I Mean It!  

Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts         

Ex. 20:1-4,7-9, 12-20

Mt. 21:33-46

              Someone pointed out to me this week that as he drove by and saw my sermon title for today on the sign out front, he had to laugh ;  because if you combined it with the line just before it on the sign, it said:

                             " Worship 10 am

                             "I mean it!"

 As if to say, "Church is Sunday at 10 am, and I mean it--so you'd better be here!"

              That is a funny expression, though, isn't it? "I' mean it!"  Many of us have used it at one time or another, perhaps especially,  parents with our children or with other loved ones--if we've gotten exasperated when they don't seem to have paid to attention to what we've asked of them.     I thought of that expression when I saw that our Old Testament reading today was  the ten commandments.   For as you read down through those commandments --- things like thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, or covet, or commit adultery and so on--each  so  important as commandments --it's as if God specifically singled out those laws as if to say--with these rules,  " I mean it!"   For they are rules or laws , that if broken have serious consequences, not only for those we hurt, but for ourselves.   In fact that seems to happen a lot these days, for far too often we treat the commandments as if they were "guidelines" instead of commandments.   When did we start doing that? 

              So we're living in a time, where maybe an "I mean it! " message needs to be heard again with regard to the commandments, as well as with Jesus great commandment where he told us we ought to love God with all our heart and mind and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

              And yes, God means it!    For on this world communion Sunday we're reminded that this is, after God's world, the world God has made, and clearly God made it to work best when we follow those "I mean it" commandments that God passed on to us.

              Today, as we come to the communion table  with a vision in mind of a whole world full of Christians sharing the same loaf and the cup of communion together, all around the world-- we would do well, then,  to remember those commandments we have from God for our world--and to ponder, in what ways have we instead failed to remember that they were very much meant by God as rules to be followed--not taken casually--or seen with the attitude that  . . . " well, If I can get away with it, what's the harm?"

               But there is harm isn't there?!   Both the person who breaks the rules, and others in our world family are harmed when we break the rules .  As a world family we depend on others in our world following those moral ways, or many suffer the consequences. There's always harm, when we break the rules.

              I think all of us learned that, maybe the hard way, at some time, even as we were very young, and growing up under our parents care .   What were some of the rules in your household?  When is the first time you remember the trouble that was caused if you didn't follow one of those rules?

              Of course, not all rules are as important as the ten commandments or Jesus Great Commandment,  but they all do have consequences, if we break them.   For example, when you were little, did you have a rule in your household that you had eat everything on your plate before you could get down from the table?   We did in my house.

              When I was little, I hated salad. It's like chewing grass, I used to say.  Well one day, my mother and I were having this battle at lunch.  I couldn't get down from the table she said till I ate my salad. " Okay!" I finally said--because I had a brilliant idea--at least it seemed brilliant at the moment.   So the next time she turned her back I dumped the salad under my chair!  And after enough time had gone by, I finally, said,"Okay! All finished!"  Well, my mother was so proud of me!   She allowed me then to get down and to go take my after lunch nap.  (Naps were especially  a requirement in those days of polio epidemics and other scary things we didn't quite understand back then.)  Anyway, I went to my room, closed the door, and pretended to sleep.  Though, I must admit, I was a little worried what my mother might do.  Sure enough, about five minutes later, I heard my name.  My formal name, "Michael!", which she only used if she was mad. . . . I  was in trouble.

              Well, now of course that particular rule may not seem like it had great consequences if broken--but obviously it did for me that day.  What I didn't stop to think about  were the consequences to me and others.   When you don't eat things that are good for you--your health suffers, and when we waste food, it teaches us gradually, without our even realizing it, to be a wasteful, over-consuming people.  Think what that says to people half a world away who are lucky to have any food on any particular day.

              And if that little rule, at my family's table was thus important --not to mention because of what it taught me about rules-- think how much more important are the rules given us by God and God's son Jesus Christ.    After all, this is the world God made, so if we don't follow God's rules, guess what hap-pens not only to us, but our world.   All kinds of trouble ---isn't it so?  Just watch the news and you can see it every night.

              Jesus parable  helped us understand that.  When the landowner of the vineyard had not only his servants but his own son killed, because people forgot whose land it was, wasn't Jesus telling us, remember whose land your living on.  This world, all of it, and all of its people--like the servants in the parable--are God's people.  Yes, it's God's world.  If  this, then, is the world God has made, then aren't the rules God gave us to live by here all the more important.   If we don't follow them, then this world  God made doesn't work as God made it to. .

              With our economic crisis this last few weeks, we've seen clearly the results that occur when people don't follow the rules.   Like that do not covet rule -- that's greed, God  was warning us against-- yes, as we talked about the last couple of  weeks-- as our economic crisis in our world deepened--greed.   Like the mortgage crisis, for example.  Wasn't it caused both by  people who coveted much more of a house than they could afford as well as by lenders who coveted much more of a profit than they deserved and so failed to think of the consequences of over extending credit?    Yes, consequences--God's rules have, when we break them--consequences that effect the whole world!

              Nature teaches us that lesson.   Take for one example, the country of Australia.  When Peg and I visited there several years ago, we learned that the aboriginal peoples who live there, used to exist in great harmony with the natural world,  in that beautiful, but very different continent than ours.   But unfortunately, when the white man came to Australia, they  didn't think about how their presence would affect the native inhabitants of that land--or the land itself.   They brought with them things like small pox, which greatly decimated much of the native population there-- a people who had even less resistance to that dread disease than we do.  Then for those who were left, the alcohol, which the white man also introduced there,  was much more poorly tolerated by the genetic make up of the aborigines--who it turned out were far more susceptible than the white man, to alcoholism, and many lives were ruined as a result.  In addition, as the white population, and other immigrants came to that land, more and more of the valuable rain forest there in northern Australia, was lost each year, and of course I hope we all know, how much we depend on the world's rain forests to produce the very oxygen  we all need  just to breath.

              Yes, so we see now why the rules God has given us to live by,  are indeed "I mean it!" rules.  For what we do, in this interrelated world God has made, effects not only us but the whole world.

               On this day as we share the communion cup and the loaf--with one worldwide Christian family, let us  renew our determination to be mindful of our world family far more often.  It ought to be obvious that we effect each other around the globe by what we do--so the rules our Maker has given us are indeed vital.   God says thou shalt not have other Gods,  or take God's name in vain,  be idolatrous, treat the Sabbath casually, nor disrespect parents, and that we shall not  murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness against our neighbor, or covet what others have. God tells us plainly, love God, and our neighbors--yes around the world--as we do ourselves.   We've heard the com-mandments, and clearly, we learn everyday in all kinds of ways-- God means it! -- or else, we only bring trouble for our world.   Or hadn't you noticed our trou-bled world lately.   Clearly God is telling us something--saying to us--"I mean it!   So we need to mean it,  too--by the way we live, and what we do--following God's commandments, for the world's sake, the world God has made for us!   Amen.