Being accountable for my own sin was bad enough, let alone taking
the fall for my grandfather’s indiscretions and passing
mine on to great-grandchildren I didn’t yet have.
Many of us struggle
with what seems to be God’s conflicting
nature. Which God is he today, Jekyll or Hyde? Will God treat me
tenderly or turn me to burnt toast? Before we consider the commandments,
we should clear something up -- there isn’t a God of the
law and a God of the gospel. There isn’t a “He loves
me” God, and a “He’s out to get me” God.
The God of the Old Testament isn’t a dark twin to the God
of the New. Someone put it this way: “I don’t believe
that the Old Testament God is a God of harsh judgment who suddenly
melts into a God of pure grace on page one of Matthew’s gospel.
Grace has been there all along…” (Barbara Brown Taylor’s
sermon, Peculiar Treasures)
God is changeless. We
need to get beyond the clashing concepts of God and get closer
to appreciating the complementary relationship
between God’s care and God’s commands.
The first five books
of the Old Testament are called the Torah. It progresses from
creation, to God’s covenants with Noah
and Abraham, to giving the Law to Moses. The message of a covenant
was, “This is what I promise to do for you.” The message
of the Law is, “This is what you will do to honor me and
live a life that’s worth living.” Torah means law.
It also means, the way, or, a finger pointing the way. As I said
last Sunday, the early Christians were called, followers of the
Way-- not followers of rules but seekers of a relationship.
Jesus didn’t say, “Law is so passé. Let’s
just get rid of all this regulatory oversight.” Jesus was
a Jew. Like the prophets before him, he loved the law. “Don’t
get the idea that I’ve come to abolish the Law. I’ve
come to fulfill it.” Jesus must have known these Psalms by
heart:
Before Elkhart made the network news with the highest unemployment
rate in the country, our fair city received national press
for taking the Ten Commandments to court. At issue was the
removal
of a monument with God’s top ten on it that was located
outside the City-County building. It set off a big debate about
the separation of church and state, and whether it was an example
of government promoting religion, or whether it was just a
social code of ethics upon which a responsible, moral society
is based.
During the height of
the debate, a reporter from the Cincinnati Enquirer called me
to ask my view of the issue. I said I found
it interesting that there was no protest from the Jewish community
about removing the commandments, at least none that I was aware
of. The Jews had them much longer than Christians. Apparently they
weren’t bothered by removal of the monument. Maybe it has
something to do with cherishing the commandments in their hearts
and minds and actions. God doesn’t need “Keep the Ten
Commandments” signs on our lawns and bumper stickers. Like
the Psalms say, God gave the commandments to delight in, meditate
upon, and live out.
Living the Ten Commandments
trumps displaying them. Don’t
worship other gods. Don’t make stupid idols. Don’t
misuse my name. Keep the Sabbath holy and rest. Honor your parents.
Don’t kill. Don’t sleep with anyone’s spouse
but your own. Don’t steal, lie, and don’t covet. You
can’t get more straightforward than that. The threat to the
commandments is not from atheist and agnostics, but the likes of
you and me who forget them.
Years ago, the TV journalist
Ted Koppel, gave “much talked
about” commencement address at Duke University. He said: “TV
is making its mark on the American psyche. We have actually convinced
ourselves that slogans will save us. "Shoot up if you must;
but use a clean needle." "Enjoy sex whenever with whomever
you wish; but wear a condom."
No. The answer is no. Not no because it isn't cool or smart or
because you might end up in prison or dying from AIDS -- but no,
because it's wrong. Because we have spent 5,000 years as a race
of rational human being trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval
slime by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In the place
of Truth we have discovered facts; for moral absolutes we have
substituted moral ambiguity.
Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted.
In its purest form Truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it
is a hallowing reproach. What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai
were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were.
