COMMUNION SERVICE
Readings: Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 7th, 2021
They have been around for a long time and have formed the moral basis for countless societies and nations. They have been debated about and studied and re-interpreted and then gone through that whole process time and time again. The effects of defying or keeping them have been portrayed in movies, in songs, in literature, on stage, in pulpits, in so many ways and different places. For many Christian people they are, outside of the 23rd Psalm, their best-known passage from the Old Testament. The 10 Commandments.
As we go through Lent I'm focusing on Old Testament passages that talk about the covenant relationship that God entered into with Old Testament characters such as Noah, Abraham and today, Moses. In the case of Moses, the peoples covenant with God is marked by a series of foundational laws.
These laws functioned as boundaries in which to live their lives. Over and above these general principles were chapter after chapter of specific instructions and the penalties that would occur if the laws were not adhered to. Reading those additional laws from the perspective of the 21st century makes some of them seem incredibly odd and obscure and the penalties for their transgression harsh and severe.
The death penalty by stoning, an eye for an eye, if you knock my tooth out, I knock out your tooth, zero tolerance of other religious practices... it all appears more like a fundamentalist religious nightmare than a basis for Christian ethics. Yet among the harshness are surprises, such as the justice granted to foreigners, the provisions made for the poor, the prohibition of charging exorbitant interest on loans, the forgiveness of debt and a cycle of land use that could sustain agriculture and enable creation to renew itself.
It is important to recognize that the reason these laws are given is that people may prosper and grow. Things had not gone well since the people left Egypt. At times it looks like they are all going to perish in the wilderness and never reach the promised land. They are fickle, unfaithful, wayward, and complaining. Moses on several occasions is in total despair of them.
God is a God of covenant grace. God loves these people. God had promised to lead them and guide them and be with them. But something needed to happen for any kind of progress to be made. That something, for better or worse, turns out to be the 10 Commandments; fundamental principles that continue to influence our views of right and wrong today.
The commandments are given to protect, not to punish.
The first four commandments concern protecting the relationship of the people and their God. This is the second time Moses has been up the mountain to receive them. The first time he went up to the mountain, by the time he returned, the people had rejected the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and were putting all their hopes in an idol Aaron had constructed from their jewelry as a golden calf.
The wandering Israelite's had a major problem trusting in God. Back in Exodus 19:8 'The people all answered as one, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do”' Saying it and doing it were not the same thing. They never are! So, they are given four specific instructions regarding their relationship with God.
They are to put God first. They are to avoid making idols of anything or anybody. They are to avoid using their belief in God as a pretext for acting on their own desires. They are to take time out once a week to remember that there is a God, and it is not them.
The second set of six have to do with protecting themselves from each other. Commandments 6, 8 and 9 are about not murdering each other, not stealing from each other, and not lying to each other. Commandments 7, 9 and 10 have to do with honoring parents, not committing adultery, and not having excessive desire for anything that belonged to somebody else. Jesus would later tell us that the commandments could be summarized in just two principles. 'Love God' and 'Love your neighbor'.
Would be that was all there was to it! Unfortunately, humanity, seems no more capable of observing even two principles, let alone ten of them. Whatever you can say about the capability of the Israelite people to totally fail to be the people God was calling them to be, you can extend to people of every age, nation, and creed.
People talk about religion as being something that restricts and holds people back. They see commandments as a list of things that they cannot do. They see God as frightening judge, just waiting to catch them out. They miss the whole point that the desire behind these commands was one of protection, not punishment, one of blessing not of blaming.
The commandments are given because of God desires faithfulness.
Some years ago, a wealthy businessman in England had the idea of buying advertising space on railway stations and in other public places to display the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately (to my mind) the only way he saw fit to display such wonderful words was by using the majestic, but so easily misconstrued, language of King James Bible English. I saw a poster on a train when I was traveling on the underground. There, in angry black type, was the declaration “I THE LORD AM A JEALOUS GOD”. Somebody had responded by writing the words “Hah! Some God!”
