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Sermons

"MORE THAN SUGGESTIONS - Part One"
OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE TEXT:
EXODUS 20:1-17

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 26, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 You shall have no other gods before me." 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." 7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." 12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." 13 "You shall not murder." 14 "You shall not commit adultery." 15 "You shall not steal." 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

MESSAGE: I had invited a prominent revivalist, the Rev. Jack Gray, to my church in El Paso to preach. The first time he got into the pulpit at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, he pulled out a $100 bill and held it before the congregation. Then he made an offer: "I'll give this $100 bill to anyone present who can tell me the Ten Commandments, in order." There were about 200 people present that day, many of them lifelong church goers and Sunday School pupils. But not a single one of them ventured to take him up on his offer. Finally, after some snickering and a few other odd remarks from folks in that congregation, someone shouted out, "Let the preacher try it." So Rev. Gray said, "OK, Pastor Dave, let's hear them." The good news, from my perspective, is that I did it. Despite being put on the spot, I got all Ten Commandments right. The bad news is, I didn't win his $100 bill, for I mistakenly placed commandment number three, against the misuse of God's name, ahead of number two, against idolatry. I did OK, but fell short of perfection.

There's continuing contemporary turmoil in our nation concerning the Ten Commandments, particularly focused upon the public display thereof. Political conservatives want them prominently posted in all public buildings. Political liberals want them banned from such public view. The U. S. Supreme Court has recently issued two contradictory rulings on this issue. Every time I hear this debate heat up, I wonder: Does either side really know what they're talking about? If Senator Tom Coburn, on the right, were asked to recite the Ten Commandments, in order, could he do it? If Senator Barbara Boxer, on the left, were asked the same, could she?

I suspect that virtually every person in this room, if asked, would say, "I believe in the Ten Commandments." And I equally suppose that each person present here today has his or her own position on the continuing national debate over the public display of the Ten Commandments. But my concern, for each and every one of you, is this: Do you really know what you're talking about? If I asked you to stand up, right now, and recite the Ten Commandments in order, could you do it? Even allowing for the fact that our Lay Worship Leader just read them less than five minutes ago, I doubt that many of you could do so.

The truth of our current situation is that virtually all of us "think highly" of the Ten Commandments - but few of us actually know them. So the purpose of today's - and next week's - sermon messages is both basic and simple: It's to teach you the Ten Commandments.

Ten items - of anything -- is a hard number to retain, so let's try to aid our memory process by breaking the Ten Commandments into three groups: Vertical commandments, bridge commandments, and horizontal commandments.
The first three commandments are "vertical" commandments, which is to say that they govern the vertical dimension of human life - our relationship with God. The first is the primacy of God in our lives. "No other gods" means that nothing else - no matter how seemingly important - can be allowed to take the place of God in our lives. God's role is unique, and it's supposed to be unrivaled. Repeatedly in the Bible God plainly says that He is a "jealous" God. The quickest way to invite God's anger is to put something else in His rightful place in our lives. God has designed humans with a "God-shaped emptiness" - an emptiness that only God can properly fill.

The second commandment is similar - no idolatry. Human beings always tend to fall in love with "tangibles." In the church, from long experience I understand that quite clearly. Church members can always be counted upon to give to "bricks and mortar" first. A new organ, which the congregation can see, hear, feel, and touch, is always easier to fund than a missionary to win people to Christ in Cambodia. The "problem" with idolatry among Christians is that we seldom make idols of the wrong things, but of the right things. In one of the congregations which I served in Texas there was a beautiful stained-glass portrait of Jesus at the front of the sanctuary. Nothing - absolutely nothing - was ever allowed to obscure the view of that stained-glass figure, even for a single Sunday. At the close of each and every worship service, the people would gaze raptly at it while singing "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." That stained-glass image had become the focus of their devotion - rather than the Christ it depicted. Whenever family, or fishing, or going to church, or the King James Bible - becomes the primary object of our devotion, we're in the realm of idolatry. That's forbidden by the second commandment.

The third "vertical" commandment concerns the misuse of the Name of God. It says don't do it. God's Name, to the Jews of the Old Testament, was "Yahweh," sometimes rendered "Jehovah" in English. In order to carefully avoid the possibility of misusing it, the ancient Jews were forbidden ever to speak God's Name - which was, to my mind, completely misapplying this commandment. Regardless, we need to understand that, for Christians, the special name of God we have been given is "Jesus." Jesus is that Name above all Names, the only Name given, in heaven and on earth, by which we may be saved. That's the precious Name which we are encouraged to speak - often. And always with reverence. Employing "Jesus Christ" as a "swear word" is clear misuse of the Name of God. Don't do it.

The next two commandments are what can be called the "bridge" commandments. The first three are "vertical," the final five are "horizontal," but these two concern dual dimensions of life - both "God-relations" and "human relations." Commandment four is observance of a Sabbath rest - a "holy seventh" of one's time during which earthly concerns are set aside in order to honor God. Frankly, I've never seen any real substance to the oddball argument over whether "Sabbath" should be Saturday or Sunday for Christians. The word "Sabbath" in its original Hebrew language merely means "seventh." One-seventh of our time is to be set aside as an offering to God - to thank Him for giving us the other six-sevenths. If you choose to observe a Sabbath on Tuesday, that's fine and dandy. As Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." But whenever it may be for you, observe the Sabbath. Don't let every day be "business as usual." Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.

The fifth commandment is "Honor your father and your mother." This is a "bridge" commandment because it includes a vertical component, a promise from God - a promise of long life for those who obey this commandment. We probably could waste a lot of time arguing over technicalities regarding this particular commandment - does it apply to children only or to adults as well, does it include step-parents, foster-parents, adoptive parents and surrogate parents or is it restricted to biological parents only, is it binding if your mother or father really aren't very good parents, and so forth. None of that sort of thinking is beneficial. This commandment is deliberately simple: Give honor to your parents. Show respect for the ones who raise you. Express it early, express it late, express it often. Frankly, I envy those among you who have "storybook" families with two reliable, honest and faithful biological parents. I didn't grow up that way, and neither did everyone here present. Notwithstanding, I honored my parents throughout their earthly lives and I continue to honor them now - and you should too. God will reward you for it.

Well, we're only halfway through the Ten Commandments, and virtually through the sermon time. That's OK. In fact, I expected it. The Ten Commandments are bigger and more significant than a single sermon. So I'm going to pause here and take up the remaining five commandments next Sunday. But before we leave them, let's recall the five commandments we've covered thus far once more:

Number one: No other Gods.
Number two: No idolatry.
Number three: No misuse of God's Name.
Number four: Regularly observe and keep holy the Sabbath.
Number five: Honor your parents.

One final comment, which I'll expand further in the second half of the message next week: None of these commandments is a "suggestion." God fully expects us to keep them. Amen.

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