Handling Freedom
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle B
Object:
Have you seen those billboards that have popped up next to major thoroughfares that say things like, "If you keep taking my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer," or "What part of 'Thou shalt not' don't you understand?" and signed simply, "God"? It is interesting stuff. No doubt you are familiar with the political controversies concerning public displays of the Decalogue on government property. Most folks just shake their heads at the hoopla -- they say that the commandments are certainly still valid for today, but then, when pressed, the majority of those cannot name even five of the ten. Hmm.
Understanding the Ten Commandments properly begins by noting that they are prefaced not by an order -- "Here are ten rules. Obey them!" -- but instead by a wonderful announcement of freedom: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (v. 2). We will probably always refer to the verses that follow as the "Ten Commandments," but we can also think of them as descriptions of the kind of life that is typical when we have been truly liberated. These are not really laws -- they have no penalties attached for breaking them. In the Hebrew Bible, they are known simply as the Ten Words -- God's words describing a way of life that guarantees, to coin a phrase, "liberty and justice for all."
Go through the list. Commandment #1: "You shall have no other gods before me" (v. 3). On its face, that sounds like the plaintive cry of a god who is afraid of being ignored or supplanted, like a teenage boy who is terrified that his girlfriend might dump him -- a pretty wimpy god. But this is not about God; this is about us. "I am the Lord your God, the one who freed you to live life to the fullest. You do not need any other."
Commandment #2: no idols. You do not need them. The god who has liberated you is not about to abandon you when you are in need. You do not need to carve a hunk of wood to show off to your neighbors what a neat God you have because, quite frankly, some people will end up worshiping that and doing themselves and their neighbors more harm than good. No -- no idols.
Commandment #3: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God" (v. 7). Or in the language of the King James Version, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Be careful of misunderstanding this one. Despite what your grandmother told you and that billboard to which we referred earlier, this is not a rule about not using God's name as an expletive. This is one more description of a truly liberated life. You see, in bygone days, people would, in the conduct of normal business, swear by the name of God that they would do this or not do that. Such swearing was the equivalent of a guarantee that this verbal contract would be carried out. Unfortunately, people being people ... and egregious sinners at that ... folks would be tempted to engage in such promises knowing full well that they had no intention of following through. Fraud. God says, "No." People knowingly defrauding one another is not part of a truly liberated life. The command could have just as easily read "Do not defraud" as "Do not misuse my name."
Commandment #4: "Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy" (v. 8). No, this has nothing to do with being in synagogue on Saturday or church on Sunday. It does not mean no ball games, no picnics, no fun, as some of us were taught. This is not an insecure deity's way of insisting that we set aside some "God" time. Instead, this is one more word of freedom. The God who has liberated you is the same one who wants to give you and yours a break. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work" (v. 9). Then take a break! And not only you, but everyone who works for you -- your children, your slaves, your day laborers, even your livestock. Freedom!
Commandment #5: "Honor your father and your mother" (v. 12). Does that mean be nice to them? Don't talk back? Keep your room clean? Never let them have reason to complain, "You never write; you never call?" The ancient world understood children to be the basic providers of social security. When parents got too old to manage, the children (who were all living there anyway -- several generations would be under the same tent) would provide the care. If that system broke down, a crucial underpinning of a liberated society would be removed and all generations would be at risk.
Commandment #6: "You shall not murder" (v. 13). This one is difficult to misunderstand. No decent society, liberated or captive, can tolerate the willy-nilly taking of life.
Commandment #7: "You shall not commit adultery" (v. 14). Perhaps surprisingly, illicit sex is not the primary concern here. You see, the biblical definition of adultery is very narrow -- it does not paint with the broad brush of meaning any sex outside of wedlock. The biblical concept of adultery refers to a man having sexual intercourse with another man's wife. The problem comes from subsequent children this woman might have: Who's your daddy? That becomes a major concern when passing on property from one generation to the next: It is harder to keep the property in the family when there are conflicting claims about who fathered the heir. The word is "Do not adulterate this family unit" by introducing some "foreign" element into it, and creating a mess in determining who is family and who is not.
Commandment #8: "You shall not steal" (v. 15). Another no-brainer that comes under the category of the things I learned in kindergarten. The God who has given you freedom has given your neighbor freedom as well, so a truly liberated life will find people respecting one another's property.
Commandment #9: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (v. 16). No, this has nothing to do with simply telling lies about someone or gossiping across the back fence. This one is about the court system. Even in a liberated society, disputes will arise. If you go into court, God says tell the truth. A decent and just society is dependant upon a trustworthy legal system to resolve conflicts.
And finally, Commandment #10: "You shall not covet" (v. 17). This is another one that is wildly misunderstood, and the reason it is is because folks do not read the whole thing. Read the rest ... and note the specifics ... house, wife, slaves, ox, donkey, property in general (and, yes, back in those days, wives were considered property). The prohibition is not all-inclusive. It does not say that we are not to want things -- food for our babies, a decent home for ourselves, the money to pay for school for our kids. It is fine and even noble to want all that, but it is not fine, and certainly not noble, to set our hearts on what rightfully belongs to someone else.
It was Boxing Day, December 26, 1989. Romania was in turmoil. The previous day, President Nicolae Ceausescu, unable to quell the tide of dissent in Bucharest, had been tried and executed. Now no one was in charge. Western reporters flooded into the country from the south, searching for someone who could speak English. Finally they found someone, and in one sentence she summed up not only Romania's predicament, but the human condition: "We have freedom," she said, "but we don't know what to do with it."1 That was God's gracious purpose in giving the Ten Commandments to Israel -- they were free now. Here are Ten Words on how to handle the freedom.
