Commandments for Lent

A sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Lent.

We are certainly getting our fill of the Ten Commandments this Lent so I thought it would be a good idea to spend a little time with them. The Talmud is the central text of mainstream Judaism, the work means "instruction, learning", and it is a record of rabinnic discussions on Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. This story is found in it; “Once there was a gentile who came before (the great) rabbi Shammai, and said to him: “Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same fellow came before (the equally great) rabbi Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it.”

If Hillel’s teaching was a sound-bite, the Ten Commandments are the bullet points of Jewish law. Allusions to the Ten Commandments are found as early as the writings of the 8th century prophet Hosea but in their present form they are most likely a later construction, from the time of the captivity in Babylon. That dark time in the history of Israel was actually a very fertile period for the development of the theology of Judaism. As the leaders of the community in exile stove to survive, they asked all the big questions, who are we and what does it mean to be a Jew?
The Ten Commandments are a clear statement of what being in covenant with God looks like and that starts with God. Allow only God to be God in your life. This is not as easy as it sounds because while we are not paying attention other things gain momentum and loom large in our hearts and minds and distract us from God in our life. Keeping God at the center of your life doesn’t mean that you have to move to a monastery or go to church every day. It is more an underlying awareness that God is and is in everything. Or to put it differently, everything is in God. When God is your context, how you comprehend your life and surroundings is different.

Once God is your context, you have something against which to measure your passions. If God’s presence is dimmed or crowded by an attachment to anything else you have created an idol. I read a posting on a blog by a young woman who was of a different political persuasion from her father. They were previously able to either overcome or avoid incendiary topics but yesterday her father hung up on her when she expressed an opinion. It was very sad to see an attachment to an ideology crowd out love. That’s what idolatry is, whether it is religion, politics, money (those two together are particularly power). It can be an obsession with how we look or don’t look, how we identify or denigrate ourselves. It’s odd that it’s so hard for us to see idolatry in our attitudes and attachments.

The commandment to refrain from using God’s name with malice reminds us not to try to use God or God’s power for our own use. When we use God’s name as a curse we have usurped something that is not ours The name of God is a powerful thing and it is not for us to use that power for our own ends – particularly to damn something. This commandment is more about maintaining a clear understanding of who is God and who is not.

Sabbath time is like tithing – we are supposed to return a portion of all that we have to God as a way of remembering God as the author of our blessings. How often to we say – I just don’t have the time to … We convince ourselves that our schedule is the prime directive for how we spend our time. This commandment reminds us to re-center on God. Being too busy for prayer and the fellowship of a church community might be construed as arrogance by a God who gave us six whole days for the things we need to do. The idea of Sabbath also brings with it a sense of justice – everyone, even the slaves, are to have a day of rest.
The first four Commandments safeguard our covenantal relationship with God. When we put God first, the rest falls into place. That becomes clear in the next six which safeguard our relations with each other. Since God created us to be in relationship with one another, God has a vested interest in how we do that. Maintaining the integrity of the community is intention behind Commandments 5-10.

The entire history of Judaism is built on the story of one family – the family of Abraham and Sarah. The honoring of father and mother, in its most immediate interpretation would be our own parents, the previous generation but it can also be understood to mean the entire faith tradition. Honor what brought you to this point. Even the worst parents are due gratitude for having brought us into the world and even the biggest scoundrels, like Jacob, deserve a place of honor in the tradition. Honoring them is a way to carry on the best of our traditions. At the same time, we can view our forbearers as products of their culture, not expect them to be perfect and sometimes use them as the negative examples that help us determine our choices. We can do this while still honoring their role.

The rest of the Ten Commandments are an outline for how we live together. God is not just concerned with how we relate to God but how we relate to one another. The small tribal communities that made up the Ancient Near East needed a very strict code of behavior to safeguard the integrity of that community. Everyone was related and interconnected and interdependent. Disputes that flared when someone’s property rights were not respected, when marriage bonds were damaged, when dishonesty threatened trust – all of these had serious ramifications in a community that was scratching out a living in a hostile environment. Today the ripples from our neighbors indiscretion barely even touch us – I don’t know most of my neighbors; our lives are so separate that anything short of their house burning down will go unnoticed in Marina Hills. But, take a community as small and interconnected as this congregation, if these last six Commandments are violated, it will affect everyone.

I was wondering the other day if there were an 11th Commandment, one more added to the 10 Biggies, what would it be? All of the community commandments are presented in negative “thou shalt not” form and while they are all important, I hope that we would elevate forgiveness to their level. Something like, “You shall learn to forgive” or “You shall be slow to anger and quick to forgive.” However it might be worded, the ability and desire to redeem broken relationships is every bit as important as not stealing your neighbors milk cow or prized azalea.

Forgiveness is one of the most difficult relationship challenges and while obeying the commandments will keep a lot of things from going wrong, there are still loads of ways that we injure each other. While trekking through the Lenten desert, I recommend some thought on the ideal community that is safeguarded by the commandments and the forgiveness that is required reconciliation. Jesus didn’t come among us to keep us from stealing and lying to each other, he came that all of our broken relationships might be healed and reconciled. So belong to that dream, behave as if it were already here and in your believing it, it will be real.