October 8, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Ten Commandments"
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, and 12-20
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 19, Philippians 3:4-14, and Matthew 21:33-46.)
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9 and 12-20
The Ten Commandments
1Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13You shall not murder. 14You shall not commit adultery. 15You shall not steal. 16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 18When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
Every so often, in my humble opinion, I think it's good to take a look at some of the basic charters of our faith, such as the Ten Commandments, which is the topic of the sermon today. And before we think about those Commandments, we just might consider what my wife Harlane said when I told her what the sermon title was going to be. She said something to the effect that WE DO REALLY NEED to be TAUGHT not to steal or take somebody else's property. My question is WHY must we be taught, and my answer is that we come into this life worrying about ME, ME, ME, and not much else. We are NOT the only people living on this planet, and we must learn to respect the rights of others. So maybe Harlane and I agree on this topic.....and it's always good when spouses agree on something!
But to the Commandments.....I don't plan to go through each one, but I do want to start at the top: You shall have no other gods before me. What may be even more important than that First Commandment is what is said immediately before: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." What is being said is, "I did THIS for you. That was MY part of the bargain. Now here is YOUR part of the bargain." In other words, Israel's keeping of the Ten Commandments (or Ten Words, as the original Hebrew says or means) is in response to what God has done. Do you get it? God has acted FIRST, and Israel's keeping of the Law is in response to what God has already done. And not only that: the language of this covenant or agreement has God treating Israel almost as an EQUAL! Do you get THAT? God RESPECTS us and treats us as an equal at the bargaining table! So.....2 points: God has acted FIRST, and Israel's keeping of the Commandments is Israel's RESPONSE to what God has already done. And point number 2: God loves and respects Israel so much that God treats his people almost as equals. This is amazing!
I am reminded of New Testament Scripture readings that suggest GOD sought us FIRST. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." There is a verse in Philippians that says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." That verse suggests - again - that GOD made the first move toward us. There are other verses in the New Testament, but those are the ones I think of first. I think the point is, God is an ACTIVE God, who wants a relationship with us, and will do pretty much whatever it takes to get our attention! In the Ten Commandments, God acts FIRST, and we must not forget that.
This may be a minor point, but did you notice that there is no monotheism yet? The commandment is, "you shall have no other gods before me". It turns out that monotheism was a later development in the religion of Israel. At first it was thought that there were many gods, but as time went on, as Yul Brynner says in the 1958 movie, "The Ten Commandments", "His God (i.e., Moses' God) IS God." The idea of there being only one God has certainly been around longer than 1958! So, I don't want to give Cecil B. DeMille too much credit! But in the days of Moses, the idea of there being only one God had not been considered. I personally believe that our religion has evolved, as have so many things over the years. And I am not troubled by that evolution, and I hope you aren't, either.
Let's consider the prohibition of any graven image. What's that about? H.L. Ellison, in his commentary on the book of Exodus, says, "The prohibition {of an image} denies that man can insure the presence of God by any action of his own. It also affirms that God is so wonderful that no effort of man to depict him is adequate.....Any representation of him, by its very nature inadequate, must reduce the esteem in which he is held." And then Ellison asks the question about pictures of Jesus: are Christians who have such likenesses of Jesus in their homes involved with a "graven image" or idol worship? He doesn't answer that one, but what do you think? Is having a picture of Jesus a form of idol worship? I'm not sure what I think, because I hadn't thought about the issue until now. If I were to venture an opinion, I'd probably say that there are other more important things to worry about, but maybe it's an issue we should consider.
Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Why is that important? First of all, I have no right to assume that God is at my beck and call. Secondly, the use of profanity shows my lack of respect for God as well as an inability to control my tongue. Finally, and maybe most importantly, my profanity in taking the Lord's name in vain is a misuse of the gift of speech. God gave us the ability to speak. To misuse that gift has to be a no-no.
What about keeping the Sabbath holy? "Those whom God has set free should not become enslaved by the demands of this life", says Ellison. It is also a gift from God, and other ancient societies contemporary with Israel had no such rule. What I like to think is that God realizes that we need a break and taking that break to allow ourselves to "re-charge" is his wonderful gift to us. It sounds like a prohibition, but what it actually is is a gift for our own well being.
Thou shalt not kill really means Thou shalt not MURDER. Killing in war was apparently okay, and so was carrying out some kind of judicial sentence. Quoting Ellison again, "Life is the gift of God, which cannot be replaced by man if he takes it. Therefore, murder stands at the head of the Old Testament's list of iniquities." I mentioned earlier that our religion has evolved, and it certainly did under the prophets. They thought murder extended to other aspects of society, such as anything that cuts at the roots of life, "such as injustice and robbing a man of the means of livelihood. Jesus went further, including every attitude that robbed a man of his self-esteem...."
Shall we talk about SEX? Ellison says this: "So long as sex was not brought into religion in imitation of the Canaanites, sexual promiscuity, though never condoned, was regarded in the Bible as a fact of life, and there is no outspoken condemnation of the harlot. It could hardly be otherwise, for in a male-dominated society there were few other ways in which a young widow could earn her living, unless she had rich relations." Now adultery was a different matter, because it threatened the stability of the family, which was the foundation stone of society. Ellison points out that other than the David and Bathsheba story, "there is no other story of adulterous love in the Bible....." And he points out that Jesus "corrected the outlook....and placed both sexes on the same level...." Up until Jesus, adultery was thought to be the "woman's sin".
Do not steal. This commandment recognizes a double sin. It accuses God of not providing adequately, and it involves not loving one's neighbor as oneself. Also, it casts aspersions on the person stolen from, because he didn't provide enough for his neighbor who was in need!
There are other commandments to consider, but that's enough for today! Amen.
Pastor Skip