‘Jealousy’ is invariably seen as a negative emotion; a green-eyed monster to be subdued and kept under control. The 10 commandments are thus seen as the laws of an incredibly angry God. An altogether rather insecure and self-possessed deity. Like a manic school headmaster laying down non-nonsensical rules for no reason other than to demonstrate what meaningless wastes of space he considers the rest of us to be.
In our society Christianity is often portrayed as being a product of self-righteousness. As though those who profess to believe in a deity take some unthinkable pleasure in telling everybody else on the planet how to live (whilst all the time hypocritically not even living up to their own standards.) Sadly, the ancient terminology and language we use can reinforce that impression rather than counteract it. So how do we deal with this notion that 'Our God is a jealous God?'
To me it all comes back to this idea of a covenant. I was talking with somebody the other day about the nature of love. We got onto the subject of unfaithfulness. This person said that if they found their partner had fallen in love with somebody else, then they believed that they loved their partner enough to let them go.
I must come clean and say that I could not do that. I’ll be celebrating my 43rd wedding anniversary later this year, and throughout the years of our relationship I have learned that my love for my wife is of such a nature that there is no way I would let her go, no matter how much she loved another, without trying to win back her love every step of the way, and that if I suspected…for one moment… that her affections were driving her towards another, then the green eyed monster of jealousy would kick in!
When it comes to my wife and my family, am I possessive? Yes, I am. Am I going to get mad if anybody messes with them or hurts them or seeks to destroy the relationship that we have? Absolutely. Love for me means that I will not just let it go, that if you trifle with my objects of affection then I will be jealous and feel totally justified in so doing.
Our New Testament reading gave us the account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Was He angry? You bet He was! He declares “Zeal for my Father's house consumes me!” He cared. He cared enough to act.
It is in that sense I believe we should interpret this words that the Lord our God is a jealous God. A God who says, 'Look I’m laying down some rules so we can get along. If you mess up on these things, if you do not stick with this covenant that we have, it is going to ruin everything for you, for your children and your children’s children. And do not think that your rejection of this covenant means that it is over. I am the God who will do everything I can to win you back with my love.”
This is a lovesick, crazy, unpredictable, jealous God who says, (to reinterpret the first 4 commandments) “You’re not going to go with anybody else but me, you are not going to throw my name around town as though our relationship meant nothing, you are not going to be thinking you can control me or own me just because you have an image or picture of me in your mind. I need you to make time for Me in your life… this is the covenant I am asking you to enter with me. Why? Because I really love you!”
There is an ongoing dispute about the public display of the 10 Commandments. Some people have a problem with them. They look at them and get bent all out of shape. 'You can't tell me what to believe, You can't tell me how to live.' I just do not see them that way. I believe that the commandments are given to protect us, not punish us. They are given because God desires faithfulness.
When I see the 10 commandments, I am just thankful. They do not speak to me of judgment or fear. They reveal a God who loves me enough to want to protect me from doing things that cause great harm. I rejoice that they are there to show me where I am going wrong and how to get back on the right track. I rejoice that they reveal a God who is so crazy about me, that when I am unfaithful, God is crazy jealous and wants our relationship to be restored.
And I am thankful that, through Jesus Christ, such restoration is always possible. The great reformation declaration is that we are saved, not by the law, but by grace, through our faith in Him. Moses gave the people a covenant of law. But it was just a shadow of what was to come!
We have the wonderful privilege this morning of bringing our lives to God at a table laid with bread and wine. To take some time out and remember that God loved us so much that God sent the Son to die for us, rather than have us live estranged from God’s love. And what a price He paid to restore our relationship. Such is the nature and amazement of grace.
As we travel through Lent and reflect on the unfolding revelation of God's covenant of grace, may we each be led to the light Christ, to whose name be all praise and glory. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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