The sheer brilliance
of the Ten Commandments is that they codify, in a handful of
words, acceptable human behavior. Not just for
then or now but for all time. Language evolves, power shifts
from nation to nation, messages are transmitted with the speed
of light,
man erases one frontier after another; and yet we and our behavior,
and the Commandments which govern that behavior, remain the same.
The tension between those Commandments and our baser instincts
provide the grist for journalism's daily mill. What a huge, gaping
void there would be in our informational flow and in our entertainment
without routine violation of the Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt
not murder.”
Is there anything in
the daily news cycle that doesn’t involve
God’s law? My grandmother often said, “The chickens
have come home to roost.” Some very big chickens have come
back, or, as Ted Koppel said, “Our society is being given
the strong, undiluted medicine of truth.” How could our economy
have collapsed so quickly? Its because we took easy choices over
hard ones. Buying on credit was a breeze. Enjoy now. Pay later.
Loan officers handed mortgages out like candy to people they knew
couldn’t afford it. The premadonas on Wall Street found all
sorts of ways to leverage their earning while regulators who were
supposed to be looking for such things looked the other way. That’s
how Bernie Madoff swindled $50 billion entrusted to him by individuals
and institutions that are now left with nothing.
God’s commandments have everything to do with the current
economic crisis. Worshipping the money idol, greed, lying, stealing,
coveting -- pieces of broken commandments are all over the floor.
But let’s not bash and blame the bankers and business folks.
We are in it all together. The world was selling and we were buying
like everyone else.
We cannot overstate
it. GOD is love. God IS love. God is LOVE, and because of love
God has established limits. Judgment is an
aspect of God’s love. Love won’t let us do as we please.
Imagine parents telling their son or daughter, “Before you
go out, remember, we love you very much. Don’t be concerned
about curfew. Just go out with your friends and do whatever you
want to do. Whatever it is, we don’t mind.” God loves
us enough to set limits and show us what happens when we spend
and consume with no regard for the impact.
There is an unchanging
truth that runs through God’s covenants,
a 5,000 year-old code of behavior, the witness of the prophets,
and ultimately to Jesus. God says, “Here’s your life.
You have the freedom to do with it what you will. There is a way
it will work, and there’s a way it won’t. You can try
to make up your own code for the road, but it won’t work.
Create your own god if you want, but if you choose my design for
life, you will see your golden calf or golden parachute for what
they are, nothing but dumb idols.”
God’s love for us isn’t based upon how well we keep
his commandments. Moses killed an Egyptian but it didn’t
disqualify him from carrying a stone tablet that said, “Thou
shalt not kill.” Broken, disobedient and rebellious as we
are, God has given caring commandments to preserve our lives and
draw us into God’s heart.
If you will stay with
me just a bit more, I’d like to leave
you with God’s commandments in the words of Barbara Brown
Taylor:
One. You shall have
no other gods before me. In the first place because I am very
jealous of your affections and in the second
place because other gods can’t do anything for you.
Two. No more golden
calves. You look silly bowing down to little statues you’ve made. You don’t
need them. You have me.
Three. Don’t throw my name around. The fact that you know
mine at all is a sign of our closeness. Don’t abuse the privilege.
Four. Keep the Sabbath, not for my sake but for yours. One day
a week stop working and remember that you are more than what you
do.
Five. Honor your father and mother. Whatever job they did on you,
they are still your roots.
Six. Don’t murder. However dubious it may seem, all life
is precious to me, including yours. Until you can make it, don’t
take it.
Seven. Don’t mess around with marriage vows, your own or
anyone else’s. Sticking with one person is the best chance
you have got of growing up.
Eight. Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. Life
may not be fair, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be.
Nine. Don’t give your word on things you know aren’t
true. Your word is as much a part of you as your arm or leg. Twist
it and you will limp.
Ten.
Don’t fondle other people’s things in your mind
as if they were your own. You’ll not only resent them for
having things; you’ll soon resent yourself for not having
them too. Learn to want what you have and pretty soon you’ll
have what you want. (Peculiar Treaures, p. 47-48)
