The Thirteen Commandments (3/4/18)
Lucas Cranach, The Ten Commandments
On Sunday, March 4th, we examined the Ten Commandments, as they appear in the Book of Exodus. This is one of those Bible stories that is so familiar, that sometimes we don't pay close enough attention to it. Even worse, we tend to view it as simply a checklist of behaviors that we have to follow, rather than understanding it as part of a larger covenant between God and humanity.
Sermon
Good morning. Yesterday I went to a workshop on ethics and
boundaries. It was for pastors and commissioned ruling elders. The workshop
covered a lot of the same ground that my pastoral care classes covered, but
there was some interesting material, and it’s always good to make connections
with other pastors and CREs in the presbytery.
The truth is, ministry can be very isolating, and pastors
need to establish strong relationships with their colleagues in ministry,
because there are lots of things that we can’t share with the members of our
congregations. I should pause here and tell you that I’m not hiding something
from you—this section of the sermon isn’t about you and it isn’t about me—though,
as an only child, I’m tempted to see everything as it pertains to me.
Certainly, I did wonder: Why do I have to do this? It was
all covered in my pastoral care classes. And even worse, why do I have to do
this now, at the busiest time of the church year? The answer is, it wasn’t
about me, it was about all of us who are called to ministry, and making sure
that we all function in a healthy way.
Isolation is a dangerous thing. When pastors feel isolated,
we tend to neglect things like self-care and we fail to observe healthy
boundaries with the members of the congregations we serve. So, gatherings that
bring groups of pastors together are good things. And workshops that call us to
look within—even when we need to be finishing our sermons—are particularly
appropriate during Lent.
The workshop did not offer us 10 Easy Rules for Healthy Boundaries! There were no simple bullet
points or commandments. Sometimes simple lists can give too much structure;
sometimes simple lists stand in the place of careful contemplation. Simple
lists like the Ten Commandments.
The phrase The Ten
Commandments doesn’t appear in the Hebrew text of Exodus. The text simply
says: “Then God spoke all these words.” The Hebrew word davar can be translated as “word” or “thing,” and scholars often
refer to the body of statements as the Decalogue, which is Greek for “ten
words.”
Language structures our thinking. The name, the Ten
Commandments, causes us to look for ten discrete laws, which distorts the text:
[The division into ten
units] most likely reflects a notion of ten as a number expressing perfection.
Yet, the Decalogue comprises as many as thirteen separate statements:
1. I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
2. You shall have no other
gods before me.
3. You shall not make for
yourself an idol…
4. You shall not bow down
to them or worship them…
5. You shall not make wrongful
use of the name of the Lord your God…
6. Remember the sabbath day
and keep it holy.
7. Honor your father and
your mother…
8. You shall not murder.
9. You shall not commit
adultery.
10. You shall not steal.
11. You shall not bear false
witness against your neighbor.
12. You shall not covet your
neighbor’s house.
13. You shall not covet your
neighbor’s wife…[1]
The number thirteen isn’t
as neat and clean as the number ten, so, like ancient editors before us, we
squeeze these thirteen words into Ten Commandments, and from there, we turn it
into a checklist of behaviors—things to do or not do, so that we can get into Heaven
or remain in a right relationship with God. That’s an oversimplification of the
text, and when we oversimplify it, we misuse it; we move away from God’s plan
for us.
As I was doing my research for this sermon, I came across a
couple of pictures of monuments to the Ten Commandments. One was a monument
that stands on the grounds of the state Capitol in Austin, Texas and the other
was the monument that was built by Roy Moore, which sat, for a time, in the
Alabama Supreme Court. I was struck by two things that I saw in those
monuments.
The first is that the monuments chose the language of the
King James Version of the Bible, with all of its “Thou shalt nots.” Now, the
monument in Austin was erected in 1961. I would guess that the text of the King
James Version didn’t sound so strange in 1961, though nobody spoke that way
outside of church. But the monument in Alabama was erected in this century, and
it was erected at a moment in our cultural history when words like thee and thou sound increasingly foreign to our ears—even to those of us who
go to church.
This suggests a sort of nostalgia for the past—it conjures
up a memory for a time when people were more moral, more righteous—as if there
were ever a time when people didn’t commit murder, or didn’t steal, or didn’t
commit adultery. The monument from Alabama celebrates a mythical past that
never really existed.
The other thing that I noticed about both monuments, and I
think this is really important, is that both of them leave out some of the
language of the Decalogue. For instance, the monument from Texas reads: “I am
the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” It completely omits
the part of the story in which God explains that He brought the Israelites out
of slavery in Egypt. That is covenant language and it’s vital to understanding
God’s call on our lives. But when we focus on the name, Ten Commandments, we tend
to edit God’s words.
