"Life" - Fourth Wednesday of Lent

In the book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy one of t recurring characters is Marvin. Marvin is a robot created in a time and place where robots were given human personality traits. While some were given the capacity to be annoyingly helpful and happy to the point of being manic, Marvin came at the end of the production line and received the only human trait left; one that no other robot would accept. Marvin received depression. What made his life even more depressing was that as a robot, a robot with the IQ of astronomical proportions, he was made to be in service to humans. In respect to his IQ, that of humans was so astronomically small that it would take centuries to write out all the zeros after the decimal point before coming to a whole number. One of his lines could tell the whole story, “Life. Don’t talk to me about life. Tonight we are, however, going to talk about “life” and its value that Marvin could never understand.

The two commandments that we have before us in Exodus 20:12-13 seem unrelated on the surface but both do relate to life. The 4th commandment, honor your Father and mother, brings us into the second set of commandments. You may recall that Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was. His answer was simply, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might. And the second is like it; love your neighbor as yourself. On this stand all the law and the prophets.”

Truly this answer does sum up the whole of the 10 Commandments. The first three inform our relationship with God. Now, starting with the commandments on parents and others in authority, as Luther adds, we move into our relationship to each other. We are not created to be lone wolves or hermits. We are created to be in community. Right from the git-go God created humans to be in community - Adam and Eve. Whichever creation story you read you see that human were rerated to be in community.

Yes, both of these commandments do concern life - our lives. Truly our lives do start with our parents. Conception aside, when it comes to our knowledge of life and what it means to live in community, we learn first from parents; they may be our natural parents or our foster or adoptive parents.

Whatever form these parents may take, they are as much a gift to us from God as we are to them. We often tell parents that their little bundle of joy is a gift from God, but how often do we remind ourselves that our parents are a God’s gift to us. In fact we often question God’s wisdom concerning our parents, especially when we are teenagers. Do you notice, though, that the older you get the wiser your parents get?

Whether we want to admit it or not, our parents are our source of life. For this reason God put this commandment first of those dealing with community. Without our parents we would not be in community. We and our parents are the first community that we encounter.

Also, as God’s gift to us, parents stand in God’s authority in our lives. It is for this reason that as Luther begins the Small Catechism se states that it is for the parents, the bishop and bishopess of the house, to teach their children.

The community that begins with the family begins to grow in ever increasing circles; as when you drop a pebble in the water. It expands throughout the world, family, friends and neighbors and on out into the world. These relationships as they grow give structure to life. Without structure the best we could hope for would be a little bit better than chaos.

In the “eyes” of the bible, human life is priceless. With that in mind we can see why, when Luther wrote the short answers to the 10 Commandments, each answer took into consideration the community. Everything that we do, every thought that we are to posses must take our neighbor into consideration. Not only are we not to endanger our neighbor’s life we are to do whatever we can to help enhance that person’s life.
Again, when we look at this as being community centered we must realize that we are also the neighbors who need protecting. We are responsible to and for each other.

As I read for this sermon, I found it interesting how many crimes against parents and against human life in general were punishable by death. God considered our parents and our very lives so valuable that the one who committed the crime had to be purged from society, even from actually living.

If you strike your parent out of anger or even hold them in contempt you could be executed. In every biblical law both Father and mother are expressly mentioned. A child who defies the parent’s discipline in pursuit of a self-indulgent life may be brought before the city elders. After being formally charged, the child is to be stoned by the people. (Deut 21:18ff) Even the authority of the supreme court of appeals was enforced by the death penalty for all who disobeyed its decisions.

The 5th commandment directly refers to the premeditated murder on one by another. Murder was presumed if a) the killer lays in wait for the victim b) there is enmity between the parties involved or c) murderous weapons were used. Death resulting from an act that was only intended to harm was also punishable by death. If the death was accidental, the death penalty was not used even though the perpetrator was still to be labeled a manslayer. Self-defense and slaying in battle did not entail blood guilt.

As we look at all of this and take into consideration how many crimes and thus sins were punishable by death, it is not too surprising that Jesus had to die on the cross. We profess that Jesus died for our sins. If sins are any act or thought that separates us from God and from each other, thus destroying community, then Jesus had to die in order for us to be forgiven of our sins. Sure, from God’s point of view, God could have snapped his fingers and started all over again from scratch; but God say, in reference to the flood, that human nature would prevail and evil actions and intent would win out.

For this, and for us, Christ came to give his life for our sakes. Without his life the best we could hope for would be a little better than chaos. Jesus did give his life for ours, and out of a sense of thanksgiving we strive to live in community with those around us.