Lent 3B Sermon

Lent 3B

March 11, 2012

“Live Free or Die”

Exodus 20.1-17

Oh, the 10 Commandments! How do I count thee, let me love the ways, to twist the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Did you know that Jewish people number the Ten Commandments one way, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and the Orthodox a second way, and Episcopalians and other Protestants still a third way? Another bit of Ten Commandment trivia: A 2007 survey found that more people could name the ingredients in a Big Mac than name all Ten Commandments. I guess McDonald’s had a better ad agency and snappy jingle than Moses did. And then there is former Alabama State Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore who, thinking that the wooden plaque bearing the Ten Commandments wasn’t substantial enough, commissioned a 5,280-pound monument for the state capitol rotunda. You may recall that controversy in 2003 that led to Judge Moore’s removal from the bench and the monument’s removal from the rotunda. Judge Moore’s Rock makes the stone tablets Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai look like pebbles in comparison.

There’s even more to the story. An article in the October 2005 edition of the Atlantic Magazine described the tour the monument made afterward. It is so heavy that a flatbed truck can hardly carry it and industrial cranes can barely lift it, both buckling under its weight. Separation of church and state issues aside, I wonder if the monument’s supporters see the irony in this affair. The Ten Commandments have not only become a cause to be rallied around and a flash point for politics, but they have also become a terrible burden, a weight so difficult that it can hardly be borne. In other words, the story of Judge Roy Moore and the 2.5-ton monument have become a parable of modern life.

Yet, I wonder if the defenders of the Ten Commandments have ever looked at the biblical story. If they had, I think they would see something important to our understanding of the Ten Commandments place in our lives. The Ten Commandments aren’t given out of the blue, dropped on our heads. They are a part of a much larger story. The story is one of freedom, not burden. The story involves God claiming God’s people and freeing them from slavery in Egypt, where he leads them to Mt. Sinai, appearing in fire and clouds. And before God speaks these ten words to them, God reminds them of whose they are and who they are, of their belonging and identity. God does not intend to lead them from one form of slavery to another; it’s just the opposite.

The Ten Commandments are all about freedom, the freedom that comes from living our lives well, with God and others. When I was an undergrad psychology major, I came across a fascinating study about children. Someone thought that the fences on a playground were inhibiting their play and so removed them to see what would happen. The researchers found just the opposite effect. The children were more inhibited without the security of the fence. When the fence was put back, the children felt free to use the whole playground and did so with joy. I think the Ten Commandments are like a playground fence. They help mark out the bounds of behavior that God intended to give us the freedom for life.

Let me just take one of the Ten Commandments as an illustration, one that I have struggled with quite a bit: the keeping of Sabbath. As I understand, the Sabbath was a gift from God rooted in the creation story. As God rested on the seventh day of creation, God recognized the need for all of creation, including the earth, to rest at least one day in seven. Yet, as with the other commandments, we have turned this gift into rules, regulations, and guilt, probably most evident in the blue laws that were enacted. However, the Sabbath is more broadly conceived, inviting humanity into a day of rest, recreation, and renewal. Notice what happens in the word “recreation” as we take it apart: it become “re-creation.” Sabbath is for re-creation, to become created anew. Yet, as soon as we ask, “What about this case or that case?” we’ve defeated God’s intent for us: to live free.

There is a challenging side to the Ten Commandments, one that questions our ideas about what we do and what is real life. They are a gift, but not as much as a new pony than that itchy sweater we received from Aunt Mildred last Christmas. Even so, in the end, the Ten Commandments are all about relationships, relationships with God and each other. So, the Ten Commandments are cruciform in nature, shaped through the cross, life freed in service to God and others. That’s one reason why Jesus got so angry with the moneychangers in the Temple. They turned something that should be an anchor in our life to anchor around our necks. The Ten Commandments show us whose we are and who we are, God’s people set free for life in Christ. That’s what counts. Thanks be to God. Amen.