We have to pay attention to all of the words, all of the
parts of all of the commandments, because they all function together. Too often, we hear the Ten Commandments as personal instructions
and nothing more than personal instructions. To be sure, we are to keep these
Commandments; we are supposed to keep the Sabbath holy; we are supposed honor
our parents; we are NOT supposed to kill, steal, or tell lies in court. But the
Commandments are NOT just about us as
individuals:
While the [form of]
address is individual, the concern is not some private welfare. The focus is on
protecting the health of the community,
to which the individual plays such an important role. [The] primary concern is
not to create the human community but to
protect it from behaviors that have the potential of destroying it.[2]
Think about it. God
creates us. God creates community. And then God gives us a set of Commandments
to protect that community, to protect us from ourselves.
It’s also worth noting that the “Commandments are given by
the Lord directly to the people, and
this is the only time such direct speech to the whole people takes place.”[3]
Everywhere else in the Old Testament, God speaks through intermediaries. God
gives the rest of the Law to the people of Israel through Moses. God sends
visions to some of the prophets. This is the only time that God speaks to the
entire community, all of Israel. That’s how important this is to the entire
community. And that’s why it’s important to include all of the words that God spoke.
The Commandments provide an ethical
framework for the people of Israel to remain in a right relationship with God.
“The ethic of the Commandments is as much an ethic of gratitude and response as
it is an ethic of obligation and duty.”[4] Yes,
it is the duty of every individual to follow these Commandments. At the same time,
it’s clear that a community who is grateful for its freedom from slavery will
gladly embrace the Commandments as a response to an unimaginable gift.
We live in a culture that doesn’t fully comprehend our
message. To those who are outside of the Church, Christians can come off as
preachy and self-righteous. Using the Ten Commandments as a checklist of
behaviors only feeds that false impression of who we are. And that’s especially
true if we use these commandments to condemn our neighbors or to proclaim our moral
superiority.
We also live in a culture where we are increasingly isolated
from one another. Remember, the commandments are given to a community, for the
purpose of preserving that community. If we are not actively engaged in
practicing community with everyone,
then we are not fully living into the covenant, either. And we may not be doing
as good of a job at observing the Ten Commandments as we think.
The other day I was talking to a buddy of mine at the cigar
shop. He told me a story about a trip that he took to the grocery store. He
said he was standing in line and the woman ahead of him had this huge order.
She was wearing expensive clothes and shoes and she carried a fancy purse—and then
she pulled out an Access card to pay for the groceries.
My friend was incensed. He went on and on about how this
woman had no business getting benefits, considering all the nice things she had.
I’m sure you’ve seen this, too. He was upset that she was spending the money
that he payed in taxes, when she clearly didn’t need the money because, well,
look at her shoes!
I know the feeling. I also know that it’s the wrong reaction!
I asked my friend if he had spoken to the woman. He hadn’t.
I asked him if he knew when the woman bought her clothes or her shoes or her
purse. He didn’t know. I asked him if he knew the woman’s marital status. He
didn’t know. His anger was based on his assumptions about this woman’s life.
Now it’s entirely possible that the woman had been married
and her husband ran off with another woman. Maybe the husband was fighting the
divorce. Maybe the husband still had control of the finances. And maybe, just
maybe, all of the fancy clothes and accessories were purchased before her
husband left, before she applied for that Access card. At the time, I didn’t
even think to call my friend out for violating the Tenth Commandment. In truth,
he was coveting her possessions!
Of course, all of that is unknowable. The point is that we
often overlook our own violations of the commandments; we compartmentalize and
we only see the sins of others, not our own shortcomings. That’s why the
context of community is so important to understanding the Ten Commandments.
Remember, too, that when Jesus was asked which commandment
was greatest, he didn’t list any of the Ten Commandments as they are stated in
Exodus. Jesus said the most important commandment is to love God, and the next
most important commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. When
we focus on the Ten Commandments as simply a list of rules, then we fail to
live into the spirit of those rules. So, let us not look to the rules, but
instead, focus on the risen Christ, who embodies God’s covenants with humanity,
and let us follow his call to reach out to all of God’s beloved children. Thanks
be to God. Amen!
Benediction
Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ in the world today. We are
called to go forth and be instruments of God’s love and peace and love and reconciliation.
This is how we live into God’s covenants. Do not return evil for evil to any
person, but know that we are all loved by God, and that we are called to
reflect that love to everyone we meet. Go forth and be the salt of the earth
and the light of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, let all
God’s children say, Amen!
[1]
Marc Zvi Brettler. How to Read the Bible.
Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society (2005), p. 64.
[2]
Terence E. Fretheim. Exodus.
Louisville: John Knox Press (1991), 221.
[3]
Patrick D. Miller. The Ten Commandments.
Louisville: John Knox Press (2009), 3.
[4]
Miller, 16
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