Lent 3, Year B | Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
March 3, 2024
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
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The Ten Commandments are pretty famous, to say the least. In Lent, Episcopal Churches have a tradition of opening their services with a recitation of them. They showed up as one of our Lectionary readings today. Religious or not, the general public even has regular arguments about whether or not they should appear in government buildings. But late last night, just before bed, I had a sudden thought: what if there aren’t actually Ten Commandments? What if we’ve been looking at them wrong for hundreds or even thousands of years?
In the light of day, the idea doesn’t quite hold water: the Bible itself explicitly refers to “the ten commandments”[1] on three occasions: once later in Exodus and twice in Deuteronomy.[2] So, unsurprisingly, there’s no rush to change and rewrite everything we’ve ever known about the Bible. But despite that particular failure, the question itself remains intriguing.
I say this because, despite how straightforward the Ten Commandments might appear, we as modern Americans have almost no idea of what the first four in particular are actually saying. Western Culture hasn’t really had multiple gods or formally used idols for something like a thousand years or more, so it’s easy to think we have those two in hand. The general understanding of the Third Commandment is “don’t swear,” which can be a challenge but isn’t impossible. And with the lifting of Blue Laws over the course of the 20th Century, we’ve pretty much lost all our longstanding traditions of what it means to keep the sabbath holy, so now those who try to keep that particular commandment often interpret it as “be sure to rest at least one day each week.”
And we’re wrong about every single one.
Regarding the first two commandments, the reality isn’t that we no longer have gods and idols. In truth, we’ve simply erased their names and functions from our way of looking at the world. We assume gods were some primitive idea about how life worked, with giant supernatural beings influencing or controlling various aspects of the universe and society. After all, that’s how the ancient stories describe them. But we’re way too advanced in our understanding of science and psychology to fall for that stuff. There’s no storm god—that’s just the physics of how the atmosphere, ocean, and landmasses interact. Likewise the idea of a being stoking the sun or driving it around in a chariot is absurd—we know that stars are massive collections of compressed gas whose interactions produce incredible amounts of light and heat all by themselves.
But again, that’s not what gods actually were.
In order to translate what the ancient world called “gods” into a modern worldview, we need to skip the imagined embodiments and personifications and look straight at the concepts, because that’s exactly what the gods are. They aren’t intense powers masquerading as humanoid beings. The gods are the actual ideas behind what each one was said to represent or control. Idols, then, are simply the tools we use to connect with those ideas and manifest them within our reality.
An easy example of an idol is television or whatever you might watch video on. Under normal circumstances, video can be a fun way to relax or learn or spend some time together as friends or family. But when it becomes an obsession, it’s moved beyond simply being an object or a human tool; it begins functioning as a sort of portal drawing us into the power of Entertainment—someone the ancient Greeks knew as Dionysus. Likewise with money. As a practical tool, money is perfectly fine. But if someone has allowed Wealth to become their primary goal or devotion in life, money has become an idol tuning their hearts to the beckoning song of the one the Greeks called Pluto or, a likely more familiar name, Hades.
The lists could go on forever. Ever known someone obsessed with the next email, text message, or Facebook post? They’ve become entranced with Hermes, messenger among the gods. How about someone who demands their personal freedom and rights no matter what harm may come to another person? They’ve confused the more nurturing and collective nature of Liberty—who we do need to recognize is an actual god—with her aggressive and intensely individualistic husband, Liber. Family, Knowledge, Athletics, Music, Nature—if you can think of a category in life, there’s what the Bible would reference as a god lurking inside it.
Gods, in that sense, are everywhere—we’ve simply blinded ourselves to their presence. And with improper use or attention, humans can transform just about anything into an idol. That makes the first two commandments, “you shall have no other gods before me,” and, “you shall not make for yourself an idol,” a lot more challenging than we’ve been lead to believe. Being cautious of an idea—not letting it control or manipulate you, not letting it bring you or others to harm—is far more difficult than simply being wary of a being, someone you could easily recognize and avoid.
