The Ten Commandments as Grace and Law
Exodus 20:3; Matthew 5:17-20
Hold your hands out in front of you with palms facing inward so that you can see all the fingers and thumbs. Start on the right with your thumb: No other gods. Then take the right index finger: No idols. Take the middle finger: No misuse of God's name. Take the right ring finger: Observe Sabbath. Take the right little finger: Honor parents. Take the left little finger: No murder. Take the left ring finger: No adultery. Take the left middle finger: No stealing. Take the left index finger: No lying. Take the left thumb: No coveting.
It is presumptive in the extreme for us to assume we understand why God does things the way God does, but you will have to admit that to be able to get the absolute fundamentals of life onto the ten fingers is pretty remarkable. It is all the more remarkable when you consider that the people to whom these fundamentals were given were a primitive nomadic tribe who did not yet know how to read or write.
Scholars pretty much agree that in their original form the commandments were just as brief as we stated them, perhaps one or two words each in Hebrew. In fact the word used in Hebrew to refer to the "Ten Commandments" is "words" -- the "ten words." These utterly primitive basic injunctions were simple enough that they could be easily memorized by anybody. That is probably what was on the original tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. So, if you are wondering about the rest of the words around the commandments, like God's vengefulness in punishing not only the wrongdoers but the wrongdoer's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, you are welcome to consider them as later scribal elaborations on the meaning of the commandments.
I do not intend to disparage elaboration on the meaning of the commandments. Elaboration is what happens when you try to figure out what the commandments mean for you in your time and place. Just as it was necessary for the people of Israel to understand the implications of the commandments for their life together, so will it be necessary for us to consider their implications for our life together here in Chugiak, Alaska. We will do that with the modesty that understands that people who come after us may wonder how we arrived at the interpretations we did. That likelihood, however, makes it no less necessary for us to try to understand what God intends for us to hear and do from those original "ten words." Because of the work we have to do, it is highly unlikely that we will all agree on the meaning of the commandments for all the issues we face. That's okay because we don't have to have to agree on everything.
We do, however, begin with the assumption that these "ten words" are God's words for us. We recognize that there is a sharpness to their meaning well expressed on that billboard somebody put up in California: "The Ten Commandments: What part of 'No' don't you understand?'" That sharp negative must not be lost or minimized any more than a road sign that says "Stop!" These are not "Caution" signs: they are "Stop" signs. They are the boundaries that define the life of God's covenant people.
It is not accidental that the first commandment is "You shall have no other gods before me." This commandment is about loyalty, loyalty to one God. This is about loyalty in a far more profound sense than our loyalty to country as we express in the Pledge of Allegiance: "I pledge allegiance to United States of America and to the republic for which it stands."
Notice that I didn't say THE one God, for when these commandments were given the idea that there was only one God (monotheism) had not yet been born. The people of Israel lived in the midst of many gods competing for their loyalty. The names of the other gods changed from Baal to El to Astarte to Tammuz, but these gods were not Yahweh. Because this God, Yahweh, had saved them from slavery in Egypt, they would have had to be fools to turn to other gods. But turn to other gods they did. In a sense, the rest of the Bible can be read as one story after the other of people seeking other gods.
John Holbert is a professor on preaching and Old Testament interpretation at Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas. It is our good fortune that he will be teaching in the Lay School of Theology hosted here at our church on September 21 and 22. In his book, The Ten Commandments, Professor Holbert suggests that in the original Hebrew this commandment may not only be translated “you shall have no other gods before me,” but also as “you must not become other gods.”[1] This is similar to the words of the snake to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The snake said that if they ate of the tree of knowledge they would “become like God,” or “You will certainly become God!”
However one chooses to hear this phrase – whether as “You shall have no other gods” or as “You shall not become other gods” – the point is clear: Yahweh demands loyalty. Yahweh is the God who brings you and me out of our slavery, out of the houses of our bondage. No other gods – least of all those of us who think we can be our own gods -- have the power to save us from ourselves.
Who are the gods that compete for our loyalties? It might be said that anything may become a “god” for us: food, sex, drink, drugs, television, the Internet, video games, and on and on. When Jesus spoke about the matter of competing loyalties, he spoke clearly: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 5:24) I don’t think Jesus had anything against wealth per se, but when wealth, or security or power blind us to the gifts of the God who cares about people in slavery and calls us to live lives of justice and compassion, “wealth” has become a god and cannot be tolerated. While we may not be slaves like the Hebrew people were in Egypt, we may find ourselves enslaved to other gods and in need of liberation.
In my column in the newsletter, which may or may not have found its way to your box yet, I spoke of our need to see the commandments as both “grace” and “law.” I will not repeat what I said there. You can read it when the newsletter finds its way to your box, or you can read it on the blog. I was talking about this to a Jewish friend of mine and he said, “Did you know that mitzvoth, the word in Hebrew for ‘commandments,’ also means ‘blessings’”? Grace is not only God’s love that goes before us and meets us on the way, but grace is also God’s love that blesses us with the commandments that, as the Psalmist says, can revive our souls.
