How many of you like murder mysteries? It’s one of the most popular genres around. I myself have been a major fan of murder mysteries for years. I excuse the habit because Dorothy Sayers approved of them (She not only wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery stores but was also a rather brilliant theologian, and a friend of C.S. Lewis.) On top of that, a few years ago the book reviewer for the Christian newsmagazine World reviewed a new mystery called Publish & Perish. He said that “the mystery genre is moral in itself, for in it that which was hidden is made plain, justice is achieved, and events often turn on a simple dispensation of grace.” It’s always comforting when a respectable source approves your habits.
They’re also wonderful sources for sermon illustrations, because of the enormous variety of under-handed shenanigans that go on. Dick Francis, the former British jockey whose mysteries all had something to do with horses, is one of my favorite authors. The hero of his book Risk is a an accountant who does the books for the jockeys, trainers, veterinarians and feed merchants in a British racing town, and in the course of some hair-raising adventures he uncovers a massive fraud. The criminal is a highly successful, widely respected, perfectly ordinary sort of chap who has the misfortune to run a training stable on behalf of absentee owners. He begins by skimming off the top of the profits, and when he doesn’t get caught expands his activities until he’s in so deep that he eventually attempts murder to cover it all up. His conscience doesn’t bother him, if it ever did, because he’s convinced himself that he deserves everything he can get, after all, who’s done all the work? He has a sort of squatters rights mentality, you know, finders keepers and all that.
And as I was reading this I thought, “I’ve heard this plot before,” and sure enough, Jesus told the same story, in the book of Luke.
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant; him also they beat and treated shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third; this one they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’”Luke 20:9-14
Two thousand years ago people were doing exactly the same thing that Dick Francis wrote about in a murder mystery. Now, mind you, Jesus was telling this as a parable to illustrate the way people had been behaving toward God, not as a current news flash. But his listeners understood it because it was exactly the same sort of thing that went on all the time.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise to us. People don’t change. It shouldn’t have come as any surprise to them, either, because Moses had already warned the Israelites against behaving like that over a thousand years before. God knew, and Moses knew, and we know, that we never completely out-grow the 3-year-old reflex response, “Mine!” Have any of you seen the Toddler’s Bill of Rights? I can’t remember all of the details, but it includes, “If I saw it first, it’s mine,” and “If I ever touched it, it’s mine,” and “If I want to play with it, it’s mine.” Some people never grow out of it; they just learn to hide it better. Giving credit where credit is due goes very much against the human grain. All we have to do is let a little time pass, and then we arrange our memories so that the story comes out the way we want it to, from the fish that got away to the impossible virtues of the rejected suitor. All we have to do is a little creative forgetting.
“Take heed”, said Moses, “lest you forget YHWH your God, by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes... lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ Deut 8:11-17
Moses knew, you see, what people are like. And so, of course, does God.
And that is why God put this one as the first of the ten.
“I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.”
The first commandment is, “Remember me” because God knew we would forget. The first commandment is, “Don’t give anyone - or anything - else the credit,” because God knew we would try to wiggle out of our side of the agreement.
The 10 commandments speak at least as much to what people are like as to what God is like. Yes, we are to worship God alone because God is worthy of all glory and honor. But we shouldn’t have to be told. If we were not stubborn, rebellious, and constantly trying to escape God’s claim on our lives, we would gladly worship and obey, we would see through and reject the false claims of all the other would-be gods - the gods of success, of science, of political power, of self-fulfillment - that compete for our attention.
Whenever you talk about the 10 commandments you really have to start with this one, although people usually emphasize the visible sins like adultery and murder. But this 1st commandment is what all of them come back to, in the end, doesn’t it. Because once you have broken any of the other 9 you have already broken this one. If you build an idol, you have forgotten God.
* If you use God’s name in vain, you have forgotten God.
* If you fail to keep time apart for worship, you have forgotten God.
* If you dishonor your parents, you have dishonored God.
* If you kill your brother or sister, you have forgotten the God who made and loved them.
And so on.
It works in reverse, too… If God is not who he is, if God has not done what he has done, why listen to the other rules either? They’re really inconvenient, after all... why not see how much you can get away with?
You see, when you forget God, and begin to seek order, or meaning, or control, or satisfaction in other things, everything else begins to fall apart. “I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the foundation. This is the source. This is where we start.
