During the summer months our children and youth are using Sunday School materials which come from our denomination, Mennonite Church USA .  The title of the summer series is “The Things that make for Peace.”  Over the course of the summer they will jump around the Bible from Old Testament to New Testament, reading from Genesis, I Samuel, II Kings, Leviticus, Romans, Ephesians, James, Mark and more.

We decided in our English language services to try to coordinate our worship services with some of the scriptures our young people are reading.  So, this is why we chose to read from the book of Exodus today, the 20^th chapter, the passage we know as “the Ten Commandments.” 

If we had read the previous chapter we would find Moses and the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai .  The mountain is shrouded in clouds, there is thunder and lightening, the earth shakes, the trumpet sounds, and the Lord calls Moses to climb up the mountain.  There Moses meets the Lord, and then he descends from the mountaintop.  He comes down from the mountain and pronounces the words we have already read to the people.  These are known as the Ten Commandments.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never liked that word “commandments” too much.  It feels too much like we are being ordered, to “just shut up and go over in the corner and stand there and do exactly what you are told, no questions asked!”  It feels like, oh no, here come a whole bunch of rules, and like any freedom loving, I-want-to-do-my-own-thing-kind-of-guy, I react against more rules!

But of course rules are a part of life.  I remember when I was a kid, and the weather was hot, my mom and dad nevertheless had the rule that when my brother and I came to the table, we had to have a shirt on.  Oh, how I did not like that rule!  What difference does it make, I would argue, whether or not I have a shirt on at the dinner table?  Well, I think it had to do with how we should all look when we sat together at the dinner table, though the truth is I never listened very carefully when they tried to explain.

Of course, now I am on the other side of things.  I’m older and sometimes it’s my job to decide what the rules are going to be.  And it is someone else’s turn to say why do we have that stupid rule, anyhow?

Maybe it would help those of you who are like me to call these the “ten words,” rather than the “ten commandments.”   After all, the first sentence in chapter 20 reads Then God spoke all these words .

Part of our challenge this morning is to try to understand how listening to and obeying the “ten words” help us to live in peace with God and with each other?  Can these words, these commandments, these rules, assist us and guide us in living in harmony with God and with others?

Glancing over the ten words we quickly note a few things.  Most of the commandments contain the injunction “you shall not…”  That feels on the negative side.  A few put things more positively:  “you shall have no other gods before me;” “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy;” and “Honor your father and your mother.”   The first four words all have to do with our relationship to God, to Yahweh; and the last six words have to do with relationships with other human beings. 

In the ancient Near East, which is the part of the world where these words comes from, there were other writings, contracts, and treaties which in some ways resembled what we find in Exodus 20.  I understand that the last six commandments, the relational ones between human beings, are not particularly unusual.  But the first four, the ones which speak to our relationship with God, they are unique.

But as a way to grab onto the ten commandments I think we have to latch onto the short prelude to the words, which is, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.   One person I read writes that you should read this phrase before each individual word.  So, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, therefore you shall not steal.

Why is this so important?  Because right here, in the setting forth of these ten words, the people and we are reminded of the primary, shaping event in the people’s history.  We are referring, of course, to the great Exodus event.  Remember, the people of God found themselves under Pharoah’s thumb, down in Egypt , where they were enslaved.  The people were forced to work out in the hot sun for low pay making bricks for the Egyptians.  They were a “nothing” people, a put down people, a people in desperate need of liberation.  But what happened?

God lifted up a great leader in Moses.  The story is long and complex and colorful, but in time the people crossed the Red Sea into freedom, and they gave the full credit for their victory to God. God delivered them from their enemies. God delivered them from their enslavement.  God liberated them.  God made them a free people.  So here, in the prelude to the ten words, the people are reminded of this great victory.  I am the God who brought you out of slavery, and because of that, here is how you should respond, both to God, and to your fellow human beings.

That God delivers, liberates, saves, is important in our world today, in personal ways and corporate ways.  People who are living in bondage to addictions, or abuse in their home, or their own anger, can know that God is one who longs for their deliverance.  And people who are under the thumb of oppressive governments, or economic policies that offer them no hope, or social systems which make them to be a permanent underclass can know that the God we worship and serve today desires their liberation from all that holds them down.

This deliverance, this liberation, this salvation, comes first, born within the love of God, and then God gives Israel the law.  It’s a way in which Israel can respond to the deliverance received.  And this law is given in the context of covenant, not contract.  The distinction is important.

In a contract the failure of a party to hold up their end of the deal eventually negates the entire agreement.   You rent an apartment.  You sign the rental agreement.  But then you don’t pay.  Month after month goes by, and you don’t pay.  Eventually, you will get kicked out of the apartment because you didn’t hold up your end of the contract.

But the covenant is different.  There’s no strings attached.  It doesn’t say “I am the Lord your God and I brought you out of slavery in Egypt and if you steal even one time, then back into slavery you go!” 

A covenant is more relational and the failure of one party doesn’t necessarily negate the whole deal.  There’s more ambiguity in a covenant, more wiggle room.  It doesn’t mean things are taken lightly, or just swept under the carpet.   No, God has delivered us and offers us to respond with a way of living and being that is responsive to God and neighbor, and allows us to live harmoniously, and peacefully, and fruitfully, in tandem with God and neighbor.

The ten words offered here aren’t met to be comprehensive.  Obviously they don’t cover every area of life.  They do give us a taste of what the redeemed life can look like.  But remember, these ten words are not to be taken alone, apart from their deliverance out of Egypt context.

In a real sense, as we gather here today as the people of First Mennonite Church we assemble as a delivered people.  Some of us have dramatic stories of what God has done to bring us to this place today.  We’ve been really down and out but, thanks be to God, we’ve been liberated and here we are today.  For others of us, our story is far less dramatic but nevertheless we have the sense in our hearts that God is doing something within us, and among us.  So given our own setting of liberation here at FMC, what might be some words God would give us today?  Here’s an attempt, for your consideration.

The Lord God has brought the people of First Mennonite Church to this day.  In response to the grace and love shown to us, here are some commitments we can keep as the people of God in this time and in this place.

1)     We shall love and follow the Lord our God, as revealed to us through Jesus, above all else.

2)     We shall not allow the pursuit of money, or more things, or our own ideas, take precedence over following Jesus.

3)     We shall find joy in serving others, both within our church, and beyond.

4)     We shall respect the opinions of others remembering that we all see only in part.

5)     We shall be people of God’s justice and God’s peace, being active peacemakers in our homes, our community, and our world.

6)     We shall honor our fathers and our mothers, especially respecting and caring for those who are living in the last years of their lives.

7)     We shall look out for, defend, and advocate for our children, providing the support, encouragement, and mentoring they need and deserve.

8)     We shall celebrate our differences, remembering that God calls us in many different ways to be the people of God.

9)     We shall respect each other’s ideas, each other’s bodies, and we shall respect the physical facilities here at our church which we share in common.

10) We shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves.

Amen.