Sermon - February 28, 2010
Text: Genesis 15 & Ten Commandments
28 February 2010
Topic: “I am the Lord your God”
A long, long time ago, before you and I were ever born, before there was a United States of America, before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, before Jesus, even before King David who wrote the Psalms, there was Moses.
Moses was a man of God, God’s chosen leader of the nation of Israel. Moses was an Israelite who ended up in Egypt, along with his fellow tribesmen and women. His tribe were refugees, out of place, away from home. And they yearned to go back to their homeland, a homeland which their ancestral father, Abraham, had received from God.
Our first lesson for today tells of the covenant God made with Abram to give Abram and his descendants this land, a covenant that God would keep. Ultimately, Abraham and Sarah had children, and those children had their children. For generations the children of Israel lived in the land God had promised them.
But, as the biblical story tells us, times got tough in the promised land, and many of God’s chosen people went to live in Egypt where they thought things would be better.
They lived in that foreign land, had lots of babies, so much so that the government in Egypt said, “You know, we have too many foreigners, too many illegals living amongst us, too many Israelites in our country. We need to do something about this. Let’s create some really hard jobs for them to complete. Let’s enslave them and cause them to suffer. And then, we can control them.” And so they did. The Egyptians made it really hard for the Israelites to live there.
It didn’t take long for the Israelites to want to leave Egypt and go back home. That’s when Moses arrives on the scene and gave the children of Israel some hope.
The story is described in its full detail in the book of Exodus but for now, suffice it to say, God gave the Hebrew people a gift, a gift that has endured for thousands of years, from then until now. It was gift to help them grow in faith together.
After the children of Israel left Egypt, while they were still on their journey in the wilderness, on their way back home to the promised land, God gave Moses the TEN COMMANDMENTS.
These commandments were given to a people who needed a path to follow, a way to live, while they were on their journey, and again, once they arrived in their homeland once again.
The commandments were given, no so much as a way to keep people in line but as a path to follow which would give them peace and joy in their lives.
The Ten Commandments, if you want to read them, are found on page 1160 and 1161 in your red hymnal.
The first three concern themselves with our relationship with God. The last seven concern our relationship with one another. But if you and I were to read them in the book of Exodus, God began by saying, “I am the Lord your God.”
God made a decision about the children of Israel, and about us. God said, “I am the Lord your God.” God continues to announce that decision at each and every baptism, saying, “Child, I am the Lord your God.”
We weren’t asked, and we didn’t get to vote. God, who made the heavens and earth, who made you and me, and everything else, simply declares “I am the Lord your God.”
The consequences of this decision are at least three-fold: First, when God says, “I am the Lord your God,” this means we have life. God gives us our mind, our body, and all our powers. We can count on God to furnish us with all we will ever need.
Secondly, God accepts us the way we are, with strengths and weaknesses, warts and pimples, gifts and talents. God does not say, “I will be your God when you are good, or when you are better, or when you give so much money to the church.” God loves us and accepts us the way we are. God’s love for us is unconditional.
Thirdly, God is going to be our God forever. We have a future without end. We have the forgiveness of sins and the freedom to live in God’s protective embrace, forever.
But there’s a problem in all this, and it’s us. No matter how great and gracious God’s decision is, there are two sides within each of us.
There’s the side that’s really happy God is our God. But there’s also a selfish side, a side that is unwilling to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in our lives and we rebel. We call this rebel within us “the old Adam,” like the Adam in Genesis who rebelled against God.
The old Adam’s favorite words are me, myself, and I. The old Adam’s favorite phrase is, “I’d rather do it myself.” And this is why God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses and has made them available to all who will acknowledge God’s sovereignty. In giving us the Ten Commandments, God intended to confront and hopefully shape human behavior.
There are three basic purposes of the Ten Commandments: One is to show us how we are to honor and respect God. Another is to keep the world from falling into complete chaos. And the third is to drive us to God’s promises in the gospel.
As I stated earlier, the first three commandments speak of our relationship with God and lay out a plan for how you and I can stay close to God. The first commandment tells us to believe in only one God, the one who made us. Second, we are not to use God’s name disrespectfully, but rather use God’s name in praise and thanksgiving. Third, we are to come and worship God regularly. These first three commandments keep our relationship with God a priority in our lives and help us focus on God and not on ourselves.
The last seven commandments help us keep our relationships with one another healthy and whole. If we honor our parents, don’t murder anyone, commit adultery, steal, lie against our neighbor, or get jealous of what our neighbor has, we’ll do very well in life.
The problem is, the old Adam never leaves us, and in the end, it becomes impossible for any one of us to completely keep the Ten Commandments. There is no one on earth who can say, “I have kept the Ten Commandments completely.”
A young man once came to Jesus in the New Testament saying he’d kept all the laws of God. But when Jesus asked him to then go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor, he couldn’t do it because he wanted his riches more than he wanted to love and serve God.
The commandments are meant to convince us that we cannot make it in life alone and that all of us need God’s promise in Christ. God’s commandments drive us to confess our sins and seek forgiveness. As Martin Luther said, the Ten Commandments are the “whip” or the “goad” that drive us to Christ.
May we find in Christ the fulfillment of the Law he intended them to be. AMEN