Today we being a series on the 10 commandments: The 10 Greatest Struggle of your Life. Before we begin I want you to notice that these are not 10 suggestions or 10 guidelines. These are not optional extras for the specially pious. They’re not even ten rules for a successful life or 10 ways to happiness.
But nor are they a checklist for getting into God’s kingdom - not even a way of determining whether God is pleased with us.
No. What they are is an expression of the character of God. Here we find a picture of what it means to be godly people; people who, having been brought into God’s kingdom by grace, are seeking to live in line with the Father’s character and will.
You see, the danger with something like the 10 commandments is that we too quickly begin to concentrate on what we do, or what we say, and forget about the God that we’re seeking to serve. If you’ve lived any length of time I’m sure you’ll have seen the results of people concentrating on what we do rather than who God is and what he’s doing. Usually it ends up in a set of legalistic rules that define and restrict, that exclude and disempower, that take away the joy of being God’s people. What we need is a way to think about these commandments that allows us to begin to live them without messing them up.
There’s an expression we find used regularly in God’s word that might help us as we grapple with what it means to live out the 10 commandments. That expression is "The-Fear-of-the-LORD". This is how the Bible describes a life that’s lived appropriately in response to the person of the Living God, the Almighty God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
It’s a phrase that’s often misunderstood, though. It’s not fear simply in the sense of being afraid. If that were the case we’d never be able to understand the gospel of God’s love. But we can’t just change the word either. People have tried to substitute reverence, awe, respect, but none of those words seem to be sufficient, do they? No, what we’re called to is "Fear-of-the-LORD". What we’re called to is a recognition that God has involved himself in this world at a personal level; that the Almighty God, the unknowable God, who sits in unapproachable light, has lowered himself to our level, to reveal himself to us, to invite us into his life, to invite us to become part of his involvement in the world. Jesus comes among us and invites us to follow him, to walk with him on the pilgrim way. We find ourselves standing, no, walking, on holy ground, just like Moses at the burning bush, living in the presence of God.
I wonder if you’ve ever stopped to think about the fact that every step of your life, God, the Holy God, is there walking beside you. Does that make you stop and think?
Imagine walking into a room and finding yourself in the presence of the Prime Minister, or the Queen, or the President of the United States. It’d stop you in your tracks wouldn’t it? Your conversation would stop; you’d wonder what to do next? Should you quietly leave? Should you just stand there silently and hope no-one notices you? Should you say something?
But now we’re talking about being in the presence of Almighty God! Here’s something far beyond any worldly grandeur. Here is the one who created the universe. How are we to respond? The appropriate response is "Fear-of-the-LORD". In other words we respond with a life lived in the light of God’s presence with us every step of the way.
Again, though, the danger is that we take these commandments and make them into a set of rules that we think God is measuring us against as we walk beside him. Then the temptation is to do what the Pharisees did: we begin to add extra rules that cover the particular circumstances we find ourselves in. If we’re going to tithe, for example, what things should we tithe? Should we tithe the parsley and mint that we pick from our kitchen garden? If we’re to keep the Sabbath holy, what can we do and what can’t we do? For example, how far can we walk or drive to church on the Lord’s day? Is it OK to hold a picnic after church? Or to play sport? Or do the washing? And so we go on, making more and more rules to help us take control of our lives. And therein lies the problem. The 10 commandments are given to us to make it clear that God is in control of our lives, not us. But God isn’t like a judge, over on the sideline, judging our performance like the judges at a diving competition or the gymnastics. No, He’s the one who walks beside us, involving us in his work in the world.
So when we come to think about the 10 commandments we start from that perspective of those who walk with God, for whom life means breathing the presence of God.
If you think about it, that’s where God begins when he first gives Moses the 10 commandments. He begins by reminding Moses of who he is. He says: "2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." He reminds Moses of the burning bush, when he first revealed his name "I Am Who I Am" - here translated "The LORD"; He reminds him of the plagues that he brought on the people of Egypt; of the final plague of the death of the firstborn of every family and creature in the land; of the miracle of the passover and their escape from Egypt; of the crossing of the Red Sea; and of everything that’s taken place since. "2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." He’s the God who walks with them through the desert; who protects them and feeds them and provides them with water to drink; and who gets angry when they forget who he is.
That’s because he’s the God who demands complete commitment: "3you shall have no other gods before me." It’s ironic, isn’t it, that at the very moment that God’s giving this commandment to Moses on Mt Sinai, the people of Israel are down on the plain demanding that Aaron make an idol for them to worship, so they can have something concrete to focus on.
"You shall have no other gods before me" is one of the greatest struggles for those with a religious orientation. We’ll hear more about this next week, but people love to have an external focus for their worship, whether it’s an idol, or beautiful architecture, or music, or art. And too often these so-called aids to worship end up becoming the object of worship without us even realising it.
But this first commandment is more than just a warning about being distracted in our worship. It’s actually a warning about being clear about who or what it is that we’re worshipping.
One of the basic human traits is the desire for spiritual significance, the awareness that there’s something beyond us that we need to get into contact with if our life is to be complete. And so every civilisation finds ways of expressing that need. If they’re not given a focus for worship, they create it. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile, the moon, frogs, cattle. The Babylonians worshipped the sun, wisdom and literature, they even made a god out of their city. The Romans and the Greeks had a whole pantheon of gods, related to various aspects of life: war, the sea, agriculture, wine, sex, etc.
We’ve just been to Peru where we saw the remains of the Inca civilisation of the 15th & 16th century. Their gods were the sun and moon, water, the condor, the puma, the snake, the ox and of course underpinning it all was Mother Earth, "Pachamama" the earth goddess, the source of all life.
