Exodus 20:1-20 World
Communion Sunday
Elizabeth M. Deibert 5
October 2014
There are over six hundred commandments in the Hebrew
Scriptures, what we Christians call the Old Testament. But the ten we are reading today are
undoubtedly the most significant ones. This
is not the only version of the Ten Commandments. There is a similar list in Deuteronomy 5 and
in Exodus 34. The first four commandments are said to be about loving God, and
the last six about loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
After all, when asked which he considered the greatest
commandment, Jesus quoted the Shema from Deuteronomy, saying, “Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength. And then he
added that the second is similar, “to love you neighbor as you love yourself.” These two summarize all the law and the
prophets. I do not see how anyone of any true faith
could argue with Jesus’ summary of the law.
Of course, living according to it is different that agreeing with it.
There are over 4,000 public displays of the Ten Commandments, including in the Supreme Court itself and in the Library of Congress. Sometimes the Supreme Court has allowed the public display of the Ten Commandments, while other decisions have barred them. Richard and I lived in Alabama when Judge Roy Moore made quite a name for himself by insisting on the public display of the commandments. A 2004 Barna poll indicated that 79% of Americans oppose the idea of removing displays of the Ten Commandments from government buildings, even though another survey indicated that fewer than 10% of Americans can identify more than four of the commandments. A lot of zeal, but a lot of ignorance. I expect the zeal about displaying them has diminished in the last decade.
On World Communion Sunday, my view is that we need to recover not a zeal for outward displays which will alter nothing, but for inward commitment to these principles for peace, such that others are drawn to our faith by our witness to Christ’s peace.
The Ten Commandments are not just a binding, confining set
of rules. They are liberating set of principles
for peace – peace for me, you, others, and the whole world. These ethics grow out of the freedom of
salvation. The Hebrew people were
rescued, saved and now they have this opportunity to live in ways that are
fruitful. Same with us. We have been saved, liberated, given freedom
in Christ. If we break commandments, we
will always be forgiven, but there are serious consequences that are damaging
to relationships. Those consequences
are usually not temporary but lasting.
Hear now the Principles of Peace, the Law of Liberty, the Ten
Commandments.
Exodus 20:1-20
Then God spoke all these words: 2
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4
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. 5 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, 6
but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me
and keep my commandments. 7 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. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six
days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 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. 11 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. 12 Honor your
father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD
your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You
shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You 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. 18
When 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, 19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will
listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20 Moses
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.”
Remember that wonderful final line, which I will
paraphrase: Do not be afraid, for God
is just trying to protect you and keep you out of trouble. Okay, remembering
that the first four are about loving…..God and the last six are about
loving………neighbor, let us walk through them one at a time.
"You shall have no other gods before
me" (Ex. 20:3; Deut. 5:7).
No loyalty comes before my loyalty to God. I should worship and serve
only God, expect all good from God alone, and love, fear and honor God with all
my heart.
Matt. 4:10 "Jesus said to his tempter, 'Away with you, Satan! for
it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either
hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Matt. 10:37 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me."
We don’t often think of family members as gods, but if we put family
ahead of God, then family life has become our god. And that according to Jesus is idolatry,
which leads us to commandment number 2.
"You shall not make for yourself an
idol" (Ex. 20:4; Deut. 5:8).
First, when I treat anything other than God as though it were God, I
practice idolatry. Second, when I
assume that my own interests are more important than anything else, I make them
into idols, and in effect make an idol of myself.
That takes us back to last week’s scripture from Philippians "Let
each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of
others."
The third commandment is often disobeyed unintentionally
"You shall not make wrongful use of
the name of the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:7; Deut.
5:11).
I should use God's name with reverence and awe. God's name is taken in
vain when used to support wrong. It is insulted when used carelessly, as in a
curse or a pious cliché.
Not just is God holy but the very name of God is holy. It is not to be tossed around. The other day Rebecca was babysitting, and
the child came to swim in our pool. She
kept shouting, “Oh my god. Oh my
god.” It is an expletive so common that
it has its own acronym OMG on all the social media.
But we are called to bless God’s name, to ascribe to God the glory of
God’s name.
We are challenged to let no evil come out of our mouths but only that
which is useful for building up.
To use the name of God flippantly or to call ourselves by Christ’s
name – Christian - without serious attention to the power and meaning of the
name is to break the third commandment.
I challenge you to cut OMG out of your vocabulary and to live into the
name Christian with greater intentionality.
"Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep
it holy" (Ex. 20:8; Deut. 5:12).
God requires a special day to be set apart so that worship can be at
the center of my life. It is right to
honor God with thanks and praise, and to hear and receive God's Word, so that I
may have it in my heart, and on my lips, and put it into practice in my life.
But does it have to be Sunday?
Well, remember that for Jews it is sundown Friday to sundown Saturday,
and for many Christians it is sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday. The day of the week does not matter as much
as the stopping to worship and rest.
For the early Christians, worship was on the day of Resurrection, the
third day after Good Friday, not the day known as the Sabbath by Jews.
The point is that we need to stop all our striving to remember that
God is in charge of the world and not we ourselves. The second point is that employers should
respect those who work for them and give them time to worship, rest, and enjoy
their families and friends.
