Blessing, Not a Burden
Lent 3 – March 11, 2012
The Ten Commandments are a curious thing. So basic to our faith. Shared across Judeo-Christian traditions. We encourage our Sunday schoolers to learn them by heart. We teach them along with Martin Luther's explanation of what they mean to our confirmation classes – and I'm proud to say that this year's 8th graders still remember a lot of them and how they apply to our lives even though we did the Small Catechism last year.
It wasn't until I got to seminary that I learned that Christian groups don't all number the 10 Commandments the same way. The content doesn't change, just the way we divvy up the verses to total 10 commands. And it wasn't until this week that I learned the Jewish faith numbers them yet a different way. You would think that for as basic, as foundational, as these verses are, we wouldn't have any controversy or disagreement about how to number them.
That's just one of the challenges in the way that we view and understand the 10 Commandments. But a more telling and pervasive one is the way we understand what they are there to do, regardless of how we divide them up and assign them numbers. Beyond being a list for kids and youth to memorize, we tend to envision them as a burden. We hear them as a never-ending series of “no”s to our personal freedom of choice. In the King James English, “Thou shalt not” - over and over again, even if we would be hard pressed to remember all 10, let alone in order, we know that that is at the heart of them, what we cannot do!
It makes you wonder a bit how the original receivers of these commands responded to them, how the ancient Israelites reacted when Moses came back down off the mountain with these words from the LORD. Now, to set the stage a little bit, we need to back up. We hear at the very beginning of this passage what we really need to know: “Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...”
It has not been too long ago that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. It's not so many days into their journey into the wilderness, they arrive at Mt. Sinai, where God makes this dramatic appearance, descending to the mountain in fire, so that it is wrapped in smoke, and it shakes violently, and Moses alone is called to speak with God, whose voice sounds like thunder. And here on this mountain, days into their journey into freedom, God calls them into covenant. God has led them out of slavery under Pharaoh and brought them himself, and promises to be with them. And in return, God asks that they follow God's words that he gives to them – and they say, “Everything that the LORD has spoken, we will do” (Exod. 19:8) And yet barely are these words out of their mouths, while Moses is back up on the mountain and they start to wonder if he will ever come back, and they fall away. They come to Aaron, Moses' brother, asking for him to make a god for them to worship, and so they proceed to make the golden calf (Exod. 32). There's goes commandment #1 for us Lutherans: I am the LORD your God, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol...you shall not bow down to them or worship them...” Whoops!
It's easy to not keep the commandments, even when we want to, even when we're trying, even if we don't see them just as a super-strict God laying down the law just to spoil our fun.
But the 10 Commandments are more than just a list to memorize, more than just rules to follow, more than just directions for how to live. The 10 Commandments tell us about who God is, and invite us to grow toward becoming the people God created us to be, to help us to live in relationship with God and with each other the way God envisioned it from the beginning. The 10 Commandments are not only a prescription for living, but a description of what it looks like when God is in charge, of how life under God's gracious reign will be! Imagine with me for a few minutes what it would look like if we actually lived in a world where God's commands were followed.
Imagine a world where God has first place and final authority, where we respected the holiness of God and God's name, out of love and reverence, not fear.
Imagine a world where we actually took a sabbath. Not just a morning to come to church, but a full day where we did no work, but instead took time to be refreshed and renewed in the presence of God and of our family and friends and loved ones. Think about what it would feel like for one day a week, every week, to have no obligations, to appointments, no errands to run, no to-do list to do – not because there's nothing that needs doing, but because we choose to trust God that we can take a break and the world will go on! Imagine what creating that space one day a week to be unhurried, uninterrupted, to just be – with God, with yourself, with others – would be like. Think about how it would make the rest of the week, how it would affect your work, your relationships, your health... Aaaahhh.
Imagine a world where parents and those in authority are respected. Imagine a world where life is honored, where we would not have to worry about one person taking the life of another – whether through guns at school or terrorist bombs or domestic violence; where people would not tear each other down, but instead would try to lift each other up and looked out for the well-being of others as much as we look after our own.
Imagine a world where relationships are held sacred, where commitments made and vows spoken are kept, where we wouldn't have to worry about adultery or betrayal; a world where lock-makers and safe-makers would have to find new jobs because stealing would no longer be a threat, a world where we not only did not steal, but tried to help each other to hold on to what is rightfully ours.
Imagine a world where we could trust what others say. A world where we were content with what we have and could rejoice in what others have, instead of being consumed with envy and jealousy and greed, because we know that what we have is enough and that God provides us with what we need.
This is the world God has been calling into being from the very beginning, forming order out of chaos, light out of darkness, wholeness out of fragmentation. This is what God seeks in making covenants with Noah and Abraham and Sarah and all the generations that follow them. This is what God wants the people of Israel to represent to the rest of the world, a model of how it can be when God is really, truly our God, when God is in control. It is a world of wholeness, of joy, of peace. These commandments aren't given to hem us in and enslave us, they are given to set us free! The God who gives them is the God who liberates us, who leads God's people out of slavery into freedom in the promised land, the God who is not content to let us be enslaved again to the things of this world.
May we learn to live in the freedom God gives in these commands.
Amen.
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