Live and die by the 10 Commandments
Sermon for Lent III, 2024, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY
Text: Exodus 20:1-17, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Somewhere on the internet, there is a meme floating around in the form of a picture of a posted sign. The sign reads, “It is illegal to read this sign.” So, by the time you have read the sign to be informed that you must not read it, you have broken a law. The opportunity to choose not to read the sign and not break a law is removed, so you go straight to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. It seems arbitrary and unfair to be subject to such a law with that kind of notification, but the sign and the law are very clear. Fortunately, we are not usually confronted by such laws and rules, but we are surrounded by secular and religious rules all the same. There are religious rules from tradition that we encounter for Lent, compared to the obligatory rules of conduct like the ones in the Temple when Jesus disrupted it. And there are rules for our behavior and morals, enshrined in the 10 commandments that we also heard this morning.
Jesus challenged the rules of the Temple when he overturned tables and drove out the merchants and money-changers. It wasn’t the rules themselves that he objected to, which spelled out how atonement for sins and offering up the first of something valuable was to be conducted. He objected to how they had been distorted to allow commerce in a sacred space. The intent of the rules given by God had been replaced by human desires for convenience at the Temple. It may have happened over time and from the rules being followed for the sake of following them, rather than following the rules to make time and space for God in daily life.
Aside from the Temple rules for their own sake, there is the problem of making rules to control people, and both of these examples lead us to idolatry by making the rules the center of our faith, rather than God. Rules for control are placed ahead of what God intended for them, that is to guide and protect, and that leads to situations like the sign saying it is illegal to read it. There is also the question of which version of rules to follow: we heard the 10 commandments in Exodus this morning, but they also appear in Deuteronomy 5, divided slightly differently. This has resulted in differences between what is commandment number 1, or 2, or even 3, depending on which church you are a member of and which book of the Torah they choose to read. But despite the differences, the commandments have long held an important place in Christianity, and rightly so as a summary of scriptural morality that Jesus knew and built on. And they are rules that we encounter in real life:
These real life examples illustrate the problem with living by the rules only: you end up having to distort the rules to cover real life to the point where they become irrelevant. There isn’t enough time in the world to make a rule that covers every possible scenario in life, so what do we do with these commandments? Are they ultimately irrelevant? Should we get rid of them, ignore them, and do our own thing?
One answer is no, they are not irrelevant. As with Jesus clearing the Temple, the point is not to subserviently follow the rules in any circumstance. The rules are not an either/or way of finding the correct moral judgment of a situation because that approach leads to the most convenient one, not the most moral one. Another answer is no, they are not to be ignored because the rules are what we stand on when we have to wrestle with the moral ambiguity of a situation. Yet another answer is no, we should not get rid of them because they are the starting point for finding where God is in a situation, a starting point for finding where morality truly lies. These are the words of God, but if we at all pay attention to scripture, we see that God and God’s people are not so easily categorized as being right or wrong, sinful or pious, or following or breaking the laws. The temptation exists to build a wall around these easy categories using the 10 commandments to keep us safe from the messiness of real lives and real situations, and to protect our neatly organized faith from being challenged by real life.
If we are to seek moral purity as Jesus sought it in the Temple itself, we have to look beyond the words and strict application of the commandments to what they represent: preserving justice and righteousness as a result of loving your neighbor as God, through Jesus, loves you. Following the 10 commandments to the letter separates us from Jesus who said that he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, and he did that through love and compassion. It is a mistake to assume that keeping the 10 commandments is proof of faith or piety, or that we are good Christians. Being good Christians means that we do not equate the rules with God, but that we put God first, ahead of the rules. That was what Jesus spoke of over and over as he challenged the priests, scribes, and lawyers when they said he was breaking the law. That was what he raged against in the Temple, where the rules allowed profane, or common, activities to hide God’s holy presence in the Temple.
The 10 commandments, or even the 603 other laws in the Torah that we don’t follow, cannot adequately describe or fulfill God’s justice or expectations for us. They are the starting point for what Jesus challenges us to do: to act as God would in the messiness of real life. It is easy to swing the 10 commandments like a hammer and smash everything that we don’t like in the name of God’s righteous laws. It is harder, far harder, but more like Jesus to stand up and say “This is not right, this is not what my Father’s house should look like. Where is the respect for my Father who gave us these laws?” Indeed, where is God’s love, compassion, and mercy when we live and die by the rules and commandments? Do we really want to define our faith with rules and blindly follow the commandments? Or, do we want our faith to instead be like Jesus’ call to us, to love and serve God with all our heart and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves? The 10 Commandments are best followed when we are guided by love to find justice, and not bring the full weight of God down on those who we judge and want to punish. The well-known article of faith in John 3:16 doesn’t say that God so loved the world that he gave the 10 Commandments so that all who follow them will have eternal life. God sent Jesus into the world to show that it is through God’s love that we find peace and justice. As Christians, our righteousness comes from having faith in Jesus, adopting his life as our own, following his teachings as our rule of ife, sharing his love unconditionally, and not idolizing a passage in scripture.
