A Far-Fetched Lenten Self-Examination?
Every so often--perhaps twice a year--the church service these days includes a reading of the Ten Commandments. That used to happen every Sunday, but it's not a liturgical standard any more. It's kind of a downer to hear all those prohibitions and warnings about how sinful we are. We'd like, of course, to think of ourselves as pretty decent with only maybe a few minor faults and shortcomings, not grievous wrong-doers. Sure, we recognize that there's plenty of guilt to go around and that, if we were judged strictly according to the rules, there wouldn't be a lot of evidence on our side. Still, we're like the guy who came out of church, heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "Well, at least I haven't killed anyone!"

Just for the fun of it, let's think about that response as a kind of far-fetched Lenten meditation. "Thou shalt not murder" sounds pretty safe. There are very few people I've ever even thought about murdering, and I certainly haven't plotted anyone's demise, even in my wildest dreams. So am I pure as the driven snow on that one?

Well, there are lots of ways to eliminate another human being, ways to get someone out of the way, dismiss them from life--at least from my life. I don't have to employ a knife, a gun, or a bomb. Think about it: what are the ways we "do in" other people?

There's the weapon of anger. Look at the name-calling we do when we're upset with others. We label people as skunks, rats, snakes, devils, monsters. What's your favorite Bin Laden label? See what we're doing? Less-than-human animal, below-human devil, or inhuman monster. What a fearful thing it is when we stop to think of it--anger is nothing less than murder in the heart.

Or, how about the derision and contempt we pour on the "scum" of society? We so easily relegate the poor to the status of "trash"--lazy bums, welfare cheats, not really part of the human race at all. We think Marie Antoinette so terrible for saying, "Let them eat cake," but consider ourselves frugal and patriotic when we vote down tax levies for community health, special needs children, and welfare mothers. We use a whole range of behavior to signal to the underclasses that they're not wanted, they don't count. Isn't the message just the same as the sad French Queen's? I'm including myself in this: all of us, anyone who's ever said or thought such things. It's a form of societal death we're dispensing.

What's the most highly favored human quality these days? Isn't it brain power? These days the most devastating way to "wipe out" another person is to impugn his intelligence. Think of the verbal weapons we've developed: "idiot, imbecile, retard, stupe, senile." The affect is to dehumanize, demean, and dismiss. In short, to "bump off."

Well, I think you get the picture. If Lent is about anything at all, it's about honesty--trying to see ourselves as God sees us. Before God's absolute purity we stand starkly revealed in all our blindness and hypocrisy and it's crucial that we first-of-all see ourselves that way not in order to grovel in our sin but rather to realize how very costly is the grace of God that reaches out to each of us right in the midst of all that wrong, and hate, and evil to say, Nevertheless I love you! Until you've really felt the power of such forgiveness and realized that death on a cross is what it cost God to overcome our selfishness and brutality toward one another, you don't know anything about the love of God. That is, ultimately, the purpose of Lent.

Probably you've never given a moment's thought to the idea of yourself as a murderer, but during this Lent, why not give it a try? However far-fetching it may seem, it's exactly the kind of thinking that might lead you to know and accept with new clarity the unconditional love that is offered to you in Jesus Christ.

~Bob Hansel