"Anyone who knows the Ten Commandments perfectly knows the entire scriptures." Thus spoke the famous Protestant reformer Martin Luther. (See The Book of Concord, ed. Theodore G. Tappert, 1959, p. 361) And Luther went on to refer to these commandments, called the Decalogue, as (quote) "precious and dear above all other teachings, the greatest treasure given by God." (Ibid., p. 411)
Indeed, as part of Luther's daily devotions, he reflected on these Ten Commandments every morning—together with the Lord's Prayer, a daily lectionary of psalms, and the Nicene or the Apostles' Creed.
And what of John Calvin and the Reformed branch of Protestantism, from which we Presbyterians are descended? Well, Calvin equated living by the Decalogue with feeding on the Lord's Supper and hearing the Word of God rightly preached, each of these three being a joyful means for growing in God's grace and for participating ever more fully in the divine life—feeding on the Lord's Supper, hearing the Word of God rightly preached, and living by the Ten Commandments.
So when in the 16th century, under Calvin's influence, Reformed Protestant congregations stripped their sanctuaries of statues, art work, and other ornamentation, they often painted in their stead, on one wall or another, the words of the Decalogue, words that were believed to portray both the life that Christ had led—for he had, of course, fulfilled every one of these Ten Commandments perfectly—and the life to which every follower of Christ is called.
Just how central the Decalogue has been to the culture and tradition of Presbyterianism can be illustrated from my own life experience.
First, when I was a boy, some 55 years ago, the principal curriculum for my Presbyterian congregation's confirmation class was the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments, all of which each member of the class had to memorize and then, when presenting ourselves to the Session for membership, had to recite individually. Wasn't that enough to make us tremble?!!
Second, in that same confirmation class we also studied "The Shorter Catechism," an instruction in the Christian faith—some ten pages long, in very small type—that was produced in England, mainly by Reformed Protestants, in the year 1647. Now, fully 40% of that catechism focuses on questions and answers having to do with—you guessed it—the Ten Commandments. 40%. And when our confirmation class was presented to the congregation for our public reception, each of us had to recite from memory two of that catechism's sets of questions and answers, one of which needed to be about the Decalogue. Double and triple tremble!! Now, the set about the Decalogue that I needed to memorize and recite concerned the fourth of the Ten Commandments, so I'll be sharing with you some memories of that assignment in a couple of weeks!
And third, when I was a youth—by then in a different Presbyterian church in another city and state—the entire Decalogue was read aloud to the congregation each and every communion Sunday.
Now, given that legacy from my youth, how could you expect me to do anything else but, at some point before I retire, preach a whole series of sermons on this Decalogue, on these words that our ancestors and our spiritual mentors have sought to bequeath to us as structure for our souls and spine for our being. So, here we go, starting at the beginning. Yes, today I'll be focusing on Commandments 1 and 2: You shall have no other gods, and you shall make no idols. (Deuteronomy 5:7-10; Exodus 20:3-6)
Christians have traditionally divided the Decalogue into two tables: the commandments that focus on our love for God, ##1-4, and the commandments that focus on our love for neighbor, ##5-10. Today's two commandments stand at the head of that first table.
Now, the Decalogue is recorded in two separate places in the Bible: in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, and in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 5. In both of these accounts, before the recital of the commandments themselves is narrated, God speaks to remind the people of Israel assembled there about the amazing rescue God has just performed on their behalf. God says: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 5:6; Exodus 20:2)
You see, the people of Israel, under the leadership of Moses, have just been delivered by God from centuries of enslavement to the pharaohs of Egypt. From this we learn that the God whom we are to love and worship has first of all loved and delivered us—and what a source of joy and an occasion for thanksgiving that is! God our Savior, God our Deliverer—this God is One who has acted with justice, with grace, with mercy, to right our wrongs and set us free from sin and bondage.
Thus, it is to God—the Ground of our being and the Source of our hope—it is to God that, both in life and in death, we belong. And it is to God, and to none other, that we owe our ultimate allegiance. Therefore, says God to us, "you shall have no other gods."
Now, "don't have other gods" is a "negative" commandment—that is, it tells us what not to do. But good old John Calvin has taught us to recognize that every "negative" commandment also comes to us with a set of "positive" connotations as well. That is, each such commandment also suggests to us what we do need to do.
One of the positive meanings for "don't have other gods" is obvious, since it's expressed quite clearly in scripture itself—expressed first in the book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5), and expressed again, as we heard in today's Second Lesson, when Jesus cites and quotes that passage from Deuteronomy (Mark 12:28-30). So, a scriptural way of stating the positive meaning of the first commandment is this: we are to love God with the whole of our heart, with the whole of our soul, with the whole of our mind, with the whole of our strength.
And another positive meaning for this first commandment is found in the answer given to the very first question asked in the catechism to which I referred earlier, "The Shorter Catechism," published in the 17th century by the Westminster Assembly.
