The Ten Commandments

October 8, 2017 Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 The Ten Commandments Children’s time: 1. "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me." Hold up one index finger for the number one. We worship one God. 2. "You shall not worship idols." Idols, false gods, are not only things like statues, but anything in which we place our ultimate trust and allegiance — for example, money, possessions or weapons. Hold up two fingers. Should we worship more than one God? No, two is too many! One of them must be an idol, and we should not worship it! 3. "You shall not take the Lord's name in vain." Use three fingers to form the letter "W" which stands for "words." Watch your words! God wants us to use his name in loving, caring ways, as we pray and as we talk about him, not in swearing or in anger. 4. "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy." Hold up four fingers, and fold your thumb under to let it rest. The thumb has the right idea. It's the Sabbath, and the thumb is following the commandment to take a day of rest. God does not want anyone to overwork or be stressed, so we need a day to rest, to be at peace, and to worship with others. God also gave us the Sabbath so that working people would not be taken advantage of by their employers (Deut. 5:14) 5. "Honor your father and your mother." Hold up all five fingers on one hand as if you are taking a pledge, to honor your parents. God wants there to be peace and love in all our family relationships. 6. "You shall not kill." Pretend the index finger on your second hand is a gun, shooting at the first five fingers. God's sixth commandment teaches us not to do anything that would hurt another person unfairly. 7. "You shall not commit adultery." Hold one hand out flat. The five fingers and hand becomes the floor of the church. Two fingers on the other hand are the man and woman to be married, standing in the church, making promises to each other. This seventh commandment calls for couples to keep the marriage promises they make. 8. "You shall not steal." Hold up four fingers on each hand, for the eighth commandment. If you stretch out your fingers slightly, these become the prison bars, which hold someone who was been arrested for stealing. Our Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Study Catechism says "God forbids all theft and robbery, including schemes, tricks or systems that unjustly take what belongs to someone else." (Question # 112) 9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Hold up all five fingers on one hand and four on the other. Fold your second thumb under and turn your hand around, so the thumb is hiding. It is secretly going around telling the other four fingers on that hand lies and rumors about the five fingers on the other hand. It is "bearing false witness," as it talks behind people's backs, spreading gossip, criticizing others without talking directly to the people involved. Again, our Study Catechism teaches us "Negative stereotyping is a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse, and violence as forbidden by the commandment against murder." (Question # 115) 10. "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor." Hold out your hands, palms up, and wiggle all ten fingers to show that they've got the "gimmies." Your fingers are saying, "Gimmie what belongs to my neighbor. I want all those things my neighbor has." This is not the way God wants us to live. Exodus 20:1-4Common English Bible (CEB) The Ten Commandments 20 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 You must have no other gods before[a] me. 4 Do not make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 7 Do not use the LORD your God’s name as if it were of no significance; the LORD won’t forgive anyone who uses his name that way. 8 Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. 9 Six days you may work and do all your tasks, Exodus 20:12-20Common English Bible (CEB) 12 Honor your father and your mother so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13 Do not kill.[a] 14 Do not commit adultery. 15 Do not steal. 16 Do not testify falsely against your neighbor. 17 Do not desire your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. 18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking, the people shook with fear and stood at a distance. 19 They said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we’ll listen. But don’t let God speak to us, or we’ll die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, because God has come only to test you and to make sure you are always in awe of God so that you don’t sin.” Footnotes: a. Exodus 20:13 Or murder Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible I didn’t make it to the football game this Friday. But last week sitting in the stands, I remember thinking – what would the game be like if there were no referees. It seems like every play that are blowing their whistle and throwing out a flag. Would the game be harder or easier if their were no rules, and the players were allowed to do what they wanted? What would our world be like if there were no rules. Would it be more fun or less fun. Ted Turner, a multimillionare – does not believe in God. Since we as modern American don’t like to be told what to do – he actually invented his own rules. Instead of calling them the ten commandments – calls them the to voluntary inititives. Here are his Big 10: 1. I love and respect planet Earth and all living things thereon, especially my fellow species, mankind. 2. I promise to treat all persons everywhere with dignity, respect and friendliness. 3. I promise to have no more than two children, or no more than my nation suggests. 4. I promise to use my best efforts to help save what is left of our natural world in an untouched state and to restore damaged or destroyed areas where practical. 5. I pledge to use as little non-renewable resources as possible. 6. I pledge to use as little toxic chemicals, pesticides and other poisons as possible. 7. I promise to contribute to those less fortunate than myself to help them become self-sufficient and enjoy the benefits of a decent life, including clean air and water, adequate food, health care, housing, education and individual rights. 