“HEARTS ARE BETTER THAN STONE”
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Faith United
October 5, 2008
I hate rules
Don’t you?
There is something inside of us
that seems to hate being told what to do
I mean, that tag on the mattress
that says, “do not remove this tag”?
I rip it off
just to see what happens
Nothing
I see a sign that says “Do not enter”…
and something in me really wants to go there
Why is that?
You know what I mean, I know you do
We want to see for ourselves
I especially never liked being told what NOT to do
if you couldn’t give me a good reason,
like when people say, “because I said so!”
Well, what kind of answer is that?
I was fortunate in some ways
Growing up I didn’t have any desire to get drunk
when I saw that some people got addicted to the alcohol
and it destroyed their lives
Or that some people drove while they got drunk and died
or killed someone else
I knew then, why it wasn’t good to drink too much
or to drink and drive
I didn’t smoke not because my parents told me not to
but because my Aunt Julia had emphysema
but still smoked three packs a day
She looked like a walking corpse
and when she breathed in and out
you could hear her insides rattle
When she died, she died an excruciating death
After knowing her, I had no desire to smoke at all....
I think most of know that there has to be some rules, of course,
or there would be rampant chaos
I don’t think most of us know what exactly to do with the Ten Commandments
First of all, I’d like to bet
that most of us can’t even remember all of them
But the ones we do remember
are started with the words, “Thou shalt not…”
and we don’t talk like that anymore
"thou shalt not…"
Sounds pretty intense and important
but other than that, the words sound archaic
so why would we listen anyway?
Many of us remember one of many controversies
surrounding the Ten Commandments
There was Judge Roy Moore in Alabama
who fought to be able to keep a monument
displaying the Ten Commandments
in the front yard of his courthouse
The Commandments were engraved in the old language
on a slab of stone that weighed 5,280 pounds
During the time that he was fighting the government
to keep them displayed on public property,
Judge Moore made many public appearances
to fight for his cause
When he made those appearances,
he lugged the Ten Commandments around with him
on the back of a flatbed truck
wherever he spoke
Joshua Green, writing for the Atlantic Monthly
wrote that whenever the flatbed truck
returned to Alabama
Waiting there would be a 57 foot yellow I-beam crane
that spanned the ceiling of the local warehouse
That crane would drop down to retrieve the slab,
pick it up and move it into the warehouse
and in so doing, this 5 ton crane visibly buckled
under the weight
To me that’s a good image of what we do with God’s words
We make them into heavy burdens to bear
so heavy that it even a crane buckles under the weight
THOU SHALT NOT!!
It brings to mind the image of lighting and thunder
and a bolt of lightening coming out of the cloud
just inches from a gray haired bearded man
trembling in his sandals
We don’t like rules
but boy, we do enjoy making them
We don’t like obeying them, or having them given to us
but somehow we get a big kick out of delivering them
THOU SHALT NOT!!...
Judge Moore’s fight caused a lot of stir
and a lot of discussion around the water cooler
and editorials in newspapers
a lot of righteous indignation in our country
'What is this country coming to
that we can’t carve God’s words into stone
and put them on public property?' people said
And yet, go out today and ask someone
if they can tell you what the Ten Commandments are
I wonder how many people here can recite them
What does it prove to have them engraved in stone?
Yeah, God engraved them in stone,
gave them to Moses
and right away, he went down the mountain
got mad at his people, threw a hissy fit
and shattered the tablets
Later, God was kind enought to give him a second copy
but they were soon misplaced
They were put into the ark of the covenant
and we haven’t seen them since
So even the Israelites didn’t have them in front of them
They had to learn them
they had to live them
How else do you think that they were remembered at all?
They were remembered
because they were passed on by word of mouth
over centuries and centuries
they were lived out by a community of people
they were broken again and again
and tried again and again
The thing is, we may hate rules
we may hate being told what to do
but boy, we sure do like to MAKE rules
we like to put the law in stone
believing somehow that if we put it in stone
we can preserve it
Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now
God didn’t give the Israelites those commandments
because God was on some power kick
and wanted to demonstrate his superiority
God had already been through the ringer with these people
anyone else would have just sent a lightening bolt
to wipe them all out by now
because they were a handful
God parted the sea for them
gave them food and water in the desert
and all they did was complain and whine
Are you trying to kill us?? they kept saying to Moses
But instead of throwing a fit and wiping out the lot of them
God says to them,
“You’ve seen what I’ve done…
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...”
