Exodus 20: 1-18
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Pastor
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
September 23, 2012, Disciple Series: Sermon 6 of 15.
When I became a missionary and moved to
Germany, I first lived in the western part of Germany where we attended
language school. One day we were out
“barefooting”, which is missionary lingo for going on the street to test out
our newly acquired language skills on that day. In the middle of our city, I noticed a
Woolworth’s store. I hadn’t been in one
since I was a kid. So I turned right
into the front door to take a look.
Right there in front of the store was a large life-size image of a
Luther Pastor dressed in a black robe, with his figure pointed right at me with
the subtitle: “Du sollst nicht stehlen.”
I understood the German
immediately. “Thou shalt not steal.” What
I couldn’t understand is they were using religion to enforce morality in a
country where 95 percent of the people didn’t even go to church.
We might think we live in a time of
goodness, grace, and anything goes, but that paper preacher with his finger
pointing is a reminder that law is still needed and cannot be forgotten. Jesus himself said he came to fulfill the law
and not to abolish it (Matt. 5:17). But
for many people today, the law, especially the 10 commandments, don’t seem to
get off on the right foot. People don’t
like to hear the word “no”. Contemporary
society often treats the word “no” like our parents treated the word “sex.” The problem is, that when you don’t teach your
child about no it’s not very long until your child teaches you what “no” means,
but on their terms. (Not a good
idea).
A closer examination of these “thou
shalt nots” in the Ten Commandments might help us better understand why God
gave his people these “no” words. These
“ten words” (the original language does not call them commandments, this was
coined later, see Deut 4.13) are not like any other words in the Bible. Other words
were given indirectly through Moses, but these ten “words” were spoken directly
from the lips of God.
THESE WORDS ARE TIED TO HUMAN FREEDOM
We need to examine closely how these
“words” of law begin: “I am the LORD God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:1).
The
law is a “word” of life. We need to “hear” these “words” of law, not
as “binding” words, but as “freeing” words. They are words that are spoken to a people
who have been set free, liberated and who need to stay free and liberated. God spoke these words after the people
escaped from Egypt. They were words to
keep them free, not to restrain or restrict them from the goodness of life and
liberty.
They were spoken to Israel in the same
way Paul spoke to the Galatians, when he said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Do not be entangled again to the yoke of
slavery” (Gal. 5:1). While the
circumstances surrounding God’s law changes from the Hebrew Bible (OT) to the
Christian Bible (NT), the intent of God’s law does not change. The law’s intent is not to enslave, restrain
nor restrict God’s people, but it is word given to enable them to live out
their God given freedom from oppression, slavery, and sin.
Listen to how Moses expresses this
intention of the law when he calls Israel to renew their commitment to God’s
law in Deuteronomy, 8.1: This entire commandment that I command you
today you must diligently observe, SO THAT YOU MAY LIVE AND INCREASE, and go in
and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors (Deu
8:1 NRS). Again, it should be clear,
that the law is not given as a restriction, but it is given as a referendum on freedom and hope. The law must be understood as a word for
life.
Secondly, the law must also be understood as a “word” of grace. Normally, we put juxtapose law and grace,
but this is not the original intent of the God of the Bible. The intent of God was not to give us grace
over the law, but the law is to be understood as a word of grace itself. Even though the law should not be understood
a word “for” salvation, the law is
part of the work “of” salvation; it
is part of the same word that saves us initially and it is a part of the word of
God’s grace given to keep us working out our salvation intentionally, in every
part of life. Several times in his
discussion of the law, Paul says that the grace of Jesus comes to us “by the law of faith” (Romans. 3.27) and
that “we do not overthrow the law”
(Romans 3.31) because, “what the law
requires is written on (our) hearts” (Romans. 2.15). The law of God must not be misunderstood as a
set of rules we must follow,
but the law is the description of a transformed life we want to follow because of our change of heart. When grace has entered our life by faith, the
law of God is no longer something we have to do, but the law becomes the heart-shaped
pattern of our grace-filled and faith-full lives. This is why in the salvation story of Israel,
the law comes after salvation. The law does
not save, but God keeps us working out our salvation through his life-giving
words.
