatred of evil persons is assumed to be right. However, while Jesus reinforces the exchange, he increases the standard of behavior to be considered God’s children. “Jesus extends the love commandment to the enemy and the persecutor. His disciples, as children of God, must imitate the example of their Father, who grants his gifts of sun and rain to both the good and the bad.”
Instead of just being good or being right, now Jesus says we must aspire to perfection. No where else but in Matthew’s gospel do we encounter the standard of perfection. Luke uses the term “mercy” in its place.
Action
Perfection is a tricky concept. As the Winter Olympics conclude this week in Vancouver, we have had numerous opportunities to see both perfection and imperfection on display. Pick up the newspaper and you can read about the latest scandals that bring out the imperfections in all of us.
We must surpass the old standards of behavior to attain this new relationship with the Father.
The challenge of Lent is to rely upon the benefits of our exchange with the Lord in order to rise above our personal imperfections whatever they may be.
