Third Sunday in Lent 2024

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Paul wrote his essay in the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12

¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

In this passage, Paul recognizes that we are all interconnected and interdependent.

I spent the last week in the second part of a course on family systems theory for church leaders.

Within family systems theory, we explore our connections and our interdependence. We look for patterns of unhelpful and sometimes destructive behavior which repeats through our families and reflect on how we are continuing them, both at home and in the church.

In the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus this morning, I think that God is trying to guide us to be mindful of how we perpetuate certain behaviors from one generation to the next.

⁵You shall not bow down to [false gods] or worship [idols]; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

This same warning is repeated in Exodus 34:6-7

 And [God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

And it is repeated in Deuteronomy 5, almost word for word as in Exodus 20.

Is God promising to punish us?

Or is God saying that when we lose our way and chase after the wrong things in life, we and our children will be negatively affected?

(pause)

By the time of the Babylonian exile, nearly 600 years before Jesus, the Jewish people have a proverb: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

This proverb is how they have incorporated the warnings in Exodus and Deuteronomy into the culture.

“The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,”

If you sin, your children will pay the price.

The ancient Jewish people, hearing the warnings in Exodus, and Deuteronomy began to believe that they were the victims of an unfair God, punishing them for their parents’ sins.

The promised land was lost, their beloved city and temple destroyed in Jerusalem and God’s chosen scattered to the wind, many held in captivity in Babylon.

Certainly, these words in Exodus and Deuteronomy meant that their misfortune was not their fault but the fault of their ancestors.

How do we know that this is how the ancients thought?

Ezekiel.

(pause)

While in Exile, God sent word through Ezekiel for the Jewish people to stop blaming their parents for their misfortune.

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-27

The word of the Lord came to me: ²What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”? ³As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. ⁴Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die. 

Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? ²⁶ When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed, they shall die. ²⁷ Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.

Don’t be victims.

Change what you can change.

Repent.

Own your own stuff.

(pause)

We tend to think we are so much smarter, better than the people of ancient times. Certainly, we have amazing technology, and advanced ways to communicate. But who we are as human beings has not changed one iota since the beginning of time.  This is why the scriptures continue to speak to us.

What is the way God is trying to show us?

The warning in our first reading comes as a part of the First Commandment:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³ you shall have no other gods before me.

According to Luther we obey the First Commandment when we fear, love and trust God above all things.

Worship the Lord God alone, and let God figure out the rest because when we do not fear, love and trust God above all things, we lose our way.

(pause)

Ezekiel’s words to the Jewish people during the horror and tragedy of the Babylonian Exile are true for us today.

Instead of looking to lay blame for our problems in those who came before us, or in the generations that are following us, we need to ask where is our blame? Where have we fallen short? What do we need to own?

(pause)

And that brings us to confession.

Each week, we confess that we are sinners in need of God’s redemption.

We do not fear love and trust God above all things,

We do not love others as God first loved us.

We hold grudges and act out in anger.

We fail “ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15)

And when we turn our hearts to God,

when we own our own sinfulness,

God, who is slow to anger, rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love will forgive our sins.

God’s promise that nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus frees us.

It frees us to grow in new ways without the fear of failure.

May the grace of God set you free from the past, and guide you fearlessly into the future. Amen.