So it is the third week and we have
our third covenant. This one is a little different than the others. The first
one was God making a blanket promise with Noah. The second requires a little
more action with Abraham; and now, we have this thing that doesn’t sound much
like a covenant, does it? It’s the Ten Commandments. God is giving Moses the
law. How does that sound like a covenant?
Well, let’s break this one down.
What is this law that is being given? What do we know about the law?
Traditionally, we know that laws tell you what you cannot do. They are
restrictive and place boundaries on us. They help define what it means to be a
good person or a bad person. If you live by the law, you are a good abiding
citizen. If you break the law you are a criminal, a bad person, and most times
marked for life. There are consequences to breaking the law and we, as a
society, expect law breakers to take responsibilities for our actions, right?
So God is giving us these laws. In a
world that is sitting in conflict today, when we hear the word law, if your
anything like me, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, you might be
thinking “great what next?!” I get tired of hearing about laws, what I can and
can’t do. It gets exhausting and sometime, I know that I just want to tune out;
because we have heard this before. We know the story and we have seen Charleton
Heston as Moses.
But there is another way to look at
this. While we know the story and it is something to be cherished. But think
about this covenant as a gift; think of it as not a way of restricting behavior
but think of it as a way of being freeing. I am not going to go over every
commandment, but I am going to group them in a way that might make Martin
Luther proud, I hope. We can break these Ten Commandments into two basic
groupings. The first group of Commandments are 1-3, are all about God. You
shall have no other Gods, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, and keep the
Sabbath holy.
Just on those first three, here is
an idea about this gift. “thank goodness” that I don’t have to worship all
these other Gods. From a lazy standpoint (just ask my wife) I don’t want to
worship a God of Sun, rain, snow, peace, sadness…that can get exhausting. Another
thought is “why would I want to worship all those Gods when I can worship the
ONE GOD who created all of this. I want to worship the God who created the
Garden of Eden, made the promise to Noah and his family, and who promised not
to use floods to destroy the earth.
On the other commandments, two and
three, I would say the same thing. Why would I want to take the Lord’s name in
vain? Do I really want to ask the Lord to curse something? Am I really gonna
ask God to condemn something or someone? Frankly, I believe God is all that
powerful to create so I better be careful what I ask for. It means that we all
need to choose our words a little carefully. It also means that God can do all
these things so why not keep the Sabbath day Holy. Why not respect God who
created community, participate in the community that God created and honor that
time together.
Commandments 4-10 are a little more
difficult. They are the commandments about how we treat each other. That can be
a little more difficult because we are human. We make mistakes, we say and do
things out of frustration, anger, and sometimes just down-right selfishness. We
do things that we want to do, sometimes, without a thought about who it may or
may not affect. There are a wide variety of reasons and circumstances that may
cause us to do something; may cause us to covet, steal, bear false witness, and
maybe even kill. I don’t pretend to know or excuse these actions. My point is
that sometimes we don’t live up to these commandments about how we treat each
other.
No matter what, these actions do
have consequences in our society. There is our own sense of guilt, there are
penalties in our civilization, and yes there are penalties in God’s eyes. But I
think that we can see these commandments as gifts as well. We know and hold to
be true that God created man and woman. We are gifts from God in God’s creation
and so these commandments are not to say you cant…but maybe we can think of
ourselves and each other as God’s creation. That means that we are ALL more
important to each other. It means that the God who created me, also created you
and that means that you are just as valuable in God’s eyes and, therefore, my
eyes.
Sometimes that is really difficult.
Sometimes there are those people who test your last nerve OR you may test
theirs. This does not mean we don’t try to treat each other as if we are all
gifts. It means that we can try and continue trying to treat each other as
valuable gifts that God created to be on this earth and to be in community with
one another.
This month, our special offering is
going to the St. Dysmus ministries which is known as the “prison ministry”
within the synod. Pastor Gerry Rickell visits the prison and there are church
leaders who go to the various prisons in the state and hold worship services,
who remind the people who are paying their debts to society that they are
worthy of God’s love and that God has not given up on them. There are many
unique stories of people whose lives were changed because God sent people into
those prisons to spend time with these people; stories of people who have
maintained their good standing and found support in changing their lives
because God entered their lives and refused to leave, through the interactions
of others.
Brothers and sisters, I am sure
there are times when we have broken, at least, one of God’s commandments. We
have all made mistakes in our lives. Not one of us can say we have never made a
mistake and we will continue to make mistakes. But God does not abandon us when
we make those mistakes. God sent Jesus into the world for our sake…for our
mistakes and to teach us that everyone is redeemable and valuable. Through the
crucifixion of Jesus on the cross our sins, God has brought us to the reality
that we live in a sinful world, we make mistakes, yet we are
forgiveable…because of our contrite hear and wanting to know that God DOES love
us…always has; and is always there for us.
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