The Final Commandment

Exodus 20:17

Matthew 22:34-40

Today we hear what according to the Catholics are the last two commandments, and according to the Protestants is the last one.  Do not covet.  Do not covet your neighbor’s spouse, or house or objects, or anything else that you feel you do not have but that others do.  Do not be overtaken by a desire to have what you don’t have, avoid allowing that jealousy, that anger, that longing, that sense of injustice for what you see others have that is not your own to affect your behavior.  And under all of this, remember that ultimately what exists in the world that others may or may not have, that you may or may not have, that ultimately none of that truly belongs either to yourself or to your neighbor.  All that you covet, all that you long for, all that you have or do not have, ultimately is not ours to be had, because it all belongs to God.  

This commandment has been separated out by the narrative lectionary folk.  And it is separated out because those who wrote the narrative lectionary felt that ultimately this one “sin” of coveting, is the cause of every other sin or error or need for commandment that exists.  Those theological collaborators believe that all of our killing, all of our stealing, all of our lying and all of our idolatry comes down, ultimately to the sin of coveting, or, to use another word: greed. 

We see this in our Biblical stories in abundance.  David’s sins began with his coveting of Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.   As king, he was already married, and he had access to many, many women in the palace.  But he wanted Bathsheba.  So he took her, even though she was married to Uriah who was away in battle.  And when she then became pregnant, he basically had Uriah (and as a result all of Uriah’s men) killed in battle.  Great sins: murder, betrayal, adultery, and probably rape (though Bathsheba’s perspective is not given in this story).  And all of it began with this greed, this coveting.  

Another example comes from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.  The two of them desperately wanted Naboth’s vineyard.  Again, they had plenty of land.  They could buy more from anyone who would sell it.  But they wanted this particular piece of land.  And when Naboth would not sell it to them, they paid people to lie about Naboth, they then had Naboth killed as a “punishment” for those things they had paid others to say falsely about him, and they were able, then, to take the vineyard.  Again, many broken commandments: falsely testifying against a neighbor, murder, and theft being at the top of that list: but it all began with coveting a vineyard that someone else had.  

As the Sunday following the 4th of July, we also have to think about this, not just in terms of individuals but in terms of communities.  What do we covet for ourselves that we cannot stand other people having in the big picture?  And again, I’m not just talking about individuals here, but communities: and as countries.  For example, Oil?  

To quote Rolf Jacobson, one last time, “A friend of mine jokes about his own coveting heart, “If they make it, I want it.” I quoted that sentence one time while teaching about the coveting commandment at a church on a Sunday morning. One forgiven-sinner said, “Only one?”  The desires of our hearts will lead us astray. We are to love God. We are to love neighbor. We are not to desire our neighbor’s spouse or house.  And we cannot do it. Yes, we can develop all sorts of spiritual discipline and practices — prayer, meditation, service, fasting, accountability groups, and so on. These practices can help us curb the worst effects of our fallen nature. But we cannot do it.”

He continues, “… be aware of the incredible power of the heart’s desires. When you feel yourself desiring the wrong thing, pray. Call a friend and ask for help. Go see your pastor.”

But I also think that the things we struggle with go even deeper than greed.  I think our greed has an even deeper sin under it and that is our fear.  Our fear of not having enough, of not being enough.  Our fear of the end of our lives, or of suffering, or of meaninglessness.  And while “do not be afraid” is not one of the ten commandments, I would argue that perhaps the fact that that phrase alone shows up in scripture 365 times: once for every day of the year, is an indication of how important, how vital it is to our spiritual health.  

Each of the weeks that we have been discussing the ten commandments, we have also heard today’s passage from Matthew.  It’s because the ten commandments are summarized so well by these words in Matthew.  To remind you of what I told our Bible study when we began to look at the ten commandments, the ten commandments are found in two places in the Old Testament.  But they simply do not exist in the New Testament.  The closest we have is Jesus’ summation of those commandments here.  Ultimately the ten commandments can be summed up by the two: love the lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.  And love your neighbor as yourself.  And these can truly be summarized in one word.  Love.  That’s it.  Just Love.  If you aren’t sure what to do in a situation, always ask yourself, what is most loving.  If you aren’t sure which path to take in a decision, always ask yourself, what is most loving.  If you are torn between what you want and what the world needs, again, always ask yourself, what is most loving.

I think about the book, “Grasshopper on the Road” and in particular the story that I shared with the children this morning.  The grasshopper encounters a mosquito who is stuck in the rules.  He is so stuck in the rules, that he cannot see the absurdity of them at times.  In this particular case, his rule is that everyone must use his ferry boat to get across the “lake”.  It doesn’t matter to the mosquito that the grasshopper can easily step over the puddle.  The mosquito has a rule and that rule must be obeyed.  The grasshopper is too big for the boat, and yet still, the mosquito has his rule. Sometimes we, too, can get caught up in the rules and fail to see the deeper messages. 

What do we do, then, with this list of commandments.  How do we live faithfully with a list of things that are almost impossible, when we dig into them deeply, to uphold?  As we’ve seen, none of these ten commandments, as we’ve discussed them, are easy.  Not one.  For a myriad of reasons, not one of these is really simple.  Simply said, but multifaceted in execution.  Compelling, and apparently demanding, these are hard and the burden they hold feels tight.  But as always, the call is always to go deep.  To hear the message underneath.  And that message, always, is one of love.  It begins with God’s love for you, for me, for us.  And it is the nature of love to return to those who send it out.  

Going back to the story from Grasshopper on the Road: I think the message in this story is much less obvious than what we first read.  Because the hero in this story is not the mosquito.  The hero in the story is the grasshopper.  And he does not simply say, “That is ridiculous” and step over the puddle on his merry way.  He does not make fun of the mosquito’s limited vision or stuck thinking, as tempting as it might have been.  He doesn’t discount the mosquito, and he doesn’t avoid or ignore the mosquito.  Instead, he finds a way to support the mosquito, regardless of the mosquito’s great limitations of vision, insight and understanding.  Throughout the little book, in the other stories as well, we see that grasshopper has integrity, but also compassion.  He engages the others throughout the stories in the book, despite their limitations and inflexibilities, and he finds ways to be in relationship and to offer grace to them where they are.  He does not insist that they change. Neither does he give up who he is or what his call is in the world.  He approaches each as the individual they are, and he works within their world view still keeping his own integrity.  He acts with love.  He acts with the caring that is love.

That is our ultimate call: to return God’s love to the world, to the universe, in the best and fullest way that we can.  I’m reminded of the simple song I learned at Ygnacio Valley as a kid: Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away.  Love is something if you give it away.  You end up having more.  Love is like a magic penny, hold it tight and you won’t have any.  Lend it, spend it and you’ll have so many, they’ll roll all over the floor.  Oh, …

So I return in the end to where I started in the beginning of this series: all of these commandments begin with God’s relationship to us.  We are called to strive to follow them, not because they are an onerous burden God has placed around our neck, but because we are called to respond to God’s faithfulness with faithfulness of our own, lived out from gratitude and joy.  The good news in the commandments is that they are gifts to us, teaching us how to love with more fulness, with more purpose.  They are gifts to us as they help us to more to greater wholeness, and greater connection both with one another and with God.  Ultimately, the commandments begin with God’s relationship to us and they are a call for us to deepen in our relationships with God, self and others.  And that can only be a good thing.  Thanks be to God for God’s great love.  Amen.