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Stephen Ministry

We continue on our journey through "life in Exodus." Nearing the end—nowhere near the 40 year journey of Israel in the wilderness(!)—but a glimpse at the Exodus story to help us in our own journeys of faith however long they may be.

Recall the general lessons of Exodus:

(1) Wherever you live, it’s probably Egypt;

(2) There is a better world, a promised land toward which we are journeying;

(3) To get there one has to go through the wilderness. Today, the issue of law and the consequences of lawlessness in the journey. For our Scripture reading, we move out of the book of Exodus—the story of the exodus does not end in the book of Exodus (Exodus ends with Israel still at Mt. Sinai!)—and look at two passages from the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 5:1-22 is that book’s story of receiving the 10 Commandments and Deuteronomy 6:1-8 is a section known as the "Shema" (the Hebrew word for "hear"), words to hear, indeed, and obey on the importance of learning God’s law and passing it on to your children. (Read Deuteronomy 5:1-22; 6:1-8)

We have come to the point in the exodus journey of receiving God’s law—signified in the 10 Commandments. Actually, there is much written in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that expounds upon the basic laws of the 10 Commandments. The significance of the 10 Commandments—and the additional explanations of their application—is foundational to the people of the first exodus and for those journeying through their own exodus today. We are to be guided by the basic laws of God. Particularly significant for the people of the first Exodus as they become formed as a new nation, Israel, and as a people of God. Particularly significant for us as a community of citizens in this city, state, and country and also as a people of God. Without laws, anarchy reigns. The dictionary defines anarchy as "a chaotic situation in which there is a total lack of organization or control." Without laws, anarchy exists.

Last summer, we went through each of the commandments in the 10 Commandments so we won’t spend a great deal of time on that today. You can review them through the sermons posted online at our website, www.soth.net, or request a hard copy of them from our secretary, Judy Lawson. However, it’s worth noting some unique things said about the commandments in this Deuteronomic version of them.

First of all, please note the frequent cautions given to learn the commandments and obey them. Repeatedly in the passages read today the people of the first exodus and we on our own exodus today are cautioned to learn the commandments and obey them. More than that, we are also called to pass them on to our children. The commandments are central to life in exodus. Without them there is anarchy. As we noted last summer, God’s commandments are not God’s killjoy way of squashing all our fun. They are, instead, God’s protection and provision given to us for life through the wilderness. God wants to protect us from anarchy taking over our lives and God wants to provide for us order and structure to our lives. Thus the repeated urgings to learn and obey God’s law for us.

The language of a jealous God punishing children for the sin of their fathers, punishing to the third and fourth generations certainly draws our attention. Without spending a lot of time on that today, let me simply say that the language is designed to capture our attention. The word "jealous" carries negative connotations to us, but I think we understand the passion and the priority of that word. That’s the message we are to receive from it. God is passionate about us. We are His priority. He wants us to make Him our priority as well. As for the punishment language, the reality is that the natural consequences of sin affect much more than the individual sinner. Usually the effects of someone’s wrongful actions impact several generations of family and friends. An affair that results in a broken marriage impacts a family far beyond the parties involved. The misdeeds of a Bernie Madoff impact far more than Madoff and his immediate family. It impacts even more than the immediate families he scammed. The effects of his misdeeds will be felt by several generations down the road. Rather than an image of a punishing God delighting in the ill affects His punishment brings upon even the innocent, it is instead a picture of the reality of the consequences of sin. Note, in contrast, the language of God’s love reaching to a thousand generations! In the language and numbering of that time it’s like saying today that God’s love reaches to a gazillion generations, or even an eternity of generations. The negative language of a jealous and punishing God calls us to take seriously making God the first priority in our lives and taking seriously the real impact of the consequences to our disobedience of God’s law. The positive language of God’s love to endless generations says much, much more about the nature and character of the God we serve.

Then note that the commandment to honor our father and mother is the first of the commandments relating to our human and social relationships (the first four are about our relationship with God, the next six are about our relationships with others—which also have much to say about our relationship with God!). It is also the first commandment with a blessing—that one may live long and well in the land God is taking us to. Parents like to point out those facts—that the commandment to honor father and mother is the first of the human relationship commandments and the first commandment with a blessing. I think the main point, however, is that God cares deeply about families. Families are key to the functioning of society and we ought to take that responsibility seriously.

One final comment about the Deuteronomic presentation of the 10 Commandments—from Deuteronomy 6:8, the tying of the commandments on the hands and binding them on the forehead. This has led to the use of "phylacteries," a practice still done by some today to literally fulfill the command of Deuteronomy 6:8.

