The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Canon Durrell Watkins at
the Sunshine Cathedral on
Sunday, February 17, 2008, at the 8:40 and 9:50 am
services.
There are actually hundreds of biblical rules, laws, prohibitions, and
directives. Of all the biblical directives, the ten that are most famous are
the so-called Ten Commandments. To hear politicians trying to court religious
voters, one would think that everyone seeking political office not only
believes in the Ten Commandments but also believes strict adherence to them is
a pre-requisite for being a good leader, a good citizen, or even a good
person! I doubt if most people who claim to believe in the 10 commandments
could even name all ten.
Of course, even the most devout Christian usually observes 8 of the
commandments at best. For instance, if we decorate our homes or churches with
portraits of Jesus or Mary, or if we wear crosses or have eagles adorning our
pulpits or doves etched into stained glass windows… then we aren’t strictly
obeying the second commandment: to not make any graven images.
With the exception of our Seventh Day Adventist friends, most Christians
worship on Sunday, the first day of the week rather than on the Jewish
Sabbath. So we don’t really obey the fourth commandment which instructs us to
keep the Sabbath day holy.
As with most literature, the bible is complex and the Ten Commandments are
not without their complexities and nuances. The third commandment forbids us
from using the divine name in vain, but the first commandment tells us which
divine name it means. The name that should never be used in vain, according to
this biblical passage, is Yahweh. Most of us refer to ultimate reality simply
as “God.” The least religious among us wouldn’t use the name Yahweh in vain
because most of us wouldn’t use that name at all.
The fifth commandment tells us to honor our parents. As a child, I was led
to believe that was God’s way of telling me to comply with my parents’ wishes.
But this text isn’t written to children; it’s written to and for adults.
Children don’t need God to tell them to behave; their caregivers will try to
make sure they behave properly. The fifth commandment is telling adults to
honor their elderly parents. In a world where there was no Social Security or
Medicare, this commandment was meant to ensure a good quality of life for
seniors.
The sixth commandment tells us to not murder, but every civilized society
has figured out that murder is bad. It isn’t bad because it wound up on this
list; it’s just bad.
The seventh commandment tells us to not commit adultery… but it comes from
a society where a man could have multiple wives. Solomon had 700 wives and 300
concubines. David had multiple wives. Jacob had two wives and had children
with two of his servants. In a world that allows multiple romantic partners,
what’s adultery? There are several possible answers, but perhaps the spirit
(if not the letter) of the commandment is to honor your commitments. When we
enter into a covenantal relationship, our integrity demands that we honor the
agreements we made in forming that covenant. Keeping the seventh commandment
then requires more ethical work on our part than simply avoiding certain
behaviors. It challenges us make our promises carefully, and then honor the
promises we make…it doesn’t necessarily tell us what those promises need to
look like.
Well, you get the idea. The Ten Commandments are not just 10 rules to
unquestionably obey. They come to us in their context, and it takes effort to
then apply them in our context. This isn’t just a short list of do’s and
don’ts. This is something more — and for these commandments to truly be
guidelines for good living, we must allow them to be more than ancient do’s
and don’ts… otherwise they will be little more than obsolete expectations of
antiquity that we have trouble even remembering.
Jesus gives us a clue about how to both understand and apply the spirit of
these ancient directives. A Pharisee came to Jesus and asked him which of the
hundreds of commandments of religious law were the most important. A strict
legalist would be expected to honor all the laws and commandments. How can you
say one is greater than another? So the question is meant to trip Jesus up.
Using religion to control or manipulate or hurt others is nothing new…as long
as there has been religion there have been people willing to misuse it.
So, in an attempt to trap Jesus, a religious legalist asks him, “Which is
the greatest commandment?” But Jesus doesn’t think of religion as a prison
that keeps people bound. Jesus uses his tradition to empower, to help, to
heal, to inspire, to liberate. And so he says, it just so happens there are a
couple of commandments that trump all the rest, because all the rest are just
commentary on the two!
Which is the greatest commandment? Jesus doesn’t even refer to the list of
ten…instead he quotes Deuteronomy 6.5, “Love the Eternal with all that you
are.” There’s another commandment that is equal to the first, he says. He then
quotes Leviticus 19.18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus has already
said this in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, “Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.” He went on to say, “This is the law and the
prophets”; that is, the whole biblical message boils down to living lives of
love. The prophet Micah said something similar when he wrote, “This is what
God requires of you: Only to act justly and love mercy and live humbly.”
Another New Testament writer said, “God is Love and whoever lives in love
lives in God and God lives in them.”
Love God and love your neighbor… those are the greatest commandments for
Jesus, and they are alike. How do you love God? Not by what you believe or by
what you call yourself, but loving other people? In other words, “the way we
behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of
what we believe.”
Love isn’t about conforming to someone else’s idea of “nice”. Love isn’t
always agreeing, always being in a good mood, or always being sweet. I know
some very loving people who are almost never sweet. Love is simply caring
about the welfare of another. Love disagrees without disregarding. Love
confronts without attacking. Love can be tough without being mean. Love says,
“I won’t forget your sacred value; even when it’s hard for me to perceive, I
will still choose to know that you and I are both expressions of the love of
God.” As long as we are willing to love just that much, we can’t really go
very wrong, ever.
First, we learn to love ourselves so that we have love to give and so that
we know how to express love. Then we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
And when we do that, we will be loving God.
Don’t worry about the Ten Commandments, or any commandment, because if you
love yourself you will be able to love others, and if you love others, you are
loving God. If you love others, you won’t break your promises to them, and
that expresses love for God. If you love others, you won’t rob them, hurt
them, or begrudge their happiness. If you love others, you will support
organizations and vote for candidates that promote peace and goodwill and
justice for all people. If you love others you won’t try to sabotage their
success, you won’t vilify them, you won’t deny them their dignity. If you love
others you’ll want them to be healthy and happy and prosperous. If you love
others, you’ll fulfill the law of God because the law of God is the law of
love.
Instead of insisting on the Ten Commandments being displayed in public, our
more zealous friends should insist on the Golden Rule being displayed… because
when we follow that rule, the so-call commandments are fulfilled without
effort.
Learning to love ourselves means we have love to share with others; and
when we truly love others, we are expressing love for God. When we allow
ourselves to love and to express that love in how we behave toward one
another, we are living in communion with divine love, that infinite,
unconditional, all-inclusive love that we call God… This is the Good News.
Amen.