My Blog

Tag: Commandments

  • The Greatest Benchmark

    Benchmark-FAQNot far from wherever you are is a benchmark. You may have never seen it. If you have seen it, you may have paid it little attention. It is a round metal plate, about four inches in diameter, embedded in concrete or rock or in the ground so that it cannot move even a fraction of an inch. Benchmarks are essential to civil engineers as reliable reference points for their surveying instruments. They can go back to the benchmarks again and again to check all their work.

    I find it helpful to think of the commandments, ordinances, and precepts of Scripture as the benchmarks of our faith, rather than merely orders from on high. Our Creator has provided them to help us align our lives with God’s divine intentions for our own well being and to help us live abundantly. To ignore them or forget them is to construct an inadequate or incomplete life, just as an engineer or contractor builds poorly when neglecting the benchmark. We can return to the divine benchmarks again and again to check the alignment of our lives.

    A Pharisee asked Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

    Jesus, is the embodiment of the Great Commandment. Jesus was Love Incarnate, Love-in-the-Flesh. To look at Jesus is to look at the fullest expression of Love Divine. To look like Jesus is to live life to the fullest, as God desires. To trust Jesus is to persistently turn to him and align one’s life to him. All of the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in him. A favorite saying of our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, is “If it’s not about love, it’s not about Jesus.”

    Turning to Jesus Christ week by week for Word and Sacrament is our communal act of aligning our lives with his life, the benchmark of the Way of Love. It is difficult in this age of COVID and we’ve had to find extraordinary means in these extraordinary times. No matter what life throws at us, we persist in the practice of seeking the grace to be the ordinary and normal way God’s love is expressed in the world around us.

    Bishop Curry’s latest book, “Love Is the Way,” was released on Sept. 22, and like his 2018 book, “The Power of Love,” it emphasizes Christian teachings, particularly Jesus’ command to love one’s neighbor, as a powerful force for unity and healing in a hurting world. We will be reading the book and having virtual conversations about it during the Season of Advent. Watch for details for signing up.

    In the meantime, let us be reminded that our Creator has provided us with a benchmark for abundant living to which we can return week by week, day by day, hour by hour.

    Blessings,

    Ron Short Blue Sig Cropped

     

     

     

     

    The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
    Interim Rector
    St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
    Keller, Texas

  • Life Beyond the Law

    In Sunday's Gospel, Jesus says to his followers, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). That's a tall order, isn't it? Let's reflect on that.

    Jesus says that the goodness of his followers must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees and then he offers examples of how the letter and the spirit of the law need to be joined together for abundant living. As we consciously align our lives with divine commandments and principles, over time we are formed into living expressions of them. Jesus tells us that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The fulfillment of the law occurs when external rules become internal inclinations, when rules for living become a way of life, when the seed takes root and produces virtuous fruit.

    When Jesus says, “You have heard it said in ancient times… but I say to you,” he is calling us from merely avoiding negative behaviors to intentionally behaving in positive, life-affirming ways. A life beyond the law is not a lawless life but an abundant life. Abundant life, according to the teachings of Jesus, is about more than following the rules; it is about the formation of character and virtue. Following the rules is but the first step toward fruitful and virtuous living in the realm where God reigns.

    St. Paul refers to the Law of God as a tutor, which guides us until our characters are so formed that the point of the Law is inherent in the way we live. He also likens the following of spiritual rules to the discipline followed by an athlete during training; when the contest comes, the athlete is prepared.

    My career on the track team did not last long. But it lasted long enough for me to recognize the discipline of training, including the use of ankle weights. After weeks of running a quarter of a mile with weights strapped to my ankles, I discovered I was much faster without them on the day of the race.

    We practice things like not lying so that we might become people who are known for our truthfulness. We avoid coveting and stealing what belongs to others so that we learn to be grateful for and generous with what is ours. We refrain from murder so that even our murderous thoughts are replaced by loving actions toward our neighbors.

    The things God has commanded us to do or not do are supposed to lead us to a point when we are not merely slaves to the rules but people in whom the deeper purpose of the rules is fully expressed in the way we live. God has given us the Church so that through our gathering together we might help each other grow toward the greater righteousness of which Jesus spoke in his Sermon on the Mount.

    I’ll conclude with a prayer we sometimes pray prior to worship. It is the Chorister’s Prayer of the Royal School of Church Music. This prayer has origins at least as far back the fourth Council of Carthage (398 AD) and beautifully expresses the relationship between the actions of our lives and the inner results for which we hope.

    Bless, O Lord, us Thy servants,
    who minister in Thy temple.
    Grant that what we sing with our lips,
    we may believe in our hearts,
    and what we believe in our hearts,
    we may show forth in our lives.
    Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    Amen.

    I’ll see you in Church!

    Ron Short Blue Sig Cropped

     

     

     

     

    The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
    Interim Rector
    St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
    Keller, Texas

  • Sermon at Christ Church Cranbrook ~ February 16, 2014

    CCC Pulpit_Side

    Epiphany 6A

    Listen to the Sermon for February 16, 2014  

    Read the Sermon for February 16, 2014