Sermon: “Follow the Rules”
A Sermon Delivered
by
The Rev. John D. Painter
at
Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey
October 2, 2005
Text: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.” —Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 (NRSV)
For many years there was an empty frame on the wall in the lobby of the Pulaski County Courthouse in Kentucky. That silly looking empty frame was not put there as a joke. It bore tes-timony to something that had been removed.
The frame once contained a copy of the Ten Commandments, but a district judge ordered that the display be removed in 2001, and in 2003 a federal appeals court upheld that ruling, de-claring that the posting violated the First Amendment of the Constitution forbidding the “estab-lishment of religion.” Down came the commandments…but the frame remained in place until last winter, when the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the federal appeals court’s decision.
We all know that there has been no lack of intensity around this issue. “It’s about our heritage. It’s about our history,” said Christian-radio owner David Carr to the Lexington Herald-Leader (March 3, 2005). “It’s about the future of our children.” But others say no, as Americans we’ve got to maintain separation of church and state.
And so the arguments go on, and no doubt will continue to go on for many years to come. But as we ponder this issue, it’s clear that “Pulaski County’s empty frame” does raise for each of us the question of where the Ten Commandments belong in our own lives. We need to ask our-selves: Am I displaying them clearly in my own daily words and deeds? Am I keeping them prominently posted in my personal life? Or am I an empty frame?
It’s true that the commandments contain a list of rather daunting “thou-shalt-nots,” but these 10 rulings are not meant to drag us down into negativity. In fact, they are intended to give us a very positive framework for the living of our lives. The first four commandments provide us with guidance for our relationship with God, and the last six explain what it means to have a healthy relationship with each other. Perhaps you can think of the Ten Commandments as being two pictures, instead of one. After all, God used two tablets of stone to deliver the command-ments to Moses.
Worship of God’s majesty. That’s picture one. And love of one another. That’s picture two. They are equally beautiful, equally innovative, and equally well-crafted. No doubt Jesus had this two-frame approach in mind when he said that the greatest commandment called us both to “love the Lord your God” and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36-40).
Clearly, these commandments are designed to help us, not to hurt us. We tap into a source of energy and security when we worship God, rather than the powers of this world. And we lead a much healthier life when we take the time to rest, instead of working around the clock seven days a week. The worship of God’s majesty is a positive, not a negative. It makes us stronger, not weaker.
The very same can be said for the second frame of the Ten Commandments, despite the repeated “thou-shalt-nots” that it contains. There is an enormous amount of guidance and direc-tion to be gained from these final six commandments, despite our natural tendency to rebel against any limitations on our human freedom.
Whichever commandment the flashing red stop light appears in front of, we don’t like to hit the brakes and hear “thou-shalt-not.” But these commandments are not all about the nega-tives—they also provide a positive framework for the living of a good life in relationship to our neighbors. The keeping of these commandments moves us into relationships that not only reflect the will of God, but also provide us with much happier and healthier lives.
People may talk about “breaking” the Ten Commandments, but that’s not exactly right. We cannot actually break anything as solid as the law of God, even when we engage in some se-rious sinfulness. Instead, it’s more accurate to say that we break ourselves against the Ten Com-mandments. Think of the commandments as big slabs of stone that we smash ourselves into. And when we collide with the commandments, we’re gonna get hurt. Period.
David Carr was probably right when he said, “It’s about our heritage. It’s about our his-tory. It’s about the future of our children.” The Ten Commandments are about all these things, and they’re also about a framework for worshiping God and loving one another. When you read the New Testament, and come across the Great Commandment of Jesus to love God and love neighbor, it is important to visualize the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, and to post them prominently in your heart and mind.
On one tablet you have the first four commandments concerning your relationship with God. And on the other you have the last six commandments concerning your relationship with neighbor. On one side is God. On the other side is neighbor. Both are important. Both are God’s will. Both are found throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New. Both are close to the heart of Jesus.
In his provocative book about the Ten Commandments, Losing Moses on the Freeway, New Jerseyan Chris Hedges has observed:
“The commandments guide us toward relationships built on trust rather than fear. Only through trust can there be love. Those who ignore the commandments diminish the possibility of love, the single force that keeps us connected, whole and saved from physical and psychological torment.
“The commandments do not protect us from evil…They protect us from committing evil…The commandments hold community together…The commandments call us to reject and defy the powerful forces that can rule our lives and to live instead for others, even if this costs us status and prestige and wealth. The commandments show us how to avoid being enslaved, how to save us from ourselves. They lead us to love, the essence of life.”
+ + + + + + + + + +
PRAYER
We thank you, God, for your life-giving precepts of wisdom in the great commandments that lead us to order, balance, and wholeness. We thank you for bringing us out from our places of bondage into freedom, where we come to remember you, our creator, bow our knees in adora-tion and open ourselves to your words and will. We thank you that we have freedom to worship because you are working your holiness into us, freedom to pray because you hear and care, free-dom to grow because you forgive our sins, and freedom to love because you have shown us how. Amen.
+ + + + + + + + + +