If you recall, several years ago there
was a sort of “culture war” over the Ten Commandments, when Roy Moore, the
now-removed chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court waged and lost a
stubborn fight to keep the Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse. What was most ironic about the whole ordeal,
says Tom Long, was how much the monument weighed: 5,280 pounds, which is over
500 pounds per commandment. Judge Moore
lugged that hefty monster of a monument all over the state trying to get
support to keep it as a public display.
He could not even get it on and off his flatbed truck without a yellow
I-beam crane. Writing in the Atlantic
Monthly, Joshua Green wrote: “I know that Jesus once scolded the Pharisees for
neglecting the weightier matters of the law, but somehow this I-beam-bending
version of the Decalogue seems way out of proportion.” (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3333).
This picture of a “heavy weight” is
exactly what the law must not be understood to be. It is not a burden, a weight or heavy
obligation placed on life. Neither is the law to be perceived as a two
and one-half ton rock to publically put around the neck of a rebellious society,
so it weakens us like a heavy yoke placed upon a strong animal. The law is given as “breathtaking announcement of freedom” for the redeemed people of
God as our text opens: "I am the
Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery." (Ex. 20:2). Because
the LORD is our God we are free not to
need any other gods nor do we have carry around all those burdensome idols. We are free not to work ourselves to death,
but to rest on the Sabbath day. We are
free from murdering each other, from stealing from each other, and from wanting
all those things that will choke the very life out of us. These laws are to spell out the shape of
freedom, not the placing of heavy religious or relational burdens on our backs.
THESE
WORDS ANTICIPATE GOD’S PRESENCE
Notice also how the ten words begin: “I am the LORD your God”. The first word and the first 4 words of
these commands concern our relationship with God. What keeps Israel alive in the wilderness
after Egypt was not a set of rules to live by, but a life-giving, life-saving,
life-freeing, relationship with each other, which is lived in the presence of
the true God. “I brought you out”. It is
their relationship with God, not with rules, that will keep them alive.
Robert Wuthnow speaks of how we transmit our ethics through
stories of relationships. He goes on to
tell the story of Jack Casey, a volunteer fireman and ambulance attendant who,
as a child, had to have some of his teeth extracted under general anesthesia.
Jack was terrified, but a nurse standing nearby said to him, "Don’t worry,
I’ll be here right beside you no matter what happens." When he woke up
from the surgery, she had kept her word and was still standing beside him.
This experience of being cared for by
the nurse stayed with him, and nearly 20 years later his ambulance crew was
called to the scene of an accident. The driver was pinned upside down in his
pickup truck, and Jack crawled inside to try to get him out of the wreckage.
Gasoline was dripping onto both Jack and the driver, and there was a serious
danger of fire because power tools were being used to free the driver. The whole time, the driver was crying out
about how scared of dying he was, and Jack kept saying to him, recalling what
the nurse had said so many years before, "Look, don’t worry, I’m right
here with you, I’m not going anywhere." Later, after the truck driver had been safely
rescued, he was incredulous. "You were an idiot "he said to Jack. "You know that the thing could have
exploded and we’d have both been burned up!" In reply, Jack simply said he felt he just
couldn’t leave him. He had to be there
for that guy or the rest of his life would have been worth nothing.
This is what the commandments are. They are more than laws and rules, they are
God’s words. And because they are spoken
from the very lips of God they more than just words from God, they anticipate
God’s presence with us as we live these words in our life. I bought you out… is the context of all
these commands which say, “Have no other gods before me, don’t make an idol, don’t use God’s name
flippantly, and honor the Sabbath. At
these center of all these command more than “don’t do this” or “do this”, but
these are the boundaries of a relationship with the God has not left us and now
asks that we stay with him. This is how
all the commandments work. First comes
the experience of being cared for, the experience of being set free, then we
are enabled to live our lives ethically because we know we are not alone in
life. That nurse saying "I’ll be
right here beside you" became more than just spoken words, but those words
also became the action of a man risking his life for a stranger because he
knows in his bones that he just can’t leave him. In the same way, God words of command are
God’s promise that he is with us. "I am the Lord your God, who brought
you . . . out of the house of slavery" prompts us to live lives shaped
by the freedom created the God who frees us and stays with us through his words. (From
same article, Dancing with the Decalogue, by Tom Long, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3333).
