A sermon based upon Exodus 20: 2-3;
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9; 11: 1-7
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Year C: Proper 20, 18th Sunday After Pentecost, September 18th, 2016
The unforgettable movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” is an South African comedy film about a happy,
contented tribal culture who believes the gods have blessed them with everything
they need. But that BEGINS to change
when they encounter A RATHER SMALL AIRCRAFT FLYING over their remote village
deep into the African continent. The
pilot is drinking out of one those old-fashioned green Coca Cola bottles. When
he is finished with the beverage, he throws the bottle out of the airplane and
it lands near some native tribal leaders below. THEY PICK IT UP and ARE GREATLY INTRIGUE. It is
shaped far differently from anything they have ever seen. Until now, these secluded tribal people have
known nothing of the modern world.
Because this strange item has come to them from
the heavens above, THEY BELIEVE IT TO BE a god, or a gift from the gods. So they naturally begin to ASSEMBLE A NEW Way
of life around it. They develop songs about
it and say prayers to it. But as the story
unfolds, envy, jealousy, and disputes arise like the simple, harmonious tribe
has never known before. It’s all because
of the bottle.
In an attempt to bring peace back into their
lives, some of the leaders leave the village, in an attempt to take the
‘bottle’ back. But it’s too late. Now their simple lives have been altered and made
much more complicated by the not-so-simple, often very negative, “new world” this
bottle has invited them to encounter. As there seems to be no way to stop the flood
of trouble, a tribal leader takes the
bottle up to the top of a mountain to throw it back into ‘the window of the
gods’. What we all know too well, is that once the
simple innocent world has been invaded, there is no way of going back.
WE WILL WORSHIP SOMETHING
There
are many spiritual and cultural truths from this film, but most basic is its
portrayal of the instinctive need for HUMANS
to WORSHIP something--whether it is coke bottles, pop stars, or the most destructive desire for wealth or
power. Humans NATURALLY BEGIN TO WORSHIP
what or who we prize the most. In order to find purpose or meaning in our short, insignificant LIVES, whether we are
part of an ancient tribe or people in this complicated, modernize world, we
still must give ourselves to SOMETHING
bigger than ourselves.
Several years ago, before
there was Oprah, THERE WAS PHIL DONAHUE.
He was known for a radical, groundbreaking approach to TV talk
shows. On one of his shows, way back in
the 1970’s was the first time I heard someone say that we, as a nation, are
fast becoming a nation of addicts. The point was that in the western world, ADDICTION
WAS ON THE RISE, as more and more are hopelessly addicted to drugs, to alcohol,
to sex, to food, and to a host of other things. As humans beings, who must give ourselves to
something, we can just as easily give ourselves to the wrong thing---to
something that enslaves rather than frees.
TO BE ADDICTED TO SOMETHING means you HAVE GIVEN THE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE OVER TO SOME LESSER GOD THAT WEAKENS YOU,
AND without some form of intervention, WILL EVENTUALLY DESTROY YOU. To
give yourselves to wrong attractions, the wrong powers or to the wrong desires,
will eventually destroy your freedom. It
will also destroy your God-given potential.
It can destroy your personality, and worse of all, IT WILL DESTROY YOUR
ABILITY TO GIVE AND RECEIVE LOVE.
Is it not true, that the more
simple trust in GOD has been removed from the center OF OUR LIVES, the more
we ALLOW “OTHER GODS” or “powers” TO
TAKE OVER? Could our struggle
with some many impossible to overcome ADDICTIONS reflect the “emptiness” that
is at the very center of our modern, mostly secular lives today? Have we lost the delight for our own lives
because we too have replaced the hunger and thirst for the true God with our own
lust for “other gods”---which are lesser gods and very destructive powers that don't
have our best interests at heart?
This very first commandment reminds
us that we are created to worship. YOU WILL BOW DOWN To Something. But
BEWARE. Beware when you give
yourself over to something or someone.
EVERYTHING YOU WORSHIP AND GIVE YOURSELF TO WILL NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. Other
gods don’t die to set you free, but they live off enslaving you and off taking
life from you. It is, however, the desire
of the TRUE GOD to FREE You
from bondage. It is the desire of the true God to give you
true freedom. BUT FALSE GODS WILL PUT YOU INTO BONDAGE and do set your free to
find life. THESE LESSER GODS ARE LIKE A BOA CONSTRICTOR that will wrap
its self around its prey, drawing in slowly and more tightly, each time you
breathe in, until your breath GETS SHALLOWER AND SHALLOWER with no life left.
