Come to jesus moment how to#

Not murdering, not only not taking human life, but an invitation to preserve life… to protect life and sustain it… Not stealing, not simply not taking from others, but an invitation to give to those in need. Not bearing false witness isn’t simply biting our tongues when we feel the desire to speak untruthfully about someone or spread rumors, but also an invitation to speak well of that person we’re tempted to insult. Honor your father and mother check… for the most part…īut here’s the thing while these commands may seem to be directed to each of us as individuals – a checklist to get quote “ get us right with God” – it’s not quite that simple… Truthfully, they’re not really about us as individuals… at least about our individual well-being… to make us feel better about ourselves in regards to what we have done and what we have failed to do… They’re about relationship… about the well-being of community… To build community… and to… to protect community from behaviors that could destroy it… Don’t covet your neighbor’s anything check… ok, maybe I’ve failed at that one… Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy, aka set the seventh day aside for God and worship check… well, at least once a month…. Don’t murder nope, haven’t killed anyone. Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain check (except for that one time). “I might have done this… but at least I didn’t do that…” We’ve all done this at one point or another, right? Maybe, most especially in those moments when comparing our personal sins to those of our neighbor. As Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann once put it “ It is important to ‘get it right’ about Yahweh, in order to ‘get it right’ about neighbor”.Īs it is with the things of faith, it’s easy to turn the laws of Moses into some sort of personal checklist. The relationships we have with each other must, first and foremost, be grounded in the relationship we have with God. And the rabbis will remind us, that there is intent behind the order. While the numbering of the commandments differs depending upon who you ask, if you break them down, the first group deal with our relationship with God, and the remainder – our relationships with our neighbor… First God.

While the Ten Commandments have been sort of adopted into the Christian faith, we Christians aren’t always so good at keeping them…Īs we find ourselves at the halfway point of our Lenten journey, our assigned Old Testament reading for the week draws our attention to the Ten Commandments, where the 613 commandments of the Torah are condensed to a number we can count with our fingers or toes. Joking aside, as it is with the best of jokes, there’s some truth to this one. Just wait till we invite the Bishop to preach! Nothing? Oh, come on! That’s funny! Just when you thought dad jokes were bad, in walks the pastor. We did take the Ten Commandments from you… but you can’t say that we’ve kept them!” So, the pastor pauses for a moment, shakes his head, sort of looks around as if he’s hoping to find a response to the Rabbi’s remark written somewhere on the wall, when finally, he replies, “Ok, you’ve got us there. Everyone knows that God gave the law to the Jewish faithful.” Finally, in a bit of frustration, the Rabbi looks to the Pastor and says, “You know, you Christians have been taking things from us for thousands of years The Ten Commandments, for instance. The two go back and forth, discussing just about everything there is to discuss in when it comes to the things of faith. About what God expects from God’s people – how the faithful are called to live out their faith and practice it… what is right and what is wrong… About the character of God – who God is, and how God interacts with what has been created.

Come to jesus moment how to#

So, a Rabbi and a Pastor were arguing about the ways of religion About how to worship – what is appropriate and what is not.