And this is the one that sticks in the craw of the people who want to reduce Christianity to ethics. Most people, when asked, will say that they believe in following the Ten Commandments. But they really mean only the last 6. Actually, we also like to forget about the last one, coveting, too. Anyway, my sister, who was raised Unitarian like the rest of my family, was really surprised when I pointed out that, to God, breaking the first commandment, that is forgetting who redeemed us and turning to other gods, is just as bad as numbers 6, 7 and 8 - murder, adultery and theft. Being a nice person isn’t enough. Being God’s person comes first.
These 10 Commandments introduced by Moses to the people of Israel at the beginning of their long journey in the wilderness is recapped 40 years later in the book of Deuteronomy. That book is a series of extended sermons by Israel’s greatest preacher, Moses. At this point in their history the Israelites had been wandering around in the desert ever since Moses first brought the stone tablets down, and now the generation that had built the golden calf had died off. They’ve endured hunger and plagues and war, but their ordeal was almost over - or at least moving into a new phase. There they are, poised on the hills overlooking the river Jordan, getting ready to take possession of the Promised Land, and Moses is trying to equip them to make it without him.
It’s been 40 years since Moses came down from Sinai with the law. And he knows he needs to remind the Israelites of what happened, impress on them the importance of the covenant, remind them of God’s goodness and their obligation. The young ones weren’t themselves slaves in Egypt, and like young ones everywhere they were probably looking forward to putting their own stamp on things. Moses needed to remind them that God’s word is for them, exactly the same as it was for their ancestors, that nothing has changed in their relationship with God just because they’re going to have a change of life-style.
Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your hearing this day, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. YHWH our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did YHWH make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day. YHWH spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between YHWH and you at that time, to declare to you the word of YHWH; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. Deut 5:1-6
And these words are for us, too, whether it has been 40 years or 400 or 4000. And just like the people of Israel we need to gather together to hear the word of God, which does not change, because if we do not make a committed effort to remember, we will forget. Our society has forgotten to whom we owe our prosperity, and think we deserve it. We have forgotten what God has done for us in the past, and demand that he prove himself to us anew every day. We forget that when God calls to us, more often than not we make excuses, we ask someone else to go for us, because we are too busy, or we don’t think it applies to us any more, or have something better to do. We have forgotten where our moral values came from, and think that we’re naturally good. My sister the biologist - my barometer of secular thinking - didn’t even know that it was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who invented the idea that all people are of equal value, and that it matters to God how we treat one another. All the things we are so proud of – and I mean ALL of them - are God’s gift. But we forget.
We need to be reminded of what God is like, and we need to be reminded of what we are like. Each command-ment highlights one of God’s attributes, and tells us how we are to respond. We probably shouldn’t even call them commandments; the Hebrew is “ha davvarim,” “the words.” The Greeks called Moses’ list the Decalogue, which means, sensibly enough, “10 words.” The word “commandment” points us to what we are supposed to do, and it’s important. But each one is more than just a “do this.” Each one is a profound statement of truth about God, and about ourselves.
This commandment calls us to acknowledge God first as the one who reveals, and second as the one who redeems. “I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” In your Bibles it doesn’t say YHWH, it says The LORD. This is because the 3rd commandment, the 3rd word, tells us not to take God’s name in vain. So the Hebrew Bible replaced YHWH with Adonai, meaning Lord, and we’ve followed suit. But Y-H-W-H, four unpronounceable Hebrew letters, represents the name God gave Moses from the burning bush, I AM WHO I AM. I am the One who is, the One who was, the One who will be. I AM WHO I AM, I am YOUR GOD. This God has revealed himself to them, and to us. We cannot claim ignorance as an excuse to ignore him, any more then they could.
And next, this commandment reminds us that this God redeems. This God - YHWH God - OUR God - freed the Israelites, fed them, led them, cared for them. What’s more, they had 40 years of direct experience with God’s power. He’d parted the sea, sent manna from heaven, produced water from rocks. And all this on his own initiative, not because they were good, but because he loved them. The Israelites didn’t have to manipulate YHWH with human sacrifices or complicated rituals to get him on their side, the way the Canaanites had to do with their thunder gods and fertility goddesses. They’ve already received everything they need, now they’re called to respond. They need to remember the past as they’re confronted with the temptations of the future.
God has revealed, and God has redeemed. Revelation and redemption. What more could anyone want? God shouldn’t have to worry about a thing, but just bask in the love and praise of a grateful people. But no.
And that’s the second lesson of the commandments.
