The Ten Commandments and the Gift of the Sabbath

Sermon preached at St. Mark’s, Honey Brook, PA

by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, October 5, 2008

Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost (Year A, proper 21): Exodus 20: 1-20

Exodus 20: 1-20 (NRSV): Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”

Last week, I was invited to a party with some friends. There I made new acquaintances, and as meeting a priest is something of a novelty for many, the conversation turned to religious matters. “We go to church occasionally, but we live by the Ten Commandments,” one said. Commendable, I thought. They later asked where my church is and when worship is scheduled. When I gave them the time and place, they realized that they could not be there this Sunday—“We have a party to go to,” they said. “Well,” I replied, “you’ll miss a great sermon on the Ten Commandments, with special emphasis on keeping the Sabbath Day holy!”

They laughed [and those in attendance to hear this sermon laughed, but we were in church, after all, so it was perhaps easier for us to laugh!]. The Ten Commandments used to be central in our culture. I am told that they were recited in public schools before such things were changed. Now we seem to pay lip service to the Ten Commandments and genericize them for civil society. But do we really take them seriously? Rarely can anyone rattle them off in a short period of time—I couldn’t even do it until I decided to learn them all sometime in the middle of seminary (I figured it would come in handy—but even then, I get them out of order).

The Ten Commandments can be seen in two categories. The first four deal with right relationship with God, and the second six deal with right relationship with each other. You hear this twofold focus of the commandments in the summary of the law: ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength; and the second is like it—you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Let’s review these commandments, though perhaps a little out of order. The sixth through ninth commandments sound very familiar to us. We must not murder, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness. I think that every one here would nod our heads vigorously up and down in agreement that we as a society should uphold and strengthen these kinds of boundaries. Indeed, our laws enforce these boundaries fairly vigorously, though the liabilities of adultery are much diminished from the past, and lying outside a court of law does not have the same legal impact as doing so under oath or in a contract. Nonetheless, these commandments are the ones that come to mind when we say with pride that we uphold the Ten Commandments.

Then there is the tenth commandment: not to covet. We say openly that greed and desire for what belongs to others is bad, but I think our culture does its best to exploit the power of this desire in advertising, business, celebrity and even politics. This commandment is interesting because it is less about particular behavior and more about the orientation of one’s heart. Jesus builds on this commandment when he challenges us that when we call our neighbor a fool, we are liable for murder, or when we look with lust we are guilty of adultery or that our yes should be yes, and our no, no.

Then there is the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother. This commandment seems quaint, but anyone with parents knows that this is not always easy! Yet, by honoring our father and mother, we learn how to honor God or honor each other. We learn to honor the memory of our past and God’s place in our past as well.

These six commandments are God’s gift to his people—those who have been liberated from slavery. God shows them how to be a people together. The first four commandments, on the other hand, show them and us how we are to be God’s people together. The second commandment spells this out very clearly: we are not to make idols for ourselves, or to worship idols. Idol worship was standard practice of the many peoples around the people of Israel in their day, but they were never to take part in such betrayal of God. Here is a law of the Ten Commandments that we don’t find in the American legal system, or in our cultural system. Occasionally, we do find religious idols in American life, especially as more immigrants come to our shores from lands where idols are worshiped. But more commonly, we have idols by other names, such as “American Idol” or idols of our jobs or our car or our house or glamour or power. We give these idols precedence over God, and we forget what God has done for us.

The third commandment prohibits taking the name of the Lord in vain—dishonoring God’s name. This includes never speaking the name of Israel’s God. Instead, whenever one sees the letters that spelled this name in the Hebrew text, one reads aloud instead “The Lord.” We continue this practice today in our English translations. God is so holy, so different from us, that we do not represent God in statues, or even speak God’s name. So when we speak of God, there is an inherent reverence, reminding us that God is not someone trivial.

Then there is the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” We now regard this commandment as one of the most justifiably optional of all the commandments! Nearly any excuse will do to make the Sabbath day just like any other day. Imagine applying the standard Sabbath day excuses to the other commandments: “Well, I was going to avoid murder today, but I just didn’t feel like it.” Or how about “I really wanted to be truthful today, but I was up late last night.” Or how about “I didn’t really mean to commit adultery, but we had friends in town this weekend…” (I get a lot of excuses and a lot of guilt, when what would be better than either is the joy of having their presence worshiping and connecting with us).

We are to keep the Sabbath day holy as a day specifically intended to honor God, especially through resting from our labors. Keeping the Sabbath has quietly reversed direction. Instead of a day to honor God, we often think of keeping the Sabbath as ‘doing what I enjoy’ or ‘what’s good for me.’ We have somehow set up a contrast between our own needs and the need to honor God. We often seem to cast as work the practice of honoring God by gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ to worship God. But this is not what the Sabbath commandment is about. The commandment of the Sabbath is a gift! The Sabbath is a gift of rest and freedom to those enslaved, and a time of connection to the one who frees them.

At the Blessing of the Animals yesterday (the Feast of St. Francis), I asked everyone, and I’ll ask you now: How many of you have fears about our economy? How many of you are nervous about your jobs? We hear a lot of panic about a slowdown in our economic engine, and in great fear we scramble for a solution. What if you could have freedom from all that fear? What if you were no longer enslaved to the economy—slave to your job—slave to your mortgage?

God’s command to keep the Sabbath day is not a burden, but a gift! The Sabbath day sets aside one day each week as sacred so that the rest of the week might also be sanctified. Work is not our God—work cannot save us. The economy is not our God—it cannot save us. When we bow down to the economy or our jobs or our work, or to trivial things in life that distract us from God’s love, we forget who God is, and what God has done for us, and what God is doing in our lives.

The Commandment of the Sabbath is like a command to married couples regularly to go out on a date! Strengthening our relationships is not a burden, though effort may be required. Strengthening our relationships is a joy! So it is with God—we keep the Sabbath day because we know that as our relationship with God is deepened, our joy will fill our lives not only one day a week, but each day, and fears of the economy or our jobs or any other burden in life will dissipate in comparison to our relationship with God. The Sabbath is a gift from God to us to remind us that God has freed us from slavery in Egypt, and that we need not return to any slavery. The Sabbath is a gift of joy in celebration of his presence and power in our lives. The Sabbath is a gift for the Christian Community as well.

What if every active member of this parish gathered for worship each week—every Sunday? Our attendance would nearly double! Think of the energy and excitement that we feel in this space [downstairs in the basement during building construction] sitting closer together, with our voices more united in song—what if upstairs, we filled the pews with that same music and energy and excitement? Think of the close relationships that we would build if we met together consistently, week after week in study and in worship? Think of the joy that we would find in our lives over what God is doing in our midst! Any sense of drudgery in this Sunday discipline would be lost amid the joy of God’s gift to us! This joy would be so apparent in our lives that others would be drawn in. This kind of experience of worship would be so powerful that the rest of our week would be transformed and empowered!

The Commandment to keep the Sabbath and the rest of the Ten Commandments are a gift from God, supporting us in our relationships with God and with each other in Christ. The Ten Commandments declare ‘I AM the Lord your God! I give you order and rest, and freedom from slavery. Remember me!’

See also, the “Decalogue” on page 317 in the Book of Common Prayer.