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Keeping the Commandments of the Lord

March 15, 2023

Deuteronomy 4:1–2,5–9  |  Psalm 78:1–6  |  Matthew 5:17–19

Moses said “You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.”

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”

As a baby boomer starting school right after Russia forged ahead of the US in the space race with Sputnik, I am a product of a generation that was charged with accepting nothing and to challenge everything. And we did, flexing our inquisitive and creative juices through the seventies and eighties. But what effect did all this creative thinking have on our religious beliefs? Our lives today are on sensory overload, with the computers, smart phones and televisions we invented, we are seldom alone, it seems.  One needs to turn them all off – put the distractions at bay from time to time, and think about the big picture.

One has to wonder – have we challenged and strayed away from the laws given to us by God through the prophets? Is all this busy life we have created taken us away from the Lord? There are some Sundays when I come away feeling more doubtful of our lifestyles than hopeful. (I pray St. Peter grades on a curve.)   

But there is one commandment that I have seen followed at St. Luke’s over and over, and it is the one that gives me the most hope. That you love one another as I have loved you. We follow this in our feeding ministry work. In the way we treat each other with respect. In the way we say, all are welcome at the Lord’s table.

Michael Sullivan