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| In
the Fight - Post the Ten Commandments, or ... ? |
By Matt Friedeman
November 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - Richard Mouw recently made the suggestion (actually
lifted from Kurt Vonnegut of all people) that the Supreme Court
might want to give it up on the Ten Commandments and think instead
of posting The Beatitudes in public places.
Provocative thought, of course. There is, it could be argued,
nothing superior about the Ten Big Ones that trumps the teaching
of holy character by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. The poor
in spirit, the mourning ones, the meek, the pursuers of righteousness,
the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those joyful
in hurt. Quite a list, that. Even so -- let me offer yet another
alternative.
A few moments before writing this column I was standing outside
an abortion clinic offering to pray for women heading in to
destroy their children in the womb. While many think that pro-life
sidewalk counselors traumatize women in crisis, we actually
offer them hope, prayer, doctors, a place to stay -- anything
-- but mostly a chance to really think about what they are doing.
One of the ladies of my church said to me during a break in
the action that "that was the second lady who said to me
today that 'I love God too' while she continued to walk into
the clinic."
I said, "Well, maybe you should tell the next churched
lady that Jesus also said that she should love her neighbor,
and there is nobody more her neighbor right now than that precious
child in her womb."
And so, having read Mouw and with this experience fresh on my
mind, the proposal is this. Let's forget about posting anything
anywhere for the moment and ask all Christians everywhere to
memorize Jesus' reply to that lawyer (found in Matthew 22:35-40)
for, Jesus said, "all the law and the prophets hang on
these two commandments." Talk about the "essential
Jesus!"
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the
first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love
your neighbor as yourself.'"
In other words, if you are stuck on "posting," post
these teachings on your brain, stat. Let Christians catechize
themselves, their families and their churches in Jesus' summation
of the law and the prophets and then review and practice, practice
and review.
It should be noted that Jesus' articulation of these "great
commandments" was the essence of holiness in the Rev. John
Wesley's thinking, and another Anglican of England named C.S.
Lewis taught that "when one meets the real thing [holiness]
... it is irresistible. If even ten percent of the world's population
had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before
a year's end?"
Posting these commandments or those beatitudes on a wall or
a monument in public buildings might just be the solution to
what ails our country. But our Lord had them memorized and put
them in practice.
And then He said nothing about mounting them on a wall. He said
"Follow me."
Matt Friedeman (mfriedeman@wbs.edu) is a professor
at Wesley Biblical Seminary. Respond to this column at his blog
at "EvangelismToday.blogspot.com."
© 2005 AgapePress all rights reserved |
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