In her best-selling book titled, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith,[2] Ann Lamott tells the story of her early life lived in a counter-cultural home environment in California in the 60s and 70s. Hers was the picture of a girl lonely in her own family, seeking solace for her loneliness in love affairs, alcohol and drugs. The death of her best friend seemed to make her struggle with drugs and alcohol an impossible one. But then she happened onto St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Marin City, California.
She listened to the singing coming from the church from across the street long before she entered the door. It was, as she said, "the singing that pulled me in and split me wide open." "Somehow," she said, "the singing wore down all the boundaries and distinctions that kept me so isolated." "No one tried to con me," she said. The people radiated kindness and warmth. They just made a place for her in the church. Her struggles with alcohol and drugs didn't end, nor her other struggles, but she finally came to the place where she said to drugs, "I quit," and to Jesus, "All right. You can come in." She declared her loyalty God. Her troubles weren't over, but she now had something to hold onto. She said that she and her son didn't miss church ten times in the next twelve years.
Anne recalled a story told by Veronica, the tall African-American woman who came to be the pastor at the church. Veronica said that one day when she was about seven, her best friend got lost. The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn't find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, ‘You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.’”
"And that,” said Anne, “is why I have stayed so close to mine -- because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home." (p. 55)
I think that the word of grace Anne Lamott received from the folks in that church was not different from the word of grace those former slaves in Egypt received when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets, “I am the God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Grace is unearned love – the love that goes before and greets us on the way. Only after we have heard that word of grace can we understand that the commandments are given because God loves us and that they are for our benefit. Only then can we declare our allegiance not to have any other gods.
Anne Lamott’s experience is not only about grace and learning about how the commandments are for our benefit; it is also about the community of faith where she was able to hear that word of grace. Almost every Sunday we have people visiting our church. What do people find when they come here? Are they welcomed like Ann Lamott was in her church? She experienced the grace of God at the hands of the people in her church. Do visitors to our church experience the grace of God in the form of genuine kindness and warmth, with no cons? Only when we have experienced that grace can we understand that the commandments are God’s gift to keep us from destroying ourselves and to give us a framework for full and creative living. Then, no matter what we’ve done or how bad we feel we will be able to find our ways home.
[1] John C. Holbert, The Ten Commandments (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002) pp. 18-19.
[2] Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (New York: Anchor Books, 1999).
Exodus 20:3; Matthew 5:17-20
Hold your hands out in front of you with palms facing inward so that you can see all the fingers and thumbs. Start on the right with your thumb: No other gods. Then take the right index finger: No idols. Take the middle finger: No misuse of God's name. Take the right ring finger: Observe Sabbath. Take the right little finger: Honor parents. Take the left little finger: No murder. Take the left ring finger: No adultery. Take the left middle finger: No stealing. Take the left index finger: No lying. Take the left thumb: No coveting.
It is presumptive in the extreme for us to assume we understand why God does things the way God does, but you will have to admit that to be able to get the absolute fundamentals of life onto the ten fingers is pretty remarkable. It is all the more remarkable when you consider that the people to whom these fundamentals were given were a primitive nomadic tribe who did not yet know how to read or write.
Scholars pretty much agree that in their original form the commandments were just as brief as we stated them, perhaps one or two words each in Hebrew. In fact the word used in Hebrew to refer to the "Ten Commandments" is "words" -- the "ten words." These utterly primitive basic injunctions were simple enough that they could be easily memorized by anybody. That is probably what was on the original tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. So, if you are wondering about the rest of the words around the commandments, like God's vengefulness in punishing not only the wrongdoers but the wrongdoer's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, you are welcome to consider them as later scribal elaborations on the meaning of the commandments.
I do not intend to disparage elaboration on the meaning of the commandments. Elaboration is what happens when you try to figure out what the commandments mean for you in your time and place. Just as it was necessary for the people of Israel to understand the implications of the commandments for their life together, so will it be necessary for us to consider their implications for our life together here in Chugiak, Alaska. We will do that with the modesty that understands that people who come after us may wonder how we arrived at the interpretations we did. That likelihood, however, makes it no less necessary for us to try to understand what God intends for us to hear and do from those original "ten words." Because of the work we have to do, it is highly unlikely that we will all agree on the meaning of the commandments for all the issues we face. That's okay because we don't have to have to agree on everything.
We do, however, begin with the assumption that these "ten words" are God's words for us. We recognize that there is a sharpness to their meaning well expressed on that billboard somebody put up in California: "The Ten Commandments: What part of 'No' don't you understand?'" That sharp negative must not be lost or minimized any more than a road sign that says "Stop!" These are not "Caution" signs: they are "Stop" signs. They are the boundaries that define the life of God's covenant people.
