17 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 22, October 5, 2014
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46
Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46
A central issue in life is the issue of value. What is important and valued and why is something important and valued and can the importance and value of something change over time?
The version of the 10 Commandments which we have read today gives us a statement of values. These value statements represent the wisdom of lived relationship within ancient Hebrew communities. One can see them arising from wise reflection upon the task of living together within a community. These laws had to be legitimized and put upon a pedestal as revered. They had to be promulgated and spread throughout the society so that these values could be inculcated into the life of all persons within the community. They had to have a grand narrative of legitimization and that narrative was presented in the delivering of the highest values from God's heaven to this earth on Mt. Sinai to the most famous lawman of all, Moses.
Sometimes we regard biblical statements to be so inspired that they represent final statements. But biblical statements come from what was inspired, namely, the actions of people to seek God to articulate the most excellent values for living within their time and place. We make a mistake to believe that the situation details of any time or place are final and inspired. When the 10 Commandments were given the practice of slavery and the subjugation of women were the cultural practices. We think that our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were inspired documents even though our founders still practiced slavery, women could not vote and in fact only male property owners had full citizenship rights.
The 10 Commandments are based upon the philosophy that our highest values need to be founded upon a higher power and higher authority. So the 10 commandments are based upon the practice of acknowledging the Value of Values, namely the One God. Our posture and relationship with God is the starting point for all values. This relationship with God is expressed in acknowledging the Oneness of God and by the refusal to allow any idol to be elevated to a competing position with God. The relationship with God also requires practice and so the commandments require the God-time of Sabbath as time which is intentionally set aside to acknowledge God as the Supreme Value of our lives and as the starting place for all values. Again, we cannot be literalists about the Sabbath or we would be worshiping on Friday night with our Jewish brothers and sisters or on Saturdays with our Seven Day Adventist friends or on Friday with our Muslim friends. What is important is a principle of worship time: can we endeavor to give 1/7 of the time of our lives as time for God? I would suggest in our lives that rather than doing it within a 24 hour day period, that we spread our Sabbath time for God throughout the week. Assuming that God gives us credit for 8 hours of sleep to be included in Sabbath time; that leaves for us to endeavor to give 16 waking hours of time to God a week. Yes, and do multi-tasking time; pray on the go, in your car, in your moments of insomnia, in your pre-sleep moments and in your early waking moment. Practice, intentionally the remembrance of God. Join our prayer chain and pray for those who have current needs. Test this out: give 16 waking hours to remembering God in a week and I think that you will find your life changed and blessed in every way, as well as the life of your community.
If we attend to God as the Higher Power of our lives then we can prevent being addicted to the God-surrogates of addictive idols which enslave us and require a destroying devotion which can only be interdicted by the grace of God as the Higher Power. To acknowledge God as our Higher Power is the secret of keeping ourselves from the fixation of our energies upon unworthy idols.
The other six commandments have to do with the wisdom of living well within community. Respect the family, parents and marriage. Respect the material world and personal property. Ownership is a gift and a responsibility and we should honor the stewardship responsibilities which each person has for the gifts which have been given to them.
Obviously, there is an important commandment for the well-being of the community: Thou shalt not kill. And we should not be overly proud that we have not inflicted death directly upon others; we should also be aware of how we can by our social and cultural habits be responsible for the quality of life of others who die before their time because of our neglect of people in need. Honoring life is not just about the direct murder of another person, it is also about respecting the long quality of life for as many in our world as possible.
Another important commandment has to do with living honestly with others. Verbal contracts and actual behavior need to be agreement. When we look at the major economic disasters in our society, we can trace it to people with power and greed who have been dishonest with the public and they have been criminal in their practice as they have literally stolen billions of dollars from the common good for the personal wealth of a few. Experience tells us that capitalism does not work in an environment of dishonesty and deceptive practices of stealing from others.
The last commandment is probably the most difficult of all. Thou shalt not covet. In its time it referred to the wives, animals and property of another man as the objects of one's desire. Certainly this reflects a very limited application of the notion of coveting.
The greater principle behind coveting has do with how we accept with contentment our current situation while at the same time looking to improve our lives with further excellence in all manner of living. How can we model for each other higher values which are worthy to imitate? Is is wrong to covet and desire something which is truly good for us and the common good of our community?
Coveting is an expression of our desire projected upon the people, places and things of our lives. Coveting expresses a "wrong relationship" to the people, places and things of our lives. Coveting occurs when we let desire create objects which become controlling idols for addictive behaviors which hurt us and our community. And the correct way to to deal with coveting is to return to the first commandment. When we let our profound desire be expressed in the worship of God then we find a way to domesticate our desire towards the rightful enjoyment of our world and we avoid the formation of addictive idols.
The parable of Jesus from our appointed Gospels is a story of the 10 Commandments in another form of presentation. We can treat this world as belonging exclusively to us because we cannot see God as an owner present to enforce divine ownership. And if God as an apparent absentee landlord does not send agents to hassle us about ownership and payment issues, we begin to live the legal philosophy stated as possession is nine tenths of law. If I apparently own my portion of this world because God appears to be absent, then I will act accordingly for my own demise and for the ruination of my community.
This parable is about the same stewardship issue of the 10 Commandments: If we honor, and worship God as the Supreme Value and as the Owner of this world we will be given the wisdom to domesticate the profound desire of our lives for true pleasure and enjoyment and for the well-being of the community within which we live.
We in our parish ask for your support in time, talent and treasure as an expression of acknowledging God as the supreme value of life and with what we give to the parish we attempt to make a proverbial roux to mix with the rest of the soup of life to add flavor and delight to our world.
Let us intensely worship God so that our profound desire can be fully domesticated for true pleasure and enjoyment of this wonderful world of things, places and people. Amen.
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