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There’s a scene that shows up in movies of the family drama type from time to time. It’s late in the evening, the kids are in bed, and the parents are in the kitchen shouting at each other. And of course, it turns out the kids aren’t in bed. I mean, seriously, who could sleep through all that shouting? Instead, they’re gathered in a huddle around the corner in the hallway with their little hearts racing as they listen to their world descend into chaos. This heated conversation between the parental types is full of JC’s and GD’s. Their verbal assaults on one another are so full of anger and hurtful intent that they might as well have been murdering one another. And, what were they fighting about? It could have been any number of scenarios. She says, “You’re just like your father. Stealing money from the family to support your heavy drinking and gambling.” He says, “You’re just like your mother. You just want my hard earned money so you can have everything Sally Jones has including her husband.” She says, “And who in the office are you seeing now. You’re always there even on the weekends.” The lying abounds. Finally, the children step into the kitchen and scream, “Mommy. Daddy. Stop it. You scare us when you fight.” Boom. Reality check. The room goes silent. The adults in the room suddenly realize they can’t play like that without it having serious consequences on the ones they love most. If this were an ‘80’s or earlier feel-good Christian family drama, they would realize they need God’s help and wind up going to church on Sunday as they strive to work it out for the kids sake.
In the movie plot, those ten words that the children spoke brought about a new creation in the midst of a broken chaos. “Mommy. Daddy. Stop it. You scare us when you fight.” Those ten words changed the family dynamic forever. They were spoken. Then, there was silence. The parent’s hearts were sparked with familial love. Suddenly, there was space for things to change. The speaking of those ten words powerfully created a new world for that family to live together peacefully, to heal, to be together rightfully related to one another and to God, and to perhaps in time become a beacon of light to other troubled families.
Words can often be more than just words. Sometimes, they can create new realities. I call these creative words. If I were to liken the Ten Commandments to something it would be to the effect that the ten words that those children spoke into the midst of the chaos of their parents broken, self-absorbed worlds. We wrongfully call the Ten Commandments “commandments” because this leads us to think of them as things that we should not do or God will get us. We think of them as “Law” when in fact they are words, creative words, creative words spoken by God that create a new reality in which people might live together in peaceful and healing community, rightly related to God and to one another, and be a beacon of light to the broken human communities that are everywhere.
In Jewish tradition, they call the Ten Commandments the Ten Words. They lean on verse one there where it says: “Then God spoke all these words…”. These are words that God spoke, creative words that will come to the end for which God intended them – human community that is truly in God’s image. When God speaks a word it is creatively powerful.
I want to emphasise the Creative power of the Ten Words and draw a quick analogy to the words God spoke Genesis Chapter 1 when God spoke the Creation came into existence. The first creative word God spoke at Creation was “Let there be light.” God didn’t so much mean physical light. He created the Light by which we are able to see the things of God in the midst of Darkness and understand them. The Ten Words are a manifestation of that Light in that they illuminate what right relationship to God and to others looks like. And add to that, the type of human community that results from people trying to keep these Ten Words shines like a beacon with the Light that God created to undergird his creation.
The next creative word God spoke at Creation was to speak a bubble into the midst of the primordial waters of Chaos. He separated the waters above from the waters below and created space for God to then speak the words to create the rest of Creation. The Ten Words themselves also create this kind of space, space where true human community can arise. Another name for this space is trust. The space that the Ten Words create in human relationships is trust. We can’t have true community without trust. All of the behaviours the Ten Words speak against are things that destroy trust. The abuse of power that comes when we put ourselves or something else in the place of God doesn’t build trust. We may claim that law and order protects and holds community together, but not when those who claim to uphold law and order murder, steal, lie, covet, and adulterate. There is no lawful, ordered life where trust does not abound. Power wielding and intimidation do not create trust. Whereas, humility before God and others and respect for others does. Trust provides the space for true communication to happen, space where broken people can rest and heal.
The next creative word God spoke at Creation was to create dry ground; land, terra firma. Love - compassion for God, for one another, for family - is the terra firma upon which we stand in the bubble of trust that arises by keeping the Ten Words. All the negative behaviours the Ten Words speak against are things that love does not do. Yet when we love, we find we fulfill all of the Ten Words and our relationships have firm ground to stand on.
The next creative words God spoke at Creation (I’m lumping three days together) were to fill the bubble – the oceans, the sky, the land – with life. So also, life lived according to the Ten Words is true life. It is life lived in which we reflect the image of God into his creation.
The last creative word God spoke at Creation was Sabbath rest. We think of the Sabbath wrongly if we think of it as simply a day that we shouldn’t work on. Many of you have childhood memories and heard stories from your parents and grandparents about how they weren’t allowed to do anything on Sunday except sit and stare blankly into space for fear of offending God by working on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is space and time for us not just to stop working, but more so, for us to take the time and have the space to intentionally repose with God, kick back with God, and enjoy the wonders of his creation. Without Sabbath rest life because onerous and increases the likelihood that we will stray from keeping the Ten Words and break trust with the people we love.
Remember last week’s sermon about God making water come forth from a granite rock to restore life to his people who were likely less than a day away from dying of dehydration. It is no coincidence that event comes just before the giving of the Ten Words of the granite mountain of Mt. Sinai. Just like that water, living according to these Ten creative Words is life-giving, soul-thirst quenching in a world where human relationships can be hard as granite for lack of trust and love. So, let God be the one and only God in your life. Do not create images of God that make God out to be something other than God is. Don’t make God serve the vain purpose of “me, myself, and I”. Keep Sabbath rest. Bring honour to the one’s who reared you. Do not take life, or commit adultery, or steal, or lie, or covet other people’s stuff. This is all possible by sticking to Jesus’ summary of the Ten Words – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and your neighbour as yourself.” Love fills full the Ten Words. Amen.
