Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston on October 5, 2008 (OT27a)
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston on October 5, 2008 (OT27a)
While many people agree that the Ten Commandments are important, few people can remember all ten of them. So Co-Pastors Bruce & Carolyn Winfrey Gillette developed a way that children as well as adults can learn the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), using their ten fingers. Let's quickly review them.
Start with your hands together in prayer. This reminds us that God heard the prayers of the Hebrew people when they were in slavery in Egypt and freed them (Exodus 3:7, 20:2). The commandments are a way for us to show our gratitude for God's love in our lives and to further just and peaceful relationships in God's world.
The first 4 commandments are given to foster our relationship with God.
1. "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me." Hold up one index finger for the number one. We worship one God.
2. "You shall not worship idols." Idols, false gods, are not only things like statues, but anything in which we place our ultimate trust and allegiance-- for example, money, possessions or weapons. Hold up two fingers. Should we worship more than one God? No, two is too many! One of them must be an idol, and we should not worship it!
3. "You shall not take the Lord's name in vain." Use three fingers to form the letter "W' which stands for "words." Watch your words! God wants us to use his name in loving, caring ways, as we pray and as we talk about him, not in swearing or in anger.
4. "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy." Hold up four fingers, and fold your thumb under to let it rest. The thumb has the right idea. It's the Sabbath, and the thumb is following the commandment to take a day of rest. God does not want anyone to overwork or be stressed, so we need a day to rest, to be at peace, and to worship with others. God also gave us the Sabbath so that working people would not be taken advantage of by their employers (Deut. 5:14)
The other 6 commandments give us boundaries meant to facilitate our relationship with other people.
5. "Honor your father and your mother." Hold up all five fingers on one hand as if you are taking a pledge, to honor your parents. God wants there to be peace and love in all our family relationships.
6. "You shall not kill." Pretend the index finger on your second hand is a gun, shooting at the first five fingers. God's sixth commandment teaches us not to do anything that would hurt another person unfairly.
7. "You shall not commit adultery." Or, as one child thought he heard it, "Thou shalt not admit adultery." Hold one hand out flat. The five fingers and hand become the floor of the church. Two fingers on the other hand are the man and woman to be married, standing in the church, making promises to each other. This seventh commandment calls for couples to keep the marriage promises they make.
8. "You shall not steal." Hold up four fingers on each hand, for the eighth commandment. If you stretch out your fingers slightly, these become the prison bars, which hold someone who was been arrested for stealing. Our Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Study Catechism says "God forbids all theft and robbery, including schemes, tricks or systems that unjustly take what belongs to someone else." (Question # 112)
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Hold up all five fingers on one hand and four on the other. Fold your second thumb under and turn your hand around, so the thumb is hiding. It is secretly going around telling the other four fingers on that hand lies and rumors about the five fingers on the other hand. It is "bearing false witness," as it talks behind people's backs, spreading gossip, criticizing others without talking directly to the people involved. Dietrich Bonhoeffer set up a Christian community in Germany during the Nazi regime. One of the rules of the community was this: "No one may talk about any other member of the community unless that person is present." As one of the community members later said, "Of course we didn't always keep that rule but the very idea of having it as a goal completely changed the nature of our community." I wonder how our church fellowship would change if we followed the ninth commandment.
10. "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor." Hold out your hands, palms up, and wiggle all ten fingers to show that they've got the "gimmies." Your fingers are saying, "Gimmie what belongs to my neighbor. I want all those things my neighbor has." This is not the way God wants us to live.
John Calvin encouraged Christians in his day to sing the Ten Commandments followed by "Lord, have mercy" after each commandment. End with your hands together in prayer, asking that, by God's grace, we may live out these teachings in our everyday lives and expressing thanks that the God of peace is with us all (Philippians 4:9). This educational resource for remembering the Ten Commandments was adapted by Bruce & Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (co-pastors of Limestone Presbyterian Church, in Wilmington, DE)A Christian Primer: The Prayer, the Creed, the Commandments by Albert Curry Winn (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990) is an excellent resource for personal and small group study.
Jesus shortened the 10 Commandments down to 2: Love God with all your heart and mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:28-34) Love God and love your neighbor. Have you ever known a person of integrity who loved God and neighbor?
I know a person of integrity, a Presbyterian elder named George. The first time I met him was when I met my new congregation at a church picnic in a previous call. After the meal, this man named George proudly introduced me to his family and then he starting talking to me. He told me story after story. Maybe I was too self conscious since this was my first time to meet with this new congregation, but this man seemed to be totally unselfconscious almost in the way a special child is unaware of himself. He acted as if he had known me his entire life although we had only just met.
Over the course of the next several years I came to greatly respect this elder for his judgment and his integrity. Whenever he agreed to take on a job he saw it through. He did his work with diligence and attention to detail. He knew how to work with people. I never heard him say one word against anyone in the church except one time. He had served on the Personnel Committee and one of the church employees needed to be reigned in and George tried to do it with tolerant respect. He gave the employee time and many opportunities but the employee never responded with respect. George finally and reluctantly led the Session through a process of ending the church's relationship with that employee in a way that was very generous to the employee and his family. This was a delicate situation because this church employee had family members in the church who were active leaders in the choir and other areas of the church. I remember the Session meeting when George finally said it was time to move on without this employee. He did it with such grace and dignity toward the employee and the church. In time I came to realize that George had a genius for dealing with people. He was the radio announcer for the high school football team in his small home town. He could talk to anyone in any walk of life from the homeless person to the president. His father had been the town doctor for many years. George said his father, a surgeon, had told him George would never be able to make a living with his hands so he would have to make a living with his head. George graduated from law school and eventually went into politics. Today George is a State Supreme Court Justice and he hasn't changed a bit.
We know integrity when we see it in a person. It shines. It illuminates. It attracts. Jesus was a person of integrity. He was the light of the world. He trimmed the 10 commandments down to 2: Love God and love your neighbor. Here is how the New Testament puts it according to a modern translation:
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both. (1 John 4:20-21)
On this World Communion Sunday as we gather around the Lord's table with Christians in Houston, Africa, and all around the world, we remember that we have in common the Ten Commandments of Moses and the two commandments of Jesus to love God and love our neighbor. May God give us the grace to be people of love and integrity today.