The Israelites had no permanent home yet
they were camping, living in tents
former slaves, who had never known freedom
And I guess when someone has told you
what to do all your life
from sun up to sundown
well, freedom can be pretty scary
They didn’t ever have to think for themselves
they didn’t ever have to make any decisions
so they were essentially like little children
out there in the desert
with all that wide open space
and they were so terrified,
they wanted to go back to Egypt
where they knew what the rules were
they knew what to expect every day
it wasn’t great, mind you, but it was predictable,
no uncertainties and no surprises
I’ve met a lot of people
who have endured abusive relationships for years
or who grew up with or married an alcoholic
I’ve known some recovering alcoholics or addicts
and many of them have told me why it’s so hard to quit
even when they know that their addiction is killing them
I’ve had children or spouses of alcoholics tell me
why it’s so hard to leave or get help
or to not get sucked into the whole sick cycle of addiction
Because addiction and addictive behavior is what they know
it may be chaotic and soul-killing
but it’s what they know
they know what to expect
recovery is so hard because the slate is clean
the horizon is wide open
and you don’t know what to expect
it’s a whole new world
and for a lot of people, that’s terrifying,
so terrifying that they are willing to stay in bondage
so they at least know how to act
It was like that for the Israelites
They knew how to live in slavery
because they had never been free
and out there in the wilderness
there were enemies around every corner
and they never knew when they’d attack them
they didn’t always know when they could eat
or have something to drink
and their only shelter was a tent on poles
very skimpy when the harsh winds blew
yeah, man, they’d take slavery back any day
so they lashed out at Moses and the God who set them free
But God still wants to make a covenant
that’s what the Commandments are
they are a covenant, a promise, a pact of love
'You’ve seen what I’ve done,
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...'
God is a poet
'I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself
and here we are...'
The Commandments don’t start with the statement:
“You ungrateful little snots, here are the rules
and you WILL obey them…”
No, instead, God says, “I am the Lord your God
who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt
I have set you free…”
and so, God says, 'these are the boundaries
this is what I say to you…
you shall have no other gods….
you shall not worship any other gods
you shall not make gods out of the things
of the earth and bow down to them...'
And that means, don’t worship anything else but God
not because God will strike you down
but because God loves you, loves us,
because God is the God who set us free from slavery
so why would we go back and enslave ourselves?
Worship money? Worship THINGS?
Worship popularity and power?
Worship a piece of cement on the front lawn?
We still do it
We still are terrified of freedom
God never said 'Thou shalt engrave these words on stone
and put them in your front yard …'
God says, 'this is how I want you to live
this is a way to live so that you can live in community
with one another
live in peace with one another...'
simple stuff, common sense:
Don’t worship a piece of cement
or anything less than god,
don’t use God’s name to get your own way
rest, refuel, spend time with God who wants to fill your soul;
honor your parents,
don’t kill each other,
don’t sleep with anyone but your own spouse,
don’t steal,
don’t lie,
don’t keep wanting what your neighbor has…
The Ten Commandments
are not meant to be a sledgehammer
they’re not meant to be a test of our righteousness and value
They are not meant to be a weapon
to use against our neighbor
They are given as part of a covenant
They are a reminder of who God is, and what God wants
They tell us in pretty general terms how God wants us to live
and they give us boundaries
and they aren’t enslaving boundaries
there’s a lot of room to live and breathe
and yet we don’t seem to want that room
because that gives us too much room for possible error
God says, "Ï am the Lord your God who set you free,”
so here, listen to me,
Those Israelites didn’t have a clue as to how to live
they were afraid to put one foot in front of another
because they were always waiting for that slavemaster
to crack his whip as soon as they stepped out too far
and now, God has brought them THIS far,
they were absolutely terrified
of having so much freedom
they thought surely they would be punished for it
But the commandments are a declaration of freedom
you are free to live, God is saying
don’t bind yourselves up worshipping things that don’t last
(hmmm… like the stock market)
don’t use my name to club other people over the head
that is a misuse of God’s holy name
Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian preacher,
said that the commandments are like tent poles
It was as if God said to the Israelites,
“Sink these 10 posts in the center of your camp,
hang a tent on them
and together we will survive the wilderness….”
The Commandments are our foundation
What would happen if we stopped worrying about
carving them in stone
and were more diligent in writing them on our hearts?
They were meant to be LIVED OUT
not carved in stone
Not something to memorize, but something to give shape
to our lives
We have so many choices in this world
we’re always being pulled here and there
and in so many different directions
it’s more confusing than ever
just like when the Israelites were set free into a vast wilderness
The Commandments are our foundation
to hang out tents on, to be the structure of our lives
It doesn’t help to put them on the wall
of our courthouses, schools, or anywhere
if we don’t read them, if we don’t take them into our hearts
and lives
Just like putting “In God we Trust” on our money
doesn’t insure that we are trusting God
Don’t make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or above,
don’t bow down to it, don’t worship it
Worship the invisible God made visible through us, God’s people
'You shall be my treasured possession, God says,
a priestly kingdom, a holy nation'
and he wasn’t talking to the United States or Canada or England
he was talking to all the people
that God created and who God identifies
as God’s holy people
God is God, we are not
That’s another thing God made clear
The mountain thundered, the skies lit up
the winds blew
and the presence of God
the holy presence of God made himself known
in the middle of the desert
saying, 'live with me
live in freedom and joy
live the good life
do what is good,
love one another
worship me and nothing less
and know forever
that you are my treasured possession
you are my holy nation
and it was I who bore you on eagles’ wings
and drew you to myself...'
Put your weapons down
stop fighting so hard
stop worrying about getting your own way
or being right
stop worrying about having the most toys
don’t let the Dow Jones run your life
open your clenched fists
open your arms
walk in freedom, trust God with each footstep
and remember every day
that you are God’s treasured possession….
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