____________
1. David F. Wells, "God Spoke These Words," The Christian Century, 3/15/00, p. 301.
Understanding the Ten Commandments properly begins by noting that they are prefaced not by an order -- "Here are ten rules. Obey them!" -- but instead by a wonderful announcement of freedom: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (v. 2). We will probably always refer to the verses that follow as the "Ten Commandments," but we can also think of them as descriptions of the kind of life that is typical when we have been truly liberated. These are not really laws -- they have no penalties attached for breaking them. In the Hebrew Bible, they are known simply as the Ten Words -- God's words describing a way of life that guarantees, to coin a phrase, "liberty and justice for all."
Go through the list. Commandment #1: "You shall have no other gods before me" (v. 3). On its face, that sounds like the plaintive cry of a god who is afraid of being ignored or supplanted, like a teenage boy who is terrified that his girlfriend might dump him -- a pretty wimpy god. But this is not about God; this is about us. "I am the Lord your God, the one who freed you to live life to the fullest. You do not need any other."
Commandment #2: no idols. You do not need them. The god who has liberated you is not about to abandon you when you are in need. You do not need to carve a hunk of wood to show off to your neighbors what a neat God you have because, quite frankly, some people will end up worshiping that and doing themselves and their neighbors more harm than good. No -- no idols.
Commandment #3: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God" (v. 7). Or in the language of the King James Version, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Be careful of misunderstanding this one. Despite what your grandmother told you and that billboard to which we referred earlier, this is not a rule about not using God's name as an expletive. This is one more description of a truly liberated life. You see, in bygone days, people would, in the conduct of normal business, swear by the name of God that they would do this or not do that. Such swearing was the equivalent of a guarantee that this verbal contract would be carried out. Unfortunately, people being people ... and egregious sinners at that ... folks would be tempted to engage in such promises knowing full well that they had no intention of following through. Fraud. God says, "No." People knowingly defrauding one another is not part of a truly liberated life. The command could have just as easily read "Do not defraud" as "Do not misuse my name."
Commandment #4: "Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy" (v. 8). No, this has nothing to do with being in synagogue on Saturday or church on Sunday. It does not mean no ball games, no picnics, no fun, as some of us were taught. This is not an insecure deity's way of insisting that we set aside some "God" time. Instead, this is one more word of freedom. The God who has liberated you is the same one who wants to give you and yours a break. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work" (v. 9). Then take a break! And not only you, but everyone who works for you -- your children, your slaves, your day laborers, even your livestock. Freedom!
Commandment #5: "Honor your father and your mother" (v. 12). Does that mean be nice to them? Don't talk back? Keep your room clean? Never let them have reason to complain, "You never write; you never call?" The ancient world understood children to be the basic providers of social security. When parents got too old to manage, the children (who were all living there anyway -- several generations would be under the same tent) would provide the care. If that system broke down, a crucial underpinning of a liberated society would be removed and all generations would be at risk.
Commandment #6: "You shall not murder" (v. 13). This one is difficult to misunderstand. No decent society, liberated or captive, can tolerate the willy-nilly taking of life.
Commandment #7: "You shall not commit adultery" (v. 14). Perhaps surprisingly, illicit sex is not the primary concern here. You see, the biblical definition of adultery is very narrow -- it does not paint with the broad brush of meaning any sex outside of wedlock. The biblical concept of adultery refers to a man having sexual intercourse with another man's wife. The problem comes from subsequent children this woman might have: Who's your daddy? That becomes a major concern when passing on property from one generation to the next: It is harder to keep the property in the family when there are conflicting claims about who fathered the heir. The word is "Do not adulterate this family unit" by introducing some "foreign" element into it, and creating a mess in determining who is family and who is not.
Commandment #8: "You shall not steal" (v. 15). Another no-brainer that comes under the category of the things I learned in kindergarten. The God who has given you freedom has given your neighbor freedom as well, so a truly liberated life will find people respecting one another's property.
Commandment #9: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (v. 16). No, this has nothing to do with simply telling lies about someone or gossiping across the back fence. This one is about the court system. Even in a liberated society, disputes will arise. If you go into court, God says tell the truth. A decent and just society is dependant upon a trustworthy legal system to resolve conflicts.
And finally, Commandment #10: "You shall not covet" (v. 17). This is another one that is wildly misunderstood, and the reason it is is because folks do not read the whole thing. Read the rest ... and note the specifics ... house, wife, slaves, ox, donkey, property in general (and, yes, back in those days, wives were considered property). The prohibition is not all-inclusive. It does not say that we are not to want things -- food for our babies, a decent home for ourselves, the money to pay for school for our kids. It is fine and even noble to want all that, but it is not fine, and certainly not noble, to set our hearts on what rightfully belongs to someone else.
It was Boxing Day, December 26, 1989. Romania was in turmoil. The previous day, President Nicolae Ceausescu, unable to quell the tide of dissent in Bucharest, had been tried and executed. Now no one was in charge. Western reporters flooded into the country from the south, searching for someone who could speak English. Finally they found someone, and in one sentence she summed up not only Romania's predicament, but the human condition: "We have freedom," she said, "but we don't know what to do with it."1 That was God's gracious purpose in giving the Ten Commandments to Israel -- they were free now. Here are Ten Words on how to handle the freedom.
____________
1. David F. Wells, "God Spoke These Words," The Christian Century, 3/15/00, p. 301.
