The Ten Commandments
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Bulletin cover—Charlton Heston, from “The Ten Commandments”… one of highest grossing films of all time (1956)
We heard the Ten Commandments in our first reading today. And now I am going to ask you all to shut your bulletins, to put away your sheets of readings. Let’s see if we can name the 10 Commandments together. (Did you know that polls have shown that less than 1% of adults can name all 10 Commandments? And 60% of all adults can’t even name 5 of them?)
Now we will try to name them together, using a visual aid of the 2 tablets with Roman numerals from 1 to 10 written on them.
Let me read you one person’s modernization of the Ten Commandments. (There is also a version in the BCP.)
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I am God. I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. I opened the sea for your escape. I am the one and only God. Don’t worship or pray to anything or anyone else.
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I am bigger than anyone or anything you can imagine. So don’t make pictures or statues that you think look like me and worship them. You’ll get them wrong.
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Say my name with respect.
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Work six days of the week, but keep one to worship me and for rest and remembering that you are my people.
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Treat your father and mother with respect.
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Don’t kill anyone.
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Be loyal to your family.
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Don’t take what is not yours.
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Don’t tell lies about other people.
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Don’t wish that you had things that belong to other people.
What are these 10 Commandments good for—why do you think God gave them to his people, the Israelites? (For helping them establish the correct priorities—putting God first always; for helping them live their lives in orderly fashion; for helping society to work well, etc. …) They are good rules.
And we also have inherited them. But we have something even better than the Ten Commandments. We have Jesus. In our second reading today Paul writes, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . . I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection …”
Knowing Jesus well—everything else drops away as loss, as Paul would say. Letting Jesus sink into our pores, into our guts, walking with him intentionally—surpasses the Ten Commandments as a way to order our lives. All the rules fall away and our behavior is informed by our relationship. Our lives are reordered. And it doesn’t matter if we can’t remember the Ten Commandments. They are superseded.
How do we get to know him? By intentionally worshiping; by taking time to read Scripture (which we can do by praying Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer most days); by reading books that deal with our beliefs or practice; by touching base regularly with an intentional Christian community like this one.
And what if this sermon is just too Jesusy for you? (That’s a good Anne Lamott word—Jesusy.) I know that many of us are squeamish even hearing the name Jesus or talking about our faith.
Well then push yourself. Pray, get into Scripture, worship regularly. And if you cannot yet let him into your heart, then tolerate him sitting on top of your heart, and the next time it breaks, he will fall right in there.
Amen.
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