Courage for the Unknown: Before the Commandments

This Sunday, we’ll start a journey through one of the most familiar parts of the Bible: the Ten Commandments. 

Even if you've never spent much time in church, you've probably heard of them. They're often imagined as a list of rules carved in stone. But what if that's not where the story begins? 

Our reading this week starts before the commandments themselves. The people of Israel have been set free from slavery in Egypt. Before God says a single "You shall..." or "You shall not...," God says something even more important: I carried you on eagles' wings. I brought you to myself. 

When the commandments begin in Exodus 20, God reminds the people once again: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." 

This matters because it shows us that grace comes before instruction. Relationship comes before responsibility. Liberation comes before law. 

God meets people before they know exactly where they're going. The Israelites certainly don't have everything figured out. They're in the wilderness. The future is uncertain. And it is precisely there that God begins to shape them into a community. 

And the commandments aren't given to help people earn God's love. They are given to people who have already experienced God's love. The commandments are less about getting into God's good graces and more about learning how to live together as people who have been set free. 

Sometimes we treat the Bible as though it dropped from heaven fully formed. But Scripture has a history. It was written, collected, prayed, argued over, and passed down through generations of people seeking to be faithful. Learning that history deepens our faith. So for the next few weeks we’ll wrestle with a question that has never stopped being relevant: What does a community shaped by freedom actually look like? 

In a culture where truth is often distorted, where workers can be exploited, where neighbors are divided by fear, where the dignity of immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, people living in poverty, and so many others is too often questioned or denied, these ancient words still have something to say because they keep pointing us back to God's desire for communities where love, justice, rest, honesty, and human dignity flourish. 

Jesus would later summarize the entire law with two simple invitations: love God and love your neighbor. Perhaps that's the best way to approach this series. We don’t have to ask, "How can I follow every rule perfectly?" but instead, "What does love require of us?" 

As we gather on Sunday, I hope you'll come with curiosity. Bring your questions. Bring the things you've always wondered about the Bible. Bring the experiences that have made these texts comforting or complicated. 

The God who carried people through the wilderness is still meeting us today, not after we've figured everything out, but right here, in the unknown. 

Peace, 

Pastor Katie