It is not accidental that the first commandment is "You shall have no other gods before me." This commandment is about loyalty, loyalty to one God. This is about loyalty in a far more profound sense than our loyalty to country as we express in the Pledge of Allegiance: "I pledge allegiance to United States of America and to the republic for which it stands."
Notice that I didn't say THE one God, for when these commandments were given the idea that there was only one God (monotheism) had not yet been born. The people of Israel lived in the midst of many gods competing for their loyalty. The names of the other gods changed from Baal to El to Astarte to Tammuz, but these gods were not Yahweh. Because this God, Yahweh, had saved them from slavery in Egypt, they would have had to be fools to turn to other gods. But turn to other gods they did. In a sense, the rest of the Bible can be read as one story after the other of people seeking other gods.
John Holbert is a professor on preaching and Old Testament interpretation at Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas. It is our good fortune that he will be teaching in the Lay School of Theology hosted here at our church on September 21 and 22. In his book, The Ten Commandments, Professor Holbert suggests that in the original Hebrew this commandment may not only be translated “you shall have no other gods before me,” but also as “you must not become other gods.”[1] This is similar to the words of the snake to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The snake said that if they ate of the tree of knowledge they would “become like God,” or “You will certainly become God!”
However one chooses to hear this phrase – whether as “You shall have no other gods” or as “You shall not become other gods” – the point is clear: Yahweh demands loyalty. Yahweh is the God who brings you and me out of our slavery, out of the houses of our bondage. No other gods – least of all those of us who think we can be our own gods -- have the power to save us from ourselves.
Who are the gods that compete for our loyalties? It might be said that anything may become a “god” for us: food, sex, drink, drugs, television, the Internet, video games, and on and on. When Jesus spoke about the matter of competing loyalties, he spoke clearly: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 5:24) I don’t think Jesus had anything against wealth per se, but when wealth, or security or power blind us to the gifts of the God who cares about people in slavery and calls us to live lives of justice and compassion, “wealth” has become a god and cannot be tolerated. While we may not be slaves like the Hebrew people were in Egypt, we may find ourselves enslaved to other gods and in need of liberation.
In my column in the newsletter, which may or may not have found its way to your box yet, I spoke of our need to see the commandments as both “grace” and “law.” I will not repeat what I said there. You can read it when the newsletter finds its way to your box, or you can read it on the blog. I was talking about this to a Jewish friend of mine and he said, “Did you know that mitzvoth, the word in Hebrew for ‘commandments,’ also means ‘blessings’”? Grace is not only God’s love that goes before us and meets us on the way, but grace is also God’s love that blesses us with the commandments that, as the Psalmist says, can revive our souls.
In her best-selling book titled, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith,[2] Ann Lamott tells the story of her early life lived in a counter-cultural home environment in California in the 60s and 70s. Hers was the picture of a girl lonely in her own family, seeking solace for her loneliness in love affairs, alcohol and drugs. The death of her best friend seemed to make her struggle with drugs and alcohol an impossible one. But then she happened onto St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Marin City, California.
She listened to the singing coming from the church from across the street long before she entered the door. It was, as she said, "the singing that pulled me in and split me wide open." "Somehow," she said, "the singing wore down all the boundaries and distinctions that kept me so isolated." "No one tried to con me," she said. The people radiated kindness and warmth. They just made a place for her in the church. Her struggles with alcohol and drugs didn't end, nor her other struggles, but she finally came to the place where she said to drugs, "I quit," and to Jesus, "All right. You can come in." She declared her loyalty God. Her troubles weren't over, but she now had something to hold onto. She said that she and her son didn't miss church ten times in the next twelve years.
Anne recalled a story told by Veronica, the tall African-American woman who came to be the pastor at the church. Veronica said that one day when she was about seven, her best friend got lost. The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn't find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, ‘You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.’”
"And that,” said Anne, “is why I have stayed so close to mine -- because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home." (p. 55)
I think that the word of grace Anne Lamott received from the folks in that church was not different from the word of grace those former slaves in Egypt received when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets, “I am the God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Grace is unearned love – the love that goes before and greets us on the way. Only after we have heard that word of grace can we understand that the commandments are given because God loves us and that they are for our benefit. Only then can we declare our allegiance not to have any other gods.
Anne Lamott’s experience is not only about grace and learning about how the commandments are for our benefit; it is also about the community of faith where she was able to hear that word of grace. Almost every Sunday we have people visiting our church. What do people find when they come here? Are they welcomed like Ann Lamott was in her church? She experienced the grace of God at the hands of the people in her church. Do visitors to our church experience the grace of God in the form of genuine kindness and warmth, with no cons? Only when we have experienced that grace can we understand that the commandments are God’s gift to keep us from destroying ourselves and to give us a framework for full and creative living. Then, no matter what we’ve done or how bad we feel we will be able to find our ways home.
[1] John C. Holbert, The Ten Commandments (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002) pp. 18-19.
[2] Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (New York: Anchor Books, 1999).
1 comment:
Great Sermons.
How are you feeling?
Chuck H.
Post a Comment