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The Third Sunday in Lent Year B Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments has been billed as “the greatest story ever told.” In the summer of 1966, the 10th anniversary of the movie’s original release, The Ten Commandments hit the theaters again, and my best friend and I went to see it with her parents. It was a Big Deal—we went not to our neighborhood theater, but to a large theater downtown—much plusher and more elegant than what we were used to, the kind of movie theater that I fear no longer exists in this day of multi-screen cineplexes. It was a long movie—over 3½ hours—and it was the first movie I ever attended that had an intermission. We knew the story, of course, as kids who’d attended Sunday School every week, but it was still spell binding as I remember it. With great drama the Red Sea parted, and with even greater drama, Moses ascended to the top of Mount Sinai where he came face to face with God, and received the stone tablets on which the commandments were inscribed, presumably by the hand of God. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original release of DeMille’s classic. Thanks to the wonder of the video age, this movie lives on. Although by today’s standards, the special effects in The Ten Commandments are primitive to say the least, it won an Oscar for special effects, and for many of us, regardless of age, the words “Ten Commandments” evokes images of Charlton Heston in the desert or on top of a mountain in the midst of the thunder and lightening that announced God’s presence. The prominence of this movie is a testament not only to DeMille’s filmmaking skills, but also to the significant role that the Ten Commandments have played in our culture. The Ten Commandments have long been one of the biblical texts that children were asked to memorize. The Catechism in the BCP discusses the meaning and importance of the commandments. In many older churches, the commandments are prominently displayed, often behind the altar or the pulpit. Over the last few years, a legal struggle has erupted over the propriety of displaying the commandments in public buildings like courthouses. While some argue that strict adherence to the commandments would solve all our social ills, others question the relevance of these commandments in the modern and post-modern world. What are we to make of all this? As I’m sure you’ve noticed, during Lent we’ve begun our service each week with a piece of liturgy called “the Penitential Order”, which includes a reading of either the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) or the so-called Summary of the Law. It’s interesting that the prayer book uses the term “Decalogue”—the Greek term which means “ten words”—because that is how they are referred to in the Hebrew scripture. The fact that Hebrew scripture does not use the term “commandments” tells us something about how the Decalogue was and is perceived—not as laws and regulations, but rather as part of the revelation of the Yahweh’s will for the Israelites. Understood this way, the Decalogue spells out not laws, not even ethical norms, but rather what is abhorrent in the eyes of Yahweh, and what a right relationship would look like. Furthermore, the Decalogue was given to the Israelites in light of the covenant they entered into with God. Entering into such a covenant meant that the Israelites were bound to accept ordinances governing their relationship with Yahweh, and to express their gratitude to Yahweh by following these ordinances. In other words, the rules delineated in the Decalogue helped define the relationship between God and God’s people, and the Israelites adhered to them not out of some sense of legalism, but rather out of love and gratitude to a God who liberated them. Perhaps that is a subtle difference, but it is an important one. The Ten Commandments have long been used in the Christian world as a “proof text” for moralism—the notion that certain ethical truths are evident in a plain reading of scripture, unambiguous and without need of interpretation. They have also been viewed as a means of moral education for children—by learning the Ten Commandments, children will come to know the difference between right and wrong, and they will consequently come to behave morally. Both of those ideas have some surface appeal, but both of them are misleading, because things just aren’t that simple. The Decalogue and the story surrounding it express the historical struggle of the Israelites to live in a covenant relationship with a God who not only liberates but also calls people to justice and righteousness. Rather than dismissing or downplaying the free will of humanity, the Decalogue calls a people with free will to exercise that will living in right relationship, but clearly that is not always easy, it is a struggle. Moreover, the Ten Words don’t pertain to every aspect of daily life, but rather highlight what might even be thought of as marginal areas of behavior where that struggle might be manifest. So for example, in a culture where the worship of Baal and Astarte was prevalent, the call to “have no other gods” was a call to live fully into the relationship with Yahweh, recognizing Yahweh’s complete sovereignty. The admonition against adultery was a call to protect property and guaranteeing immortality through one’s offspring. But neither pagan worship nor adulterous relationships were at the heart of daily life. Understanding the Decalogue in its historical and cultural context this way does not mean it is irrelevant for us. But it does mean that we cannot use the Ten Commandments as a simple proof text for what is moral or ethical. We are called to understand these injunctions in light of how we understand God’s call to us in our 21st century world, how we understand our relationship with God. Our struggle with other gods for example is less a matter of competing religions and more a matter of rejecting consumerism and materialism, the idols of our age. Our rejection of adultery is not based on protecting property but rather on honoring mutual promises of fidelity. Nor can we expect learning ethical guidelines, no matter how sound, to produce moral behavior. Moral behavior is developed by living with those who behave morally; it’s a matter of assimilation, not just acquiring information. The Decalogue may still serve as a measure of our relationship with God, but we cannot forget that as Christians our covenant relationship with God is one that is mediated not by regulations but rather by the person of Jesus Christ. It is through knowing Christ that we come to understand our relationship with God, and it is through Jesus’ teaching that we know the ethical and moral norms to which we are called. Jesus’ ministry not only reveals to us a set of moral and ethical guidelines that delineate a right relationship with God (just as the Decalogue did for the Israelites), it also takes things one step further by providing us a model of what it might look like to live out those guidelines. Jesus’ actions live out his preaching, and he calls us to assimilate those actions, and to minister to the sick, the poor, the marginalized as he did, all the while honoring and glorifying the Father. In Lent, we are called to intentionally review our relationship with God. Beginning our service with the Penitential Order is one way to remind ourselves of that. The Ten Commandments are one measure of that relationship, but they are not our only one. When Jesus was asked about which laws were most important, he didn’t highlight just one. Rather he replied with the summary of the law which encapsulates the essence of the entire Decalogue, the Ten Words, as well as the essence of his own ministry and teaching. It is with this summary that I send us out into the second half of Lent—may we use it to guide our reflections and self-assessment. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. “May we strive to do no less. AMEN
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