St. Aidan’s Sermons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, February 13, 2011
Epiphany 6; 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion
The Ten Commandments #1: “One God”
Exodus 20:1-17; Matthew 22:34-40
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, you have given us your commandments for living; help us, by your Holy Spirit, not to see them as restrictions but paths to freedom when Jesus is at the centre of our lives. Amen.
Introduction
How do you react when you are “told to do something”? Many of us will quietly comply. Others of us will rebel – outwardly or inwardly. Today, the very idea of rules and codes of conduct seems to go against the grain – to deny the personal freedom everybody wants to have. So, as we come to our ten-week sermon series on “The Ten Commandments” with its “Thou shalt nots” there may be some resistance. You might say, “Didn’t Jesus stress God’s love more than his justice? Religion shouldn’t be summed up in rules and regulations. It all sounds too negative.” However, others of you might say, “The whole problem with the world today is that people don’t know what the rules are; if we heard the Commandments more often, the world wouldn’t be in such a mess! Go ahead and preach it!”
In this pre-Lent and Lenten series on the Commandments, we want to show you that they are not restrictive in the negative sense, but are really the key to our true freedom and wholeness. In order to do this, though, we need first to see the Commandments in the context of God’s plan for our lives and his world – their ultimate purpose. This is where we will begin this morning and then we will examine the first commandment to “Have no other gods before me.”
The Purpose of the Commandments
To gain a right perspective on the commandments, we need to understand their purpose. How are we to view them? Are they a set of rules and regulations, which, if you fail to obey, you displease God and don’t make the heavenly grade? But hasn’t Jesus released us from the penalty and requirement of the Law? Before we can answer these questions, we need to look at the context in which the commandments are set back in the book of Exodus, when Moses received them from God on Mount Sinai.
1. Set in the context of God’s love: One way of thinking is that if we live up to God’s Law, meet God’s standards, then he will love us. This is not so – we can not earn God’s love – it is given freely, before any action on our part! Just before the passage where the Ten Commandments are found, referring to the Israelite’s escape from slavery in Egypt, God says, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). And then, a few verses later, when God gives the commandments, he begins with, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me (Exodus 20:2-3). We could have put in the word, therefore, between the two statements. The commandments come after God has shown his love and concern by rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt. “I have brought you…therefore…you shall have no other gods.” God doesn’t start off with “Thou shalt not…”, he begins with a statement about himself and his relationship with his people. The Israelites have not earned his love; God has given it freely and shown it in action. In other words, God’s initiative, God’s love, comes first – then the Law, not the other way round. Psychologist Dr. Leonard Felder rephrases God as saying, “I’ve cared about you and come through for you, but now I need a commitment from you as well.”[1] As in any relationship, there has to be an engagement from both sides. God has taken the initiative and by giving the Law he is describing what our part is to be if we are going to have a relationship with him. God is offering us a partnership with him in his plan for our lives and the world around us. The Ten Commandments are set in the context of God’s love for us.
2. Charter of Freedom: What’s more, these commandments are not there to be restrictive, they are there to liberate us. “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The Hebrew word for “Egypt” has the same root as the word meaning restrictive or narrowing. God wants not only to deliver us from physical slavery – he wants us to be morally and spiritually free. God’s Laws are there to free us from selfishness and harmful patterns of behaviour to live in harmony with the way God designed things to be.
But we are not free; we know that we do not obey the commandments. We may say that we have lived up to various ones of them outwardly, but then we are brought back to reality when we hear Jesus say that we are called not only to outward observance but also inward obedience: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). To make it specific, he then says that a lustful look is the same as a lustful act (Matthew 5:28).
In Galatians 3, Paul speaks about the impossibility of the Law, by itself, to make us free to do what is right:
If a Law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the Law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed. (Galatians 3:21-23).
Only Jesus lived out the Law totally, and because of this, through his death, he was able to pay our penalty for breaking the Law. When we trust in him, we are declared, “not guilty” and set free. But not only are we set free from punishment, we are set free “to do right.” We can begin to live out the Law by the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus has given to those who believe. This was promised through the prophets such as Ezekiel: “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my Laws” (Ezekiel 36:27). When we are born anew of the Spirit we have a changed motivation, a deep desire and a new power to do what God requires. We begin to live God’s Law from the inside out.
So the Law flows out of God’s love and shows us what a life of true freedom looks like. This leads us to understand the purpose of the Law for us today as our Guardian and “Maker’s Instructions”:
a. Guardian: First, the Law leads us to Jesus. The Bible says that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). When we do not meet the standards of the Law, we know we have fallen short and so we need a Saviour. Paul uses the picture of a guardian (in older versions, “schoolmaster”) and a child. “So the Law was our guardian to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). This describes the arrangement in classical times when a servant or slave was appointed “guardian” of a child to ensure he behaved well and attended school classes. The Law is our guardian to lead us to Christ. This is why, in the original Communion service in the Book of Common Prayer, we have the summary of the Law at the beginning of the service – to show us our need for Jesus and a new heart and that is why we need to come to communion. The Law is our Guardian to lead us to Christ.
b. Maker’s Instructions: Second, the Law reveals God’s plan for living. Because we have salvation through Jesus, some are tempted to say, “Why do we have to obey the Law?” Paul has a good reply, “You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13). We are free from condemnation but not free to disobey God; we have been freed so we can do what is right. The Law can assume its original intention of showing us how to live the way God designed us to. This means the law is far more than “do’s” or “don’ts” – it reveals God’s will and design for how life is to be lived. The Law is our “Maker’s Instructions” – our guidebook and map through life.
