Desert Scribblings

March 15, 2009 - Third Sunday in Lent, Year B

Exodus 20:1-17 - link to the NRSV text

Note: Also see my previous post on the Ten Commandments.

Why does God give us law?

For many people, the idea of God giving law means that God is punitive.  God has to set up rules else everything will descend into chaos, and if you break those rules then you're going to get what you deserve.  Break the law, and you will be punished.  God becomes something on par with The Man, Big Brother, Microsoft: the great power that everything else must bow to.  Law thus becomes strictly a list of dos and don'ts by which God judges and weighs humanity as determinative of their worthiness and holiness.  Law is restrictive, controlling.

Within the concept of covenantal relationship, however, I think law has a little different character.  God gives the law not because it is punitive; the law, in this case the Ten Commandments (or Words) serves as an ordering force for the life of the covenant community.  

And this is something so often ignored when these commands are discussed: they are commands for the covenant people.  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2-3).  The scope of the commandments could be understood as restricted to those who have experienced the mighty grace and mercy of God.

And the law then sets out a pattern of life for the covenant people, of how they are to live in relation with God and with each other.  And these two different relations are not distinct; how we relate to God has an impact on how we relate to others.  And the bridge is found in verse 8-11, in the command about the Sabbath:

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 (Exodus 20:10, emphasis added).

Covenant life with God has a material and physical manifestation; it is not restricted to private religious observance.  Instead, the divine-human relationship pours out into all other relationships, demanding that others receive rest also, that one honors the family, that we do not damage each other through either action (murder, adultery, theft, false testimony) or animosity (coveting the possessions of someone else).

The law provides a pattern of religious and social action that provides a rhythm for day-to-day living. Maybe this idea provides some insight into Jesus' teaching when he said:

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment...You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28).

Maybe Jesus is suggesting that these commands were about more than just right action, but about fundamental human-to-human and divine-to-human relationships.  When actions like murder and adultery are even contemplated, Jesus suggests, the rhythm of covenantal living is interrupted.

But that's not the end of the story, for God's law ("teaching" may be a better translation of torah) is not punitive.  This is not some impartial judge sitting high on a throne and pronouncing guilt for those who diverge.  The one who gave the law gave it out of love and grace: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."  

The law, the Ten Commandments stand as a stark reminder of the rhythm that we are called to adhere to as the covenant people, and as a reminder of how much we struggle to do so.  Yet the God who makes covenant, who makes relationship, is ready to continue to be in covenant.  When the rhythm is interrupted, God comes to show us the way again.  And isn't that part of what Lent is about?  The reminder that our sin is ever present, our brokenness ever before us, but that in God's mighty acts we find new life, that we experience resurrection?

Shalom,

Geoff

October 5 – Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 - link to the NRSV text

There are many iconic images and stories in the Bible that shape our imaginations, but few rival this Sunday’s reading from Exodus, which is the giving of the Ten Words (or Commandments) to Moses on top of Mount Sinai.  For Jews and Christians alike, it is a formative theological memory, and the Ten Words themselves are foundational teachings that inform moral behavior.

All that being said, sometimes iconic texts are the hardest to preach because they come with so much baggage.  To quote Alan Rickman’s character the Metatron, the Voice of the Almighty from Kevin Smith’s Dogma: “Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.”  We assume that, “Yeah, the Ten Commandments.  I know those things [Note: Well, maybe not].  I know what they mean.  How can I not?  I’ve been hearing about them my whole life.”

But often what we think we know about a text gets in the way of what the text is actually trying to communicate.  At first glance the Decalogue seems to be a list of regulations, and that’s what we assume they are, a list of do nots.  But maybe they are more like a framework through which life,
specifically life with God, is interpreted.

Jewish tradition about the Decalogue gets this in a way that post-Pauline Christianity has seemed to have lost.  For many Christians, the Ten Words are “law” vis-à-vis the gospel or good news of God revealed in Jesus and even though we’ll still think following them is a good thing, they are seen as something distinct from the concept of God’s grace, as things that we as humans have failed to live up to and thus we need saving.

But in Jewish tradition, the Ten Words are a response to grace.  The Jews traditionally order their commandments differently; what the Jews regard as the first commandment or word, many Christians just dismiss as a prologue or introduction to the commandments.  But in Jewish tradition, the first commandment is not to have “no other gods before me,” but is instead: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the  land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery"  (Exo 20:2).

In other words, the first word of life with God is to, “Remember what God has done for you!”  All the other commandments flow from this, even the commandments about relations with other human beings because they flow out of response to God’s goodness.  Those that had been slaves in Egypt have been liberated and thus are called to a new allegiance, a new bondage to the one that has provided for them so graciously, and these Ten Words define what life with this new lord and master shall look like.

And note that life with God is defined by a dual relationship, a relationship with God and with other people.  Jesus noted this when he refused to separate the commandments to “Love God with all that you are” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  But that principle is traced back here, to the Ten Words, these foundational spoken commands from the liberating and life-providing God of Israel.

In many ways, the rest of Torah is a working out of what living out these Ten Words looks like in everyday life and is a continuing, on-going process of reflection and discernment in the midst of life’s toils and troubles.  The Jewish rabbis frequently understood that Torah observance must shift according to new times and contexts, and I think this principal is found in the character of the Decalogue.  For the Decalogue defines the boundaries of faithful living, but does not provide the answer to how this is to be lived out.

What does it mean to hallow the Sabbath and to rest?  How is an image defined?  What does it mean to honor your parents?  These and other questions are the work of discernment and God’s working in the community of faith to guide God’s people to faithful observance.

But first and foremost is the word: Remember!  Remember what has been done. "I am the LORD, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, up from a house of slavery."This is the Word on which all faithful living is formed and founded, that God has already done so much on our behalf.  How will we respond?

Shalom,
Geoff