8. I reject the use of force, in particular military force, and back United Nations arbitration of international disputes. 9. I support the total elimination of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and, in time, the total elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. 10. I support the United Nations in its efforts to collectively improve the conditions of the planet. He totally does not get what it means to live life in relationship to God. He totally does not understand the significance of the 10 commandments. Ronald Reagan once wondered that the10 commandments would be like if congress had designed them – would we have the same concerns. If there were no 10 commandments there would be no congress. Legal experts, historians, theologians all agree that the ten commandments were the cornerstone to people living in community. These are the 10 rules which are legal system is based on – that is why you can find them in so many courtrooms. They are known simply as the 10 words – you can find them in exodus and also in Deuteronomy 5. If you think that all of my sermons are about how we live in community – you are right- the bible is all about how we live in community. How we order ourselves in order to have peace and justice in our lives. – how we become the shalom community. The shalom community is a community that lives in concentric circles. God is in the center, then the family, the community and the rest of the world. The ten commandments give you rules about how to live in community. How to relate to each of those rings in the circle. – rule number 1 – there is only one God, and God always comes first. The next two are about how to have a relationship with God. Number 4 – is about creating a calendar and establishing holy time. Five is to honor the family – which your parents are the backbone. And the last 5 are about how to live in relationship to other people. A mother and her two small boys were having a serious discussion about stealing and why it was wrong. “Tell me,” she said, “Why do you think stealing is wrong?” Five-year-old Luke said that stealing was against God’s laws. He had learned about the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. Mother asked the boys if they knew any of the other Ten Commandments. Luke remembered two others: “You shall not murder,” and “Honor your father and mother.” But the boys couldn’t think of any other commandments, until little Patrick piped up, “I know one: “Pick up your toys!” It could be there somewhere – but the 10 commandments is about how we order ourselves in the world. A world where god always comes first. As a United Methodist elder – the book of discipline says that I have 3 main jobs - word, order and sacrament. I am supposed to give a sermon every Sunday, chase you down and make sure that you turn in your charge conference reports, and preside over the Lord’s supper. Of course there is a lot more that goes into the second job of keeping order. We are called Methodist – because there is a defined method for doing everything. John Wesley founded a religious club in college – they got the nickname Methodist and it stuck. Our method is contained in the book of discipline. It orders the way we are a church in everyway. It is unfortunate that we live in a world where we think we are supposed to be free to do anything. We have been conditioned to think that the law is bad – and the ten commandments represent the law. The quickest way to tell if a stick is crooked is to sit it next to a straight stick as a standard of measure. The law is our standard of measure to see how crooked we are. How crooked are we in our lives. What do we need to straighten out in order to get right with God? Someone has said that there was a reason why the Ten were written on stone instead of parchment. They were written in stone so that people could only keep them or break them -- they cannot bend them. We need to be disciplined in our living. The laws of the United Methodist Church, for example, are included in a document known as the Book of Discipline. It seeks to tell what United Methodists can and cannot do. Rather than a curse, it is a blessing because of its clarity. A Jewish Rabbi was addressing his congregation where the high school graduates were being recognized. He used an illustration of water. He stated that water which is allowed total freedom, soon loses its power and becomes still, constituting a swamp, breeding harmful insects. Water, on the other hand, that is totally free, but is confined by two banks, never loses its power and is called a river, generating power for electricity that will light up the whole town. We are to be like the water, disciplined by two banks so that we will never lose our power. The ten commandments give us the freedom to live our lives and to move forward as individuals and as a body. And not to destroy ourselves. The new testament does not negate the Hebrew testament. Jesus does not supercede Moses. Without the ten commandments – Jesus words mean nothing. Jesus' Two Commandments Jesus did not destroy the Law written in the Decalogue; he simply boiled the ten down to two. "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Mark and Luke added, "and with all thy strength" This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-39) Colonel Sanders added the Extra Crispy to his Original chicken. Jesus did not do away with the Original Ten; he simply lets us know in this New Commandment that the relationship with God is not so much founded on obedience as on love. John Wesley wrote to Charles Wesley saying he had become convinced "the Law can be fulfilled evangelically by love." The religion of love," he said, "is the religion of the Bible. Moses, and the Prophets, and Christ and his Apostles, proclaim with one voice thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself. They all declare that love is the fulfilling of the Law." Dr. Graham Scroggie was a well-known preacher of another generation, a powerful and forceful orator. One day, while preaching in England on the Lordship of Christ, he saw, when the crowd had left, a young college student who had stayed behind. He went to her, and