you thought god was an architect

now you know

A sermon on the Ten Commandments

Well, I’m up against it here. Aren’t I?

I barely had your attention to begin with, and I’m losing it by the second with scripture like todays. 

After all, you’ve all already heard this, haven’t you? “The Ten Commandments.” You’re familiar, thank you very much. You’ve seen the movie. You know the sweep, that no sooner does Moses go up the mountain, than the people start breaking the commands. 

AND, you all already know that’s why Jesus came. 

We’re Lutheran, after all. That’s our bag. Our deal isn’t keeping the commands, it’s Jesus forgiving us when we’ve failed to do so!

What’s more, you’re sophisticated Lutherans. You know that once Jesus forgives us, we’re freed. And freed from sins power, we can live by the commandments. Not to try and prove our worth, but to serve our neighbor.
We already know all this. As Jerry & Elaine once said, “Yada, yada, yada.” We get it.

…Well, a couple of years ago Amanda and I went to a Jason Isbell concert.

Anyone ever heard of him? Yeah, neither had I. 

Before his concert I noticed some of the music blogs I follow talking about him. But that was about it…

So when we got tickets, I figured I should get a little more acquainted with him. As far as I could tell, he just wrote muscular country-rock. 

Not that I have any problem with that genre, I just didn’t see what the big deal was. 

Well, what started to change my mind was his concert. Midway through the show he stopped and talked about how much he appreciated the opportunity to make a living preforming his songs. How he tried to be grateful.
“That’s cool,” I thought. 

But then, after a couple more songs, he stopped again, and told a similar story. “What’s he getting at,” I wondered. And then he said, “Look, this isn’t some bro-country concert. Put your phones away and just enjoy the concert.” The crowd applauded!

Well, I had never seen anything like that before. At the moment I wasn’t messing with my phone, but I made sure I didn’t after that. 

As it turned out, though, he wasn’t talking about me anyway. After the next song he stopped again and said, “I’m not going to warn you anymore.” Then, after the next song, he asked security to escort a couple from the front row out!

Whoah! Who’s this guy, I wondered. 

So I went back and listened to his records more closely. And let me tell you, he’s a musician who’s after more than making popular music. His music is thoroughly southern and full of tight, precise song-writing. 

…The song of his that captured everyone’s attention a couple years back is, “24 Frames.” Referring to the 24 frames that pass by a camera every second. 

In the song he sings: you thought God was an architect / now you know /
he’s something like a pipe-bomb / ready to blow — And everything you built / that’s all for show / goes up in flames / in 24 frames.”

Who writes songs like that?

Someone who knows how life really goes, eh?

Because that’s how life really plays out. Isn’t it? 

One second you think you’ve got it all together, and a second later it’s all up in flames. All it takes is a second. 

*Like the adage goes, we’re ALL only ONE bad day away from being in the tabloids.

That’s the risk we’re tempted to miss this morning. Isn’t it?

Here, in our Sunday-best, we can pretend we’ve got it all together. That, if these commandments aren’t a blueprint for life, at least our theology is. 

That all sounds nice enough in here, too. The trouble, though, is before long you’re going to have to leave here. Aren’t you?

And then… Well, then it’s all up for grabs. Isn’t it?

All the nice, little prepackaged theories we have don’t do us much good out there in the real world. Do they? All it takes is a second, and it’s all up in flames.

…Today’s scripture starts with the preamble, when Moses first goes up the mountain. There God makes clear what God’s up to, and it’s all very straight-forward.

It doesn’t have anything to do with us getting our lives together. And, it doesn’t to do with giving us some system to make sense of everything. 

No, it has to do with God getting us.

That’s what this morning is about. It’s why you’re here. 

Our lives are lived directionally. Toward God, away from God. 

And let’s be honest, you don’t change directions unless something dramatic happens. Like a pipe bomb-going off…

…Jason Isbell began grabbing critics attention with his album that came out before “Something More than Free.” The album is “Southeastern,” and it was his first solo album.

Before that he had toured with another relatively large band. 

But it all that blew up when his substance abuse issues got to be to big to ignore. His wife left him. His bandmates couldn’t work with him. Thankfully, some concerned fellow-musicians staged an intervention. 

He’s spoken of how much that experience taught him. And the album “Southeastern" is mostly about that. But you can tell that experience still informs his music. 

I suspect it has something to do with the passion he brings to his shows. 

AND, I bet it’s taught him how to write lyrics the way he does. 

Because you don’t come to insights like the ones he sings about in “24 Frames” theoretically, do you? 

No, you have to experience that for yourself. Find out how fast everything can change.

In the end of his song, “24 Frames” Isbell makes a shift. No longer is God described as an pipe-bomb. “You thought God was an architect / now you know / he’s sitting in a black car, ready to go” Isbell sings.

The black car being a hearse. 

Because that’s how it was for Jason; the death of his old life…

That’s how the Ten Commandments work best. And our theology, too… 

Martin Luther described the knowledge of sin, not information, BUT as an experience. The experience of sin. The experience of having everything you thought would keep you alive burst apart in a thousand pieces.

And Martin knew for himself just how terrible of an experience that is.

 And I bet you do, too… 

It’s like what Isbell describes in “24 Frames,” isn’t it?

When the life you’ve had been living goes up in flames, and even if you wanted to go back, you couldn’t. When all your little theories and systems prove to be powerless to keep everything together.

And until that happens, I’m just wasting my breath up here. 

Because until you learn how powerless you are, you’ll never learn how powerful God is. 

So long as you’re living, these commands will be no good to you. 

And neither will our theology. 

So long as you’re convinced you’ve got it all figured out, all this will just be theoretical, not true knowledge. But once you’ve died, you’ll learn God’s power is more like napalm than a starched shirts and pressed blouses. 

Today is about God getting you, and that’s not a matter of being polite on a rainy Sunday morning. It’s about what happens after the pipe-bomb goes off in your life. Once you’ve died.

And when that happens, you’ll be ready to experience the power of God. The power of God that is only given to the dead.

Once that happens, you’ll have a God. And when you have a God you don’t need a pastor standing in front of you trying to get you to gin up your ability to keep the commandments; that'll all just be in hand. 

So let’s just admit it; we’re all the walking dead. Aren’t we?

Thanks be to God it’s only the walking dead God’s power is for. If you haven’t experienced it; get ready…