Let’s review the commandments together. I want you to mentally keep track. Which of the 10 commandments have you broken in the last 2 days?
1. Love only God
2. Don’t use God’s when swearing
3. Keep the Sabbath
4. Labor for 6 days only
5. Honor your mother and father
6. Don’t Murder
7. Don’t commit Adultery
8. Don’t Steal
9. Don’t Lie
10. Don’t covet the things anyone else has
How did you do? I imagine pretty well. Perhaps if you went through the list for your entire life, you may remember running over an animal with your car, lying to your parents so you wouldn’t get in trouble, and not honoring them, perhaps you stole something when you were young, skipped church while doing something very fun and completely forgot about God, and you may really wish you had a car like your neighbor or friend has. And maybe this morning, as you realized you had to hurry or you might not make it in time for church, you swore and used God’s name in vain.
Yes we are human, and we all make mistakes.
These are the commandments that were given to Moses by God, so that God’s people would know what the rules are. So they would know how to act to please God. This was a new relationship, and the ground rules needed to be established, so everyone could move forward in this relationship.
The rules did not stop there. There are 54 more, about how to worship and how to live a daily life in reverence to God. The last commandment is:
“Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Very good advice, don’t you think?
Many of these commandments have no bearing on our life today. Today, most of the first 10 are either laws of the land, or good advice. Some we heed, others are not taboo for daily living, like swearing. Times changed.
Then Jesus came to shake things up. Matthew 22:34-40 says:
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love. That is all God wants. That is all God requires. It is God’s will that we love, and if we match our will to God’s will, we are then in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, in this earthly life.
So how are you doing with these two commandments? Search your heart – do you love God with all your heart, above all people, places or things? Search your soul – do you love God with your entire eternal soul? Search your mind – Do you love God more than anything?
I imagine you are here listening to these words because you do. The kicker is the next part: do you love your neighbor and yourself? You might start with, oh sure, I do. No problem. Until you remember the ex-friend who hurt you so much you can never forgive them. Or a family member who strayed and was never let back in the fold. Or the neighbor who has a sign on their lawn that spews hatred. Or the group who bands together because they hate another group of people. It is so easy to hate them. Or at least, if you are not a hateful person, to be angry at them. They trigger you. They hurt you just by their darkness.
I have a few suggestions that God gave me, so that I could find forgiveness. See, I was so hurt by others that I caused stress and sickness in me. So I realized that by holding grudges, I was only hurting myself. The other people had no idea, and were off living their lives. I took the following sentence and used it to help me on this journey:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
So let’s practice that now. Start by taking a deep breath in, and blowing it out. Take in a second breath, breathing in the love of God, into your heart, and exhaling anger, hate or other emotions. Finally, breathe in the peace and forgiveness of God, into your heart, holding it there until you release it, saying, forgive them, God, for they don’t know what they are doing.
We are here as agents, as angels, of God. We are the hands and feet of God. Every act of kindness and compassion is God acting through us. And every act of forgiveness is God’s heart working through us. It’s not easy. Think about it, though, what higher purpose could there be for our lives, other than to act on God’s behalf?
So, at this point, we know we love God. We know we can practice forgiveness as a way to love our neighbor. The last part of this is the hardest. We must love ourselves. We must forgive ourselves. God commands it, Jesus said it is as important as the rest.
Can you do it? It feels so much easier to love others, doesn’t it? It feels easier to forgive others when we realize they are ignorant, or they are not made to be loving. But, to love ourselves knowing our mistakes? To forgive ourselves for those mistakes?
Each Sunday we say a confession. Sometimes we may identify with it, sometimes not. We know we are not perfect. We know we have made mistakes, and that sometimes we act with unkindness on purpose. We ask God during confession to forgive us. By saying it out loud, it is heard, and we can believe that it is done. God forgives everyone who asks with contrition in their heart.
Ok, so God forgives us. Can we forgive ourselves? I have asked this of others, and they get to this point, and they say no. I could never forgive myself, they say. And so at this point, I say to you – why are you so strong-willed about this that you know God forgives you, and you cannot allow that for yourself. You are not greater than God (obviously). Let God do the work. Let God love you, and allow you to love yourself.
Let us pray:
Dear all loving God, you love us. We take this moment of silence to confess what we cannot forgive ourselves for. Please forgive us. Please comfort us with your love. Please hold us in your loving embrace. Now, please show us how to love ourselves as you love us. Please show us how to forgive ourselves as you forgive us.
Thank you God for your mercy. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Now, as we go into silence, take in deep loving breaths, letting go of any hesitation. Of any blockage. Of any walls to God’s love and mercy. You are a child of God, who God loves so much. God is in you and always has been. Let that love grow from within your heart, expanding to your entire body. God loves you, and now lets you know that you can love yourself too. Let it be so.
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