Unfortunately for us, the Third and Fourth Commandments aren’t any easier.
Despite what we’ve taught ourselves, the Third Commandment has nothing to do with swearing or cursing or using foul language. Our translation today clarifies it’s meaning a bit by stating, “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.” But the way we really need to understand it is more along the lines of “Don’t make empty claims using God’s name” or, a paraphrase I prefer, “Don’t slap God’s name on your cause.”
In an election year, violations of this commandment are especially common. It’s hard to turn on the news without hearing someone saying things along the lines of “God says…” or “if you love God you’ll…” or “genuine Christians” act, think, or vote in line with a specific social or political cause. Every time you hear something like that—unless the person is encouraging you to love your neighbor as yourself or evidence the fruit of the Spirit—the speaker is actively trampling the Third Commandment.
An especially concerning example is the recent use of today’s Gospel as a defense for stoking political violence. People claiming to be acting under Christ’s authority are saying that if it was okay for Jesus to use force to clean up the Temple, it’s okay for Jesus’ followers to employ violence in order to “clean up society.”
But Our Gospel text is very clear—Jesus never inflicts physical harm on a single person in this scene—or any other, for that matter.[3] Anyone using this text as an excuse for their own violent behavior is abusing Scripture and, as we’ve just talked about, violating the Third Commandment. Claiming this scene as authority to inflict harm, even if the cause were genuinely noble, is exactly the kind of logic Paul is rejecting when referring to “the wisdom of the world” in today’s Epistle.
Finally we arrive at the Fourth Commandment, “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.” Long understood to mean “don’t do certain things on Sunday”—or Saturday, if you follow certain traditions—again, that isn’t really what Moses or God is saying. For clarification, we need to look at Deuteronomy, where Moses restates (or expands) this commandment as, “Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.”
Slowing down and napping one day each week isn’t a bad thing; it’s a genuine privilege for those who have the opportunity. But what Moses and Israel’s prophets are talking about when they reference “sabbath” goes far beyond what our culture used to made of it.
The Sabbath is a taste of life with God, which is why the Hebrew Bible considers it to be such a reward. And life with God isn’t simply about sitting around or not having to work anymore. The Sabbath—life with God—is the end of oppression. It was the one day each week in Hebrew society where no one could make demands of someone else, not “you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns.” One day of equality. One day of true liberty for all—even the animals!
And this is where that question of there being only four commandments comes back into play: what if the last six commandments aren’t actually stand-alone demands? What if they only make sense in light of the first four, if they’re examples or basic explanations of what keeping the Sabbath holy looks like in practical, everyday life? What can we do to reflect life with God in our reality? Act honorably toward your parents. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t make false claims about your neighbor. Don’t covet—be content with what you have.
We think of these commandments as a sort of checklist, but I don’t think that’s what they’ve ever really been. They’re a guide—a reminder that how we treat other people is a reflection of who and what we understand God to be. They’re more of a standard against which we can compare ourselves than a list of ultimatums to follow if we want to “go to Heaven.” They show us what it is to be righteous or just, and the very essence of that begins with who we understand God to be.
*****
“Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;”[4]
Manifest the Lord—the God of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Restraint,[5]—above all others.
Do not allow any representation or implementation of any idea to become a source of obsession or control over your—or someone else’s—life.
Do not make empty claims in God’s name.
Remember: end oppression, so
Act honorably toward your parents.
Don’t murder.
Don’t steal.
Don’t make false claims about your neighbor.
And don’t covet—be content with what you have.
*****
This is what Heaven on earth looks like. This is the way of life with God.
[1] Technically “ten words” or “sayings”
[2] Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:4 | All Bible quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
[3] What Jesus herds out of the Temple are animals, not people. He spills the coins but never touches the moneychangers. And all he does to those selling doves is speak—he doesn’t even rattle the birds’ cages.
[4] Exodus 20:1-2
[5] Galatians 5:22-23 | paraphrase