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Stephen Ministry

Most of us are pretty adept at convincing ourselves that the Ten Commandments don’t really apply to us. One quick glance over the list and it’s obvious. Put God first; well we believe in God; Don’t worship anything else but God; Don’t swear; Keep the Sabbath; Respect your parents; so far so good, right? OK, well maybe we don’t keep them all the time, we tell ourselves, but that’s not so bad. After all, the jails are full of others who are a lot worse than we are. Yes, we are proficient at rationalizing how faithful we are.

Furthermore, today’s commandment, "You shall not murder", is the easiest of all to disregard. I think it might be safe to say that most, if not all of us, have avoided killing someone. Or have we?

We have seen over the last few weeks that the commandments have a deeper meaning than our first glance. Take "You shall have no other gods before me" for instance. A couple of weeks ago, I made arrangements to spend a couple days at a monastery for the express purpose of being with God. It was to be a Sabbath experience, so right away I got points for two commandments: putting God first and keeping the Sabbath at the same time, right? It was a place of extreme beauty. Thankfully, there were no TV’s, no phones, not even any cell phone coverage; no distractions from keeping me focused on God. I brought a small meditation book and a journal to help me stay focused. The monks invited us to participate in their musical chanting worship each morning and evening. It was a silent time, set aside to be just with God; to listen instead of talk. But it wasn’t that easy. The mountains called my name; "come and climb me", they said. "Set aside your plans and play. Forget the prayer and the meditation; after all you deserve it." Honoring God with our obedience is not as easy as it seems.

I found it interesting to discover that up until 1989 the Biblical translations of this commandment read, "You shall not kill." But then translators decided to change it to "You shall not murder", emphasizing that to murder is to take human life with evil intent. It refers to illegal killing that is always wrong; whereas to kill is to take human life for any reason at all.

The change, as one commentator pointed out, would limit the focus to the more violent killing, giving an impression that some killing is permissible. This would reflect our culture more accurately, but ignoring the sanctity of life that God intends. We are so familiar with killing that has made it easy to adopt a sort of "life is cheap" mentality. We even sanction our indifference in a busy and greedy world, by choosing an uncaring individualism instead. The issues of life and death are often ethical dilemmas. The issues are complicated, often forcing us to choose a right or wrong stance that may be easier, but inadequate.

Furthermore, this discussion involves two kinds of law; case law that refers to the laws of justice. We break them; we are punished; and moral law as found in the Ten Commandments. Both demand obedience; one to society the other to God.

Moral law is gray and blurry. It is not so easy to determine if the law was broken. However, if we run a red light, we can get a ticket. Such ethical issues as euthanasia, abortion, suicide, capital punishment, or war, raise moral issues, more difficult to discern. There is a different sort of accountability and opinions are fiercely divided. It is this commandment, "Thou shall not kill", that polarizes our thinking more than any other. It creates barriers, division in families and churches.

Take the issue of capital punishment, for example. Today, our country executes more prisoners than at any other time in our history. The imprisoned are not always guilty, which keeps the debate alive. In Genesis we read that if we take the life of another, we too, shall lose our life. The death penalty was used as a punishment for many crimes including disrespect of parents and working on the Sabbath.

In Moses’ time, society was without a criminal justice system, no police force, and no prisons. The people were nomads living in tents. There were no provisions for life in prison without parole. Decisions were made by judges based on the testimony of only two witnesses. Executions took place by public stoning. It was an effective deterrent to crime and maintained order. The death penalty was the only way to make sure the criminal would not murder again.

Today there are five primary reasons people have for supporting the death penalty: retribution, deterrence, safety for the community, healing and closure for the victim’s family, and economics.

Opponents to the death penalty argue that retribution involves society in a similar act of murder. Statistics point out that deterrence has not occurred. There is more violent crime now than ever before. We are not a safer society; execution has not brought the closure family’s had hoped, and the cost of execution is sky rocketing. Furthermore, there is the disturbing revelation that not infrequently, the innocent are executed.

When I worked as a chaplain in a county jail, crime had a face. The criminals had made a mistake and were paying the price, but in the process they were being killed a little bit each day. Most of us don’t know criminals; which makes it easier to make judgments about their punishment. We don’t know about their childhood or parenting that placed them in harm’s way. We don’t know about their guilt or their innocence. We don’t know if they landed in jail, based on their race, nationality, position, economic status, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Euthanasia is another gray area of killing. New vocabulary has surfaced. Is it mercy killing or ending another’s life to avoid suffering? Is it the right to die or a death with dignity? Not long ago we engaged in the national debate that arose around Dr. Kevorkian, who promoted physician assisted suicide for the dying.