asked if she needed any help. She replied, "Dr. Scroggie, your message was so compelling, but I am afraid to truly make Christ the Lord of my life. I'm afraid of what he might ask of me!" The preacher opened his Bible, turned to the story of Peter at Joppa, and began to read to her how God had taught Peter about his racial and cultural discrimination. Three times God brought down a sheet laden with animals which were unclean to the orthodox Jew, and said, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." Three times Peter replied, "No, Lord." Then the wise minister said to the young lady, "Do you realize it is possible to say 'No,' and you can also say 'Lord,' but it is not really possible to say, 'No, Lord.' You have to decide if you will say one or the other, 'No' or 'Lord'." He then left the young lady to think about it and to pray, and he went into another room to pray for her while the struggle went on. When he came back he found her with a pad and pencil in front of her, and on it she had written the word "No" and the word "Lord." As he looked over her shoulder, he saw that the word "No" was crossed out. Softly she was saying, "He's Lord, He's Lord, He's Lord." One Commandment is enough; if you can say "I will have no other gods before him; I will love him with all my heart and soul and mind and strength; he is Lord, all other rules will fall neatly into their proper place." Ultimately, there is only one commandment – love God, if you put God first, the rest of your life should fall into place, without the 10 voluntary initiatives. One Sunday school teacher asked her class if they knew what the last commandment was. One little girl proudly stood and said, “Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor’s wife.” Not quite thou Shall not Covet – But it can remind us order our steps in the name of God, our families, our church and one another. Amen. Additional illustrations…… One of our advanced students at Lutheran Northwestern Seminary, motivated by what he had learned in a missions class, went to Haiti a couple years ago with a local church group. Assigned to work at an orphanage, he was involved in the construction of a building. He was repairing a ladder one day when he noticed a young dark-skinned boy watching him. The boy spoke some English. The student said, "Hi," and asked the boy about himself, seeking information about why he was in the orphanage. The young boy answered, "My mother and father are dead. I live here with my older brothers and sisters." The orphan asked the seminarian about his family: "I have a mother and father and a sister," he was told. "No brothers?" the boy inquired. "No brothers," answered the seminary student. There was a pause and then the orphan replied, "But you do have brothers. Jesus is your brother," and adding after another pause, "And I am your brother, too." Recently, I read a little fable about a young girl who was walking through a meadow. She saw that a beautiful butterfly had one wing impaled by a thorn. Very carefully, so as not to further damage the wing, she released the butterfly from the thorn and it began to fly away. Then, the butterfly came back and changed into a beautiful fairy princess right before the little girl. "For your kindness," the fairy told the little girl, "I will grant you your fondest wish." The little girl thought for a moment and replied, "I want to be happy." The fairy princess smiled and leaned over and whispered something into the girl’s ear. Then, the fairy princess vanished into thin air. But, as the girl grew older, there was no one in the kingdom who was happier than she. Whenever anyone asked her for the secret of her happiness, she would only smile and say, "I listened to a beautiful fairy princess." As she reached the last years of her life, her friends and neighbors were afraid that her fabulous secret of happiness would die with her. "Tell us, please," they asked. "Tell us what the fairy said!" The little girl, who was now a lovely old lady, smiled and said, "The beautiful fairy princess told me that the secret to happiness is to realize that everyone, no matter how secure they seem, has need of me." One of the great secrets of life is to realize that everyone has need of us. And the willingness to give ourselves to others ... the willingness to develop a relationship with others the willingness to love others, is one of the rules of living ... which leads to a happy life. A young fellow answered matter of factly, “Adultery is when a kid lies about his age.” And, of course, there is that central commandment to all boys and girls, the fifth commandment: “Humor thy father and thy mother.” Sometime back the little newsletter of Christian humor, The Joyful Noiseletter carried what it called, “A Cowboy Ten Commandments.” I thought you might enjoy hearing how a cowboy might interpret this ancient code. It goes like this: First commandment: Just one God. 2. Honor yer Ma and Pa. 3. No tellin’ tales or gossipin’. 4. Git yerself to Sunday meeting. 5. Put nothin’ before God. 6. No foolin’ aroun’ with another fellow’s gal. 7. No killin’. 8. Watch yer mouth. 9. Don’t take nothin’ what ain’t yers. 10. Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff. (2) here is a silly little story about Moses. It seems that Moses wasn’t feeling well and was very upset. He decided he would go up on the mountain and see God. “You know my life has not been easy. First my mother put me in a basket and floated me down a river,” Moses said. “Then I left Egypt for 40 years. You remember the burning bush, the plagues, and then the Passover.” God allowed that, yes, He remembered. “There’s a lot more,” Moses continued. “You remember everything, so I don’t have to tell you the rest. But I really can’t handle much more, and I have this splitting headache.” God looked at Moses and said, “Here, take these two tablets. That should help.” (3) The 10 Commandments List, Short Form 1. You shall have no other gods before Me. 2. You shall not make idols. 3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5. Honor your father and your mother. 6. You shall not murder. 7. You shall not commit adultery. 8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 10. You shall not covet.