Seeing God Through Dirty Windows

Scripture: Exodus 20:1-20 & Matthew 5:17-19

Preached 02/22/2015

 

Have you ever worn a rain coat on a sunny day?  Well, that’s what I did just a few days after Rob and I got married.  The hallway window was useless, as I learned the hard way.  Rob and I had moved into this hundred plus year old apartment building.  It was, as old buildings are, both beautiful and incredibly frustrating.  We had lovely archways, fantastic hard wood floors, and way more living space than we needed for two people.  But we also had a tiny kitchen, doors that only sometimes closed, and that useless hallway window.  The layout of the place was a little strange.  This hallway was kind of like a very tiny room, maybe five feet or six feet long.  You entered it through the dining room, and you could either turn left, and then there was a dresser and the door to the bedroom, or you turned right, into the only bathroom.  So in the mornings, when I was getting up and getting ready, my first instinct was to check out that hallway window to see what they day was going to be like, and dress accordingly.

It was a bad instinct.  Besides being rattly, and painted shut so I couldn’t just stick my hand outside and feel the temperature for myself, this window was chronically dirty.  Somehow, this apartment just accumulated dirt, and sand even, which being in central Illinois, with no beach anywhere close, made no sense.  None, whatsoever.   But this window was no exception to the miraculous appearance of dirt.  It had this gray film on it, and no matter how much I scrubbed and what cleaning products I tried, would not come off.  So every time I looked out that chronically dirty window, it was a gray, dreary day, no matter how lovely and sunny it was in reality.

Besides leaving me ill prepared to face the reality of the day, it was the most frustrating and depressing window I’ve ever encountered.  And rather than bother with the useless, frustrating, and depressing nature of that window, I quickly decided to just keep the blinds closed, and ignore its existence all together.

If we’re honest, that’s what we’re sometimes tempted to do with scripture like the ten commandments, isn’t it?  That Old Testament, filled with silly laws and outdated customs.  It’s just dreary.  It’s a downer.  And we know the general idea anyway.  We’ve heard the 10 commandments enough times that we have a pretty good idea what’s in there, some of you probably even have them memorized, so it’s not like we really need to look at them any more.  We can just close those blinds and move on.

Except that since I picked that scripture to be read today, on top of having  you pray through it, you probably know already that I don’t really think it’s a good idea to forget it exists.  Why not?  Well, for one thing, and the way I sometimes answer Ellery’s “why” questions when she has me stumped, because Jesus.  If you recall the second scripture reading, Jesus himself extolls the importance of what we often call the “laws” we find in Hebrew scripture.  He says these laws, better translated as instructions, are what he has come to fulfill.  My suggestion is that we trust Jesus here- these instructions are important. 

That small change in language is important by the way.  Because the word “law” tends to have a negative connotation.  Yes, laws can be good and help keep us safe, but they can also be frustrating- like the 25mph speed limits in school zones that persist when children aren’t there and you’re running late for something.  Laws can be oppressive- remember that for years we had laws prohibiting women from voting, or inter-racial marriage.  And laws can be just plain useless- like the town in Connecticut that prohibits a man from kissing a woman in public on a Sunday.

But instructions are different.  Instructions invite you to participate.  They ask you to help create something.  They have a clear purpose, a clear end.  And that really reflects the nature of these “commandments” much better.  They’re an invitation for you to join in creating something.  And what is that thing?  There’s a hint in front of the communion table.  A window.  A window through which we can clearly see what God wants for us, and all our brothers and sisters, as we relate to God and one another.  And God has given us instructions for a really good window.  But there is a problem.

Our window has gotten dirty.  Throughout our years of life a whole lot of stuff has accumulated on the glass which is intended to give us a clear view.  And our windows need a good, thorough, cleaning.  And, thanks be to God, these wonderful instructions even help us get the window clean!  For those of you thinking that you don’t do windows, now would be a good time to run.  Because we’re going to spend all of Lent cleaning this one.  Each week until Easter, we’re going to focus on one or more commandments, in a 10 commandment countdown type deal.  And each week as we count down we’re going to clean a little more dirt from this window, and hopefully our own- metaphorically for your own, unless you actually want to or feel moved to clean your windows at home.  We’ll attempt to clean off coveting, honesty and integrity, the way we treat others, separating work and worth, and what God it is we actually worship.

God wants us to have a clean window.  Jesus wants us to have a clean window, and through the power of the Holy Spirit this Lent, we hope to make that happen.  Remember though, that this window cleaning isn’t just about us feeling good about ourselves- this isn’t supposed to be a brag-fest at Easter about whose windows sparkle brightest.

This window the commandments instruct us to form helps us, not just to see God and one another more clearly in the light of God.  Remember where we started in this sermon, with that dirty hallway window in my old apartment.  I wanted to look out of that window for a reason, and it definitely wasn’t the view of the driveway and some shabby car ports.  It was so I could get ready for the day- so I could see if I needed to grab an umbrella or sunglasses or rain or snow boots, to figure out if it was worth it to straighten my hair- all those little things that helped me step out into the world prepared for what was out there waiting for me. 

And a clean window, like the 10 commandments seek to give us, can help us step out into the world from this sanctuary prepared for what’s really there. Because if we look out a dirty window, all we’re ever prepared to meet is gloom.  We see the world, one another, and God as dull, dreary, and gray, and we want to just stay inside ourselves and avoid it all.  We get tempted to ignore one another and God.  Or, if we are forced into an encounter we have our “protective gear” so to speak- not umbrellas and rain coats, but all those tricks we use to keep our distance, both physically and metaphorically. 

But God, the world, other people, they really aren’t so bad.  They’re not gray and dreary, even though God’s the only one who’s perfect.  They’re colorful, they’re wonderful, and God made us to be in relationship with one another and God. And that’s a good thing.   We can’t let a dirty window trick us out of the good which God intends for us. 

So join me this Lent in doing windows.  Join me as we work on our own 10 commandment instructed windows, the eyes with which we see and relate to God and to the world.  And hopefully, we’ll be able to get that dirt cleaned off, and by the time we get to Easter, we’ll be ready to clearly see one another in the brilliance God created us, and the resurrected Christ in his full, shining glory.  Amen.