Phylacteries are tiny boxes filled with tiny pages of the 10 Commandments, or of the Shema, or some other passage of Scripture, and tied to the left arm (near the heart) and on the forehead. I mention it because I think it helps us come to the point for today—the appropriate use of God’s law.

Phylacteries are one of the things Jesus mentions in His strong criticism of the Pharisees of His day. Chapter 23 of Matthew is filled with harsh words from Jesus toward the Pharisees. Included in them are these words, "Everything [the Pharisees] do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long…" (Matthew 23:5).

The point being this—it is possible to bring peril to our journeys in exodus by both ignoring God’s law or by squeezing the minutia out of it. It is the age old balancing act of seeking to live our lives "full of grace and truth," about which I’ve spoken of before. Grace tends to slide toward ignoring God’s law. Truth tends to slide toward squeezing the minutia out of God’s law. We are called, in our journeys in Exodus, to avoid doing both.

One of my requirements in seminary was to take a semester of "CPE," which stands for Clinical Pastoral Education. Generally, CPE units are taken through serving as a chaplain in a hospital setting. My CPE experience took place at the State Hospital in Austin. I’ve shared with you before at least one story of that experience—the time I was attacked by one of the patients and forgot all my training in the "prevention and maintenance of aggressive behavior" and went, instead, into the long-ago-but-obviously-deeply-ingrained training of playing linebacker in football and tackling a runner. The entire summer was a deeply profound experience from which I’ve taken many lessons. One that came to mind this week was the issue of the importance of rules in my life. It was my turn to share in our small group setting of summer chaplains and supervisors. Now, you need to understand that those small group settings could be very raw and brutally frank. One purpose was to grind away at the issues presented by that day’s chaplain, strip away all the veneer and pretense and really get to the heart of the matter. In my presentation that day I shared a seemingly innocuous story about one of the patients in my assigned ward being restrained and strapped down on a gurney. When I walked by, she pleaded with me to come and talk with her. However, the rules of the unit were that a patient in restraint was not to be talked with except by his or her immediate caregiver. I spoke with the group about my struggle in walking away from her and ignoring her pleas to talk with her. I thought everyone would agree with me that that is a difficult thing and we’d move on. Big CPE mistaken assumption! The group began to ask questions around that issue, struggling to hone in on the "real" issue involved…until our supervisor asked the question, "Why are rules so important to you?" I was taken aback for a moment by his question, unsure of my answer. Rules are good aren’t they? Everybody needs some rules in their life, don’t they? I finally responded something about how rules had served me well in life—certainly in athletics you need rules or chaos would take place, you can’t play the game without them—and how the rules of the ward were set by people who knew immeasurably more about mental illness than I did. But the supervisor had struck a nerve. The discussion led to more piercing questions and frank discussion about the role—both positive and negative—that rules played in my life. It was quite eye-opening.

In my supervisor’s final analysis of my participation in CPE at the State Hospital, he wrote these words:

"Another issue for Ron that surfaced during the summer was his tendency to see life in ‘black’ and ‘white’ terms. Ron has some fairly strong rules, ‘shoulds,’ and ‘oughts’ that help mold his life’s direction. Apparently his rules have served him well in the past. Unfortunately, Ron discovered that his rules sometimes prevented him from being flexible in relationships, and frequently served to keep him from taking risks, or from facing some of his fears."

In my final analysis of my CPE experience, I wrote these words:

I think that is the greatest challenge we face in our lives in exodus. Certainly, it is the greatest challenge we face collectively as a church and individually as a follower of Jesus Christ. How do we balance grace and truth in our lives? How do we avoid the opposite yet equal errors of ignoring God’s law and squeezing the minutia out of it? Without God’s law, anarchy reigns. Squeezing the minutia out of it, abuse or, even worse, indifference can occur. How do we appropriately place a priority on God’s law in our lives and pass it on to our children and our children’s children?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a sure formula for success for you. I do know this, however, we repeatedly need a CPE-like experience of bold self-analysis—or feedback from those who know us really well—of the place rules have in our lives…or how we are doing at keeping a healthy balance of following God’s law in our lives. We must constantly pay attention to our tendency to ignore God’s truths for our lives and our tendency to squeeze all the grace out of it. We do well to obey the words of Jesus further along in that 23^rd chapter of Matthew, further along in His rebuke of the Pharisees: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." Matthew 23:23; bold mine). Those are words for us to hear anew today. A fruitful life in exodus demands it.

Let’s take a moment for silent reflection as to how we might "practice the latter without neglecting the former."