Well, that was lovely. A friend just sent me an email thing about seeing color. You know those forward things that you usually just delete and sigh, wondering why they seem to fill your email inbox with this nonsense. But since I was kind of stuck on the bible study writing so far, I thought, what the heck, give it a go. And it was lovely.
Someone made a little movie made up of still pictures, some gentle piano music in the background and the words “Did you even think what a blessing it is to be able to see, and to see in color?” Then it says sit back and enjoy for a few minutes, so I did. And there were these dramatic landscape pictures that first appeared in black and white and then burst out in color. It was quite a change from one to the other, I must say. And it was fun to watch for a few minutes, carried away by the music and loveliness of the photography.
Then it hit me, I had the answer to the question for this week. OK, stay with me here. This is the question I chose to answer: “Why don’t we hear about the 10 Commandments any more?” There was more on the card though. The writer went on to say that his/her history growing up in the Baptist tradition meant that there was regular exposure to the Ten Commandments. But now it seemed as though they had disappeared from view. Or at least from active consciousness.
So, the question implied, do we United Methodists not care about the Ten Commandments anymore? Have succumbed to the “anything goes” culture in which we live and spend all our time just pouring out buckets of grace in endless forgiveness mode, or really NBD mode (no big deal) since forgiveness implies a wrong-doing and no one wants to go there. There’s a free pass whether anyone asks for it or not?
Well, no. Any denomination that traces its origins back to someone who spoke so often about spiritual discipline, about sanctification, about Christian perfection in love can’t be completely casual about law. At least it seems that way to me. On the other hand, it might be argued that we have gotten a little casual about law. In our effort to be nice, to be tolerant, to be user-friendly, it could be said that we have been a bit neglectful about law. We’ve gotten lazy, or embarrassed, or indulgent and what we really need is a re-emphasis on the law, starting withe the ten commandments. Am I right? Well, then, here they are. Let’s have at it.
Exodus 20:1-20 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4 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. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 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. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work-- you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 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. 18 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, 19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20 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."
OK, I went on a bit. Couldn’t just stop with the ten, the way most folks do. Had to add in a little commentary. But there they are. All ten. The law, the big ones, the words. That’s what they are called in Hebrew, you know. It doesn’t say that God called Moses one day and said I’ve got these commandments I want to try out. Let’s run a focus group and do a test market and run them up the flagpole and see who salutes.
No, it just says God spoke all these words. These are the Ten Words, or even more literally, The Utterances. Doesn’t have the same zing to it, does it? The Ten Utterances. Not something you want to post in courthouses and make yard signs out of. Well, ok, but what does that mean, exactly? That these aren’t really laws? That these were just words, just a conversation God was having with Moses that somehow got written in stone and maybe we should just all lighten up?
Well, maybe. Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s start with no. God doesn’t need to name them as laws for them to have weight and authority over our lives. God spoke them, to us, to the people of God. God said this is who you are, who you will be. You will be in right relationship with me, first of all. Don’t let anything get in the way of me, don’t let anything take the place of me, and please, God said, don’t use me as your personal battering ram to get your points across to others. Those were the first three utterances, no gods before me, no idols and do not make wrongful use of God’s name.
Then God said, I know that’s hard to remember all of that stuff. So, once a week you need to sit down and reorient yourself to me. Set your life aside for a day and remember that you belong to me. Sabbath, keeping it holy means we keep it for God alone. A chance to get back on track.
From there the conversation turned to reflections on how we were going to live in community. God said in the end it is all about respect, Moses, respect family and tradition - what brought you here, respect life itself, respect the covenants you make, respect ownership, respect truth and a fair system of justice, and guard your heart against the greed and self-centeredness that causes us to stop respecting.
Sounds good, Moses must have thought. Sounds like the kind of place I would like to live. But then he thought, Why? Turning to his friend he asked, “why do you care?” Maybe that was where all the smoke and fire came from. That was what set the folks back on their heels enough to say to Moses - you talk to God, we don’t want to. We might not survive the experience.
But it was a good question, and thousands of years later the answer said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Because it was never about black and white, about obeying the law or getting burned. It was about seeing color, the rich hues of God’s creation in community. It’s not about staying in the lines, but about fulfilling the potential that is within each of us and within all of us. It’s about making connections within the divine palette of possibility. It is indeed a blessing to see beyond the simple black and white, right and wrong into the color of what is good and what is godly. We spend more time talking about the community the ten words make than the words themselves. So we can see the color and not just the lines. The lines are there, make no mistake, but oh, how glorious is the color we can see. And wouldn’t you rather live there?