Now on to the last six commandments. The
last six are about loving who?
"Honor your father and your
mother" (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16).
Though I owe reverence to God alone, I owe genuine respect to my
parents, both my mother and father. God wills me to listen to them, be thankful
for the benefits I receive from them, and be considerate of their needs,
especially in old age.
In the Biblical times, there was no Medicare or Social security, so if
children did not care for their parents, their parents simply died, for lack of
means.
That was the last positively stated commandment. Now the last half will be “thou shalt not”
commandments. And from here on, we have
to remember the Sermon on the Mount, because every time we hear a commandment
and think we are off the hook Jesus says, “you have heard it said, but I say to
you…”
So when we hear "You shall
not murder" (Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17) we cannot sit back and say, “I’d
never do that!”
For God forbids anything that harms my neighbor unfairly. Murder or
injury can be done not only by direct violence but also by an angry word or a
clever plan, and not only by an individual but also by unjust social
institutions. I should honor every human being, including my enemy, as a person
made in God's image.
1 John 3:15 say "All who hate a brother or sister are murderers,
and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them."
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, You have heard it said, “You
shall not murder.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or
sister, you will be liable to judgment.
"You shall not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14; Deut. 5:18).
God requires faithfulness, as God is faithful. Since love is God's great gift, God expects
me not to corrupt it, or confuse it with momentary desire or the selfish
fulfillment of my own pleasures. God forbids all sexual unfaithfulness, whether
in married or in single life.
Jesus says, You have heard it said, “You shall not commit adultery,”
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already
committed adultery with her in his heart.
"You shall not steal" (Ex. 20:15; Deut. 5:19).
God forbids all theft and robbery – that’s easy. But it gets a little more complicated when
we start talking schemes, tricks or systems that unjustly take what belongs to
someone else. God requires me not to be driven by greed, not to misuse or waste
the gifts I have been given, and not to distrust the promise that God will
supply my needs.
The prophet Jeremiahs says in 22:13 "Woe to him who builds his
house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his
neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages."
Prov. 18.9 "One who is slack in work is close kin to a
vandal."
1 John 3:17 "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the
world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"
"You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor" (Ex. 20:16; Deut. 5:20).
God forbids me to damage the honor or reputation of my neighbor. I
should not say false things against anyone for the sake of money, favor or
friendship, for the sake of revenge, or for any other reason. God requires me
to speak the truth, to speak well of my neighbor when I can, and to view the
faults of my neighbor with tolerance when I cannot.
James 4:11 "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and
sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil
against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a
doer of the law but a judge."
1 Pet. 4:8 "Above all, maintain constant love for one another,
for love covers a multitude of sins."
And let’s take this one a step further. In forbidding false witness against my neighbor,
God forbids me to be prejudiced against people who belong to any vulnerable,
different or disfavored social group. Jews, women, homosexuals, racial and
ethnic minorities, and national enemies are among those who have suffered
terribly from being subjected to the slurs of social prejudice. Negative
stereotyping is a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse,
and violence as forbidden by the commandment against murder.
Last but not at all least "You
shall not covet what is your neighbor's" (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21).
Now in the days in which this commandment was written, women and
servants were the property of the male head of household. That’s why it says you cannot covet your
neighbor’s wife or servant.
My whole heart should belong to God alone, not to money or the things
of this world. "Coveting" means desiring something wrongfully. I
should not resent the good fortune or success of my neighbor or allow envy to
corrupt my heart. We slip into coveting
without shame, but it is a poisonous attitude.
Heb. 13:5 says "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and
be content with what you have; for he has said, 'I will never leave you or
forsake you.'"
Gal. 5:26 "Let us not become conceited, competing against one
another, envying one another."
The first four teach me how to relate rightly to God and the last six
commandments teach me how to live rightly with my neighbor.
Can we obey these commandments perfectly?
No. We are forgiven
sinners. We should not adjust the law
to our failures, nor reduce our failures before God. Yet there is more grace in
God than sin in us. While we should not cease to pray to God for mercy, we can
be confident that God is forgiving and that we will be set free from all my
sins. By grace we can confess sins, repent of them, and grow in love and
knowledge day by day.
There’s a reason the commandments begin with our
relationship with God -- our relationship with God affects our relationships
with others. If we do not
wholeheartedly trust God, it is difficult to endure personal relationship
problems because we see no way through.
We do not have the spiritual strength to endure it. If we begin to idolize other people or are
guided by our own personal passions more than our love for God, we will have
trouble keeping commandments 5-10. If
we are not in close relationship with God, praying and taking Sabbath time to
build our spiritual muscles, then we will have trouble truly loving our
neighbor, whether that’s spouse, child, parent, colleague, friend, or stranger.
But if we can delight in God’s great love and in the gifts God has
given us, particularly the people God places in our paths, if we can
continually build a spirit of trust in God that allows space for shalom (peace,
well-being), then we will be the peacemakers that the world so desperately
needs.
Note:
Much of the language and many of the scripture references in this sermon
are borrowed from The Study Catechism, PCUSA 1998.
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