Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

preached on September 28, by Winton Boyd

Exodus 20:1-17

In my own Christian Education the 10 Commandments stand out for a couple of strange reasons.
As 6th graders in Sunday School, we received a plaque of the 10 Commandments when we memorized them. What I remember most, however, is that in the King James Version of the Bible we used, the last commandment allowed us to say the word “ass.” I had no idea what it meant to “covet” something, but knew I wasn’t to covet my neighbor’s ass. In a home where swearing wasn’t allowed, it was amazing to “swear” in Sunday School.

The second thing I remember is attending a Lutheran seminary and having a discussion about the 10 commandments and realizing I was confused. They weren’t the same commandments.

In fact, if you look at the Jewish, Catholic/Lutheran, and General Protestant version of the 10 Commandments, the same passage of Scripture is broken up in three different ways to the number 10.

Protestants start with “You shall have no other God’s before me.” #2 is “You shall not make an idol.”

Jews begin with “I am the Lord your God,” and #2 is “You shall have no other gods before me.” They don’t separate out the verse about idols.

Catholic and Lutherans begin with “You shall not make an idol (skipping over “I am the Lord your God” and “You shall have no other gods before me.” To get to the number 10, they then split the Jewish/Protestant number 10 into 2- having a commandment – “You shall not covet your neighbors wife” and a separate one for “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house and other things.”

In addition, most major religions have something quite similar – some ethical moral outlook like this?
• The Qur’an contains several passages summarizing proper ethical behavior, which have been called Islamic Decalogues.
• In Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism we find lists of ten charges or ten precepts for monks and lay people.

The Ten Commandments, and whether or not they can be located on public or state owned land, have become the battleground for church state issues. Michael Feldman, the host of public radio’s “Whad’ya Know?” once suggested that all the tax dollars spent posting the commandments, and the ensuing controversy, would be saved if people really did just commit these commandments to memory.

Regardless, to make these part of such fights is more indicative of the rigidness of the ‘stone tablets’ than it is of the ‘living words’ that were given to Moses. Not only are these short verses reiterated later in the Old Testament at least three times [Psalm 2 4.3-6, Hosea 4.1-3, Jeremiah 7.1-15], they form a central core theme of the ancient Israeli covenant.

The book of Exodus, beginning with our text from last Sunday announcing the liberation, traces the journey of Israel from being a small band of shepherds settled among foreigners who despised them to being a people among whom God dwelled and who God would lead on their journey to a new place. It is the story of a marginal group who became enslaved but who by miracle became free to follow God. These two journeys are intertwined—the journey to peoplehood and the journey to becoming God’s people. The journey from slavery to liberation was also the journey from serving human taskmasters to serving God as their Lord. Freedom from human domination meant freedom for God’s presence and God’s leading.

As the people travel, in Exodus 18 Moses took the advice of his father-in-law and chose leaders to work with him. At the beginning of Exodus 19 the people finally arrive at the foot of Mt Sinai. Moses goes up the mountain to have conversation with Yahweh who declares that IF the people are obedient and keep the covenant they will remain in relationship with God. At the foot of the mountain all the elders and people say, ‘we will do as the Lord asks. This sets the scene for Moses to give the ten commandments in Exod 20. What is called the Book of the Covenant follows in Exodus 21- 23 which expands the commandments with particular examples and their consequences. Exodus 24 is a reaffirmation of the covenant and theophanies (appearances) of God. The next seven chapters of Exodus give detailed instructions to Moses on the mountain about how the people are to make a tabernacle in which God will dwell in their midst.

The Hebrew word, Torah, is often translated as law which sounds negative. However, Torah is more about teaching and the commandments are positive instruction to enable the people, both to stay in relationship with God; and to behave in right ways with each other. Understanding them as a set of burdens overlooks something essential, namely that they are prefaced not by an order – “Here are ten rules. Obey them!” — but instead, by a breathtaking announcement of freedom that refers to last week’s text about the Exodus: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2).

We can think of them as descriptions of the life that prevails in the zone of God’s liberation. “Because the Lord is your God,” the Decalogue affirms, “you are free not to need any other gods. You are free to rest on the seventh day; free from the tyranny of lifeless idols; free from murder, stealing, and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land.”

These words remind me of the many covenants made each year in this sanctuary when two people “commit” or “covenant” their lives in marriage (recognized by the state or not). Out of their mutual love for each other, they commit to certain ways of being in the world. Such promises allow love to propser. Such commitments, rather than being a burden, produce a freedom for mutual discovery rooted in mutual love.

