The Ten Commandments 21 st Sunday after Pentecost, October 13, 2013 Deuteronomy 5:6-12, Matthew 22:36-40 The Reverend Douglas W.

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1 The Ten Commandments 21 st Sunday after Pentecost, October 13, 2013 Deuteronomy 5:6-12, Matthew 22:36-40 The Reverend Douglas W. Abbott Gerald Epstein M.D. writes in Chapter 3 of his book, Healing into Immortality, these words in introduction to his exegesis of the Ten Commandments: 3500 years ago, God transmitted to his people through Moses these ten laws of conscience. Thousands of people were with Moses when he received them. I credit Dr. Epstein as a key source for my sermon today on the Ten Commandments, as I am honoring the commandments of Thou shall not bear false witness and Thou shall not steal. And 2000 years ago through the life of Jesus, God brought fulfillment to these commandments with the greatest, unifying commandment of all, the commandment of love as read to you from Matthew 22: These commandments are the foundation of our conscience and the resulting consciousness of our society. Conscience is a good thing. Conscience comes from our roots in knowing about God. Conscience is our connection with God. Conscience means we live by the codes of conduct God has given to us. Connecting with what God has prescribed for us is at the heart of the spiritual transmission of our faith. We are born into this root system and spiritual transmission is based on these roots. Conscience is the fabric of consciousness. Applying these laws of consciousness to our everyday life is our spiritual calling. The spiritual conscience of God s brothers and sisters uplifts the consciousness of society as a whole. We are teachers and givers of love.

2 2 Where would we be without these roots and beliefs? Since the most important thing in this world is God and since our most important mission on earth is to stay connected with Him, these commandments are not only the way to live justly, but also prescriptions for a healing and sane life. Every societal problem we have today can be traced to a violation of these cosmic laws. Stressors that occur every day in our lives come from relationships. We meet a stressor every day. Every one of us here this morning has and is experiencing stress from relationships. Look at how the life of Christ was affected by relationships involving betrayal, denial and doubt. He did not have control over everything that happened to him. What he did have control over was what he did when he met up with the stressors. He turned to God for help. God is a loving God, full of mercy and forgiveness. This is what we are called to do. Turn to God for help. Disturbances are a signal to look to the wisdom of God for help. Let s look at what God has given to us through the Ten Commandments and through our Lord s commandment of love. 1. You shall have no other gods before me. Here we told not to replace our devotion to God, the invisible reality, with a greater devotion to visible things; programs, events, work, people, sports, pleasure etc.. In doing this, we believe that devotion to these visible pursuits will bring about greater rewards, happiness, and relief from pain than devotion to the invisible pursuit of God, which becomes secondary. The consciousness of society gets pulled down because the charity of God gets stifled. Serving God gets second place to the serving of oneself. And when this illusion has run its course, disappointment brings about yet another round of the same old pursuit of relief or pleasure. Look at how much time, commitment, energy and money is spent on games and

3 3 entertainment, which are diversions from reality. People are too busy and tired to worship God. 2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or erect and bow down before them and idols. This is a difficult commandment to keep. We make graven images. We create them. A graven image involves the making of a physical representation or a mental one. We know what material representations are. We do the same with mental ones, casting people in roles as having special importance or authority, like movie stars, athletes, or politicians. We attribute power to things and pursuits like power, money, importance and fame. And graven images also refer to any of our thoughts that live in the future or live in the past. Most of our social conversations are either in the future or about the past. The future does not exist. But we are constantly living in the realm of thoughts that are future oriented: predicting outcomes, striving for goals, and creating expectations. Mental images from our thoughts flood us with anxiety, fear, restlessness, and stress. We create fixed images about external reality believing that something in the future is going to happen and we get caught up in the emotional turmoil that it brings in living out that scenario. And the same is true about creating thoughts that dwell upon the past. We create scenarios over and over that define who we were and thus must be true. Memories can be most comforting and gratifying. I am not referring to them. The problem comes when we hold onto fixed images which drain our energy and take us away

4 4 from whom we are now. The past is over and God is present with us now. Living the anxiety of the future and living the guilt or the remorse of the past both have little truth value because they cloud over the fact that we are born in the image of God. Both separate us from God. Predicting what is to happens enslaves us because we are trying to play God. And living in the past enslaves us because dwelling on the what-ifs and the woes that take us away from God s present mercy and forgiveness. 3. Not to take God s name in vain. We must not represent ourselves as something we are not, nor use reference to God when it suits our convenience, or when we don t believe it, or to justify one s actions in dominating others. 4. Remember the Sabbath. This is to set aside a day of rest and remembrance, to disengage what we do every other day of the week. Rest is essential to healing. The Sabbath is meant to restore vitality and meaning in our lives. 5. Honor your father and mother. It means to acknowledge that they gave you life. 6. Not to commit murder. This literally means not to kill others but also not to be severely critical and judgmental upon oneself or others. It also refers to not giving credit to your sources, to those people who helped you or inspired you. It means not to humiliate someone in public, which murders the character of a person. 7. Not to commit adultery. Adultery is an impure alliance. It weakens a relationship, is destructive because it mixes two things that don t belong together. It is an affront to integrity and to our relationship to God. In nature, 1000 lbs. of nuclear

5 5 waste water is dumped into the Pacific Ocean daily from the nuclear meltdown in Japan. 8. Do not steal. We are familiar with physical stealing. But this applies to false promises. I ll meet you at 1:00 p.m. and are 30 minutes late. This is stealing another person s time. A common hardship is when heirs get cheated out of their inheritance. 9. Do not bear false witness. This includes gossiping, spreading rumors, deceiving, covering up, slander, libel. Here are examples of lying: I ll call you tomorrow but then don t. Or I will keep you in my prayers which is a promise but then you don t follow through. 10. Do not covet refers to greed, envy, jealousy, competitiveness and possessiveness. Jealousy is the seed for murder and envy is the seed for war. For the over satisfied person, every desire needs to be satisfied. It is a desire to own, to have, to keep and hold onto at the expense of others. It is a fundamental error to seek to be God. It detracts us from knowing God and from being of service to healing the ills of the world. Here are some specific examples of the need for applying the Ten Commandments to our everyday life. 1. How long do I have to live? Graven image 2. I can get away with it. No other Gods before me. False witness 3. If I had it to do all over again. Graven image 4. I will call you tomorrow, but then I don t. False witness

6 6 5. A person or government in power uses back their political agenda of power and control over others. No other Gods. Murder. 6. I will keep you in my prayers and then I forget. False witness 7. I copy someone else s work or thoughts, take credit for it, but do not give credit to them. Steal. False witness 8. The material life leads to salvation, truth and liberation. Graven image. False witness 9. Abusive humiliation of someone in public. Akin to emotional murder. In the spiritual realm, the focus is on God s mercy and forgiveness which are at the core of God s kingdom. All judgments, criticisms and condemnations are detrimental to healing. They are part of bearing false witness and making graven images against oneself. The emphasis is on correcting errors. AND THESE WORDS WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY SHALL BE UPON YOUR HEART; AND YOU SHALL TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY TO YOUR CHILDREN, AND YOU SHALL TALK OF THEM WHEN YOU SIT IN YOUR HOUSE, AND WHEN YOU WALK BY THE WAY, AND WHEN YOU LIE DOWN, AND WHEN YOU RISE. AND YOU SHALL BIND THEM AS A SIGN UPON YOUR HAND, AND THEY SHALL BE AS FRONTLETS BETWEEN YOUR EYES. AND YOU SHALL WRITE THEM ON THE DOORPOSTS OF YOUR HOUSE AND ON YOUR GATES. Deuteronomy 6:4-9