Exodus 20:1-17

So, what do you get for wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years? You get to talk to God. You get laws. Finally, the people finally know that they shouldn't murder each other. It's tempting to continue on with sarcasm about this short list of the 600 plus rules that appear in the Torah, but that's not what this sermon helper is about. George Carlin did a pretty job of it if you are interested in my comments on that.

The currently popular thinking on this passage is that Christianity provides us with the concept that there is order to the universe, that there are laws to be discovered. We just need to do the work to find them. This gets mapped on to the scientific method, where mathematical laws of physics have been discovered to help us understand our world. Also, onto government and the idea that there needs to be order and we need to agree on what is right and what is good for us. There are two major problems with this. One, many non-Christian cultures have had the same ideas. I would go so far as to say for a society to survive at all they need to have these concepts. Two, you might be able to see parallels in the broad concepts, but you'd have a lot of trouble getting the specifics of the US Constitution from the Bible or getting any science at all from it. At best, you can find a minority of religious leaders promoting science before secular institutions began getting out from under the control of the Pope.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

I pretty well covered this last year.

John 2:13-22

This can be a troublesome passage. Those who are anti-Christian will point out that Jesus is being very un-Jesusy here. I don't worry about a consistent character like a "perfect man" or "one who is without sin" so it's not a problem for me. And the verses tell you he is speaking metaphorically when he says "Destroy this temple…". The gospels are much more consistent about Jesus challenging the Temple cult than they are about how Jesus acted. Here he is challenging well known Old Testament violations.

A possible justification for his outburst comes from Psalm 69, where David is crying out about his enemies and problems. He is filled with his love for God and that gives him the strength to take on these problems. It's a pretty weak defense really. It's saying you can justify violence because you have strong feelings. But that's only what the disciples recall while watching this scene.

When asked to justify himself, Jesus alludes to his coming sacrifice. John is nice enough to explain the metaphor. He tells you that Jesus is talking about his body, which in turn is a metaphor for the community. Jesus can't be too specific because he is in public. See last week's Mark Lection for why that is. But John, in just the second chapter, tells you how this story is going to end.