Sunday Sermon:
2020 12 06 Alan Storey:
One More Powerful Than Me
Scriptures:
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Mark 1:1-8
Cape Town, South Africa
Sunday Sermon:
2020 12 06 Alan Storey:
One More Powerful Than Me
Scriptures:
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Mark 1:1-8
Friends,
I invite you to read and reflect on Exodus 20:1-17.
Before you read the reflection below, I encourage you to do your own wrestling with the text.
Paradoxically this is sometimes more difficult to do with those passages of scripture that are best known to us. In this instance, the 10 Commandments.
If we wrestle faithfully we must not be surprised if we are wounded by the text and left with a Divinely defined limp as it was with Jacob of old. The hope is that we too will be able to re-see our enemy-Esau as family.
Remember the context is a people freshly freed from slavery. And context gives meaning.
Grace, Alan
Reflection: Exodus 20: 1-17
Think slavery: The cruel continuous brutality. The shackles and sjamboks. The beatings and killings. The constant hunger and everlasting exhaustion. The trauma of daily terror. Everything that is done is done to break your spirit and to erase your human dignity. Every effort is made to whip the dream of freedom out of you. Any attitude other than submission is smacked down to teach you a lesson, to set an example and to send a message: “I own you”. “Don’t ever think of rebellion.”
Think escape: The calculations. The planning. The praying. The risk. The courage. The tenacity. The stealth. The strength. The water rationing. The breath-holding. The knowing that death is certain if captured, and the knowing that to accept slavery is to die. Freedom or death!
Think freedom: The amazement. The wonder. The miracle. As miraculous as an ocean splitting in two forming a path of dry ground to walk through. The tears of joy. The speechless gratitude. The musical celebration. The deep breath of relief. The rest. The resolve: “Never, never and never again shall it be that we will be anyone’s slave”.
It is through this lens of slavery, escape and freedom that I invite you to reflect on the Ten Commandments, for it is within this context that they were originally carved. In other words their aim is specific rather than general.
Just as the South African Constitution of 1996 was written with the specific aim to prevent a return to Apartheid and discrimination of any kind, so the Ten Commandments were written with the specific aim to prevent a return to slavery and oppression of any kind. A freedom charter to be gratefully celebrated rather than a moralistic code to be fearfully obeyed.
I will now share a few thoughts on the first five Commandments using the lens of slavery, escape and freedom for you to consider:
The preamble [Exodus 20:2] is wondrously simple and profound, not unlike the incredible preamble to the South African Constitution that is a poetical summary of the Constitution’s purpose. In the case of the Ten Commandments it is all about freedom and the protection of human dignity – the exact opposite of dehumanising slavery. God listens to the cries of the oppressed [Exodus 3:7] and works liberation with them to end their oppression.
I invite you to continue through commandments 6-10 employing the same lens of slavery, escape and freedom.
This week and next week’s lectionary reflections will form the content of our CMM Chat.
Our next CMM Chat will be on 7th October at 20h00.
Please email welcome@cmm.org.za closer to the time for the link.
Grace,
Alan
Where do we find answers on spirituality? On God? On how to live our lives? And should our traditional source of inspiration, as well as our longheld traditions be the only source?
What says Jesus on this question?
We struggle to change because we cannot change without actually changing. How then do we cope with changing, especially when we know we need to? The vid expresses a thought or two on how to go about tackling the problem.
We continue our series on Choosing Life. This time around, we ask the important question: What is life? Moreover, does it go beyond just having a pulse?
This is the second of a four part look into the concept of Choosing Life. It is well advised you watch last week’s video before this one.
We use a method of textual analysis to see what different pieces of scripture mean by looking at them through different guises. Last week we ask the question: ‘What does the text say about human beings’? This week we ask the question ‘what do we learn about God from reading the text’?