Quality of life and who determines that quality is a continuing debate too. How much of our medical resources should be given to one person to keep them alive? As the gap between rich and poor gets ever wider, we are faced with answering tough ethical questions like, "What difference does it make if we take a life with a bullet, or offer a slow death, by preventing the poor from having their basic needs met?" One ethicist asks, "If the resources used to develop more and more sophisticated life saving means come at the expense of the poor, are we not breaking this commandment?"

Suicide is at an all time high in this country. More youth and even young children are taking their own lives as the only solution they see for dealing with the pain in their lives. Suicide is the result of severe, unpreventable, depression in the eyes of the one who commits this tragedy. It ruins not only the life of the person but often the family. Divorces occur, jobs are lost, and putting their lives together, if ever, takes years. When my husband died suddenly, I joined a grief group for those who had lost their spouse. Two of the women in my group were suffering the suicide deaths of their husbands committed in a public place. The rage and immobilization they experienced was very different from the shock that enveloped me.

For years, abortion has been a controversial issue. The social revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s was a time where sexual behavior was called into question. Women were demonstrating for equal civil rights with the Roe versus Wade decision leading the way. At the time 46 states opposed abortion, the Supreme Court overturned that law on the basis of it being unconstitutional and there has been sincere Christian debate ever since.

No one supports abortion as a good thing. Christians who are not opposed to abortion, believe there are situations so traumatic that should not force a woman to have the child. Such complexities as rape, incest, drugs or severe birth defects impact the woman’s decision dramatically. Other Christians believe that life is a gift from God and only God has a right to decide when it will end. Much of the difficulty resides in those not faced with this dilemma, deciding for those who are. The area is gray, not black and white.

Finally, in considering the sixth commandment, there is the issue of war. We have been in many wars as a nation and are today. A troubling question for us is, "What is the Christian response to war?" A just war has 3 criteria developed by the theologians Augustine and Aquinas: 1^st, it must be waged by a proper authority, like a government. 2^nd, the cause must be just, confident that we are participating in a necessary evil to bring a greater good. And 3^rd, we must be fighting to provide a greater good or to end the greater evil. The Holocaust is a good example of this.

Murder is abhorrent to most of us. We think of it far away from our worlds, but actually it is not. Murder is found in the novels we read; the papers we scan, and in the movies we select. We are shocked and at the same time drawn to the violence done to other people. The news recently carried a story of a man who killed his wife and two daughters before adding himself to the carnage around him. God knew that humans are capable of terrible acts, even murder. So God said, "You shall not kill."

But one can kill in other ways. It is easy for us to be drawn into the multiple ethical dilemmas and disregard our involvement with them. So large and so gray are they, that they can be blind us from the ways we kill.

We kill every time our hearts are full of anger. In anger we do not think of the other person. We are in a posture of defense. Too easily we can slip into areas of bitterness, hatred and revenge. We may not buy a gun, but the evil that consumes us can kill not only the other, but us as well. We may speak falsely of the person, knowing that such gossip can kill. We may exclude the person from our social events, harming their friendships and isolating them. We may try to control them by separating ourselves from them until they do or act in ways we demand. We may blame and shame them publicly for something they did or did not do. Or we may make unfair assumptions about their spouse or family without ever speaking to them. We kill when we perpetuate estrangement by refusing to make the first move or forgive the past.

Whatever we say or do to another that is harmful, degrading, or isolating, we are killing ourselves as well as the other. It is we who become judgmental or rage filled, that separate us from others. Such hate and bitterness prevent us from fulfilling the purpose God has for us. We elevate ourselves to levels of importance that no one recognizes in us. We have slipped into the killing business.

Killing happens a little at a time. It goes unnoticed, so that eventually it is seen as acceptable behavior. Those without power or voice, eventually, erupt in anger and violence occurs. Every time we punish another, we are involved in a slow and harmful killing. Every time we say hurtful things, isolate, disconnect, or spread rumors, we are killing a heart, mind or spirit.

Whenever we devalue another because of race, nationality, position, economic status, or education we are involved in killing.

Every time we step into homophobia, greed, vengeance, sexual or verbal abuse we are killing another. We may not have broken the letter of the law, but certainly the intent. Every time we support violence by paying for it or practicing it, we are tearing down our society.

The commandment, "Thou shall not kill" is not just for others it is about you and me. What lies behind this commandment is the reality that all of us have the potential to kill, with our words, with our behavior, or with a weapon. And God reminds us that all life is equal to God; all life is sacred and to be honored, because each of us are created in the image of God.

In all the commandments there is the call for respect and honor, for life with God and with others. These are ways God protects us and provides the gift of life. It is holy.

God has blown the gift of life into us at our birth and claimed us with the mark of Baptism. In exchange we are expected to offer our worship, fidelity and obedience. We are to live into our likeness of God and to help others do the same.