Rules To Live By
The Covenant with Moses, Russel Kraus, Nicholas Frei Studios, for First Presbyterian Church Edwardsville, click image to link to gallery
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 12, Exodus 20:1-20
I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. –Exodus 20:5b-6
After today’s twelfth installment in the series “Through the Bible,” we’ll take a break to focus on Advent & Christmas themes. Today, we move quickly from last week’s call of Moses over the Exodus and desert wanderings that feature so prominently in texts of the Lenten season, to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.
When a preacher prepares for a sermon on the Ten Commandments, it’s natural to think about the rules people live by. For new insight, I turned to a recent book called Rule Makers, Rule Breakers. I read what the author had to say about cultures with loose rules and cultures with tight rules, and how rules reflect a society’s feelings about the relative harmlessness or threat of certain actions.
The description of Singapore’s tight-rule culture provides an interesting contrast to our own relatively loose-rule culture. If you spit on the street in Singapore, then you might be fined up to $1,000. If you import or sell chewing gum, then you may face a fine of up to $100,000 and jail time up to two years. Littering, smoking, even not flushing a public toilet are subject to fines that are unimaginable to the average American.[1] Think our rules about face coverings are strict? In Singapore, a first-offense charge for neglecting a mask is $300, a second offense $1,000. A quick search found a couple examples of people jailed anywhere from 6 to 16 weeks for infractions.
As oppressive as such rules seem to some of us, and as irritating as rulebreakers seem to others, we know that there have been times when things were generally far worse. Imagine managing conflict in a primitive tribe where a system of laws, police, and courts was not envisioned, where the chief operating principle was “might makes right.” Things could be better today, but we know they are not as bad as they have been.
Among the things that has made life more tolerable and just is that set of rules for living we know as the Ten Commandments. For 3000 years, it has been at the core of our spiritual heritage. Reformed theologians of our Presbyterian tradition have struggled with the value of many Old Testament passages. But the authority of the Ten Commandments has never been seriously questioned.
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once offered an opinion with witty irony worthy of a stand-up comedian, saying, “I think probably 90 percent of Americans believe in the Ten Commandments, even though 85 percent couldn’t tell you what the ten are.” We remember some of them, but it may not be easy to name all ten.
In fairness to all of us, part of the difficulty is that there are different ways of cutting the 20th chapter of Exodus into Ten Commandments, and three slightly different versions.
The Jewish version emphasizes a bit more the relationship with the Lord God, making the first six words an entirely separate first commandment:
“I am the Lord thy God.”
The Catholic version combines the “I am the Lord thy God” and “You shall not have any strange gods before me,” but splits up restrictions against coveting into the ninth commandment about your neighbor’s wife, and the tenth about your neighbor’s goods.
The Protestant version, like the Jewish, combines all restrictions against coveting into the tenth commandment, but has a unique emphasis in its second commandment restricting the making of idols. Despite the nuances of the numbering systems, the essence of the three versions is the same.
My former preaching professor Tom Long says, “Most people … are persuaded that at the center of each (commandment) is a finger-wagging ‘thou shalt not.’ …. Understanding the Decalogue as a set of burdens overlooks something essential, namely that they are prefaced not by an order – ‘Here are ten rules. Obey them!’ but instead by a breathtaking announcement of freedom: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’ (Ex. 20:2).
We will probably always refer to (them) as the ‘Ten Commandments,’ but we can also think of them as descriptions of the life that prevails in the zone of God’s liberation. ‘Because the Lord is your God … you are free not to need any other gods. You are free to rest on the seventh day; free from the tyranny of lifeless idols; free from murder, stealing, and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land.’”
It’s a little bit like the story told by F.W. Boreham about the old chief gardener at the palace in Versailles. The chief gardener took great pains with the caring for the shrubbery and flowers. He patiently mapped out the gardens during the evenings, and deftly executed his designs in the day. He longed for each season so that he could see the perfect patterns created by the beautiful blossoms. But that joy rarely came.
As soon as his seeds were sown, and his delicate young cuttings tastefully arranged, those in attendance at the royal court would trample them down during their walks. This caused great frustration for the chief gardener. Season after season the noblemen and great ladies took their strolls among the beautiful terraces and graceful flowerbeds, ruthlessly destroying the labor of his hands.
Finally he could endure it no longer. He would appeal to the king. Into the presence of Louis the Fourteenth strode the poor gardener, and confided all his sorrows and disappointments.
The king was sorry for the gardener. After some reflection, he set out to implement a solution. He ordered little stone tablets – called “etiquette” – to be neatly arranged along the sides of the flowerbeds, and a state order was issued commanding all his courtiers to walk carefully within the etiquette. And so the old gardener not only protected the flowers that he loved from “high born vandals,” but also enriched our vocabulary with a new and significant word.[2]
The Ten Commandments are a kind of spiritual etiquette; they keep us within the bounds of a healthy path through life. To the extent we follow we follow, they offer a quality of life not possible where selfishness and savagery rule. They weren’t intended to oppress us or take away our enjoyment of life. Rather, the Ten Commandments are good rules to live by.
NOTES
[1] Gelfand, Michele, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How tight and loose cultures wire our world, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018, pp. 20-21.
[2] Story told in F. W. Boreham’s “Mountains in the Mist,” London: The Epworth Press, 1930, p. 131 ff.
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