So then, the purpose of the Law, given by God in the context of his love, is to bring us to Christ and then, freed and empowered by him, to use the Law as our guide to co-operate with the Spirit in becoming the kind of people God designed us to be. The Law is our Guardian and Maker’s Instructions.
No Other Gods
Having seen this basic background, let us now look at the first commandment. In Exodus 20, we have the negative version: “You shall have no other gods before me” (verse 3). In Matthew 22, we have Jesus’ positive version: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (verse 37). Now, before anyone starts saying, “Oh, I prefer the God of the New Testament to the Old,” you should know that Jesus is actually quoting from the Old Testament, from the book of Deuteronomy (6:5). When Jesus cites the second great commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) this is also an Old Testament quotation – from Leviticus (19:18). There is no discrepancy between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New.
We will look at the positive version of the commandment first. Notice that it does not say “You shall believe in God.” “I have a lot of people tell me, “Oh, I believe in God” – meaning they think there is a God somewhere and they refer to him from time to time for advice and guidance. That is not what the commandment means. Mere mental assent – agreeing that there is a God – is just the beginning – after all, the devil “believes” that God exists! The issue is – if you acknowledge God’s existence, how do you relate to him? The devil cringes in fear! When Jesus says that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength he is saying that we want to enjoy God, to delight in him, to please him, to have his will to be done. Loving God means wanting to obey him. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Now, obeying Jesus is not some cold and calculated checking off the list of things we have to do each day to earn his love and get a heavenly reward. No, it is an attitude of trust in God that he knows what is best for us and that what he wants is in our best interest. Original sin was exactly the opposite of trust. The devil’s temptation was “Did God really say…” you shouldn’t do such and such? (Genesis 3:1) and then went on to contradict God’s command. The devil was implying that God does not have our best interests at heart – in other words, that God does not love us. When Jesus says, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” he is inviting us into a loving, trusting relationship with God that will result in a life of joyful obedience, where we seek God’s will to be done in us and in the world.
But why did God put the commandment negatively in Exodus? Because he loves us! Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and many people send cards or chocolates or flowers to someone very special in their lives. Now suppose a husband sends his wife a card and gift and says, “Honey, I love you…but I also love my female secretary, my first girlfriend, etc., etc., just as much or perhaps even more than you.”? I don’t think the marriage would be too safe! The Bible says that we are the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 21:2) and we read that “God is a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5) – he doesn’t like us putting others first. Does this mean God is petty and doesn’t like to share us with others? No – no more than a husband or wife who loves their spouse so dearly that their commitment to one another comes first before everything. God has committed himself to us and expects that same commitment in return. God is to come first in our lives before anyone or anything else. (We will look at what “the anyone or anything else” is next week when we talk about Idolatry.)
I will demonstrate what it means “to have no other gods but me” and put God first through a story of a drive in the country…who is in the driver’s seat of your life?
Who is in the Driver’s Seat?
You are setting out for a nice drive in the country. All is well with the world, the sun is shining and things running smoothly. Suddenly, the car swerves to the right. You get out and see that you have a flat tire. You wonder what to do and then remember that help is in the trunk. You open it and ask your friend Jesus inside to help you. He gets out and obliges and fixes the tire. He never says a word. He then goes to get in the back seat. You panic and politely say that you don’t need him that close. It might be embarrassing to have people see that you are that close to Jesus. Just having him around in the trunk is all you really need. Shrugging his shoulders, he gets back in the trunk, without a word.
You set out again, down life’s highway, and encounter more trouble, this time in the engine. You get Jesus out again, who dutifully fixes the problem and then goes to get back in the trunk. You think a moment and then stop him, tentatively inviting him to get into the back seat. After all, you think, he’ll be closer if there are any more problems and even if people ridicule you, it will be worth it.
You set out again, chatting to Jesus occasionally as you look at the road ahead, when you come upon a fork in the road. You muse out loud which way to go; Jesus points to the right, but you can’t see him and you toss a coin and take the left. It soon turns out to have been the wrong direction and you turn around to ask Jesus which way you should have gone. He tells you and you murmur that you couldn’t see his instructions because he was too far away. Once on the road, you come to a T-junction and wonder which way to go. Jesus points left but you, again not seeing his arm, take the right because everyone else is going that way. This route suddenly becomes a dead-end and you turn around to ask Jesus which way you should have gone.
Realizing he is too far behind you to receive his instructions, you gingerly ask him to come up into the front passenger seat. You are a little nervous because you have no idea what he will do so close. He seems happy enough and you take off. You now have to make another choice of roads and you can see Jesus beside you silently pointing to the right. You disagree, saying the road is too narrow and go to the left. You end up in a parking lot. Frustrated, you set off again, and reaching another fork, ask Jesus which way. He points left, but you think you know better. You remark that he hasn’t been down life’s highway before and set off. Soon, the road becomes twisty and narrow; fog and darkness are setting in; you peer into the misty gloom, unable to see clearly. All of a sudden, Jesus grabs the wheel and swerves the car to the right. You look out of your window and realize you almost went over a cliff.
In resignation, you get out and ask Jesus to get in the driver’s seat. You then go to get in the trunk. Jesus comes to you and stops you; motioning with his arm, he puts you in the front passenger seat. He gets in the driver’s seat, passes you a Bible which you realize is the map for life’s highway. He starts the car, puts his arm around you and you drive on together, following the map, enjoying one another’s company, driving down life’s highway.
Who is in the driver’s seat of your life?
[1] Leonard Felder, The Ten Challenges. (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1997), pg. 19.