THIS IS THE GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
WORSHIPING WHAT IS TRUE OR WHAT IS FALSE.
It is not an imaginary difference, but it a difference that makes all
the difference in the world. IN ONE OF JAMES MICHENER''S GEOGRAPHIC NOVELS
about some exotic part of the world, GEOLOGISTS WERE DIGGING UP THE RUINS
of a civilization from an era long gone and long ago. As they uncover the relics of that ancient
society, they begin to DISCOVER THE INFLUENCE
OF THE GODS that ancient people worshiped and HOW IT SHAPED THEIR
IDENTITY AS A PEOPLE. One geologist is heard to say, "If THEY’D HAD A DIFFERENT
GOD, THEY COULD HAVE BEEN A VERY DIFFERENT PEOPLE." People reflect, if not BECOME LIKE THE GOD or GODS they WORSHIP.
This is WHY WE MUST ONLY WORSHIP THE ONE TRUE GOD--the God whose character is
holy and righteous, as well as, gracious and merciful. But how do we know or worship a ‘true’ God in a
secular world, in which people more generally assume it that we have no need
for God? Since we are not ancient Israelites
having just be delivered from slavery in Egypt, how can we expect moderns who
think they have everything they want or need, to worship this one, true God,
who is unfathomable to some, and has become unbelievable to most?
YOU MUST CHOOSE TO WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD.
In our kind of world, a
non-enchanted, secular, high-tech world centered upon self and fulfilling human
desire, worship of the one true God is NOT
AUTOMATIC. If you look closely
that this first commandment, you
understand that worshiping the one, true God wasn’t automatic in the ancient
world either. It was into a world of
many options then too, that God said to his people, “You SHALL
HAVE NO OTHER GODS before me.” It was exactly BECAUSE THERE WERE, and STILL
ARE, ALL KINDS OF GODS AND POWERS IN
THIS WORLD to choose from that God demands our utmost allegiance to Him.
How many could have done
SOMETHING much DIFFERENT WITH YOUR
TIME today? You could have done something
more pleasurable or something more exciting, instead of BEING HERE to GIVE YOUR
HEART TO THE one TRUE GOD. It is YOUR
CHOICE that makes all the difference.
True worship of the living God is a choice BORN OUT OF YOUR FREEDOM which chooses NOT to DO OTHERWISE.
GOD WANTS US CHOOSE HIM
FULLY, BUT ALSO FREELY. THE Reason WE
HAVE TEN COMMANDMENTS is not because God wants to CONTROL OR FORCE us to comply, but these 10 commands ARE
INCREDIBLE WORDS THAT CALL US TO COVENANT
and freely RELATE TO this
GOD who calls US TO CHOOSE THE POWERS OF
LIFE, not death. WHEN GOD SAYS “no other gods” we are IMMEDIATELY CONFRONTED both with
our freedom to choose rightly and our Freedom To Choose Wrongly. JOHN MORLEY, a member of the British House of
Commons during the 19th century, once TRAVELED FROM ENGLAND TO
CANADA to address the graduating class of a university. He began his speech by
saying, "I have traveled 4,000
miles to TELL YOU THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG." CHOOSING WHAT IS RIGHT is what worship is
about. To live, to breathe, and to step into the next moment of our life is
always a CHOICE IN ONE OF TWO
DIRECTIONS: WE ARE EITHER
CHOOSING TO WALK TOWARD THE ONE WHO
CREATED US or we are choosing to WALK
AWAY FROM HIM. EVERY
DAY WE MAKE A CHOICE. To be human is to decide and to
choose. You cannot be alive and not choose.
It is BECAUSE WE HUMANS ARE
FREE that GOD THUNDERS this first commandment as a warning from Sinai: "You must not have any other gods
except me." GOD IS AFFIRMING HIS PRIORITY as the CREATOR OF LIFE. He is
calling us to worship and only choose Him, not only because HE DESERVES TO HAVE FIRST PLACE, BUT
BECAUSE HE IS the only, true GOD. ALL OTHER GODS SHOULD BE SPELLED WITH A
LITTLE "g" because they are REALLY
NOT THE LIFT GIVING GOD AT ALL, ONLY PALE SUBSTITUTES. Psalm 115:4-7 says, "… Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they cannot
speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot
hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot
feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their
throat."(NASB) In other words, false gods are COUNTERFEITS. They might
have LIMITED POWERS, but eventually they can only ENSLAVE OR DESTROY, because
they DON’T HAVE THE POWER OF LIFE TO
SAVE, which means they are not God at all.
