Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Ten Words from God pt 8, "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire", based on Exodus 20: 16 and James 3::2-6, 9-10


The Ten Words from God p8

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/15/2015

Based on Exodus 20:1-2,16 & James 3:2-6, 9-10

 
        As I continue to study each of these ten words from God individually, one of the most compelling themes that I see within each commandment is not just the negative effect on the person who is violated by the violation of anyone of these commandments, but more importantly the effect that the violation has on the one how breaks the commandment.  Remember that early on in this study I suggested that we do not look at each of these commandments as “rules”, but rather as guidelines to live by.  Guidelines give us direction, where “rules” give the allure to be broken just because they are rules, and of course, with breaking a rule comes consequences.  The reality is there are also consequences when we deviate from a guideline.

For example, when you go out hiking in the mountains, there are trails that we are asked to follow – the guideline.  We don’t have to following that trail, we can stray off and make our own path.  By going off the marked path doesn’t mean that anything bad will happen to us, but what it does mean is we are walking in unknown territory.  We do not know what lies ahead of us, it could be something beautiful or it could be filled with lots of danger.  Sometimes we can unknowingly do harm when we deviate from the guideline – such as destroying a part of the eco-system by stepping on plants that might not recover from the damage done by of our feet.

        This week we are looking at the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness.”  As I contemplated during week about what I was going to say about this commandment, I found no shortage of personal stories of how I was affected when “bearing false witness” was involved.  In fact I could hundreds of examples about the follies and destruction that takes place when we do not tell the truth.  What I realized is that this is possibly the most “personal” of any of the Ten Commandments.  Personal because each of us has participated in both telling lies and being lied to.  And because of this so personal of commandments, I think we need less examples, because we already have our own, but could use another way of seeing this commandment.

        We know that lying breaks trust.  When we steal from somebody, we are stealing things, things that can be replaced.  Much of the time, these things are insured so we might not even have to put out much money in order to replace it.  But when we lie to someone, we are breaking the bond of trust, and trust is something that often can never be recovered.  I love watching the Vampire Diaries.  One of the re-occurring activities brought out in this T.V. series, is the disasters that happen when people are either directly lied too or intentionally kept out of the loop of information, on the theory that keeping the secret or lying outright will keep that person safe, which it doesn’t.  Every soap opera, every opera, every novel tells of the same story – lying doesn’t do anything but destroy trust.  And what do you have in a relationship once “trust” is gone?

        This year some of us are studying the book The First Christmas, which might seem strange studying the birth narratives when generally one focuses on something that leads to the Easter story.  In reality, this book does lead to the Easter story, by taking an in-depth look at why in the four Gospels only two, Matthew and Luke, share the story of Jesus’ birth.  One of the most important questions asked in that study by one who is attending this Lenten study was, “if we start to dismantle a part of the scripture from the way that we have historically been taught to look at it and are told that this is the more factual way to understand it, then does that mean that other parts of the scripture are not factual and by not being factual does this mean it isn’t telling us the truth?  If any part of the scripture isn’t telling us the truth, then is our faith just a lie?  Truth is the most foundational principle that we need in order to build a relationship.  Our faith is God, comes with believing a truth, if that truth is violated, then the relationship with God becomes violated.  So in our study of this book, we are wrestling with trying to understand what Matthew and Luke were trying to tell us, when most of the story involves acts that go against what we know about physics and natural law.

        Words are an amazing thing.  How many of us think about the words that we speak as being sacred?  Why are our words sacred, Pastor?  I’m glad you asked.  Speech is sacred because it is godlike.  It creates our world!  How we speak to an infant will either help that child grow in a positive view of themselves or it can destroy the beautiful creation that they are. 

Sister Joan Chittister puts it this way: To speak is to make a reality.  To speak a falsehood about anyone or anything is to profane the self.  But it also violates creation as God has made it by naming it something other than it is.  It undermines the kind of trust the human community needs to function together as one family of God.  It erodes personal relationships.  It countermines the credibility of the self.  But more than this, lying obscures the real self- even from the self.  In lying, we begin to lose touch with what we really think, really feel, who we really are.  When we speak with half-truths, those lies reduce us to a false self, because it violates the image of God in us. Pg 101-102, The Ten Commandments by Joan Chittister

The really interesting thing is that it takes from the one who lies as well as from the one who is lied about.  Lies go on in a way that stealing never does.  People can recover with restitution.  But lies blanket both the lied-about and the liars in suspicion, mistrust, and dishonor forever.” Pg 106, The Ten Commandments by Joan Chittister

As Joan Chittister notes about the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not lie” is the spiritual mandate that is meant to save a great deal more than our reputations.  It is a commandment meant to preserve an entire people from the cancer of mistrust, the individual from the pitfalls of pride, and the society from living with the corrosive effects of a culture of deceit.” Pg 106, The Ten Commandments by Joan Chittister    As we leave here this morning, let us remember that even the littlest of lies, those that we call “white lies” are the seeds that will corrupt any relationship, but more pointedly, will be the seeds that start to eat away at our very humanity.  “You shall not bear false witness” goes so much deeper than just lying, it affects who we are as a person.  Amen

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