Sermon for October 11

The Reading

Deuteronomy 5.1-21 : 6: 4-9

Moses convened all Israel, and said to them:   Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

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. 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 fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation* of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 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.

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

 Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

  

You shall not murder.

  

Neither shall you commit adultery.

  

Neither shall you steal.

  

Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour.

  

Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife.

Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Sermon for October 11

Over the past few weeks, we have gone through about 1000 years of ancient history and teaching stories as reported in the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus.  We started with creation and walked together through God’s communications with Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isasc, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.  Last week, we heard about the start of the exodus journey out of slavery in Egypt. God called to Moses from a burning bush that was not consumed, saying “I have heard the cries of my suffering people and will set them free”.  This week, we see one of the last parts of that exodus journey, a trip that was filled with plagues, doubts, brutality, joy and struggle.  Throughout this time,  God makes agreements with people, promising “I will be your God and you will be my people”. As time goes on, the agreement becomes conditional,  “you will be my people, a great nation, if you obey my laws”.  When we think of God’s law, we think of the 10 commandments, which we hear God give to the people for the first time in this morning’s reading. They are only one part of this law though. There are hundreds of different laws that God gives to the people of Israel. The laws covered everything, what to eat, where and how to live, how to worship, rites of passage, how to atone for sins and how to mark holy holidays.  The law created a sense of identity for the people of Israel. Their entire lives are structured around God. The law was a gift that, when kept, constantly reminded the community that they were God’s beloved people, the people who were set free from slavery in Egypt though God’s powerful intervention in the world.   

Over 1000 years later, Jesus will be asked a very controversial and tricky question “what is the greatest commandment”. Jesus responds,  Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.   Jesus knows if you do those two things you will keep the entirety of the law.  (If you loved God, why would you worship other gods, ignore the Sabbath, disobey instructions for daily life, or use the Lord’s name in vain. If you loved your neighbor as yourself, why would you steal, disrespect parents, murder, lie, or break promises) 

Today, almost 2000 years after Jesus has this conversation about the law, things are very different.  Since its early days, Christianity has not centered on the law.  We do not avoid pork., shellfish, and other prohibited foods,  we have no restrictions on who we can come in contact or communicate with, we have no animal sacrifices, we have almost no concern for things being ritually clean or unclean.  In the very early Christian community, there was what I like to call the first big church fight. Then it was over the question “if you needed to keep the law in order to be a Christian”. On one side, was Peter and James who believed it was necessary for Christians to keep the entire law. On the other side there was Paul and his group of missionaries, who said the law was a huge obstacle to sharing the good news of Jesus, dead and risen for the forgiveness of our sins, with non-jewish people.  After Peter has a vision of God declaring all animals clean and witnessing the Holy Spirit descend on people who did not keep the Old Testament law, it was settled. Followers of Jesus would not be under the law. 

There was a new covenant, an agreement based on grace. We know we are God’s beloved people because of Jesus. We are reminded of God’s power and interference with the world when we love God and love neighbor. 

The 10 commandments though, are still around, still a guide for how billions of people try to live, still part of our Sunday school, still hanging in our courthouses,  part history and part something we all feel like we should do.  

For Martin Luther, the founder of our church tradition (and many other protestant churches) the 10 commandments are not a checklist used to gauge how good or bad we are.  The 10 commandments play a significant, other role in our faith.  For Luther, these laws serve two purposes.  One to reveal our sin to us, exposing the fact that we cannot save ourselves by obeying them and two, they drive us to the cross, to Jesus death and resurrection, to the real place of our salvation. 

The Ten commandments play a central role in Luther’s small catechism, a pamphlet and guide he wrote to teach people the faith.  In the end of October, 1517, Martin Luther started the protestant reformation by posting the 95 theses.  This was a list of complaints that Luther had about the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and a call for a debate.  Luther felt like the 95 issues he had posted about the teachings and traditions of the church were interfering with people experiencing the comfort and joy that comes from knowing we are loved by God.  These issues centered around the question of church authority, pastoral care for the faithful, the clear teaching of God’s message, the clear announcing of God’s forgiveness and the matter of indulgences, which the church was selling to help people escape the punishments of sin.  Luther was not the first person to say these things but he started at a time ready for change and had access to the newly created printing press to help spread his ideas.   About 30 years later, Luther and other reformers had split from the Roman Church and new Christian traditions were developing.  As part of leading and building this new church, Luther and others went on visits, stopping in different churches all around the places where the reformation was talking hold.  The visits were meant for two reasons, one, to encourage the faithful and two, to take a survey of what people knew, believed and did in their daily lives.   After these visits are concluded, Luther reports:     How pitiable, so help me God, were the things I saw: the common man, especially in the villages, knows practically nothing of Christian doctrine, and many of the pastors are almost entirely incompetent and unable to teach. Yet all the people are supposed to be Christians, have been baptized, and receive the Holy Sacrament even though they do not know the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, or the Ten Commandments and live like poor animals of the barnyard and pigpen. What these people have mastered, however, is the fine art of tearing all Christian liberty to shreds.

Luther was not content to simply list and complain about the things he saw, as though they were unavoidable signs of the times that he was powerless to stop. Luther goes on to write the small catechism or teaching as a guide meant to instruct people in the church’s teachings (after all, how could anyone experience the joy and comfort of the Gospel, if they had no idea what that joy and comfort was or how we receive it).  In the introduction to the small catechism, Luther writes, The deplorable, miserable conditions which I recently observed when visiting the parishes have constrained and pressed me to put this catechism of Christian doctrine into this brief, plain, and simple form.

The small catechism begins with the 10 commandments. For each one, Luther offers an explanation and an example of what obeying the commandment really looks like. Each explanation begins with the question “what is this” or “what does this mean” and the answer starts with the declaration, “we are to fear and love God”.  After that each commandment is made more difficult.  As people learned and thought about keeping this law, It would be impossible, The commandments reveal our sin to us.  After getting to number 10, the reader realizes they will not earn their salvation by keeping these rules.  The faithful are driven to the cross instead, to God’s gift of grace.  Luther’s small catechism ends with the sacraments and daily prayers, the places where we encounter that grace.