Monday, October 13, 2014

The Ten Words from God (series) Pt 1: An Adventure in Human Growth, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, bassed on Exodus 20:1-7


The Ten Words from God (Series)

Pt 1: An Adventure In Human Growth

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO 10/12/2014

Based on Exodus 20: 1-7

 

        I have always been fascinated by the words of the song, “Is That All There Is”.  To me it captures a sorrowful sense if isolation, of placing trust in things that will not hold up with time, and of turning to escapism in order to bear the pain and sorrow that comes with disappointments, losses, and loneliness.  The song goes through differing events of the singer’s life.  As a little girl she watches her whole world go up in flames, and after the fire is over wonders if that’s all there is to a fire.  Then at the age of 12 yrs old, while at a circus and watching all the glitz and glitter of the show, begins to realize that something is missing, but just can’t quite put her finger on it.  Then she feels the warmth and thrill of love, only to lose it, again wondering if that’s all there is to love.  The end of the song is the most haunting, I think, as she says, “she’s not ready for that final disappointment in life.”    Is that all there is?  If that’s all there is my friend, then let’s keep dancing, let’s break out the booze, and have a ball, if that’s all there is.

        This is not an isolated story to many people, and I would say, possibly even felt more acutely here in a society where there are thousands of options available that we are told will take away the feeling of loneliness, the pain of failed relationships, even the sense of futility that comes with living life.  The old commercial that asked, “How do you spell relief?”  R O L A I D S!
We live in a land that has so many distractions that promise relief, but at the end of the day, we often have not found what we are looking for.  Many of us, like the song say’s, sense that there is more to living life, but we just can’t quite grasp what it might be.  Some of us even go to church in hopes that we will find what is missing from our lives, and yet still find that the answer eludes us.   

        Last week’s lectionary reading focused on what we now call The Ten Commandments.  What I would like to do over the next few weeks is take some time to look more in-depth at these laws that we all think we know and see if there are some undiscovered tidbits that might help us better understand who we presently are and how we might be able to tap into the future possibilities of who we can be.

        The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before God!  That seems like a given, but the first question should be: How do we know that there is a God?  How can we embrace someone who doesn’t directly speak to us, or embrace something that isn’t tangible?   I hear time to time from people who say they are going through a “faith” crisis; that they just don’t feel God in their lives any more.  There are folks, and surveys suggest that the numbers are growing, who say that they just don’t believe in the idea of God.  What do you say to statements like that?  You can’t dismiss what they are expressing, for this is a reality to them.

        I think much of modern day confusion comes from centuries of miss understanding who God really is, there by throwing people off track, so to speak, when their experiences in life do not relate with what they have been told God is and is about.  There have been volumes of theological writings about God and the essence of God.  But ultimately, the majority of images of God boil down to a spirit of sorts who depending on which side of the fence you prefer to look from, see either God as someone who has created the universe that we know and has long since gone off to do other things, leaving us to ourselves to figure life out, or God is present and actively manipulating events within our world in order to bring about the ultimate design that God wishes.

        But I think Sister Joan Chittister, says it most simply, “God is an experience, not a thing and not an idea. Sister Joan writes: The Koran teaches, “God is the East and the West, and wherever you turn, there is God’s face.”  (have congregation look around the room and then ask what they see.)  If only we could see beyond what God is in ourselves, we could begin to see the wonders of God around us.  The shortest distance to God is not an excursion through all the experiences of life.  It is the journey we take to the center of the self where God waits for us within.

        Whatever it is that you give your life to, that is the shrine at which you adore.  The question is, Is this a big enough god for anyone to spend a life on?  God is always just beyond what we think is god. 

        “God will be present,” a Latin proverb teaches, “whether asked or not.”  God does not “find” me.  God is with me already.  It is a matter of my becoming conscious of the God who has already found me. Pg 22 of The Ten Commandments: Laws of the Heart by Sister Joan Chittister

        For the ancient Hebrews which received these Ten Words from God, the opening line tells them who this God is:  I am your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  As I spoke last week, slavery is something that we all live with whether we recognize it or not.  We may think that we are not a slave to our careers, or to the things that we buy, thinking they will serve our needs, but often times these material possessions become the masters of our time, thought, and money.  These are exterior things that impose their power upon us. 

        When we see ourselves as the center of our lives, we lose a sense of vision of the whole.  So even if someone calls themselves an atheist, there is still a god that will be demanding of them, be it work, or relationships, or even ideals.  For those who recognize a power greater than themselves, in other words, the God of Creation, there is still a danger of serving a god that isn’t the god who brings you out of your own slavery.  As I mentioned just a few moments ago there tend to be two ways in which the average person who recognizes God, thinks of God.  God as “out there” or God as “being beside others”, meaning a separate entity; a view that presents God as Paul Tillich puts it, “as a supernatural God.”  Paul Tillich, who is considered as one of the Twentieth Century’s most important theologians says, “God is not a part of reality, but is “ultimate reality.”

        We often look at The Ten Commandments as laws in which we are to obey.  Yet these are not really laws as there was never any mention as to the remedy for breaking one of these laws.  Rather, these laws were meant to be more principles to live by than minutely defined proscriptions to be followed.  Much like we refer to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.  These laws were clearly meant to shape a way of living, a lifestyle, an attitude of mind, for a spirit of human community. Pg 9 The Ten Commandments: Laws of The Heart. By Joan Chittister

        So, the first commandment is truly asking us, “Who is your god?”  What this first commandment actually represents is the basic building block as to how we can structure our life.  I’m not going to start naming ways in which we do put other gods before God.  What I will say is that the First commandment prods us to examine again and again what it is that we have put before God in our lives.  There is no scientific proof that there is a God or that there is not a God.  But what we do have is a low, clear voice within saying always, “There must be more to this than this.”  This is the answer to the question of the song, “Is that all there is?”  God is not found externally.   God is found internally.  God is the experience!  Amen

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