Sunday Homily 3-11-12, 3rd Lent
Readings: Exodus 20, 1-17, God delivered all these commandments; Psalm 19, Lord, You have the words of everlasting life; 1 Corinthians 1, 22-25, The weakness of God is stronger than human strength; John 2, 13-25, He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple.
Exodus: 2nd book of the Bible & of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.
Date of Composition: put together ca 450-400 BCE, though elements come from 1000 BCE at least.
Author(s): Moses, no. At least 3 sources, maybe 4, e.g., the Yahweh (J) source, the Elohim (E) source, the Priestly (P) source, and even the Deuteronomy Source.
Subject: The 10 Commandments–observations:
Our Subject today: 10 Commandments–Observations
- Academics see 3 maybe 4 versions of the 10 commandments, Exodus 34 (the oldest), Exodus 20 (our selection), Deuteronomy 5 (the last)
- The versions come from the sources composing at different times, for example these 4
- The Yahweh Source, 10th Century BCE, therefore, Exodus 34
- The Elohim Source, 9th Century BCE, therefore Exodus 20
- The Deuteronomy Source, 7th Century BCE, therefore Deuteronomy 5
- The Priestly Source, edited all the sources in 6th Century BCE (450-400 BCE, at the end of the Babylonian Captivity). The 7 Day Creation Story comes from this source at this time.
Source: Bishop (Episcopal) John Shelby Spong (Excellent Biblical Scholar)
How to keep the Inner Peace
Some months ago Rosemary & I were flying back to Dallas from Toronto on the first Friday morning in October. Canadians that morning were beginning the long weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving. Everyone was taking off.
Rosemary & I had gone to celebrate the event with Kay Reddick & her family the week just before Canadian Thanksgiving.
Our plane was scheduled for sometime around 9:00, so we arrived very early, like 6:30. We walked into the huge single room terminal and noticed a long line. No problem, we had everything prepared. We checked in and asked where we entered security, a one stop area like in Atlanta, everyone going through the same big security post. The girl said the line was for security.
Wow! Gulp! This line must have been more than 100 yards long, running from one end of the terminal to the other with numerous double backs.
Initially I thought the line was just volume. Nope. Turns out security is staging a labor slow down. We are in that line over 5 hours, folks. Naturally, we missed our plane. Everyone missed their plane. In fact, I thought we might not even get out that day. Clearing security was only half the problem. Once inside everyone was mobbing the service desks to change their ticketing.
One thing about the day that really struck me positively was that I never saw anyone lose it or have a hissy fit. On the contrary, people were friendly, joking, lying on the floor while waiting. There were Canadians in that line near us who were missing their flights to Hawaii. We talked to them in the waiting line and we talked to them inside where they had booked a flight to San Francisco that afternoon.
If I had been in Lagos, Nigeria, I would expect that I would have witnessed a riot. Not in Toronto that morning. I’ve seen check-in riots for a lot less.
I mention this event because it comes to mind when I see the story of Jesus getting all steamed up at the vendors in the temple. I have to laugh. Lucky he never flew. Our experience and his probably had some common elements, like chaos and crowds.
What is he so hyped up about? Was he having a bad mood day? Can he have bad moods? If you look at these scenes with detachment, you might want to laugh.
On the other hand, Jesus might have had some significant reasons, like:
1. he was angry because the vendors were supposed to remain in the outer courtyard and they were inching into the inner sanctum, the holy place. The law.
2. he was angry because he was watching the vendors cheat. Injustice. Maybe his mom had been cheated by one of these guys some years ago and he still was angry about that.
3. he was angry because he saw the obsession of some of these people with money. He was seeing the Bernie Madoffs, the Stanfords, and the Ken Lays of his day.
But, note that
- it was customary for animals to be sold at the temple. These animals were destined to be bought by people, taken to the priestly cast inside the temple, and given as a sacrifice. These people were heavy into sacrifice. The idea: I sacrifice something to God, I get something from God. Maybe it was gratitude for already getting something.
2. it was customary that the temple was a center for all sorts of trade. People went there for sacrifice, giving thanks, and socializing. The market naturally set up near, in, and around the temple. The markets I saw in Tanzania when I lived there were probably similar and were fascinating events.
So why was Jesus so angry? Maybe he was caught off guard. He expected better. That was what amazed me about the Toronto airport. Everyone was caught off guard. Everyone expected better. Yet, no one got so mad they lost it.
There is a little trick that helps with this craziness. I would call it expectation adjustment. The idea comes not from my head, but from a man named Albert Ellis (American Psychologist, developed RET, Rational-Emotive Therapy, d. 2007, 93).
The idea is that I have an expectation about how a person should behave & how things should be. If the expectation is frustrated, then I can go off. What do you think is the dynamic behind road rage?
Want to fix it? Adjust my expectation, change it. Or look at it positively. It is another way of accepting. A trucker is in left lane. So what. Someone is in such a rush they are right on my rear bumper. I have to wait so long in security that I miss my plane. Expectations? Yes. Hey, it could be worse. Rosemary & I made it out, after all. Jesus seems to have done some expectation adjustment, because in his condemnation by the Pharisees at the end of his life he does not fight back. The result: my inner peace.
How do I react when I see someone going through the express check out with 18 items? Or leaving the shopping cart in a parking place? How do I react to road craziness?
How do you respond to frustrated expectations?
Sources: Center for Liturgy, St. Louis U.; Alfred Ellis