Only Ten?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 10/2/2011

Only Ten?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 10/2/2011
Based on Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

It is not often that we review the collection of laws that we call the Ten Commandments, but this is the focus of this morning’s reflection. Rev Kathryn Huey writes in this week’s Sermon Seeds, “Every once in a while, the Ten Commandments provoke a measure of controversy in our public life: not about whether we actually obey them and keep them at the heart of our life together, or how they might change the way we live if we observed them. That would be an excellent controversy. No, our national argument tends to be about their display, engraved (ironically) in stone and practically worshipped not for their content but for the message they are assumed to convey, that we are a nation under God, specifically, in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The prominent display of these commandments serves to remind people in other faiths, and atheists as well, about who "we" are, whenever "they" walk into public buildings, regardless of the separation of church and state that protects all of us, however futilely, from religious wars of one kind or another. And yet, we are apparently the ones who need to be reminded of who we are and what it means to live faithfully, for "in recent polls of the American public," Gene Tucker observes, "although the majority affirmed that the Bible is in some way the word of God, only a small percentage could name as many as four of the Ten Commandments" (Preaching through the Christian Year A). If we don't even know what they are, how can we obey them?” So, prior to reading this morning’s scripture, I am going to give you a quiz and have us as a group try to name all Ten Commandments.
In the progression of the story of the Hebrew people, we can recall how they are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was Joseph, the son of Jacob, the one sold off into slavery by his brothers who actually was able to provide a place of refuge and safety for his family as a great famine occurred. So, the descendants of Abraham, found themselves in the land of Egypt, living in security. Then a few generations down the road, they became enslaved by the Egyptians.
Through a man named Moses, God rescued these slaves and guided them through unknown territory, providing protection and food. Eventually they found themselves at the foot of Mt Sinai. It was there that Moses went up to meet with God and received these Ten Commandments. It must have been something to behold for scripture says, “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....”
We as a society really dislike the idea of having rules and regulations. We often look to rules, contracts, and covenants as being restrictive, rather than being a freeing agent. When we talk about the concept of “discipline”, we generally think in terms of punitive actions for stepping outside of a set boundary. Yet discipline is needed in order to active a given objective. If we wish to be able to read for example, we have to become disciplined in the alphabet and learning of words in order to be able to read. The same goes with writing or with mathematics or any other activity.
God in many ways is like a parent. We are made in God’s image; therefore, God knows that we operate best with boundaries. In order for us to live life to its best, we need to understand what is best for us. I believe that is what the Ten Commandments are intended to active. We are lucky, Moses only brought down ten from Mount Sinai, by the time Jesus was ministering, there were 613 laws to live by; after the destruction of the Temple there are only 271 laws that can be followed and acted upon as a Jew.
I suspect that most of us feel that we follow the Ten Commandments or rather that we probably don’t really directly violate them. This might be true or it might be that we don’t examine our heart or our actions very closely, thereby think we don’t violate these specific laws that God gave to us.
For example: the first commandment tells us who God is. It is God who brought us up out of Egypt. “What do you mean brought me up out of Egypt? I’ve never stepped foot out of this country, let alone visited Egypt.” Egypt is a metaphor meaning “enslaved”. For folks who have gone through any kind of 12 step program, they will tell you what being a slave to alcohol, sexual abuse, or drug is all about and how their “higher power” has helped bring them out of that slavery, up out of Egypt.
The next commandment is to have no idols. In our affluence as a nation, we are confronted daily with idols. Walter Brueggemann writes powerfully of these temptations: “We have always lived in a world of options, alterative choices, and gods who make powerful, competing appeals. It does us no good to pretend that there are no other offers of well-being, joy, and security. In pursuit of joy, we may choose philosophy, in pursuit of security, we may choose military might; in pursuit of genuine love, we may choose sex. It is clear that these choices are not Yahweh that these are not gods who have ever brought an Exodus or offered a covenant.” UCC Sermon Seeds, Oct 2, 2011
We are told to remember the Sabbath day. This is a word that has become lost in our culture. How many of you tell friends, “I go to church on Sundays?” How many of you say to friends, “On Sundays, I go to worship” instead of using the word “church”? When was the last time you kept the Sabbath? Or maybe more accurately, “what does keeping the Sabbath mean?”
Traditionally it goes back to God working hard for six days and then resting on the seventh day, reflection on all that was created. The Hebrew’s were delivered out of slavery which was a seven day work week and God was asking them to take one day out of the week and keep it holy, so that they could reflect on their relationship to the one who was not only their God, but the one who freed them from their oppression! The word Sabbath means something different than “doing church.”
Now we come to an easy one – don’t commit murder! Yet what happens if you are in the military and we go to war does the killing of the enemy mean murder? Mae West during a confrontation with the HAE’S commission on the topic of “immorality” specifically about her innuendo’s spoke a great truth when she told them, “Sending our boys off to kill one another is immorality!” Yet there are many ways to kill a person without physically killing them. We can kill a child’s spirit by demeaning them on a daily basis; we can kill someone’s character with slander or malicious intent, or even with idol gossip.
Jesus when questioned on which commandment was the greatest, his response was twofold: “Love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul; the other is to love your neighbor as you would love yourself.” That sounds pretty straight forward. Jesus has taken these Ten Commandments and brought them into two basic groups. But what happens if we don’t know how to treat ourselves with respect, or kindness, or with honor, but rather treat ourselves in negative ways that brings harm to ourselves. Are we supposed to treat other people the same way? The truth is we will treat people exactly the way in which we treat ourselves.
What the goal of these commandments is about is to help us focus on life outside of ourselves. It provides disciplines for “best living.” We are to remember, recognize, and then give over ourselves to a power that is greater than ourselves. Once we have done that, we are then able to relate to others in a healthier manor and look at the world through the lens of how God sees each of us. If we can get these Ten Commandments under our belt, I don’t think we would have need of those 613 laws that the Hebrews came up with after the fact! My challenge to you this week is to reread these Ten Commandments and take time to think about how we too often offend them simply because we haven’t taken the time to examine them. Amen.