Sunday October 5, 2008 - Pentecost 21, Proper 22, Year A (RCL)
Today in our Old Testament reading, we heard what is perhaps one of the most well known passages in Scripture, the Ten Commandments.
There’s a kind of assumption in our culture, that at the heart of being a good Christian, maybe even a good citizen,
is following the Ten Commandments. Most of us think
that the Ten Commandments are a good thing.
But ask us what those commandments are,
and we’re in trouble.
A survey last year found that only 14% of Americans could accurately name all Ten Commandments.
That compares with 35% of Americans who could recall all six Brady kids from the Brady Bunch, and 25% who could name all seven ingredients of McDonalds Big Mac®.
The survey also tried to find out which were the ones people knew the best, the most popular ones, if you like.
Top, of course, came “Do not kill,”
and not far behind was “Do not steal.”
The rest of number five through ten
came close behind.
But numbers one through four
barely made a showing.
And I suspect that’s probably because numbers six through ten
are all about how we live with other people.
They’re kind of common sense, about being nice people,
and most people in our society would agree with them.
But the first four, well they’re different. Because they’re about how we relate to God,
and they set us apart
as a people of faith.
And so today I thought we’d spend a little time on those ones.
I’m going to read each one, and talk about it, and you’ll notice that they are a bit longer than we heard read earlier - the people who decide our lectionary cut them a bit short.
So, number 1.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”
Everything begins with God, and getting God right.
You know the stories; we’ve been reading them for weeks. The people of God
were slaves in Egypt, and before that they were in what we now call Israel, and before that
they were over in Mesopotamia, where Abraham was from.
Now they’re in the wilderness,
on the way to the promised land, but still wandering around.
And in all these places
there have been people worshipping different gods.
The gods that are described in the great religious epics of Babylon, the Egyptian gods that we see portrayed in the art in pyramids, the gods represented by small clay idols
dug up throughout Palestine.
The Israelites know
about all those gods,
and so you just know
that when they hear a message like this
apparently from God,
they’re going to ask,
“How do we know which god to worship?”
And the answer is,
“It’s the one you know, the one who rescued you
out of slavery in Egypt.”
This is not just a generic creator God,
this is God who has done something specific, something that
has changed their lives.
They know that God, they know they can trust that God.
And that’s the only God
for them.
And of course it’s the same for us. We might not have been rescued out of Egypt, but as Christians, we can point back to God’s action for us
in exactly the same way.
“I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from sin, and brought you forgiveness, and invites you into eternal life.”
And we might add more, from our own experience. The God who answered my prayers, or the God who sustained me when I wasn’t sure there was any way forward, or the God who has blessed me.”
That’s our God, the God we worship. And the first command
is to have no other gods
before God.
In practice, of course, most of us are not so tempted
to worship Egyptian or Babylonian or Palestinian gods.
But we are tempted
to put other things in place of God.
To put other things first.
It might be our family. Families are good things, gifts of God.
But, harsh as it sounds, scripture is clear.
God comes first. That doesn’t mean our families are short changed, just that we are to put God first even in our families, and trust our families
to the hands of God,
knowing that God has proved himself trustworthy in the past.
It might be our security. We want to be responsible citizens,
we don’t want to be foolhardy.
We want to provide for our futures.
God isn’t content with our leftovers.
We’re called to put God first,
and trust God
for the rest, knowing that God has proved himself trustworthy in the past.
Put God first, above everything else. In our time, in our money, in the choices we make, in everything
put God first.
Number 2.
“You 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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
In the King James version, the commandment said,
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
And so people took it to mean that they couldn’t have pictures or sculptures of any living thing. That’s why most Amish people
don’t allow photos to be taken of them, and they make their quilts in geometric patterns rather than in patterns that picture nature.
But as best as I can work out
from reading commentaries by people who’ve studied these commandments,
it’s not about any old pictures or sculptures.
In fact in the Old Testament the people are told to make sculptures of fruits as decoration for the tent of meeting, the precursor of the temple.
What it’s really about
is making pictures or sculptures
and then worshipping them
instead of, as if they were, God.
Now most of us
are not likely to worship
the Smithtown Bull,
or even the one down by Wall Street.
But I suspect we’re more in danger
when it comes to what we might call holy things,
things that we use in worship, things like crosses and vestments and bibles.
They are not holy in and of themselves; they are holy because they help us to meet God.
And so we need to remind ourselves every so often
that God is not in the things;
they are merely pointers
to the God we worship.
Number 3.
“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”
Some people used to worry about this one
when it came to taking an oath, especially an oath on the bible.
Jesus himself says simply, “Let your yes be yes.”
But I think this is not so much about that,
as about misusing God’s name.
Using God’s name as a swear word, God, or Jesus or Christ,
or exclamation
so that it really has no meaning.
And it’s also about
not behaving in ways
that would bring God’s name
into disrepute,
that would make others say “If that’s being a Christian, I don’t want anything to do with Jesus.”
Finally, Number 4.
“Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.”
This is the tough one. Because it’s so clear, so explicit.
Keep the sabbath.
And you’ll notice here
that it’s not just about having a day of rest. It’s having a day, a time set apart
to honor God.
Sox days you do everything else that’s pressing in on you, absorbing your energy, driving you crazy.
The seventh,
you pay attention to God.
It means making an appointment in your calendar
for God time. And not letting other things
edge it out.
There will always be things
that compete with worshiping God.
Friends and family want us to go places and do things. Sports interfere. We want to sleep in.
But God matters. Having a relationship with God matters.
And that
takes time.
I am thankful
that one of the absolute rules in our family when I was growing up
was that we went to church on Sunday. Every Sunday. If we had a sleepover, we had to be home in time for church unless our friends’ families went and we were invited to go with them. If we were on vacation, we’d go wherever was local.
I’m thankful that my parents thought that worshipping God was that important,
because it eventually got through to me. Even though sometimes I didn’t really want to go.
But it laid a foundation for my faith
that still lasts today.
Keep the sabbath.
And so there we have them, four commandments out of the ten four commandments
that are about our relationship with God.
They set us apart
as the people of God.
They are the
foundation
of what it mean to be people of faith, followers of Jesus.
And what they tell us is,
don’t let anything get in the way
between you
and God.
Don’t let God become
a trivial detail.
They’re not easy
but they are absolutely fundamental.
Put God first
and trust in God,
the God who has rescued you, the God who has forgiven you, the God who has invited you into eternal life,
trust God
for the rest.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2008