The very first question that is asked in that catechism and that was put to all of us who were part of that confirmation class way back in my boyhood days—the first question (and please pardon its 17th-century language) is this: "What is the chief end of man?"—that is, "What is the chief goal for a person's life?"
And please note that the catechism's answer to that question is not "to become rich"; nor is it "to gain power and dominion over others"; nor is it "to gratify my sexual desires"; nor is it "to make America #1"; nor is it "to become myself an 'American idol.'"
What then is (quote) "the chief end of man"? Well, as I learned and memorized way back then, and as I've tried to keep at the center of my life ever since, the chief goal for a person is (again, in 17th-century language) "to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." To glorify, praise, worship, and adore God forever, and to find in God—our Creator, our Deliverer, and the Determiner of all morality—to find in God our deepest joy through all of life. Now there's a thought worthy of being memorized and lived by! "To glorify God, and to enjoy [God] forever."
Yet we're surrounded by a city that's pretty much characterized by indifference to God. So everywhere we turn—whether at work or even in our nuclear and extended families—we're much more likely to encounter attitudes of complacent agnosticism or of outright hostility to religion than we are to encounter attitudes of wanting to love God at every moment with the whole of our being, of wanting to glorify and enjoy God forever.
Yes, we live in a city where many people simply don't take God seriously, where in fact many people see God as totally unreal—see God not as the Ground-of-all-being but as some mere projection created from our human minds out of some desperately felt need.
But as for me and this community of faith, let us affirm—in the very midst of this secular city—let us affirm that the God made known through Moses and in Jesus is in fact totally real, that this God is in fact our Creator, our Deliverer, and the Determiner of all morality. And let us affirm that we will indeed strive to dedicate our lives both to loving God at every moment with the whole of our being and to glorifying and enjoying God forever.
Oh, as our second commandment reminds us, there are gods that are mere projections created from human minds out of some desperately felt need, but these are the various idols that we have made and erected either as a substitute for the one true God or as a false image of the one true God.
Who are some of these substitute gods or false images that many idolize? Well, they are: Mammon (that is, Wealth and Possessions), and Mars (that is, War and Security), and Eros (that is, Sex and Desire), and Caesar (that is, Power and the State). Yet it was Jesus who taught us clearly and unequivocally: You cannot serve both God and Mammon; you cannot serve two masters. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So, store up for yourselves not treasures here on earth but rather treasures in heaven, so that the whole of your heart and being may be given over to the one true God. (cf. Matthew 6:24, 19-21)
Someone once said—and I don't remember who, but it's a great thought—someone once said, "The God you choose to worship has a lot to do with whom you become." And if we worship Mammon or Mars or Eros or Caesar, then we will come to have as our chief end, as our chief goal in life, "to become rich," or "to gain power and dominion over others," or "to gratify our sexual desires," or "to make America #1," or "to become an 'American idol.'" But if we worship the one true God, then we can become persons who are like Jesus, persons who embody the Ten Commandments, persons who strive after truth and justice and compassion and mercy and other-directed love.
And this understanding of whom we can become is one of the "positive" meanings for the second commandment, one of the "positive" meanings for "make no idols." For through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, we can be remolded into the image of Christ—remolded in such a way that we ourselves become for others a living representation, a living image, of God (cf. Ephesians 4:17-24, 5:1-2), so that these others will no longer have need for idols.
One of the temptations that constantly comes to us is the temptation to compromise with the world, the temptation not to become a representation of God on earth. But we as followers of Christ are being called to a super-high vocation. We are being called to represent God in the world in very concrete and practical ways—by caring for the beauty and integrity of the earth, by sharing earth's goods with equity, by working for the peace and well-being of all humankind. For God wants to be represented here on earth not by images in religious shrines but by images in daily life—not by paintings or statues, but by our redeemed and sanctified human selves talking around the water cooler, relating at the Laundromat, or sharing an evening with friends.
You see, fulfillment of the first commandment actually morphs into fulfillment of the second commandment as our love for God takes expression in our offering to others of daily service as God's earthly representations and images.
And if many of the people in this city are not taking God seriously, then maybe that's because many of us who are sitting in churches today are failing to represent God well in the everyday world of daily life. Maybe if we were to fulfill the second commandment by ourselves becoming vital representations of God—maybe then many others would come to glorify God and enjoy God forever.
I pray that we here at Rutgers Church will indeed open ourselves to God's Holy Spirit in order that a deep and abiding love for God may come so to fill our hearts, so to suffuse our souls, so to inform our minds, so to flow through our strength that we may indeed become for others living images of the one true God.
I pray that glorifying and enjoying God forever may truly be for us here at Rutgers Church the treasure where our heart is!
Let us pray:
O God, so deepen our love for You that we may become Your living images in the world. In the name of Christ, Your perfect image, we pray this. Amen.