Deuteronomy 5:20-21
This is the last sermon in our series on the Ten Commandments (or the Ten Best Ways to Live). Today’s last three focus on how we live in harmony with our neighbor. Don’t bear false witness, don’t covet his wife, don’t want anything else he has.
Don’t bear false witness may have originally been an admonition to tell the truth in court, but today I think it speaks to us more as “don’t gossip.” Gossip may not exactly be the same as lying, but often it comes pretty close. When I first joined Rotary, I learned The Four-Way Test which guides Rotary interactions:
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build good will and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerns?
Those are pretty helpful guidelines if we want to get along with our neighbors and build up our community. It can be pretty tempting to pass along interesting rumors about people or organizations or our cities, but unless you know for sure it’s accurate, don’t repeat it! We can also remember that not every thought we have needs to be spoken. Words can build up another person and make situations better, or they can cause pain and destruction. Let’s be on the side or “build up” or be silent. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
You’ll remind me that sometimes hard truths need to be spoken aloud. When injustice happens, if we ignore it, we give permission for it to continue. That’s right. Sometimes we need to speak up, but we can do so with a spirit of civil discourse and love. We speak up to make things better – to make all people concerned better – not to tear anyone down. We correct without criticism. There are times in my life that friends pointed out gently things I was saying or doing that were unhelpful. I still cherish those friendships and appreciate how they helped me be a better person.
The last two commandments are about not wanting what other people have. I don’t know about you, but I seldom covet someone’s ox or donkey and slavery is a thing of the past (we hope). Another person’s house or garden – that’s another thing! If we were writing these commandments today we might include another’s success, or physical fitness, or great car, or lake house, or friends. The list in the Bible is a starting point, not a complete catalog.
One of the ways this idea is expressed today is in the framework of gratitude – be thankful for what you have and not worried about what you don’t have. Be content with your home, your job, your family. Find a way each day to see something good in your situation and decide that what you have is enough. If you are always comparing your situation to that of others, there will always be cause for jealousy. When those thoughts creep in, set them aside. That doesn’t mean you never upgrade your wardrobe, your kitchen, or your vehicle. It’s fun to be able to make improvements and enjoy them. But don’t live for having the most or doing the best. Constant competition with others divides us rather than bringing us together.
I want to acknowledge that this is a middle-class attitude toward this commandment. We say “be content with what you have” because we all have more than enough for a comfortable life. This isn’t meant to justify economic inequality, which is one way community is broken today. If someone is hungry, we don’t say “be glad you have one meal today.” We find a way for that person to eat. Much of the world and many in our country live in crushing poverty. Remember sixty years ago when Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty? We lost that war. We can still hold the dream of ending the vast inequality of today’s world and working for a better way.
During this series I’ve found myself saying many times that the questions these guidelines raise are harder than the simple answers they’ve sometimes been seen to be. I want to say something about living with the questions before we finish. Those who want to fix the world by posting the Ten Commandments in schools and courthouses imply that if everyone kept the rules the world would be just fine. Many of these same folks don’t want the world to be reformed, to address racism or poverty or unequal access to education or violence or any of the other things that make this world difficult for many folks. The Bible isn’t a bandaid for the gaping wounds of our time.
This week I came across a quote from Marcus Borg that helps explain that:
The Bible is a human product.
It tells us how our religious ancestors saw things, not how God sees things.
The Ten Commandments and all the other laws in the Bible describe how the people who spoke them or wrote them and those who remembered them over time understood what God was doing in their lives. They describe ways that people wanted to build a good life for everyone, a life they described as God’s vision for the world. These teachings are helpful to us because they show us what worked in those times and places. Some things work the same way today. Others don’t, because our world is constantly evolving and the questions we must answer change with it.
A week or so ago a woman on Facebook told me that I was living in sin and causing great harm to you because I preach that God loves everyone, and that includes standing up for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people. She quoted a verse of scripture to prove that she was right. I didn’t bother to look it up because I’ll never agree that she’s right. And I don’t agree because I read the Bible and hear that God is love. That Jesus was giving his life to reform religion to be more helpful to people. That he was teaching people how to live in supportive communities and think for themselves – encouraged by God’s love.
The Bible was never intended to give us simple answers – do this; don’t do that. It’s a record of generations of people who thought life in relationship with a living God and a living people was better than life without. So do we. But it’s up to us to figure out what that means in our own time and place. How do we love God and our neighbor in the twenty-first century? I think we start with love. With valuing our neighbor rather than competing to be best. With respecting our neighbor and listening to needs and dreams.
The questions we have to answer as we build community today are tough. It takes lots of input from many perspectives to address them. It takes everyone’s ideas to find a way forward. I believe that God trusts us to do that hard work and to find a way that brings us a bit closer to a holy vision for how life works. We won’t find the perfect solution for all time. We can take a few steps closer to the goal and make life better for our time and the people today. That may have to be enough.