Sermon: Joined to God's Blessedness

 Exodus 20:1-20
Joined to God’s Blessedness

James Sledge                                                                                       October 4, 2020

From time to time the 10 Commandments take the stage in America’s culture wars. Some
municipality posts the Commandments in the hall where they meet or some judge insists on displaying them at the courthouse, only to have such moves declared unconstitutional.

Public displays of the 10 Commandments have always struck me as a rather odd choice of battles by conservative Christians. Such Christians often dismiss much of Old Testament law as being superseded by Jesus and a new covenant. But I suppose putting up sayings from Jesus such as “Blessed are the poor… Love your enemy… Turn the other cheek… Do not judge so that you may not be judged…” don’t quite set the right tone.

Placing the Commandments in court houses is sometimes justified with the claim that they form the basis for our civil laws, which makes me wonder if these folks ever actually read the commandments. Only three of them, those against murder, theft, and false witness, actually correspond to our civil laws, and the need for such laws is so obvious we don’t need God to tell us. Cultures that never heard of the 10 Commandments outlaw murder and theft.

Then there’s the fact that our culture and our economy depend on violating some of these commandments. We are a 24/7 culture that puts little value on stillness and rest, the heart of the command to keep Sabbath. Factories run 24/7 because it’s more efficient. Stores and restaurants stay open 24/7, and advertise that fact proudly. And even most who do attempt to keep Sabbath still expect stores, movies, gas stations, and places to eat to stay open for them.

And if we subvert Sabbath with our 24/7 culture, we’ve actually made coveting a cornerstone of our economy. Every day we are bombarded with advertising designed to make us covet, to want things that others have and we don’t. Our economy depends on convincing enough of us that we need more and more, that if our neighbor has newer and better stuff, we should want it. And we should be willing to go into debt, stress constantly about money, work more hours, and out compete our neighbor so that we can have it.

Of course the 10 Commandments were never intended as generic, common sense rules to govern a well-run society. Yes, a few such rules are there, but the central purpose of the commandments is to create a radically different, alternative community, one that looks very different from the world, one that has much in common with kingdom Jesus proclaims.

This radically alternative community is perhaps best seen in those opening commands about other gods, idols, and misusing God’s name. These commands do not form the basis for any civil law. Rather, they stand in opposition to the distorted cultures we humans devise.

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“God bless America” is spoken regularly by politicians left and right. It was a hugely popular song during World War II and again after 9/11. On the face of it, asking God’s blessings seems perfectly appropriate. But while I hope God blesses America, I suspect our request frequently transgresses some, perhaps all, of those opening commandments.

Perhaps that surprises you. Many assume that the first few commandments are not that hard to keep. We don’t live in a world with all that many god choices. No temple to Baal or Zeus down the street, and the only physical idols many of us have seen are in museums. It’s true that speech has grown a lot coarser over the years. (I still remember the first time I heard someone say “hell” on TV.) Yet many of us still try not to take God’s name in vain.

However, these opening commandments are actually about where our ultimate trust and loyalties lie, about who we think is really in charge. When Yahweh spoke the commandments at Mt. Sinai, “other gods” referred to hedging your bets, insurance. Many Israelites thought they could worship Yahweh, and still offer a little something to the local fertility god just to be on the safe side, to ensure that the grain would produce. We don't put much stock in fertility gods, but we know all about hedging bets and insurance.

For ancient Israel, idols were often a part of this insurance, but the prohibition against idols isn’t just about other gods. It prohibits images of any kind, including ones of Yahweh. Yahweh is not like other gods. Yahweh will not be managed or used. Yahweh will not be packaged and brought out when needed. Yahweh remains mysterious, unpictureable, undomesticated, wild and free. Israel can only conform to Yahweh, not the other way round. 

The command about God’s name emphasizes this. The translation we heard this morning gets much closer to what the Hebrew means. “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of Yahweh your God.”  The issue isn’t foul language. It is seeking to enlist God in our causes. But this God will not be enlisted. Yahweh will not bless Israel or curse her enemies to suit Israel’s plans, nor will Yahweh bless America or curse our enemies to suit our plans. Yahweh is not on call. Rather Yahweh calls Israel, and us, to find new life in God’s plans.

In the same way, Jesus does not come along with us, promising to bless us or make things go well for us if we believe in him. Rather, Jesus invites us to follow him along a way the world thinks foolish, the way of sacrificial self-giving that loves neighbor even when that neighbor is an enemy. He invites us to join him in the way of the cross.

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I think I’ve mentioned before a quote that the singer Bono once shared at a Washington, DC prayer breakfast. "Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Get involved in what God is doing because it is already blessed.”

In the 10 Commandments, in the call of Jesus, we are invited into the blessedness that God is already doing. It is not a blessedness that conforms easily to our plans or desires, or to the ways of the world. It is a blessedness experienced in Sabbath, in the realization that we need Sabbath and the world will not spin out of control if we stop and rest, if we disconnect, if we become quiet and still. It is a blessedness found in aligning our lives with the strange ways of God, with the ways of God’s new day that Jesus says has come near.

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Many who are members of this congregation know that we are entering the stewardship season. In popular thought, that means we are going to try to convince people to pony up enough cash to keep the place running and the staff paid. Clearly it does take money to run a church, but such fundraising is not really stewardship.

Stewardship refers to how we utilize the resources entrusted to us. There is good stewardship and bad stewardship. The precarious state of the world’s climate is an example of terrible stewardship, of using the world’s resources for our own selfish purposes rather than caring for God’s creation that has been entrusted to us.

Along those lines, the stewardship of our personal resources provides a fairly accurate measure of our faithfulness, of the extent to which our lives are joined to God’s blessedness. How we use our money, how we use our time, what we do with our personal resources, all these provide a picture of the gods we truly worship and serve.

The theme for this year’s stewardship campaign, Bearing Fruit Together, is drawn from Jesus’ words to his disciples on the evening of his arrest. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  Faithful stewardship is about life rooted in Jesus, life that emanates from the way he shows us. It is not about paying for the things we like or enjoy. It is entering into God’s blessedness. It is not about getting a bit of spirituality that we worry is missing from our busy lives. It is about transformed lives reoriented to the ways and priorities of God.

“You are the branches,” says Jesus. We are a small part of something much bigger, and it is the center, not us. That concept is largely foreign to our individualistic, consumer culture, but it is the core of Christian faith. And the more we live into this strange concept, into the strange, counter-cultural ways of God, the more we will discover new life in Jesus, transformed life joined to the blessedness of God.