Often, as I talk with couples before their wedding, I ask them what they have learned about commitment and love from their parents or others they respect. One of the most common, simple practices that I hear about is the commitment two people have to “not go to bed angry.” As a rule, this can sound harsh and burdensome. It can sound restrictive and constraining. But when it flows out of a commitment to a relationship, this “rule” is actually a gift – it understands that when small things rise in our lives, the larger more central commitment must be remembered. As one grows in love, “rules” like this become a source of strength and are deeply appreciated. It reminds us that our commitment is larger than the argument of today, and that our love is committed to something larger and more lasting.

Another image, offered by Rev. Scott Long in the Christian Century, is that of a dance. The commandments begin with the good news of what the liberating God has done and then describes the shape of the freedom that results. The good news of the God who set people free is the music; the commandments are the dance steps of those who hear it playing. The commandments are not weights, but wings that enable our hearts to catch the wind of God’s Spirit and to soar.

Or, we might see these, as Robert Wuthnow writes, as deep groundedness rooted in a powerful story of our life.

He tells the story of Jack Casey, a volunteer fireman and ambulance attendant who, as a child, had to have some of his teeth extracted under general anesthesia. Jack was terrified, but a nurse standing nearby said to him, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here right beside you no matter what happens.” When he woke up from the surgery, she had kept her word and was still standing beside him.

This experience of being cared for by the nurse stayed with him, and nearly 20 years later his ambulance crew was called to the scene of an accident. The driver was pinned upside down in his pickup truck, and Jack crawled inside to try to get him out of the wreckage. Gasoline was dripping onto both Jack and the driver, and there was a serious danger of fire because power tools were being used to free the driver, The whole time, the driver was crying out about how scared of dying he was, and Jack kept saying to him, recalling what the nurse had said so many years before, “Look, don’t worry, I’m right here with you, I’m not going anywhere.” Later, after the truck driver had been safely rescued, he was incredulous. “You were an idiot “he said to Jack. “You know that the thing could have exploded and we’d have both been burned up1″ In reply, Jack simply said he felt he just couldn’t leave him,

That’s the way the commandments work. First comes the experience of being cared for, the experience of being set free, preserved in the form of a narrative.

Then there follows the life shaped ethically around that profound story. A nurse saying “I’ll be right here beside you” becomes the action of a man risking his life for a stranger because he knows in his bones that he just can’t leave him, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you . . . out of the house of slavery” prompts us to live lives shaped by the freedom created by that God.

In ancient Israel, and even today, there is a Jewish practice that uses a mezuzah, a small box with the first commandment on it (also part of an Ancient Jewish prayer called the Shema). This box, or mezuzah, is a constant reminder of God’s presence and the ensuing commitment to the wider world that comes with it. As Tammy mentioned, this box might be placed by the door of the house so that in our coming and going – Jews can be reminded to thank God for life and pray that they might live faithfully.

As we think about the 10 commandments and how they shape our understanding of our life today, I think there are three things they lift up.

What is the shape of the freedom, liberation, love, or grace that you have known in your life coming from the Absolute – from God, God’s creation, God’s people, or God’s spirit in your life?   What is the experience of groundedness and wholeness and hope that rests at the very core of your being and connects you most deeply with the One who is beyond us all? For the ancient Israelites, it was the Exodus. What is it for us? It is probably not as dramatic as a 40-year walk across the desert, but it is probably just as defining. It may not be just one experience, it may be a few experiences that ground us in different ways. But if the commitments of our life are to have meaning and value – we need to have some way of accessing the deep seeded experience, or story, of wholeness or grace from which they flow.

What are the commitments in your life that flow from that freedom, grace, groundedness, or wholeness? What are the covenants that you enter freely and wholly because they allow you to live most fully into that person you know you are at your deepest self? How do those commitments attend to your faith practices, your relationships with your loved ones, your commitments to others in our community, and world?

What is your mezuzah? How are you able to keep this life-giving sense of your self and your ensuing commitments close to your heart, close to your consciousness? Do you have, or would you like to establish spiritual practices? How do you regroup and recenter yourself as a child of God in order to remember how it is that you want to live?

Amen

Today’s Text

Exodus 20:1-17

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; 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.

5You 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, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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. 10But 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. 11For 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.

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.