Stephen
Terry, Director
Covenant Law
Commentary
for the May 22, 2021 Sabbath School Lesson
"you will be for me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation..." Exodus 19:6a, NIV
Joe has been single
for several years, but he has finally met someone and fallen in love. He
understands this will bring big changes to his life. Until now, he has been
happy riding the bus and walking to get about the city, with an occasional taxi
trip for more urgent needs. But now that he is contemplating marriage and a
family, he has concluded that a reliable automobile is necessary. He begins scouring
the car ads, both online and in the newspaper. He also asks his friends about
their car buying experiences. Eventually, after considering all the options, he
decides to approach an automobile dealership.
As Joe and his
girlfriend are wandering the car lot, a well-dressed salesman comes over and
introduces himself. He asks them, "Do you see anything you like?"
In response they tell
him what they are looking for. He says, "I think I have just the model to fit
your needs."
He shows them a sporty
sedan and encourages them to test drive it. After a trip around the area, they
are convinced that this car will work well for their needs. They begin negotiations
for the purchase and finally agree on terms that are very generous and will
easily fit within Joe's budget. When the contract is written up, the salesman
urges them to read it over and make sure they are comfortable with the terms
before they sign it. Once they sign it, he reminds Joe that the first payment
will be due in forty-five days. Joe replies that that should be no problem
since the car is very affordable and thanks the agent for his help in making
things happen.
After Joe gets home,
he gets on social media and posts pictures of the new car and shares how happy
he is with the purchase. But then an old friend, Red, says he got a better deal
on a similar car with a laughing emoji. Red had not responded when Joe had
asked for input from his friends prior to buying the new vehicle. Nonetheless,
Red was full of input now and did his best to make Joe think he made a wrong decision.
Joe discussed it with his girlfriend. She said she likes the car and how
affordable it was, but if he was unhappy, maybe he should talk to the salesman.
Joe told her he would sleep on it and decide the next day. In the meantime, he
began to look for defects with the car. Even though he knew he had bought a
used vehicle, the paint was not as shiny as a new car and it did not have the
new car smell, and that bothered him. He also discovered the paint had chipped
about the size of a pea on one corner of the hood. He would mention these
things to the agent.
When he appeared on
the lot the next day, the agent could tell he was unhappy and quickly came
over. "Is everything OK?" he asked.
"Well, I noticed some
problems," and he shared the issues he found. He also shared that his friend said
he had found a better deal.
"Since I don't know the
circumstances, I cannot explain your friend's 'better deal,' but I thought we
agreed on what you felt was a great deal, and we put everything you asked for in
the contract."
"Yes, but it doesn't
seem like such a great deal now."
"I understand. We have
a couple of options," the salesman offered. "I can upgrade you to a newer
vehicle. However, I cannot do it at the price we negotiated. Or I can have the
shop detail your car once again and try to correct the issues you mentioned."
Joe said he needed to
discuss the offer with his girlfriend before deciding what to do. When he told her,
she reminded him that she liked the car and suggested he accept the offer for
the free detail. But after the detail, Joe was still feeling he had been taken
advantage of and was not careful about living up to his end of the contract. At
first his payments were a little late, but then he started missing them
altogether. One morning, he went out to take the car to work, and it was no
longer there. The dealership repossessed it for failure to make payments. When
he called the dealership, he was told that he had 30 days to cure the deficiency
in payments and to cover the towing and storage for the vehicle. What had begun
as dissatisfaction over a minor paint chip was now going to cost him over a
thousand dollars. Looking for sympathy and other options, he contacted his
friend, Red, and explained what happened.
"Why didn't you make your payments?" Red asked.
"I was unhappy after
you told me you found a better deal!"
"It's true that I got a car like yours for a lower price, but the guy I bought
it from turned out to be dishonest. That car was in the shop for repairs every
other week until I finally sold it at a loss."
Joe's situation could
have turned out far worse. He had also neglected the maintenance on his car.
Had the car failed at some crucial moment, it could have cost his life or that
of his girlfriend.
We sometimes approach
God the same way Joe approached buying a car. We often meet God through the recommendations
of our friends. They share with us the impact their relationship with God has
had on their lives, and they are attracted to seeking those things for
themselves. They freely come to him seeking what he has to offer. God lays out
in his word what the terms of a relationship are. The deal seems almost too
good to be true, so we accept. Like Joe, we share what we have found and the
blessing we now have in our life. But also, like Joe, we have friends like Red
who tell us that we were cheated and brainwashed into a relationship with God. Even
though we were free to embrace God or walk the other way, those friends insist
it is only about God wanting to control everyone. They point out our
obligations. But imagine if we were to walk into a car dealership and demand a
new car with no obligations on our part. Security would soon show us to the
street. A life with no obligations is not reality.
What is God offering
as his commitment to the contract? As the verse at the beginning of this
commentary says, he is offering to make us into a kingdom of priests, what Peter
calls a "royal priesthood."[i] This would be as if the car
dealership not only sold you a car but took you on as a salesman with all the
pay and benefits a salesman would receive while you sold reliable cars to
others, who in turn would become part of the sales staff. No one would be forced
to accept that offer. An unhappy salesman is not going to be a profitable one. To
ensure happiness, God offers a contract, and we are free to consider every
aspect of the agreement before committing ourselves. In the terms, we find that
we are expected to love God completely and our neighbors as ourselves. When we are
not loving, we breach the agreement. If each is loving per the agreement, it ensures
happiness for all, and everyone looks out for everyone else.
Despite all of that,
we still too often act like Joe and choose to wander from the agreement. This
is not only true of us, but it has also been true of many well-known Bible characters.
For instance, Abraham felt that God's promises were not good enough and decided
to take matters into his own hands, fathering Ishmael by Hagar, instead of
waiting for Isaac, the promised child through Sarah, his wife. Abraham even seemed
to believe that what he did was fulfilling God's wishes. It seems that no
matter how clearly God expresses himself, we have a human gift for caviling
about everything. When the Commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day," we
quibble that every day is the Sabbath, or who knows what day it is, even though
the Jews have kept it for thousands of years. When the Commandment says, "You
shall not kill," we say that what it really meant was murder, so stockpiling
enough nuclear armaments to char the entire earth several times over is believed
to be fine because it is a military necessity and not therefore murder. When
the Commandment says, "You shall not steal," we seem to understand this as
extremely applicable to the poor while excusing the rich who do it on a grander
scale. This leads us to feel that greed is a better choice than entering a relationship
with God. Perhaps therefore Jesus felt it necessary to teach his disciples how
difficult it is for someone to be a part of the kingdom of God if they make
wealth their aim.
Just like the
dealership Joe visited was open to all who came to buy a car, so God offers his
contract to all who would come to him. There are no people who exclusively have
a right to that relationship. It is not based on race, gender, nationality, or
any other means by which we divide ourselves. Jesus showed this in his outreach
to the Samaritans. The apostles followed his example. Peter, when he was in
Joppa, baptized a Roman Centurion and his family, and Philip baptized an Ethiopian
eunuch. Paul, more than them all, baptized non-Jews into the kingdom of God. Unfortunately,
today we have drifted from those lessons. Like the Jews of old, we see
ourselves as "chosen," the remnant who alone are faithful. We condemn other
faith traditions as being excluded from the kingdom, and we barely lift a
finger to reach out to them unless they first find their way to our door and
display adequate humility. Maybe it is because, deep down, we question our own
choice to be in relationship with God. Like Abraham who chose his own way to
fulfil God's promise, we are doing the same. Maybe it is time we stopped believing
Red has a better idea.