This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of Onida and Agar on Sunday, August 8, 2021. The Bible verses used are Exodus 20:1-17.
What we read this morning was, of course, the
Ten Commandments. You probably recognized them. Some of you may
have had to memorize them at one point or another. You might even still
be able to recite them from memory. Up until a few years ago, my Mom
could have.
Even people who don’t believe in God know at least a few of
the Ten Commandments. Not that they could recite them from memory, but
they’d recognize at least a few of them. “Honor thy father and
mother.” “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” “Thou shalt
not commit adultery.” A lot of people have heard those and know where
they come from, even if they don’t keep them or honor them.
As Christians, we do say that we’ll keep them and honor
them. We don’t always, of course. But the point is that as
Christians, we claim to believe in the Ten Commandments.
We believe in them, but we don’t talk about them that
much. We don’t examine them in any detail. But we’re going to look
at a few of them today. Specifically, we’re going to look at the first
three of them. Verses five through seven of Chapter Twenty of the Book of
Exodus.
“You shall have no
other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters
below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…[and] you shall not
misuse the name of the Lord your God.”
What do those add up to? Respect for God,
right? In fact, more than just respect. Reverence for God.
Holding God in awe. Recognizing who God really is. Recognizing that
God is so much greater and better and more powerful than we are that there’s no
comparison.
We’ve talked about these things before, of course.
And we probably agree that we should treat God that way. But do we?
Do we really? Or is it just one of those things we say?
“You shall have no other gods before me.” That means
God has to always be the most important thing in our lives. No matter
where we are, no matter what we’re doing, no matter who else is with us, God
should always be number one.
Remember that word: “always.” Think about that
word. Can we really say that God is always the most important
thing in your life? Is our every waking minute devoted to serving God, to
worshiping God, to being faithful to God? Is every minute of our day
devoted to loving God and loving others?
When you think about it that way, it’s a pretty tough
standard, isn’t it? Maybe it sounds like it’s too tough of a
standard. Maybe it sounds impossible. But if there is ever a time
when God is not the most important thing in our life, if there is ever a time
when we’re devoting part of our lives to something other God, then those are
times when we have some other god before the one true God.
Now, don’t misunderstand. I am not suggesting for a
minute that we should spend our every waking moment praying, or reading the
Bible, or sitting in church. I mean, those are good things to do, but
it’s not practical to do them every minute of the day. Even Jesus did not
do that.
But what did Jesus do? Well, the Bible tells us he
was a carpenter. The Bible does not tell us anything about his life as a
carpenter, so all we can do is make assumptions. But being Jesus, the
divine Son of God, it seems safe to believe that Jesus made himself the best
carpenter he could possibly be. When he agreed to do a job for someone,
he gave it his very best. It also seems safe to believe that Jesus
treated people fairly and honestly. It seems safe to believe that Jesus
did his work promptly, and if there were circumstances that delayed getting
something done he was honest about what they were. If he made mistakes,
he did whatever he could to make them right. And while I assume he got
paid what his work was worth, I also assume he never charged anyone more than
he should have, and that if he quoted you a price for something, he stood by
it.
In other words, I believe that, even when Jesus was working
as a carpenter, he still was making God the most important thing in his
life. He was being faithful to God in his carpentry work. He was
serving God by being the best carpenter he could possibly be. And he was
showing love to God and to others by treating his customers the way they should
be treated. Long before he started his ministry, Jesus had no other gods
before the one true God.
That can be our example. Whatever we do, give it our
best. Treat people the way they should be treated. Be honest.
When we make mistakes, make them right. When we do those things, our work
can show our faith in God. Our work can honor God and serve God. Our
work can show love to God and to others. When we do those things, we are
making God the most important thing in our lives.
“Do not make for yourself an image...do not bow down to
them or worship them.” That can be a tougher one than we realize.
We tend to think of things like the people of Israel making a golden calf to
worship, and we know that’s wrong. But as Christians, we have symbols
that are very important to us. The cross is one of them. The Bible
is another one.
If I was to take this Bible and slam it to the floor--which
I would never do--everyone here would be shocked. And quite properly
so. That would be showing blatant disrespect to the word of God.
When we started the Sunday night service in Gettysburg, before there was a
cross on the way in the fellowship hall, I took a small cross from the
sanctuary every Sunday and put it the fellowship hall. I thought it was
important that the symbol of the cross be present whenever there’s a worship
service.
There’s nothing wrong with having these symbols, and
there’s nothing wrong with having respect for them. But even in that, we
need to remember that we do not worship those symbols. We worship what
they represent. The Bible is a book, something made out of paper with a
cover. What makes it important, and worthy of respect, is that it
contains the sacred word of God. The cross is just a form made out of
wood or metal. What makes it important, and worthy of respect, is that it
symbolizes the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us. If we worship the
thing itself, we are worshiping an idol. We need to keep our focus on
worshiping the Lord they represent.
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”
Our first instinct, when we hear that, is to think of swearing, but it’s really
about treating the name of the Lord with respect. Now, swearing is
clearly part of that--using the name of God or Jesus as a swear word certainly
does not treat the name of the Lord with respect. But it’s also about
making promises in God’s name, or making promises to God. We don’t do
that in our society as much as we used to--we usually don’t even say “so help
me God” in the promise to tell the truth in court anymore. But we still
do it in church. When we have a wedding, the wedding vows are promises to
God. When we have a baptism, the parents make promises to God. When
we have confirmation Sunday, our confirmation students make promises to
God. When people become members of the church, they make promises to
God. Any time those promises are broken, we are misusing the name of God.
But it’s not just promises. Whenever we close a
prayer by saying “in Jesus’ name”, we are invoking the name of Jesus in our
prayer. That means we’d better mean what we said in our prayers. If
we did not, then again, we are misusing the name of God.
Again, what these commands add up to are respect for
God. Reverence for God. Holding God in awe. Recognizing who
God really is. Living our lives in a way that shows God is always the
number one thing in our lives, a way that shows faith in God and love for God
and others. Devoting our lives to God and to no one and nothing else but
God. Realizing that God’s name is holy, and should always be treated that
way.
I think we would all agree on the importance of the Ten
Commandments. So let’s live our lives in accordance with them. And
let’s especially live our lives in accordance with the first three of
them. Never let anything be more important than God, worship God and
nothing else, and treat the name of God as holy. If we can keep those
first three commandments, I suspect the other seven will become a lot easier
for us to keep, too.
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