Scripture text: Exodus 20:1-21
The Ten Commandments. Probably one of the most discussed and argued portions of Scripture in the whole of the Bible. The Law, or at least the most elementary portion of it, upon which the morality and legality of Judeo-Christian society has been built, or so we’ve come to believe. Of course, therein lies our problem. For all the countless times this passage has been addressed, upheld, discussed, argued over, and picked apart by scholars, there is a massive amount of misinformation about it. What the commandments mean and what purpose they serve.
One of the more common ways conversations about the Commandments occur in these times (and for about the last 50 years or so) are debates about their place in the public sphere. Oh, if only we just had the Ten Commandments posted in our schools and in our courthouses and in our government buildings, then society would be so much better. People would be more polite, there would be less crime. It would be wonderful. Besides, they’re the basis of our legal code and should be honored as such.
I’m going to break down each of those arguments in turn. First off, the unending barrage of advertisement-based 24-hour news media has created the perception that life in these United States is as bad as it’s ever been. The facts, the statistics, do NOT bear that out. Crime is lower. Health care is better. Lifespans are longer. Poverty is lower. Things are far better now than when those Commandments were posted in all those places people are demanding they be returned to. Back then, crime was worse (but people didn’t talk about it), people died of diseases that no longer even exist, poverty was rampant (and like crime, kept invisible), and let’s not forget that discrimination and bigotry against those who were different was not only commonplace, it was sanctioned by the government and its laws. We are NOT going back to that.
And then there’s the idea that the Ten Commandments are the sole source of our legal code. Let’s just dispense with this nonsense right from the start. The religious commandments that deal with our relationship with God are utterly and rightly ignored in a nation that has built itself upon the separation of church and state. The rest, the ethical code of how we deal with other people, is common sense and found duplicated in nearly every legal code of every society ever. If you look at the carvings upon our Supreme Court building in Washington, you don’t see Moses up there alone. You see him joined by great lawgivers from all across the span of history.
I spoke last Sunday about how people are avoiding the church because they know we lie. Here’s another example. We lie about the commandments. Christians who want the Ten Commandments plastered up every 10 feet in the public realm are not truly interested in the historical basis of our legal system. Nor are they really interested in making society better. They want them displayed and read and followed because they believe the commandments are a means to an end.
And what end? For those Christians who see God as Santa Claus, the Commandments are how you prove your devotion. How you get God to notice you so he’ll shower you with that winning lottery ticket, that beautiful spouse, those genius children, and that yacht at the pier. And for those who constantly hammer the world about getting saved, the Commandments are how that happens. Obey and you will see heaven. Oh, they might say otherwise. They might say it’s about Jesus, but why then do they talk so little about him? Why is always talk of rules and regulations? Of personal purity and piety instead of faith?
They lie and they lie to themselves as much as anyone. They don’t know any better and, often times, neither do we. We’ve been bombarded with misinformation about the law of God practically from the day we were born. We’ve never realized that this isn’t how it all works. We’ve never been taught what the commandments are truly about. And so we fall into error. I may point the finger at other Christians and other churches, but we are often just as guilty as they of these same misunderstandings.
God gave the commandments to the people not as a practical way of life, but as an ideal to be striven towards. And as an ideal, they are impossible to truly obey. And none of us have. Sure, I haven’t killed anyone, but boy after getting cut off three times while driving on Thursday, I sure was ready to do so. Thou shalt not bear false witness. I’d lose track of the number of white lies I say each week and I’m a terrible liar. I try not to do it because I get caught so easily. Thou shalt not bear adultery. That woman at the swimming pool in the string bikini is seriously hot...and also not my wife. And that’s not even getting into the sheer number of times I put other things ahead of God and I’m a preacher.
That’s a short general example of the ways I don’t live up to these commandments. I’m sure each of you could give a similar list, and that’s not even getting into the real scary skeletons-in-the-closet stuff. If the law is how we’re getting to heaven, then we’re just plain screwed. If the law is how our success in life is determined, no wonder none of us are sipping tea with Bill Gates this afternoon.
But that’s not how it works. That’s not what these commandments are for. They are here to reveal our failure, to remind us that we are not God, and that we cannot be like him. We cannot achieve his standard. And therefore, we must then rely not on his law, but on his mercy.
St. Paul considered this to be one of the greatest of his personal revelations about God when he became a Christian. As he says in our second lesson, he was as good as people get when it comes to obedience to the commandments. He was well on his way to earning that Golden Ticket into heaven when he realized that’s not how it truly works. God has a better way and that way is Christ.
Jesus came. Jesus died. Jesus rose again. It is finished. I used that cadence last Sunday to describe the process of salvation and I’m using it again today. I’ll probably use again in the future, because that IS how it works. It’s about Jesus. Period. It’s not about the rules. It’s not about our piety or our purity or our desperate need to remake the world into what we think it should be. It’s about Jesus Christ, his cross, his sacrifice, and his mercy.
That’s what the Church needs to be about. That’s what we need to be about. Trusting it, absorbing it, teaching it, believing it, proclaiming it, living it. Mercy, love, kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice. It’s all about Christ.
All God wants of us is to trust in that reality. He’s taken care of it, all of it, through Jesus. Obedience to the law is nice. It’ll help you get along with people better, but it’s not going to make you rich and it’s not going to save your soul. Jesus does that. Jesus did that. For everyone of us. It’s done. It is finished. Amen.
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