Text: Exodus 20:1-17, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Somewhere on the internet, there is a meme floating around in the form of a picture of a posted sign. The sign reads, “It is illegal to read this sign.” So, by the time you have read the sign to be informed that you must not read it, you have broken a law. The opportunity to choose not to read the sign and not break a law is removed, so you go straight to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. It seems arbitrary and unfair to be subject to such a law with that kind of notification, but the sign and the law are very clear. Fortunately, we are not usually confronted by such laws and rules, but we are surrounded by secular and religious rules all the same. There are religious rules from tradition that we encounter for Lent, compared to the obligatory rules of conduct like the ones in the Temple when Jesus disrupted it. And there are rules for our behavior and morals, enshrined in the 10 commandments that we also heard this morning.
Jesus challenged the rules of the Temple when he overturned tables and drove out the merchants and money-changers. It wasn’t the rules themselves that he objected to, which spelled out how atonement for sins and offering up the first of something valuable was to be conducted. He objected to how they had been distorted to allow commerce in a sacred space. The intent of the rules given by God had been replaced by human desires for convenience at the Temple. It may have happened over time and from the rules being followed for the sake of following them, rather than following the rules to make time and space for God in daily life.
Aside from the Temple rules for their own sake, there is the problem of making rules to control people, and both of these examples lead us to idolatry by making the rules the center of our faith, rather than God. Rules for control are placed ahead of what God intended for them, that is to guide and protect, and that leads to situations like the sign saying it is illegal to read it. There is also the question of which version of rules to follow: we heard the 10 commandments in Exodus this morning, but they also appear in Deuteronomy 5, divided slightly differently. This has resulted in differences between what is commandment number 1, or 2, or even 3, depending on which church you are a member of and which book of the Torah they choose to read. But despite the differences, the commandments have long held an important place in Christianity, and rightly so as a summary of scriptural morality that Jesus knew and built on. And they are rules that we encounter in real life:
- Honor your father and mother, such as when they are dying and ask you to let them go, but you believe that they can still live;
- You shall not kill, such as when an abused spouse kills their abuser;
- You shall not make an idol, such as posting the 10 commandments in public buildings and schools as the moral standard based on your personal faith;
- You shall not misuse God’s name, such as telling others they are condemned by God because they don’t believe and worship the way you do.
These real life examples illustrate the problem with living by the rules only: you end up having to distort the rules to cover real life to the point where they become irrelevant. There isn’t enough time in the world to make a rule that covers every possible scenario in life, so what do we do with these commandments? Are they ultimately irrelevant? Should we get rid of them, ignore them, and do our own thing?
One answer is no, they are not irrelevant. As with Jesus clearing the Temple, the point is not to subserviently follow the rules in any circumstance. The rules are not an either/or way of finding the correct moral judgment of a situation because that approach leads to the most convenient one, not the most moral one. Another answer is no, they are not to be ignored because the rules are what we stand on when we have to wrestle with the moral ambiguity of a situation. Yet another answer is no, we should not get rid of them because they are the starting point for finding where God is in a situation, a starting point for finding where morality truly lies. These are the words of God, but if we at all pay attention to scripture, we see that God and God’s people are not so easily categorized as being right or wrong, sinful or pious, or following or breaking the laws. The temptation exists to build a wall around these easy categories using the 10 commandments to keep us safe from the messiness of real lives and real situations, and to protect our neatly organized faith from being challenged by real life.
If we are to seek moral purity as Jesus sought it in the Temple itself, we have to look beyond the words and strict application of the commandments to what they represent: preserving justice and righteousness as a result of loving your neighbor as God, through Jesus, loves you. Following the 10 commandments to the letter separates us from Jesus who said that he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, and he did that through love and compassion. It is a mistake to assume that keeping the 10 commandments is proof of faith or piety, or that we are good Christians. Being good Christians means that we do not equate the rules with God, but that we put God first, ahead of the rules. That was what Jesus spoke of over and over as he challenged the priests, scribes, and lawyers when they said he was breaking the law. That was what he raged against in the Temple, where the rules allowed profane, or common, activities to hide God’s holy presence in the Temple.
The 10 commandments, or even the 603 other laws in the Torah that we don’t follow, cannot adequately describe or fulfill God’s justice or expectations for us. They are the starting point for what Jesus challenges us to do: to act as God would in the messiness of real life. It is easy to swing the 10 commandments like a hammer and smash everything that we don’t like in the name of God’s righteous laws. It is harder, far harder, but more like Jesus to stand up and say “This is not right, this is not what my Father’s house should look like. Where is the respect for my Father who gave us these laws?” Indeed, where is God’s love, compassion, and mercy when we live and die by the rules and commandments? Do we really want to define our faith with rules and blindly follow the commandments? Or, do we want our faith to instead be like Jesus’ call to us, to love and serve God with all our heart and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves? The 10 Commandments are best followed when we are guided by love to find justice, and not bring the full weight of God down on those who we judge and want to punish. The well-known article of faith in John 3:16 doesn’t say that God so loved the world that he gave the 10 Commandments so that all who follow them will have eternal life. God sent Jesus into the world to show that it is through God’s love that we find peace and justice. As Christians, our righteousness comes from having faith in Jesus, adopting his life as our own, following his teachings as our rule of ife, sharing his love unconditionally, and not idolizing a passage in scripture.
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