THE GOD WHO IS THE ONE TRUE GOD.
YOU MAY BE THINKING, "I DON’T WORSHIP GODS OF STONE--- IDOLS
set up in some pagan temple. I am a SOPHISTICATED
PERSON." But to be tempted
to worship ‘other gods’, doesn’t necessarily mean you might run out into the
woods at night and worship a rock. BUT
THERE ARE GODS BESIDE IDOLS OF STONE. ANYTHING
CAN BE A GOD, if it takes the place of the true God. So, if
you want discover who, or what you worship, ASK YOURSELF these THREE SIMPLE QUESTIONS, to determine who or what
is “God” in your life:
(1) ON WHAT DO YOU SET YOUR AFFECTIONS? When your heart takes a break from the
complexities of daily living, WHERE DOES
IT COME TO REST? Like a COMPASS
NEEDLE, though spun around will always come to rest by pointing north, WHERE
DOES YOUR HEART POINT WHEN IT COMES TO REST? WHAT
IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO YOU? There are many concerns and loves, but what is
ultimate love guides all other desires or loves? Is it your JOB? A PROMOTION? Perhaps your HOME?
Your CAR? Maybe another PERSON? Or MONEY? MATERIAL things? On what do you set your affections? Do you set your greatest affection on God? WE
ARE TOLD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, TO SET OUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ABOVE.,
(2) This is proven by answering the second
question: WHOM ARE YOU TRYING TO
IMPRESS? We work, we buy, we plan, we push ourselves, we study, and we
achieve, but why? Who or whom are we trying to impress? Some may say they DO IT ALL FOR THEMSELVES. There are some who are guided by purely SELF-CENTERED
MOTIVES OR AMBITIONS. We work for ourselves. We accumulate for ourselves. We achieve only for ourselves. SOME WILL say they LIVE FOR OTHERS, for their family, or for some other person or
persons. In other words, it’s not “your”
own opinion that matters, but OTHER
PEOPLE’S OPINIONS ARE IMPORTANT TOO.
Perhaps we might even become PEOPLE-PLEASERS. Perhaps we strive to look
good in the eyes of others. Giving
ourselves to others can be good, but alone, it might go wrong too. You can give, and give, and give, and not
have anything left of yourself. This
is why this first commandment points us in an even higher motive than SELF, or
OTHERS: it EXHORTS US TO BE GOD-PLEASERS. The person we should seek to
impress most is God. We should seek TO BE A DELIGHT TO HIM. ONLY when we have our hearts on God do we
know how much or what is necessary for others or for ourselves.
(3) The final question is most obvious: WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR THAT YOU WANT TO GIVE YOU LIFE, RIGHT NOW? What are our GOALS?
What are OUR ASPIRATIONS? What are OUR OBJECTIVES? IF YOU WERE TO LIST YOUR GOALS ON A SHEET OF PAPER would ‘Spiritual’ goals, you
place for God be at the top? Would your main priorities be your walk with God,
and your service to Him, or is God only a leftover, afterthought, or a
postscript? ARE YOUR GOALS ONLY CENTERED AROUND PERSONAL
ACHIEVEMENT, job, home, family, money and the like? You can live for all of these, but you must
also ask yourself: WHO GIVES YOU YOUR LIFE AND THE POWER OF LIFE? These kind of questions WILL HELP YOU EVALUATE
WHAT YOU PUT FIRST. As Jesus
instructed: seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and ALL THESE
WILL BE ADDED. ONLY SEEKING YOUR OWN
KINGDOM or your own rightness, and you NOT ONLY LOOSE YOUR KINGDOM, YOU’LL
EVENTUALLY LOOSE YOURSELF TOO?
Choosing God means YOU ARE NO
longer the center of YOUR world.
Realizing that Life is bigger than you, and is a gift, is also how your
best chance for life happens too. I once read of
A MAN IN A CATHOLIC PARISH who had a
life-THREATENING ILLNESS. The priest was
called to his hospital bed. The man was on first name basis with the Priest: “Ed, in a real crazy way, I AM
GRATEFUL THAT THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME.” The Priest asked, “Why?” The sick man answered, “Because THE WORD THAT KEEPS COMING UP IN
MY MIND is the word, ‘give’… give, give.
