30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Exodus 22:20-26

1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

Matthew 22:34-40

 

The Book of Exodus gives us a picture of the Israelites as a people of God. Exodus literally means “going out” and in this case it is the journey they under take to leave the slavery they were under in Egypt. They have been crying out to YAHWEH that they felt abandon by their God, that they were destined to live out their days as slaves under the Pharaohs. This exodus becomes the faith experience for them where they recall what the lord has done for them.

 

Not only does this experience start them on the way to being a people of God, but it is to become their faith journey that they recall even today. This verbal story that they tell over and over again is the reminder that they have a God who led them from slavery to the promised land. It is their rich faith experience they hand down generation by generation until it is finally put in written form.

 

Most scholars place the exodus in the 13^th century BC, more specifically around 1250 BC. While ancient Egyptian document do not specifically mention the Israelites, they do talk about a people who were trouble makers, a displaced people, disturbers of the peace and malcontents who harassed the Near East in the 2^nd and 3^rd millennia. There is recorded history of several entries and departures out of Egypt, but for the Israelites, however from a faith based perspective, the Israelites only refer to the exodus they experienced.

 

As we study scripture on a deeper level we learn that there were three basic theologians at work who interpreted the exodus from differing points of view. First there is the Yahwist who wrote in the 10^th century BC during the days of David-Solomonic kingdom. The second is the Elohist who wrote during the religious turmoil of the 8^th/9^th century BC. Lastly is the Priestly Writer who struggles to find hope amidst the Exile during the 6^th century BC.

 

While we struggle to understand and look for the answer to what really happened, things are not always black and white, we want a “this is how it happened.” This is not a book of history, but a book of a faith journey of a people who struggled to live and survive during trying times in their history. Each of these different writers add their own perspectives of the people and times they lived through. So again, if we ask which one is true, the answer is yes. They are all true and we must be open to understand the journey, the struggles and the times they lived in.

 

The scripture passages we read today are part of a larger section of the book, (Exodus 20:19 – 23:33) that spells out the covenant God made with the people, the way to properly worship and revere God. It also prescribes the civil and criminal laws, how to live in right relationships with those around them and their God. Today it specifically refers to the alien, the widow and the orphan and how they are to be treated, a familiar theme we experience and struggle with today for many people and political parties.

These are the exact kinds of experiences they lived through themselves and they are recalling how God treated them when they were aliens and orphans. With God modeling for them the proper treatment of people in these specific situations, they themselves take it upon themselves to remember how they were treated and how they are to treat others. God hears all who cry out to him in their struggles, even today.

 

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians picks up where we left off last week. Paul is telling the church that he is aware of how they have become imitators of him and his followers in spite of what they thought to be the end times. Their living example of following Jesus spread throughout the areas of Macedonia and Achaia. They were pagans who worshipped idols, but now they had turned away from idols and turned to God.

 

Paul and his companions, along with the Thessalonians, continue to spread the Good News of Jesus, who they try to model their life after. He tells them that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is the God who will deliver them from the wrath of evil and that those who are faithful to the end will be saved.

 

We jump several verses in Matthews Gospel this week, skipping yet another confrontation that Jesus has with the Sadducees who argue with him over the Resurrection.  As he silences them over the argument, the Pharisees again try to trap Him with yet another scholar of the law asking Jesus which commandment in the law is the greatest.

 

Jesus answers drawing on the Old Testament in two places. The first is from the Shema at Deuteronomy 6:5 where that they are to love God with one’s whole self, and he adds “with all your mind.” The Shema is so important in the faith of the Jews, that even today it is recited twice daily as a reminder to them that God loves them and delivered them out of Egypt and set them free.

 

The second piece of OT scripture he uses is from Leviticus 19:18 where God command the Israelites to love their neighbors as themselves. Jesus is showing the scholar and the people, that the love of God and the love of neighbor are intimately connected to one another.

 

Jesus is well aware of the 613 commandments of the law, but to understand all of them, you have to understand these first. They are the foundation, the building block of their faith and without them, the other commandments mean nothing. This living relationship He tells them to have with God is the same kind of relationship we are to have with Jesus today.