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There is a common image, even in the modern church, that the Old Testament presents God as judgmental, wrathful, just waiting to punish us when we step out of line. The idea of grace, while appearing lovely on the written page, offers all kinds of loopholes for us to get away with almost anything.

We have recently experienced Valentine’s Day when all kinds of love was being proclaimed on cards and in person. Arthur Rouner has a delightful little book titled How to Love

Erase that picture of Charlton Heston standing on a mountaintop with a stone slab engraved with the Ten Commandments held high over his head. Those ten crucial laws for living are so much more than a Hollywood production. They are the foundation defining what it means to be truly human as God intended.

As Jesus and his disciples strolled along the streets of Jerusalem, they observed ways that the Jews in the Roman-dominated city were violating laws expressed in the Torah. In this series of lessons we have considered Jesus’ response to major violations dealing with murder, adultery and divorce. These major problems were existent but not as common for the average Jews as the two issues we consider today: oaths and retaliation. It was not difficult for our Lord and his disciples to hear these issues discussed among the common Jews of their day.

In this lesson series, distinct means “living above the norm.” When Jesus teaches about sexual purity in his lifetime, he was challenging his listeners to live above two lifestyles.

When I was a kid the only time I heard the word “fast” was from Catholic friends sometime around Easter. They talked about giving up chocolate or movies until after Easter. Made no sense to me! But Isaiah’s words are faith underlined, in capital letters, highlighted in red, shaped in the bold action of living, leaving religious words and usual rituals behind.

Reading the prophets from Israel’s most volatile and tragic period of history uncomfortably reminds me of our tumultuous world. Our world resembles the eighth century BC when Judah and Israel were on the brink of collapse and exile.

Road rage. Workplace hostility. Conflict management. These are phrases that have entered our common language. While some people run from anger and conflict, others seem to embrace it. In our study today, we don’t need to hide from conflict, but we can appropriately and carefully work toward reconciliation.

In my church, when a candidate is baptized, the pastor has the candidate remain in the water after immersion for further instructions. He places a pinch of salt on the candidate’s lips and encourages the new member to become salt in the world to create a taste for the gospel. He then takes a votive candle to hand to the person being baptized with encouragement to become the revelation of the light of the saving knowledge of God to his or her world. The brief ritual amplifies the candidate’s acceptance of the new life that baptism represents.

What do you expect from God? The answer to that question depends on how you see God.