The Journey So Far
Through Lent we have been lighting candles to help us find our way towards Good Friday and Easter -- the holy mystery of death and new life, of self-giving and resurrection by God.
Candle 1: God's commitment to all life on Earth, in the covenant God makes with Noah never to send another cataclysmic wave upon Earth because of human wickedness.
Candle 2: God's plan to work from below rather than from above -- within history and through people, helping us to be the solution rather than just the problem. God promises Abram and Sarai a family, and a place for them to live and become a blessing for the good of all life on Earth.
Today, candle 3: the Ten Commandments that God gives to the people through Moses, on their way to the promised land -- laws that spell out what real human living, that's good for Earth, looks like.
Many boil the ten down to two, though -- the Two Great Commandments to love God with everything about you, and love your neighbour as yourself. It's what one member of our Worship Committee (whose thoughts will be sprinkled through the text below) calls a good "how-to guide to be a kind, respectful, lawful person -- keeping God in the forefront. But to me," she says, "the work of God through Jesus through the stories of his teaching, lessons and acts seems more relevant. You know, like WWJD -- What Would Jesus Do."
Jesus himself says the two really say it all. Because what's more challenging, self-questioning, all-inclusive, and self-giving than love?
But at the same time, what's more open to self-serving interpretation and accommodation than a simple command to love? When we apply it to our own actions and behaviour and what's expected of us, it's easy to make it fit with whatever what's comfortable and familiar. And when we apply it to others, to make it broader, more challenging and more rigid -- geared towards what we feel we want or need from the other.
Maybe it's good to have Ten Commandments to guide us, and fill in the blanks a bit.
Reading -- Exodus 20:1-20
In Deuteronomy 6, we read this direction from God about the commandments:
These commandments I give you, God says, are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about
them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and
when you get up. Tie them as symbols in
your hands, and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and of your gates.
And now … the Ten Commandments, as found in Exodus 20:1-20:
God spoke, and these were his words: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.
Worship no god but me.
Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me, and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws.
Do not use my name incorrectly or falsely, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.
Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work—neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. In six days, I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.
Respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you.
Do not commit murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not accuse anyone falsely.
Do not desire another man's house; do not desire his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns.
When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain, they trembled with fear and stood a long way off. They said to Moses, “If you speak to us, we will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die.”
Moses replied, “Don't be afraid; God has only come to test you [i.e., to purify and sift you, to show who you really are] and put the fear of the Lord upon you, so that you will not sin.”
Meditation
Do you remember the direction by God to “write the commandments on the doorframes of your homes and of your gates”? It makes me think of what we’ve done with the COVID Commandments – the Big Four of them. I’m sure you know them, have them inscribed in your hearts, and have impressed them upon your children.
Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Keep a 2-metre distance. If you show any symptoms of infection by the virus, have been in contact with anyone who has or may have it, or have travelled, go home and stay home.
We know the commandments so well because we have posted them on the door-frames and in the entrances of all our stores and public buildings and other places of public gathering. They inform us and shape our ways of being together, every time we come in and out. They help us be prepared for good ways of being community together.
And that’s the point of it. The point of masks and hand-washing and distancing and staying home if there’s a chance we might have the virus, is not just to safeguard our own health and well-being, and our own survival of the pandemic. Nor is it all just for the sake of political correctness and getting a gold star of approval.
Really, it’s for the health and well-being of others around us, of others who will be in contact with us, of others who have reason to be wary of us and of what we may be carrying. Keeping the COVID Commandments is about acting for the good of others – even if it’s just for their peace of mind when they’re around us. It’s about surrendering to, and giving ourselves to do what is needed for the well-being of all.
That’s what the Ten Commandments are about as well.
I used to think sometimes that keeping the Ten Commandments was about getting God to like me, and approve me, so I would prove myself worthy of heaven. And that because I didn’t keep all the commandments – or maybe any of them really, when you see how Jesus interprets them – God was angry with me, and Jesus had to come to Earth to pay the price God needed paid before I could be let in.
But the Ten Commandments aren’t about getting into heaven. They aren’t about pleasing God and making God like us. They aren’t about qualifying for life after death with God.
The Ten Commandments are what it takes to make life on Earth good and the way it’s meant to be, right now. The Commandments are what must be chosen to live together as we are meant to. They are instruction in opening and surrendering ourselves to God and to others, which Jesus shows as the only way of being truly human – any other way we might try and might try justifying, being only illusion and temptation.