Notice that most often these gods that people come up with are related to their prosperity, to the sources of life that they depend on. They know that the sun brings life so they worship it. Water is essential so it becomes a god or closely connected to a god.
But God tells us that he’s the source of all of that doesn’t he? He’s the one who brings us life, who blesses the earth with rain and sunshine, who controls our prosperity and our health and happiness. And he warns us that he brooks no rival. "You shall have no other gods before me" allows no compromise.
The challenge of this commandment is to embrace God unconditionally, with no ifs or buts. I guess we’ve all seen those scenes in a movie where the hero gets into trouble and prays something like: "God, if you get me out of this I’ll do whatever you want." But of course that sort of conditional commitment to God is actually saying that God comes second. It puts my needs ahead of what God might think is good for me. It makes God just one of those gods we were just talking about - the sort you worship because he brings you prosperity or health or happiness.
In Peru we discovered a fascinating phenomenon. There people worship God religiously every Sunday morning, yet at the same time they retain their belief in the animistic gods of the Incas - even after 400 years of Roman Catholic influence in their lives. Let me give you a couple of examples. One of the things we noticed was that on the roof of buildings people had placed totems or good luck charms. These charms included images of oxen, the sun, the moon, the condor, snakes, etc., all the Inca deities, but in the middle of them there was almost always a Christian Cross.
For mising images go to http://www.stthomasburwood.org.au/sermons/sermon080504.htm
Outside one of the large Churches we visited we saw a stall selling toys and trinkets - it could have been a stall from the Victoria market - except that the toys and trinkets were intended for people to use as tokens of their prayers. So if you were hoping to buy a car you’d buy a toy car.
If you wanted to go on an overseas holiday you’d buy a little toy suitcase with a passport and some pretend US dollars inside. And what you did then was to take it to the priest to be blessed and then you’d go to the local shaman who’d pray an Inca blessing over it, along with a Latin Prayer to the Christian God probably, and burn it as an offering to the gods. This is in 21st century South America! And the people who do this aren’t ignorant natives, they’re educated people. When they have a special celebration they’ll take some of the wine they’re about to drink and spill some of it on the earth as an offering to the earth goddess!
Do you find that incredible? That people today who’ve been part of the Christian Church all their lives would be that confused? That they’d think it was OK to substitute the ancient gods of the Incas for the living God of Christianity? We wouldn’t make that sort of mistake would we? People in Australia wouldn’t put anything else before God?
But of course people do do that still don’t they? Not that they think of it as putting something else in place of God. But sometimes it amounts to that. James Packer has suggested that these days we have a range of substitute trinities vying to take the place of the true Trinity. For example: Sex, Shekels and Stomach; Pleasure, Possessions and Position; here’s one that might have come straight out of Melbourne: Football, the Firm and Family.
How often do we find ourselves feeling a conflict between our commitment to God or to His Church and our commitment to our financial prosperity - that happens every time you think about what you’ll put in the plate this week or how much you’ll pledge through the automatic debit system - or the conflict between God and our professional advancement, or our family, or our home, or our health, or our kids social development? These are all substitute gods in our world today and the temptation for us as Christians is not much different to that experienced by those people in Peru. We can so easily place these things at a higher priority than our commitment to God. It’s so easy to say something like "I’ll be there next week. It won’t matter if I’m not there today;" to think that my absence won’t matter; or that someone else will fill in if I don’t do some task. It’s very easy to say, "I’ve got a lot of bills coming up this month, I’ll just not put anything in the plate this week." Or like one person I spoke to in a previous Parish who told me that their mortgage payments were so high they couldn’t afford to give much to God’s work. It was fairly clear where their loyalty lay. And what about our precious leisure time? In this age of long working hours how often do we begrudge the time it takes to serve God in the local church?
The question we need to ask is whether God is more precious than our precious leisure time? Are we so committed to God that he gets the first part of our income, the first call on our time. Is God the first love of our life or have we allowed his good and perfect gifts to become gods that we worship ahead of him?
Well in the remaining time let me suggest some ways that we can work on making it easier to obey this first and prime commandment.
A. Get to know God by name. It’s no coincidence that God begins by reminding Moses of his name. God reveals himself to us as a personal God. He sent Jesus to live among us so we’d be able to relate to him person to person. He isn’t a remote spirit who needs worship aids to help us relate to him. He’s put his Holy Spirit within us to allow us to experience his presence with us day by day. So work on developing that relationship with God through daily prayer and Bible reading.
B. Remember God’s Unconditional Love. He reminds Moses that he brought them out of Egypt. These commandments aren’t imposed on us by a tyrant who insists on total obedience. They’re the word of the God who saves his people; who sent Jesus to die in our place. They’re the word of the God who brings us into his family by adoption and who then calls us to express his character, the family likeness, to the world around us. Our response to that loving grace should be to desire to live godly lives, to give him back the loyalty and commitment he deserves.
C. Worship: Building on your Affection for God. When God tells us to have no other gods before him he’s inviting us into a mutual relationship of love and loyalty. And the way we cultivate that relationship is through worshipping him. We do that by our obedience in our daily life of course, but the main place where it happens is in the corporate worship of his people here, week by week. When we come to the fourth commandment in a few weeks time we’ll be reminded again of the need to come apart from our daily lives to experience God’s presence together, to join in honoring him, praising his name, hearing his word proclaimed, bringing our petitions to him. And as we do that our commitment to God grows because our love for him is encouraged to grow.
"2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3you shall have no other gods before me" is the command of a loving God who desires our complete loyalty and commitment. Are you ready to give him that commitment 100%? That’s the big question we’re faced with today.
For more sermons from this source go to http://www.stthomasburwood.org.au
