Find the love

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

          God was not pleased with most of them. The truth of the matter is, the signs were all there, the information was all there. If you paid attention, you got the message and God was pleased. If you read Hebrew scripture, it really tells you all you need to know. In theory, Christ did not have to become human and die for us. 

          When you read Hebrew scripture you can get a bit scared. Peoples mowing down peoples, the stories about Lot,  concubines,  brothers killing each other and much much more. What is the message of love that I profess is actually there? What makes this sacred? Is the inspired word of God all about these trials and tribulations? In a way it is. Because although I don't think the message of scripture is that we should embrace "mowing down" peoples or having concubines or incest or stoning people, there are some perfect messages in there. These are stories of people trying to integrate God into their troubled daily lives. These are stories of God trying to embrace people who are struggling. Make no mistake, if you read scripture, these people were struggling and tormented.  And yet, these are stories of people that have a message from God. These are stories of a people who loved God and wanted to have a deep abiding relationship with Him even in their imperfect and troubled lives.

           For those who were able to see and live the message, they were the chosen people, the ones God was pleased with.  To those that took away the opposing message, the ones that embraced simply laws, God was not pleased with them. God is not pleased with concubines, killing, mowing people down and rote obedience to laws.

           Lets look at the Jews wandering in the desert. What message is there? So many messages from God. How often do we wander aimlessly? For some it is not just 40 years, it is their entire lives. But lets think about life in a desert. Whoever said ' the desert is an ocean with it's life underground' had great wisdom. Even in the desert there is life. Plants and animals all survive in the desert though it is not perhaps that obvious or easy. Can we find the life in our lives when we are seemingly in a desert?  Could this be the message about these scripture passages about the Jews in the desert? Even in the desert, God is with us? And what of manna? Did not God feed them? Will not God feed us while we are in our own deserts in life? 

        God is pleased with us when we read scripture and see the 'hidden' messages of love. It is not about the killing, the slavery, the 'rules'. It is about love. But for the most part, people did not get that message. The hierarchy of Judaism embraced rules, laws and saw that as a way to salvation. I believe that makes God sad because rules without love do not work. That is why when the man came to Jesus and said he obeyed all the commandments, what else did he have to do to attain salvation? Jesus said, give everything away to the poor. The man was crushed. Why? because the man was rich? Perhaps. But because the man knew that it was not the obeying of the laws that would save him. It is the love behind the laws.

         Perhaps this is the human condition. Our propensity to be legalistic.  And so Jesus did become a man and did show us what love is all about. It is not about rules and exclusion. Love is all about the love behind the laws and all about inclusion. That is Jesus' life. The exclamation point, the icing on the cake is His willingness to die on a cross for each and every one of us. Is it an endorsement of capital punishment or the right of the Romans to do it to maintain order? If that's the message you take away, then I am absolutely sure God is not pleased. That is not why Jesus accepted and embraced his death.  It was not so that a new church could create even more laws, more rules and rubrics either. It was and is all about love. 

          This is our last chance folks. Find the love. Don't forsake the rules but find the love. 

                

           

                         

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.