The Next Five

 Exodus 20:12-16

Matthew 22:34-40

A person shared that she was traveling in Kenya and met a refugee from Zimbabwe. The refugee said he hadn't eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. The traveler offered him the rest of the sandwich she was eating. The first thing the refugee said was, "We can share it."

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table.  A waitress put a glass of water in Front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and Studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the Waitress was growing impatient.. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on The table and walked away The boy finished the ice Cream, paid the cashier and left..  When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table.  There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, Were two nickels and five pennies.. You see,  he couldn't  have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a Roadway.  Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.  Some of the King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.  Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but no one did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables.  Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road  After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.  

Today we hear the next five commandments, all of which focus on the call for us to love our neighbor.  To name them again.  Those are:

5. Honor father & mother 

6. Do not murder

7. Do not commit adultery

8. Do not steal

9. Do not bear false witness against a neighbor.

As with last week when we looked at the first four commandments and saw that each of them are much more deep and comprehensive than they may appear on the surface, the same is true of all of these next five commandments.  

To honor one’s mother and father, for example, is not just about avoiding sassing or backtalking one’s parents.  It is about remembering our parents’ journey, giving them credit for the challenges that they have walked, the struggles they have had.  It is about honoring their efforts, even when they were unsuccessful or did not do the job that we might have wanted them to do.  It is about learning from their journeys, taking the time to be grateful that they gave you life, even if and when they made mistakes as our parents.  It is about practicing kindness, even with those who drive us crazy at times and striving to do a better job of caring for them perhaps, than they did to care for us.  It also means remembering the parentage of the earth and honoring that as well by not using, abusing and pillaging her resources.  The earth, too, deserves our honor and our respect.

Similarly with avoiding murder.  Sounds so straight-forward doesn’t it?  But to avoid murdering is not just about not killing the good or innocent people.  It also extends to not killing those we would label as “bad” or even “guilty”.  It also extends beyond avoiding killing physical bodies.  It also extends to not killing the souls, and the spirits of those we encounter.  To not murder therefore calls us to strive always to be kind, and intentionally thoughtful about how we interact with other people. 

Similarly, to refrain from committing adultery is not just about not sleeping with someone when it is going against the commitments you have made to your spouses/partners.  It is not just about sex.  It is about being honest, faithful, and intentional about keeping your promises and commitments in all of your relationships.

Do not steal is not just about avoiding taking things from those around you.  There are so many ways in which we steal.  When we do not pay people fairly for their time, we are stealing from them.  When we deprive people of privileges we keep for ourselves and our loved ones, we are stealing from them.  When we rob people of their dignity, their humanity, their sense of self, we use that word “rob” for a reason.  It is stealing, and it is against the ten commandments.  When we waste people’s time, we are stealing time from them.  When we toy with people’s affections, we are stealing love from them.  When we falsely use someone or lie to someone, we are stealing away their trust.  This, too, requires from us so much more intentionality than we may think.  It means being aware of where you buy things so that you are not part of a system that is stealing from people by not paying them what their efforts are worth.  It means being aware of how what you do supports those who steal more and more for themselves at the expense of the poor.  It means being kind in all our interactions as well.  And to take this a step further, it also means being aware, and working to avoid, stealing from the earth as well. The earth is not here for us to rape and pillage.  It is our mother, someone to be in relationship with, someone to avoid stealing from.

And finally, for today, we hear “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  This, too, is more than it appears on the surface.  This is not just about avoiding intentionally lying about other people.  This is about avoiding gossip all together.  Because whatever we share about another person is false.  I want to say that again, everything that we share about another person is false.  It is incomplete at the least, and false at the most.  I want you to think about this from the perspective of someone other people have talked about for a minute.  I want you to think back on what you’ve heard other people say about you.  Has it ever been accurate?  Has it ever fully captured what you actually said, what you actually meant, what you actually thought, felt, intended?  No, it never has and it never will.  So to “avoid bearing false witness against your neighbor” means, at the basest level, the most complete level, it means avoiding talking about your neighbors at all.

Whew!  So are these any easier than the ones we discussed last week?  

These are HARD.  And we haven’t even finished the list.  There is one more commandment out there that we will discuss next week.  It gets its own special place as the last commandment and as the summary piece.  But for today, let us just note, once more, than not one of these is simple.  Not one of these is single faceted or just straightforward.  And not one of them is easy to do.

Breathe.

To quote Rolf Jacobson once more, “The purpose of the law is not “your best life now,” but rather “your neighbor’s best life now.” Because we are stuck in this fallen condition called sin, and because we are going to remain stuck in this condition until God unweaves all the fibers of creation and then reknits them in the new creation, God says to us, “For as long as you’re here in this condition, love your neighbor.” We respond, “OK, God, we’re down with love. But, how do I love my neighbor?” God says, “OK, let me be a little more explicit here. Make sure everyone gets one day off each week, take care of the elderly, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t have sex with someone else’s spouse, don’t hurt your neighbor with your words, don’t desire your neighbor’s stuff. That’s how you love your neighbor.”  Because the law isn’t about you. It’s about your neighbor. And God loves your neighbor so much that God gives you the law. And God loves you so much, that God gives your neighbor the exact same law.  In other words, in the second table of the Decalogue we find good news. Good news for free people. Good news for those we need help from a neighbor.” 

And let me just say, that is all of us.  We all need help from our neighbors.  We all need connection and relationship and value from and for our neighbors.  And we all struggle to find the best way to be the best neighbors to one another.  So, we’ve been given this handy guide, this “how to” for caring for one another that God has given us.  All that easy.  All that hard.  There is more good news here too: we are all on this journey together, all striving and working to do better, be better, connect better.  We have this chance to walk it together and to grow and learn more fully.  It is never too late to grow, we are never too old to strive harder to love more fully.  And in that loving we will encounter God more fully.  Because God is in the relationships and God is in the loving.  God is in the growing and God is in the connecting.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.