THESE
WORDS FORM A COMMUNITY OF GOD AROUND OBEDIENCE
The final 6 commands are “words” about
our relations with each other. There is
no true relationship with God that does not affect our relationships with each
other. All these words; Honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t
commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t witness falsely against your neighbor, and
don’t covet what your neighbor has, are all words that find their ultimate
fulfillment in the New Testament word that says: “How can you love God, whom you haven’t seen, if you don’t love your
brothers and sisters, whom you have seen?”
Again, we can see once and for all, in
these rules about human relationships, they are not really “hard”, but they are
necessary and very “easy” rules. These
commands do not get into specifics about much of anything, but they remain
broad, general, and possible for us all to follow, so that community among us
can actually happen. The truth is, you
are not just a sinner go against such words of life, but you are, in all
actuality, humanly stupid and sick too.
To bite the hand that feed you, by dishonoring your parents is not only
stupid, it is sick. To commit murder is
more than mean, but it’s also stupid because you will also destroy yourself
just as Cain did. To steal, to lie
against someone, or to want to take what others have, will lead to all kinds of
other stupid, sick, behavior. Living a
moral, ethical life is normal, healthy, and constructive which is what the
commandments are about. These are God’s
words to give shape to freedom, help us know God’s presence, which creates a
people in community who obey God’s voice.
The delightful children’s movie, Dolphin Tale, is a story about a young
boy named Sawyer, who seems lost without his Father who left home and has no
contact with him. His only male role
model is his older cousin Kyle, who is a swimming champion and newly enlisted
in the service. Sawyer’s life receives
needed inspiration and purpose when he befriends an injured Dolphin named
Winter and participates in the Dolphin’s healing and rehabilitation. However, while helping the Dolphin recover
from its disabilities, his cousin Kyle is seriously injured in an accident is
crippled for life. When Sawyer visits
his cousin, Kyle is full of self-pity and does not want to talk to Sawyer or
anyone. Kyle tells us his younger
cousin, “Just go away, and leave me alone!”
Feeling hurt, Sawyer starts to walk away, but then turns to his cousin
and complains: “You think you are the only one hurting here! This is not just about you, Kyle. Other people are hurting too!”
Perhaps this moment, dramatizes in a
powerful way the greatest purpose of God’s law.
The words of God are not simply words or laws to help me ‘get by act
together’, or for just for you ‘to get your act together’, but these laws are
to bring us together as a community, keep us together so that we can create a
people who obey God so that we can live together and tackle the world’s
problems and challenges together. The
old folk song, based on John Donne words, “No Man is Island” speaks to the high
purpose of the law:
No man is an island, no man stands alone
Each man's joy is joy to me
Each man's grief is my own
We need one another, so I will defend
Each man as my brother
Each man as my friend.
The words of this moving and emotional
song remind us of the liberating, revealing, and community building purpose of
God’s law. Without respect for the most
basic rules of life, we lose respect for others in the most basic ways and
relationship of our lives. This is why
Jesus, commenting on the law himself, said to his followers, “I say to you that unless your righteousness
is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:20 CEB).
What was this “greater righteousness”
Jesus desired? You can find it expressed most clearly at the very end of his
sermon, in the concluding verses, which begin in Matthew 4: 43: "You
have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray
for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father
who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends
rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what
reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and
sisters, what more are you doing? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is
complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete” (Mat
5:43-1 CEB).
Showing Love and respect for God and having
love and respect for others is what the law is about. Love is what liberates, reveals God’s
presence, and builds community. I didn’t
invent this. Jesus did (Matthew 22.40). And this same Jesus said that he did not
come to “abolish” the law, but to fulfill it.
Jesus fulfilled the law so that we could keep benefiting from God’s
life-giving law: "Therefore,
brothers and sisters, know this: Through Jesus we proclaim forgiveness of sins
to you. From all those sins from which you couldn't be put in right
relationship with God through Moses' Law (Act 13:38 CEB). Amen.
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