The beginning of the school year always feels like standing in a doorway.
Summer as a season isn't quite over, but the rhythms have already started to change. Backpacks are out of the closet and teachers have prepared their classrooms. The calendars are filling up and church committees are busy working. Choir rehearsals, youth gatherings, confirmation, and Sunday School are just around the corner. We find ourselves asking the same question in different ways: What comes next?
As we continue worship here at Bethany, we'll spend another week in Exodus, exploring a portion of the Ten Commandments that speaks not so much about our relationship with God, but about our relationship with one another.
These commandments can sometimes sound like a list of "don'ts." Don't kill. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. On the surface, they can feel restrictive or even intimidating.
But what if they are actually describing something much more hopeful?
Imagine the first people who received these commandments. They are the Israelite people who have just been liberated from slavery in Egypt. They are learning, perhaps for the first time, what it means to live as a free people. And God reminds them that freedom isn't simply the absence of oppression, it is the presence of a community where everyone can flourish.
In a culture where violence, dishonesty, exploitation, and broken trust are common, these commandments invite us into another way of living. They call us to build relationships marked by dignity, honesty, faithfulness, and care. They remind us that our choices affect our neighbors, and that love is more than a feeling, it is something we practice.
When Jesus is later asked about the greatest commandment, he gathers all of God's law into two simple directions: love God and love your neighbor. These commandments help us imagine what that neighbor-love looks like in everyday life.
This week, we'll wonder together what it means to build communities where children and elders are honored, where truth matters, where people are treated with respect rather than used, where each person's life and well-being are valued, and where our freedom is measured not by how much we can take for ourselves but by how faithfully we care for one another.
As another school year begins and we feel the season gathering momentum, these ancient words invite us to ask a timely question: What kind of community are we becoming together?
I hope you'll join us this Sunday as we continue discovering the courage God gives us, not only to step into an unknown future, but to create communities where our neighbors can do the same with hope.
Peace,
Pastor Katie
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