Some people treat these Ten Words like flagpoles on a slalom course. The objective on a ski slope is to skirt the markers as closely as possible without letting them slow you down; just don't actually knock one over. You know, “I’m a good person, I’ve never actually killed anyone, or stolen anything (except maybe paper clips from work).” But I think that’s too limited an approach. And incidentally, so does Jesus. But that’s another sermon.
The commandments are, instead, more like landmarks, or warning signs. They are danger signals saying to the observant traveler, “Here be dragons.” They should each be printed in black on a large yellow triangle, as a sign that danger is near. Because each commandment addresses a particular characteristic of fallen humanity, and each prohibited behavior is a symptom of an underlying condition. Note that God doesn’t tell us not to jump off cliffs or set our hair on fire. Those aren’t things that we’re terrifically tempted to do. The things that God has taken the trouble to forbid are things that, absent any restraining influence, we would REALLY WANT to do.
And the first thing that most people REALLY WANT to do is to be our own gods and make our own rules. We want to deny that God has a claim on us, to forget that we owe everything we have to God, to give ourselves credit for everything we have, and to decide for ourselves what to do with our lives. And if we have to have gods, we’ll make ‘em up to look like ourselves. Incidentally, we DO have to have gods. Everybody needs something to worship. It’s just usually the wrong thing, something that we feel we have some control over.
Commandment One really threatens all of that. And that is why the Alabama State District Court was so adamant a few years ago about making Judge Roy Moore take the 10 Commandments off the wall of his courtroom. If there were only 6, the ones that don’t mention God, there wouldn’t be an issue. But once we acknowledge God as Revealer and Redeemer, then we’ve accepted limits. And that’s anathema to this anything-goes society. DuPont used to have a commercial that said, “If it can be imagined, it can be done. This is America.”
Unfortunately, this is truer than any of us would like to be. No matter how appalling, no matter how blasphemous, if it can be imagined, it’s probably going to be done, if it hasn’t been already. Just look at the website for the Human Cloning Institute, or the writings of so-called ethicist Peter Singer, who approves of infanticide. And I’m not even going to touch the issue of sexual behavior. In this America, the demands of a transcendent and holy God are rarely heard, and mostly shouted down.
Ignoring God is not a sign of progress, it is not a sign of sophistication or independent thinking. The ancient Israelites were just as hard of hearing as we are. God calls Israel a “stiff-necked people” almost 20 times in the OT alone. They wanted - we want – for God to serve us, not the other way around, and when he doesn’t come through for us on our own terms we tend to build other gods more to our liking… remember the golden calf? We humans are hard-wired to resist the just claims of our God, that’s why it takes the Holy Spirit to rewire our reflexes.
As I get older, I remind myself that one of the signs of aging is increased forgetfulness. It hasn’t really hit me yet, I’m much as I was 60 years ago – the absent-minded professor’s daughter. But my 96-year-old mother is getting really forgetful, and I’ll bet there are one or two of you here today who need to be reminded of things. But forgetting isn’t just for the old. No matter what age we are, we can always find a way to forget the things we don’t want to do.
One of the things Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit would do was to “guide [us] into all the truth.” [John 16:13] The Holy Spirit gently pulls our attention away from trivia and onto what matters: that God has revealed himself: first through Moses on Mt Sinai, and now finally through Jesus on the cross and his resurrection. That God has redeemed us: first from slavery in Egypt and now completely from slavery to our own appetites and egos.
When we remember the God who in Jesus Christ has brought us out of slavery, the other nine words follow. Does Sabbath rest prevent coveting? I think so. Does turning away from idols help keep us from anger and lust? I think so.
When we remember Jesus’ time in the wilderness, his fasting, his temptations and his triumphant resistance, we also remember why the Holy Spirit led him to that wilderness. It was to prepare him for ministry.
And then we remember the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness, as God purified and prepared them for their promised freedom and abundance. We remember their temptations, and their failures. And we share their temptations, and their failures. The first and greatest temptation is to break the first and greatest commandment: to remember who God is, and who we are.
Most of us have also had times in the wilderness. Perhaps they were times of hunger, perhaps times of temptation, perhaps times of doubt and despair. But one of the things that all wilderness experiences have in common is that the Promised Land is on the other side. The Resurrection is on the other side. The way is open to us. We have only to remember that “it is the Lord [our] God, who brought [us] out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Don’t even look at those other gods; they just lead deeper into the wilderness.
