God's Law - Dominion and Control, or Love and Justice?

Scripture:  Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 and Psalm 19  • Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:7-15

  • Philippians 3:4b-14  • Matthew 21:33-46

This Sunday we study the Ten Commandments - words carved in stone, or are they more? Laws to be obeyed, or more. Love to be earned, or more. God on high, or more. Laws of dominion and control, or love amd justice. Read The Rev. Kate Matthew's "A Rule of Love."

In "Crazy Love," The Rev. David Lose makes some cheeky good points about Matthew's account of another vineyard parable which Jesus gives us. This one is about the vineyard workers who kill servants sent by the landowner to collect his die from his tenants, including the landowner's son. Jesus is reaching the climax of his ministry as he confronts religious authorities on his way to the cross -  to humiliation and exaltation and glory. Why does the landowner keep sending his servants, and even his son to these "bloodthirsty hooligans?" Jesus says it best when he tells them, and us, that "the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes!" 

Does the gospel account have anything to say about how we should read and live out the Ten Commandments?  What do they both say about God and us?