Third Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2009
The Old Testament: Exodus 20:1-17
Sermon: "The Ten Commandments"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Old Testament: 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; you shall have no other gods before me.
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.
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.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor 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.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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.
Exodus 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments Lent 3, 2009: The Ten Commandments
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jimmy and Jimmy lived near a lake. Every day, all summer long, Jimmy would go to swim in that lake. You could wade in a few feet and then it got really deep, really quickly, so it was fun for swimming. It had a big bank on one side, which was great, but that bank had a “no diving” sign on it that everyone obeyed. Jimmy really wanted to dive from that bank; he was sure that the water was deep enough there—but he kept looking at the sign and decided not to risk it. For years, Jimmy wanted to dive off that bank, and for years he wondered why that “no diving” sign was there. Until the summer of the drought, when the lake almost dried up. Then Jimmy saw that underneath where all that deep water had been were some humungous rocks, rocks well big enough to break your spine if you ever dared to dive off that bank. You couldn’t see them when the water was there, but they were certainly visible that summer. Suddenly, the “no diving” sign made perfectly good sense.
The Ten commandments are our “no diving” sign. Their purpose, like that of the sign is to protect us from unseen danger. They won’t stop us if we are really determined, but they warn us, and try to keep us from hurting ourselves—which makes them very important rules.
Unfortunately, we usually feel rather negatively about them. For some of us, that is probably because we feel negatively about any rules—they just crimp our style. Some of us feel negatively about the ten commandments because they just sound so negative: you shall not, you shall not, over and over. And some us probably feel negatively about them because we break them so often, and we don’t like to be reminded of that.
Whatever the reason, we tend to see the commandments negatively—either as arbitrary rules like dress codes and speed limits, or as limitations on what we really want to do.
I would suggest that we think of the ten commandments positively rather than negatively. Their purpose, as in the “no diving” story is not simply to prohibit certain behaviors, but to protect us. They are, as one of the commentaries says, “gracious gifts from God for the sake of the life, health and wellbeing of individuals and the community.” They offer God’s guidance to help us have the best possible life we could have. Like the “no diving” sign, we may not understand all the reasons behind each commandment, but we trust the one who gave them to us and know that He has given them not to set us up for punishment, but to provide a framework upon which to build a good life, the best possible life, that we can have with God and with each other.
The commandments begin with a call to faithfulness—we are to have no other gods and no idols and we are not to use our God’s name wrongfully. These commandments tell us that our relationship with God is to be primary in our lives, and we must not let anything or anyone take God’s place.
I’m afraid that is easier said than done in our world of competing priorities. Work, family, money and prestige, at least, all loudly demand our attention while God stays quietly to the side, waiting for us to come around. God calls us to make our relationship with him the center of our lives, and let all the other relationships and priorities flow out from there. In the first 3 commandments, we are called to faithfulness: no other gods, no idols, no taking God’s name in vain.
In the 4th commandment, God calls us to keep a Sabbath. Even God took a day off once a week! Again, this commandment is given to us to help us have the best life we can—and a Sabbath time is crucial to that. God calls us to take some time off; to set aside time and space, on a regular basis, for quiet, for refreshment, for leisure and for fun. We were not created to work all the time. Even if we can manage only a few minutes of Sabbath each day, or a little each week, we are called to take it. If we are running on empty, emotionally, spiritually and physically, we will be of little use to God or God’s people. God calls us to keep a Sabbath.
Number 5 in the commandments, Honor your mother and your father, can be either easy as pie or tough as an old boot. For those with a good childhood, fulfilling this commandment seems simple and natural. For those whose parents have sadly, lost any claim to their children’s respect or love, this commandment poses a problem. Notice, though that the word is “honor” not love. Obviously, ideally God would like for us all to love our parents as well as honor them, but for some that is simply not possible. In those cases, God is calling us to recognize our connection with them, and see that they are appropriately cared for, whether by us or by someone else, when that becomes necessary. Ideally, our relationships with our parents will be more and better than that, but at the very least, we are called to honor them.
Finally, the last 5 commandments call us to live lives of integrity with one another—no adultery, lying, stealing, murder or coveting. (you know when your car is in the repair shop and you resent everyone who drives by because their car is working—that’s coveting.) These commandments call us to faithfulness in relationships and to treat one another with respect. Don’t lie to or about anyone; don’t steal—even from those who have so much they would never notice the loss; don’t murder—no reason justifies that, and no coveting, because that just leads to all the others.
We are not perfect, and I hate to break this to you, but we never will be. Nonetheless, we try—we listen to God’s commandments and with God’s help, we try to build our lives around them. And when we fail, we get up, and we try again. In our Rite One service we end our prayer of the ten commandments with a prayer asking that God would “write all these thy laws in our hearts.”. And that is our prayer--- Write your laws on our hearts, O God, and by them help us to live the good life you would have for us.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen