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| 3 Lent 19 March, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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When I began preparing this sermon, I started out writing that our first two lessons,
today, are all about the law! But then I sat and looked at what I had written, and I
thought, “No, that’s not right, not the first one! That may be what most Christians
would think, reading them, and some commentators, and that may even be what the
creators of our lectionary were after – to contrast the Law with Jesus’ attitude in the
Gospel -- but it’s just not true. And it’s probably time we got it right.”
The first lesson, this morning, is obviously very familiar. It is from the Twentieth
Chapter of the Book of the Exodus, and it contains what we call, “the Ten
Commandments,” which we all recognize as the basic statement of God’s Law. Now,
that would all be very nice, if it were true! But in fact that list of things we just heard
read barely qualifies to be called “commandments,” and definitely does not qualify as
“laws.”
Nor do the Jews – for whom, after all, they were written – confuse them as such. It is
we Christians who do that.
“Laws” generally have two components. First, a violation is defined – like, for
instance, “murder in the 1st degree,” with all that has been defined to mean – and
then a sanction is prescribed – as, for instance, in “(the murderer) shall be hanged by
the neck until dead.”
In the Ten Commandments, which are, by the way, more properly called the
Decalogue – which means the “ten words” – in the Decalogue the violations are not
described closely enough to define the crimes, and there are no sanctions. They
simply are not laws by any reasonable definition.
Nor do many of them even say what we think they say. For instance, a proper
translation of, “you shall not kill,” is actually, “you shall do no murder,” which is more
precise – and narrower – than “you shall not kill,” but which still exhibits a total lack
of precision in the failure to define what constitutes, “murder.”
And a bit later, when we read, “you shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor,” it really means, literally, what it says; that is, when you, a Hebrew, are
testifying in a court of law against another Hebrew, you may not testify falsely against
him in order to do him harm. It means no more and no less than that. Obviously, it
doesn’t even mean that you mustn’t testify falsely to help him!
The second lesson, from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, is, indeed, about the law,
and, by the way, while this selection is tough going, it’s well worth the effort to
understand. It’s a key part of one of the greatest writings not only in the Bible but in
Christian history: the Letter to the Romans! Here, Paul continues the kind of comment
we’ve been seeing so much in our lessons over recent months – Paul’s critical
approach to law, with his insistence that as a Christian he is not “under the law.”
Here, he continues to describe, in some detail, WHY.
The Law, Paul says, is spiritual, and insofar as I am a SPIRITUAL being, I delight in it.
But, he goes on, I am not ONLY a spiritual being, but a mixture of the spiritual and
the carnal or earthly. And insofar as I am an EARTHLY being, the law is my enemy! It’s
my enemy because it sets a goal so high it is impossible for me to meet it, and, so, it
dooms me to failure. And by making demands I cannot meet, and telling me the very
nature of sin, it draws me into sin, itself. So it dooms me to sin and deepens my sin.
And because the Law delights my soul, Paul tells us, while at the same time
destroying my earthly self, it sets me at war with my self, until l am reduced to despair
and cry out, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”
And the answer comes to me, in my pain: Jesus Christ! Will deliver me! “Thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Paul exclaims, for when I am torn in two, “serve
(ing) the law of God with my spirit, (while serving) the law of sin with my flesh,” I am
saved by his grace.
Thus the law does not save me, but can only condemn me. Christ saves me, and sets
me free from the law.
And so, the question arises, why the law? Why do Christians, who have been saved
from the law, and freed from the law by Christ Jesus, still need the law? Why do we
read the so-called “Ten Commandments” in our services, as we did three Sundays
ago? Why do we teach it in our Sunday schools? Why do we hang it on our walls?
One Christian writer, Katherine Norris, wrote: (quote) “For years I dreaded hearing
the Ten Commandments read aloud in Church. They seemed overwhelmingly
negative, and for me were haunted by the family ghosts…. Tobacco, banjo playing
and dominoes do not figure in the Decalogue as recorded in the Book of Exodus. But
particularly in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century America, Christians have been
adept, and remarkably inventive, at interpreting God’s Commandments to cover just
about anything they don’t approve of. The effect, of course, is to make the
surpassingly large God of the scriptures into a petty Cosmic Patrolman.” (end quote)
With Paul’s attitude toward the Law, and with Ms. Norris’ somewhat more modern
comments about these misnamed “Ten Commandments,” let’s go back and look at the
originals, at what they were all about – at what they really are.
Well, they are a list; a list of prohibitions (or negative formulations) and commands (or
positive formulations), and, as we’ve already seen, they don’t fill the criteria of “law.”
They arise, rather, from the Covenant relationship between God and his people,
which, itself, arises from the deliverance from Egypt and the Exodus, established in
those opening words, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” to supply the context.
And they can all be seen as having to do with one thing: they all have to do with
“honor.”
The word, itself, is used only once, in “honor thy father and thy mother”, but that
“word” – what we call the fifth “commandment” -- lies at the transition point between
the two objects of honor: God (in the first four “words”) and our neighbor (in the
rest).
In the Decalogue – the Ten Words - the Hebrew people were called to honor God by
(1) recognizing GOD’S divinity and no other; by (2) recognizing God in spirit and in
truth, and not confusing God with the things of the earth that can be represented in
gold or silver, by idols; by (3) keeping God’s name holy and unspotted by common or
profane use; and by (4) recognizing that God is Lord of Creation in keeping the
Sabbath he has set aside.
They were called, too, (5) to honor God by honoring those who have shared with him
in the creative act – their fathers and their mothers.
And they were called to honor God by honoring their brothers in the covenant – by
honoring (6) their lives, themselves; by honoring (7) the marriage bonds by which
they become co-creators with God; by honoring (9) the rule of law that binds them
and maintains them as a people; and (8, 10) by respecting the things they have, the
necessities of their lives.
So, because God created and delivered them, they were called to honor God, and to
honor God’s children – and in so doing, keep the covenant.
But what in the world does all that have to do with us -- we who are under a NEW
covenant in Jesus Christ; we who, with St. Paul are freed from the law?; we who are
called to keep to the mark; we who are called to become those persons God has
created us to become?
For US the Decalogue is transformed! For US the Decalogue is changed from any hint
of the condemning judgment that Paul and Katherine Norris lament and reject, by the
one who, HIMSELF, fulfilled the law and made it something new (in Mtt 22: 34-40):
‘And one of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test him. “Teacher,
which is the great commandment in the law?” And Jesus said to him, “you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, “you shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments depend all the law and the
prophets.’
Our God is no cosmic cop. What he is, is a cosmic LOVER. And that is what he calls us
to be, calls us to do, commands us to do! And the follower of the Christ goes far, far
beyond fulfilling the demands of the Decalogue by “honoring” God and his people.
He does it by loving God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind,
and by loving his neighbor as himself.
ALL the commandments depend on these two; and ALL the commandments are
fulfilled by love. And for those who are willing to live by THAT commandment, it’s all
the commandment we need.
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
today, are all about the law! But then I sat and looked at what I had written, and I
thought, “No, that’s not right, not the first one! That may be what most Christians
would think, reading them, and some commentators, and that may even be what the
creators of our lectionary were after – to contrast the Law with Jesus’ attitude in the
Gospel -- but it’s just not true. And it’s probably time we got it right.”
The first lesson, this morning, is obviously very familiar. It is from the Twentieth
Chapter of the Book of the Exodus, and it contains what we call, “the Ten
Commandments,” which we all recognize as the basic statement of God’s Law. Now,
that would all be very nice, if it were true! But in fact that list of things we just heard
read barely qualifies to be called “commandments,” and definitely does not qualify as
“laws.”
Nor do the Jews – for whom, after all, they were written – confuse them as such. It is
we Christians who do that.
“Laws” generally have two components. First, a violation is defined – like, for
instance, “murder in the 1st degree,” with all that has been defined to mean – and
then a sanction is prescribed – as, for instance, in “(the murderer) shall be hanged by
the neck until dead.”
In the Ten Commandments, which are, by the way, more properly called the
Decalogue – which means the “ten words” – in the Decalogue the violations are not
described closely enough to define the crimes, and there are no sanctions. They
simply are not laws by any reasonable definition.
Nor do many of them even say what we think they say. For instance, a proper
translation of, “you shall not kill,” is actually, “you shall do no murder,” which is more
precise – and narrower – than “you shall not kill,” but which still exhibits a total lack
of precision in the failure to define what constitutes, “murder.”
And a bit later, when we read, “you shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor,” it really means, literally, what it says; that is, when you, a Hebrew, are
testifying in a court of law against another Hebrew, you may not testify falsely against
him in order to do him harm. It means no more and no less than that. Obviously, it
doesn’t even mean that you mustn’t testify falsely to help him!
The second lesson, from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, is, indeed, about the law,
and, by the way, while this selection is tough going, it’s well worth the effort to
understand. It’s a key part of one of the greatest writings not only in the Bible but in
Christian history: the Letter to the Romans! Here, Paul continues the kind of comment
we’ve been seeing so much in our lessons over recent months – Paul’s critical
approach to law, with his insistence that as a Christian he is not “under the law.”
Here, he continues to describe, in some detail, WHY.
The Law, Paul says, is spiritual, and insofar as I am a SPIRITUAL being, I delight in it.
But, he goes on, I am not ONLY a spiritual being, but a mixture of the spiritual and
the carnal or earthly. And insofar as I am an EARTHLY being, the law is my enemy! It’s
my enemy because it sets a goal so high it is impossible for me to meet it, and, so, it
dooms me to failure. And by making demands I cannot meet, and telling me the very
nature of sin, it draws me into sin, itself. So it dooms me to sin and deepens my sin.
And because the Law delights my soul, Paul tells us, while at the same time
destroying my earthly self, it sets me at war with my self, until l am reduced to despair
and cry out, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”
And the answer comes to me, in my pain: Jesus Christ! Will deliver me! “Thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Paul exclaims, for when I am torn in two, “serve
(ing) the law of God with my spirit, (while serving) the law of sin with my flesh,” I am
saved by his grace.
Thus the law does not save me, but can only condemn me. Christ saves me, and sets
me free from the law.
And so, the question arises, why the law? Why do Christians, who have been saved
from the law, and freed from the law by Christ Jesus, still need the law? Why do we
read the so-called “Ten Commandments” in our services, as we did three Sundays
ago? Why do we teach it in our Sunday schools? Why do we hang it on our walls?
One Christian writer, Katherine Norris, wrote: (quote) “For years I dreaded hearing
the Ten Commandments read aloud in Church. They seemed overwhelmingly
negative, and for me were haunted by the family ghosts…. Tobacco, banjo playing
and dominoes do not figure in the Decalogue as recorded in the Book of Exodus. But
particularly in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century America, Christians have been
adept, and remarkably inventive, at interpreting God’s Commandments to cover just
about anything they don’t approve of. The effect, of course, is to make the
surpassingly large God of the scriptures into a petty Cosmic Patrolman.” (end quote)
With Paul’s attitude toward the Law, and with Ms. Norris’ somewhat more modern
comments about these misnamed “Ten Commandments,” let’s go back and look at the
originals, at what they were all about – at what they really are.
Well, they are a list; a list of prohibitions (or negative formulations) and commands (or
positive formulations), and, as we’ve already seen, they don’t fill the criteria of “law.”
They arise, rather, from the Covenant relationship between God and his people,
which, itself, arises from the deliverance from Egypt and the Exodus, established in
those opening words, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” to supply the context.
And they can all be seen as having to do with one thing: they all have to do with
“honor.”
The word, itself, is used only once, in “honor thy father and thy mother”, but that
“word” – what we call the fifth “commandment” -- lies at the transition point between
the two objects of honor: God (in the first four “words”) and our neighbor (in the
rest).
In the Decalogue – the Ten Words - the Hebrew people were called to honor God by
(1) recognizing GOD’S divinity and no other; by (2) recognizing God in spirit and in
truth, and not confusing God with the things of the earth that can be represented in
gold or silver, by idols; by (3) keeping God’s name holy and unspotted by common or
profane use; and by (4) recognizing that God is Lord of Creation in keeping the
Sabbath he has set aside.
They were called, too, (5) to honor God by honoring those who have shared with him
in the creative act – their fathers and their mothers.
And they were called to honor God by honoring their brothers in the covenant – by
honoring (6) their lives, themselves; by honoring (7) the marriage bonds by which
they become co-creators with God; by honoring (9) the rule of law that binds them
and maintains them as a people; and (8, 10) by respecting the things they have, the
necessities of their lives.
So, because God created and delivered them, they were called to honor God, and to
honor God’s children – and in so doing, keep the covenant.
But what in the world does all that have to do with us -- we who are under a NEW
covenant in Jesus Christ; we who, with St. Paul are freed from the law?; we who are
called to keep to the mark; we who are called to become those persons God has
created us to become?
For US the Decalogue is transformed! For US the Decalogue is changed from any hint
of the condemning judgment that Paul and Katherine Norris lament and reject, by the
one who, HIMSELF, fulfilled the law and made it something new (in Mtt 22: 34-40):
‘And one of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test him. “Teacher,
which is the great commandment in the law?” And Jesus said to him, “you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, “you shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments depend all the law and the
prophets.’
Our God is no cosmic cop. What he is, is a cosmic LOVER. And that is what he calls us
to be, calls us to do, commands us to do! And the follower of the Christ goes far, far
beyond fulfilling the demands of the Decalogue by “honoring” God and his people.
He does it by loving God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind,
and by loving his neighbor as himself.
ALL the commandments depend on these two; and ALL the commandments are
fulfilled by love. And for those who are willing to live by THAT commandment, it’s all
the commandment we need.
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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