Shalom,
Derek
Someone made a little movie made up of still pictures, some gentle piano music in the background and the words “Did you even think what a blessing it is to be able to see, and to see in color?” Then it says sit back and enjoy for a few minutes, so I did. And there were these dramatic landscape pictures that first appeared in black and white and then burst out in color. It was quite a change from one to the other, I must say. And it was fun to watch for a few minutes, carried away by the music and loveliness of the photography.
Then it hit me, I had the answer to the question for this week. OK, stay with me here. This is the question I chose to answer: “Why don’t we hear about the 10 Commandments any more?” There was more on the card though. The writer went on to say that his/her history growing up in the Baptist tradition meant that there was regular exposure to the Ten Commandments. But now it seemed as though they had disappeared from view. Or at least from active consciousness.
So, the question implied, do we United Methodists not care about the Ten Commandments anymore? Have succumbed to the “anything goes” culture in which we live and spend all our time just pouring out buckets of grace in endless forgiveness mode, or really NBD mode (no big deal) since forgiveness implies a wrong-doing and no one wants to go there. There’s a free pass whether anyone asks for it or not?
Well, no. Any denomination that traces its origins back to someone who spoke so often about spiritual discipline, about sanctification, about Christian perfection in love can’t be completely casual about law. At least it seems that way to me. On the other hand, it might be argued that we have gotten a little casual about law. In our effort to be nice, to be tolerant, to be user-friendly, it could be said that we have been a bit neglectful about law. We’ve gotten lazy, or embarrassed, or indulgent and what we really need is a re-emphasis on the law, starting withe the ten commandments. Am I right? Well, then, here they are. Let’s have at it.
Exodus 20:1-20 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4 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. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 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. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work-- you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 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. 18 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, 19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20 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."
OK, I went on a bit. Couldn’t just stop with the ten, the way most folks do. Had to add in a little commentary. But there they are. All ten. The law, the big ones, the words. That’s what they are called in Hebrew, you know. It doesn’t say that God called Moses one day and said I’ve got these commandments I want to try out. Let’s run a focus group and do a test market and run them up the flagpole and see who salutes.
No, it just says God spoke all these words. These are the Ten Words, or even more literally, The Utterances. Doesn’t have the same zing to it, does it? The Ten Utterances. Not something you want to post in courthouses and make yard signs out of. Well, ok, but what does that mean, exactly? That these aren’t really laws? That these were just words, just a conversation God was having with Moses that somehow got written in stone and maybe we should just all lighten up?
Well, maybe. Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s start with no. God doesn’t need to name them as laws for them to have weight and authority over our lives. God spoke them, to us, to the people of God. God said this is who you are, who you will be. You will be in right relationship with me, first of all. Don’t let anything get in the way of me, don’t let anything take the place of me, and please, God said, don’t use me as your personal battering ram to get your points across to others. Those were the first three utterances, no gods before me, no idols and do not make wrongful use of God’s name.
Then God said, I know that’s hard to remember all of that stuff. So, once a week you need to sit down and reorient yourself to me. Set your life aside for a day and remember that you belong to me. Sabbath, keeping it holy means we keep it for God alone. A chance to get back on track.
From there the conversation turned to reflections on how we were going to live in community. God said in the end it is all about respect, Moses, respect family and tradition - what brought you here, respect life itself, respect the covenants you make, respect ownership, respect truth and a fair system of justice, and guard your heart against the greed and self-centeredness that causes us to stop respecting.
Sounds good, Moses must have thought. Sounds like the kind of place I would like to live. But then he thought, Why? Turning to his friend he asked, “why do you care?” Maybe that was where all the smoke and fire came from. That was what set the folks back on their heels enough to say to Moses - you talk to God, we don’t want to. We might not survive the experience.
But it was a good question, and thousands of years later the answer said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Because it was never about black and white, about obeying the law or getting burned. It was about seeing color, the rich hues of God’s creation in community. It’s not about staying in the lines, but about fulfilling the potential that is within each of us and within all of us. It’s about making connections within the divine palette of possibility. It is indeed a blessing to see beyond the simple black and white, right and wrong into the color of what is good and what is godly. We spend more time talking about the community the ten words make than the words themselves. So we can see the color and not just the lines. The lines are there, make no mistake, but oh, how glorious is the color we can see. And wouldn’t you rather live there?
Shalom,
Derek
No comments:
Post a Comment