It’s challenging, though – not least of all because even with love of God and others spelled out in ten simple steps, there are still always questions … like the ones offered by members of the Worship Committee.
Like about the first 2 commandments to worship only God and not allow any idols to attract our attention. “These first two are not difficult to live out,” one person says. But another asks “what are the ‘other gods’ that could come before God? Distractions in our life, like work? Crises in the media, that grab our attention and our focus?” Sometimes it may be a real question of what is our ultimate authority, and our real priority in life.
The third commandment – against using God’s name falsely – came under special scrutiny. “In this time of pandemic with its social distancing, isolation, uncertainty, and anxiety,” one person wrote, “I suspect that #3 - You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD -- is taking quite a beating. A lot of people blame God when things go wrong." Maybe just the flip side of giving thanks to God when you come out on top?
More than one person commented on how challenging the fourth commandment is these days. Keeping sabbath is hard when “every day in this pandemic seems the same as the next, and it’s hard to keep track of which day is actually Sunday.”
Someone else wrote, “the days tend to blur and boundaries are difficult to establish. When I eat dinner, I am eating at the same place I am teaching lessons and marking. Students email around the clock. I need more divisions in my schedule. So, what I do is carve out time free of computers screens and phones, to find some fresh air and either sunshine or stars, where I can honour the quietness. That, to me, is holy time – never an entire day, but a small piece of every day.”
And the fifth commandment? Honour your father and mother? We can’t help but think of what it says about our having allowed our long-term care homes to deteriorate and become unsafe and unhealthy places. But then, there’s also the fact that “these days, ‘Honour your father and your mother’ could be interpreted as ‘leave them alone’ because one could be a-symptomatic and infect your own parents. How does one deal with knowing you’re the cause of their suffering and possibly death?”
And, in another line of thought, someone else wrote, “When I think of the older people in our community, I associate them with people who truly know what community means. They are often the people who cook and deliver meals to families who suffer a loss or are celebrating a birth. They are often the people who, when retired, volunteer their time to drive people to medical appointments or help at the Grimsby Benevolent Fund. They are often the people who offer steady and consistent leadership both in official organizations and also amongst more casual gatherings… We cannot just honour these people by cleaning up our LTC situation. We honour the elderly by checking in on those who are at home, especially those who are alone. We also honour them by continuing the community efforts that they have supported and by being true participating members of our own communities.”
And then numbers six, eight and ten about not killing others, not stealing from others, and not coveting for yourself what others have. “We already have cases where people don’t want to wait …their turn: they covet the vaccine others are getting – number ten. Some folks have taken a vaccination in another country, or jumped the provincial line with fake I.D., or just plain took ‘extra’ vials from clinics – number eight. Number six could come into play because someone who should have had one of those stolen vaccines could end up catching Covid-19 and dying.” Or, because who have the means to be first and at the head of the vaccination line don’t think about others with less means, but greater need to be first and ahead of them.
But then, one of our members also comments on how many ways we use the image of stealing, and how they’re not all bad. "It's okay for someone to steal your heart, or a hockey player to steal the puck from an opponent, or a baseball player to steal a base. In these scenarios, stealing is acceptable. In fact, it's even viewed positively. Does that mean there is good stealing and bad stealing? For a homeless parent who resorts to stealing in order to feed his child, whether during the pandemic or any other time, is this good stealing or bad stealing? Is stealing to help someone else bad? The Golden Rule says to "love your neighbour as thyself." Is stealing food so your neighbour has something to eat bad or good? If we are to follow the 10 Commandments verbatim then, no, we shouldn't steal for any reason, but should we not help out our fellow man?"
Not simple, are they?
Yet, God stands by them. And tells us to stand under them.
These commandments I give you, God says, are to be upon your hearts.
More than just words on stone tablets to be recited, they’re to be
internalized and lived out.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
Yes, don’t just teach them and have them memorized. Talk about them. Work together on what they mean in different
situations. Make them a subject of
community conversation.
Tie them as symbols in your hands, and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and of your gates.
Have them always close at hand, and close to mind. Let them be your gateway, your way in to good life wherever you go, day by day. Let them be the way you are guided beyond your self, to become a real human being, in surrendering and giving your life to what makes life good for all.
Thanks be to God, for not leaving us alone.
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