I have some sense that NOW I
AM CALLED TO GIVE MYSELF IN A WAY I’VE NEVER GIVEN BEFORE.” I have come
to realize, as death threatens, and the end will come, to take myself out of
the ‘center’ and to give is the only true way to live.
We choose the one true God by the IDENTITY WE CHOOSE FOR OURSELVES. We are either people who
CHOOSE TO LIVE FOR Ourselves, TO TAKE
and keep on taking… OR, on the OTHER HAND, We ARE PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO BE INSTRUMENTS and to GIVE THEMSELVES FULLY
INTO GOD’S HANDS.
Saint Francis of Assisi SAW HIMSELF AS AN INSTRUMENT
of the one, true God and IT TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND and GAVE
HIS LIFE MEANING. Francis expressed
it in a WONDERFUL PRAYER: “LORD, MAKE ME
AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE. Where there is HATRED, let me SOW LOVE, where
there is INJURY, PARDON; where there is DISCORD, UNION; where there is DOUBT,
FAITH; where there is DESPAIR, HOPE; where there is SADNESS, JOY. GRANT THAT WE MAY NOT SO MUCH SEEK TO BE
CONSOLED AS TO CONSOLE, to be UNDERSTOOD AS TO UNDERSTAND, to be loved as to
love, for it is in GIVING THAT WE RECEIVE; it is in forgiving that we are
forgiven, and it is in dying that we are born into eternal life.”
Isn’t it amazing how EVERYTHING CHANGES WHEN WE CHOOSE TO PUT
OUR LIVES INTO THE HANDS OF GOD as his instrument? WE WORSHIP GOD, not just with words, with
lips, or with a few scattered SUNDAY
‘nods to God’, but we WORSHIP GOD ONLY WHEN CHOOSE TO WORSHIP HIM DAILY with
all our lives and we put nothing in HIS PLACE AND WE HOLD NOTHING BACK.
ISRAEL’S GOD AS THE ONE, TRUE, GOD
WORSHIPING the ONE, TRUE,
GOD, means FINALLY THAT WE COME HOME to WHO WE ARE CREATED BY SO WE CAN BECOME
WHO WE ARE CREATED TO BE. Clinging to
things that cannot last only leads us from one pain to another in life. Only
God lasts. We have no scientific proof
that there is a God and we have no scientific proof that there is not a God.
All we have is the low, clear voice within saying always, “THERE MUST BE MORE to
this than this.” And that is all the proof we need.
(From: Chittister, Joan (2012-08-01). The Ten
Commandments: Laws of the Heart (p. 21).
Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.
BECAUSE THERE IS MORE, This FIRST COMMANDMENT ASSUMES that you WILL WORSHIP something. It also assumes that YOU MUST CHOOSE TO WORSHIP THE ‘TRUE’ GOD and it
assumes that this ‘true’ God MUST BE THE “ONE”
AND ONLY GOD in your life. All this is implied in ‘having no other gods before you.’
STILL, A FINAL, MOST
pressing, UNANSWERED QUESTION MAY
prevent THESE Ten Commands from GIVING LIFE today. These commandments were once given to BE THE
FOUNDATION FOR THE SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OF A COMMUNITY who INTENTIONALLY CENTERED THEMSELVES together
in COVENANT WITH THE “ONE” “TRUE GOD” God who once called ISRAEL INTO BEING,
but how CAN WE ‘ASSUME’ these laws
are also MEANT FOR US? IN A WORLD WHERE ‘TRUTH’ AND ‘LAW’ MEAN SO
MANY THINGS to MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE, how can we know THAT THE ONE TRUE GOD’ OF
ISRAEL is also the ‘one, TRUE, GOD’ FOR US and IS LORD of the UNIVERSE?
