The Vows We Made

Readings: DT 26:16-19; MT 5:43-48

When I was younger, I always thought of the Ten Commandments as “things you should do to make God happy.”  In fact that sums up a lot of the theology I got when I was young.  To be fair, there was a prevailing theology of “niceness” that focused on compliance with an external norm when I was growing up.  If you did the right things and said the right prayers, somehow God would be pleased. 

Religion can tend to get caught in that – in the time of Jesus and now.

In today’s readings, we hear in Deuteronomy that we are asked to observe the decrees with our heart and soul and to remember the agreement that we made with God.  In the gospel, Jesus continues his, “You have heard it said, but I say…” statements – this time around the love of enemies.

Religion, when it is done right, is about soul work.  It is not about meeting some external standard or maintaining the status quo.  In fact, it often asks us to go against what is “normal” in order to live in to a higher purpose.  And it is about being true to who we are called to be.

What I love about today’s readings is that they invite us to think about the “agreement” that we have made with God through our discipleship.  Maybe you don’t recall making one explicitly, but discipleship implies that you said “yes” to something. I’d invite you to reflect for a moment about what got you on this journey in the first place. What did you say “yes” to? And how do these Lenten practices get you closer to living more fully into that vow?

Like any other relationship, we have certain agreements or vows that we might make in our spiritual life.  While we publicly make these vows known in rituals like a wedding/union ceremony or a profession in a religious order, we often make them implicitly in many other relationships.

That’s what God is calling us back to – our implicit vows.  

The Hebrew people called their relationship with God a covenant and described God’s love as hesed. It’s hard to translate that word exactly but it can be expressed as a “loving kindness or faithfulness” but also has a quality of action on behalf of someone in need.  And hesed is used more than 250 times in the Hebrew scriptures!  Clearly the scripture writers wanted us to get the point!

Hesed is how God loves us, and it is how we are expected to love one another – with no exceptions. As I read in one source, hesed “runs deeper than social expectations, responsibilities, fluctuating emotions or what is deserved or earned by the recipient.”  It is a deeper vow that asks for more form us. This is why the first reading  says that we need to observe the decrees at the level of our soul (not just the law) and why Jesus says we have to go beyond mere conventional wisdom.  This kind of love transforms relationships and all those involved. It is a love that does not give up on others and does not give up on ourselves.

The invitation from today’s readings is to remember that God made vows to us, and that we can honor our end of the vows by practicing hesed with each other. Who might need loving kindness from you today?