Well, TO BE QUITE FRANK, the
truth is that we CAN’T ASSUME THIS ANYMORE, as we once thought we could. Maybe WHEN WE ARE ALL LIVING IN OUR HAPPY
LITTLE SINGULAR WHITE, EUROPEAN, American RELIGIOUS TRIBES made of DIFFERENT “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN”
Flavors” we assumed it, but we don’t live there anymore. LIKE THOSE ‘TRIBAL LEADERS’ IN THAT MOVIE, “The
god’s must be crazy”, WE TOO
CAN’T JUST THROW THE COKE BOTTLE BACK up into the sky and go back to the way
things once were. LIFE HAS BECOME MORE
COMPLICATED and you CAN’T JUST ASSUME WHAT WAS ONCE GOOD FOR ISRAEL is good for
us. Even Israel, modern Israel that is,
DOESN’T PUT THAT MUCH STOCK IN THESE 10 COMMANDMENTS anymore. Today, even Israel is less Israel, or as the Apostle Paul once put it, “All
that is called “ISRAEL IS NOT ISRAEL”
(Roms 9-11).
It is PRECISELY BECAUSE life
is much different than it was before, that the 10 commandments BELONG TO MORE
than a “NEUTRAL” government building, and
must belong to MUCH MORE than in a “PUBLIC” school book, and MUST BE EVEN BECOME
MUCH MORE than a NICE “MORAL” Tale told to children. No, the 10 Commandments, if they are to GIVE
THE LIFE THEY WERE INTENDED TO GIVE, must BE GET INTO OUR SOULS with the whole HEART,
SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH. How can this
happen?
There is a GREAT Biblical EXAMPLE OF Someone quietly
and fully putting the true God at the center of their lives. DO YOU REMEMBER THE STORY OF MARY AND MARTHA IN LUKE’S GOSPEL (10: 38ff)? When Jesus came to visit, they both loved
Jesus, BUT THEY HAD DIFFERENT WAYS OF RESPONDING TO JESUS. MARTHA, responded to Jesus WITH HER BUSINESS. Mary, on the other hand, RESPONDED TO JESUS
BY GETTING CLOSER to him by HANGING ON to EVERY SINGLE WORD. THE
TEXT TELLS US THAT WHILE MARTHA WAS “DISTRACTED”
by her many tasks, Mary WAS SITTING AT
JESUS’ FEET, listening, and taking everything in.
When Martha observed Mary
there, she protested, saying, “Lord, do you
not care that MY SISTER HAS LEFT ME TO DO ALL THE WORK by myself? Tell her to help me? We can understand Martha’s difficulty, for
we TOO ARE OFTEN PRESSED UPON BY THE WORRIES and cares of this world. WE TOO ARE IN A HURRY to make sure THINGS GET
DONE RIGHT BECAUSE WE LIVE TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. But there is more. There is MUCH
MORE THAN OUR HURRIED, WORRIED LIVES. Listen to Jesus’ response: “Martha,
Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. There is need of only one thing.” MARY HAS CHOSEN THE BETTER PART, which will
not be taken away from her.
THAT “ONE THING which is the ‘better part” is to INVITE YOURSELF, to CHOOSE, TO KNOW THE
PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF LORDS, and King of Kings, WHO HAS COME CLOSE TO US IN
JESUS CHRIST. DO YOU KNOW HOW DO YOU “SERVE” WHEN WE A KING COMES TO
YOUR HOUSE? If you think like Martha,
you ‘do things’ for him. But think
about this another way: “HOW DO YOU SERVE A KING OR this GOD, who comes to us,
to call us to be his own ISRAEL, as the GOD WHO HAS AND IS EVERYTHING? HOW
DO YOU SERVE A KING WHO HAS COME TO YOU BECAUSE YOU CAN”T GET CLOSE TO HIM? YOU certainly don’t BEGIN AS MARTHA DID, but
YOU MUST DO WHAT MARY DID. YOU Acknowledge that the KING has found you
and you SIT DOWN TO LET HIM SERVE YOU FIRST.
“Be still, and know that I am God…” This is WHERE ALL THE COMMANDMENTS Begin and End. There was nothing wrong with what Martha was
doing, but there is something BADLY WRONG WITH WHAT MARTHA WAS MISSING. She is MISSING THE BEST PART….the LISTENING… The LEARNING… the GROWING…
THE WONDERING… AND THE WORSHIP… What she was missing, most of
all, was the LOVE God had to give her first.
We will also come to worship
the one, true God when we let him find us, first. And WHEN HE COMES TO US, we need to MOVE IN CLOSE
WITH ALL OUR HEARTS until we come to fully understand that what he come to give
us, FIRST OF ALL…AND MOST OF ALL IS….HIMSELF.
Amen.
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