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A COVENANT OF COMMANDMENT

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Exodus 20:1-17

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God gives us rules for our own good.<= /span>

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

February 24, 2008=

This sermon contains references to Jesus, Mos= es, and golf, so let me tell my favorite golf joke. Jesus and Moses were playing a rou= nd of golf, when they cam to a hole that had a pond in front of the green. Jesus asked Moses, “What do = you think Tiger Woods would hit from here?”

Moses responded, “Well, Tiger would hit= a wedge, but you’ll need a stronger club than that.”

Jesus said, “If Tiger would hit a wedge= , I can hit a wedge. I’m th= e Son of God, after all.”

So Jesus took out his wedge, hit the ball, an= d it landed right in the middle of the pond.&nb= sp; He turned to Moses and said, “I didn’t hit that very well. I’m going to go g= et it and hit it again.”

Moses said, “Do you want me to part the= water for you?”

Jesus said, “No, I’ll just walk o= ut and grab it.” And he started walking across the pond.

About this time the next group of golfers wal= ked up and saw what was going on. On= e of them said, “Who does that guy think he is, Jesus Christ?”

Moses said, “No, he is Jesus Christ. = He thinks he’s Tiger Woods!R= 21;

We have been talking about covenants for the = past two weeks. Covenants are faith agreements made between us and God that express our relationship with God.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They are initiated by God, but we = have a partnership in them, a response we make to our covenant-making God.

After God called Moses through the burning bush to go and liberate the Hebrew people = from slavery in Egypt, he made a covenant with him. = God remembered the covenant agreements he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jac= ob, to give them the land of Canaan. He promised that he would set them= free from the oppression of the Egyptians. He covenanted with the Hebrew children to be their God and to take t= hem as his people. And eventually= they would reach the Promised Land.

So armed with this covenant and ten mighty acts of judgment called plagues, Moses led the Hebrew children to freedom. They were delivered from the hand = of the Egyptians in the dramatic event at the Red Sea. When they came to Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses a sign of the covenant.&nbs= p; Not a rainbow, as with Noah, and not circumcision, as with Abraham, = this sign was the covenant of commandment. God gave Moses and the people ten basic rules for living as the cove= nant people. The Israelites had progressed to the point where they needed some structure. They needed some fundamental princ= iples for moral and ethical behavior. They needed some boundaries

This is the point of the Ten Commandments. God gave the Hebrews (and God give= s us) boundaries so that we can live effectively as his people. There are limits beyond which we c= annot go if we want to stay in relationship to God.= Inside the boundary there is peace and freedom; outside the boundary there is chaos. God gives us = these rules for our own good. He cr= eated life; he knows what will make it work.

These fundamental principles are not called the 10 Suggestions. They are commandments. They are laws.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We cannot break them; we can only = break ourselves upon them. We step outside the boundaries at our own peril.

Last week we talked about a paratrooper who wasnR= 17;t too bright. This week, let me= tell you about Jan Davis, 60 years old, a veteran parachutist who got involved i= n a dangerous sport called BASE jumping. I don’t know what BASE stands for—Basically A Stupid Exercise, maybe—but it involves jumping off of fixed objects like cli= ffs, tall buildings, towers and bridges. The short distance to the ground makes these jumps very dangerous. So BASE jumping is illegal in most places.

As a protest against the BASE jumping law in California, Jan and four others arranged a jump off= of El Capitan, a sheer cliff some 3,200 feet high in Yosemite National P= ark. Six people had died jumping off El Capitan, but Jan and others wanted to show how s= afe it was to jump off the cliff. So= with her husband videotaping the whole event, Jan jumped off. Her parachute failed to open proper= ly, and she fell to her death on the rocks at the base of El Capitan. She kne= w the risks; she knew the law; and she deliberately broke it. She paid for it with her life.= = [1]<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

God gives us these commandments not to be mean, not = to restrict our self-expression, but to keep us from falling. They are for our own good, for our= own well-being. The brokenness in= our lives and the brokenness in our world is basically due to human beings tryi= ng to live outside the boundaries of the covenant. It’s just not safe.

Think of the commandments like a car seat. When I was growing up, we never kn= ew about car seats. The back sea= t of the car was where my brother and I wrestled during long car trips. That’s how we kept our paren= ts entertained over the miles. N= ow it’s against the law for a small child not to be strapped in to a car seat. Why is that? It’s not for meanness, really. It’s not to kee= p the kids quiet, for sure; there’s more screaming with car seats than there ever was with kids rolling around in the back seat. It’s for safety. Children were defenseless in a car crash; hundreds were killed each year.&nbs= p; Car seats are for the protection of the kids. They may not like it, and they may= not understand it. But we know as parents that it’s for their own good. That’s why it’s the la= w.

If you want to understand the covenant of commandment better, let me suggest you break the ten down into two sections. The first section has to do with our relatio= nship with God. This is the bas= ic covenant:

· Have one God only.

· Do not give your devotion to anyt= hing less than God.

· Do not use the name of God or his power in trivial ways. <= /o:p>

· Take time out each week for worsh= ip and rest. <= /p>

God is our God, and we are his people. These first four commandments expr= ess that relationship. Again, it = is not because God is mean or unreasonable or childish; it’s for our own good. Even the word “jealous” that the Old Testament uses connotes an exclusive relationship reserved just for God. Ask your spouse if it’s not a good idea to have an exclusive l= ove for him or her and not to share that marital relationship with any other person. What is expressed in a physical way in commandment seven is the same thought in a spiritual way in these commandments. Don’= ;t fool around on God; it will not go well with you.

A few years ago Philip Yancey, the pastor and author, had an encounter with masked men holding knives. Fortunately, they were foot surgeo= ns, and Yancey’s life was never in danger. In order to have long-term health, though, Yancey endured the pain of surgery and several months of often uncomfortable rehabilitation. He had to take a vacation from physical activities he enjoyed, such as bicycli= ng, hiking, and saddest of all, golf.

Well into the rehab process, Yancey begged his doctor one day to let him go play a round of golf with some friends. He promised to use only his upper = body to hit the ball. The doctor r= eplied without hesitation, “It would make me very unhappy if you played golf within the next two months.”

Yancey whined, “But I though you were a golfer.”

The doctor was unmoved. “I am,” he said. “That’s how I know you can’t hit a golf ball without rolling your foot, which will damage wh= at we have tried to heal.”

The doctor was not trying to be mean. He had nothing against golf. He had Philip Yancey’s best interests at heart. The doctor’s job, his desire, was to restore his patient’s health.

Philip Yancey wrote, “The role of a doctor may= be the most revealing image in thinking about God and sin. What a doctor does for me physically—guide me toward health—God does for me spiritually.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I am learning to view sins not as = an arbitrary list of rules drawn up by a cranky Judge, but rather as a list of dangers that must be avoided at all costs—for our own sakes.”= = [2]<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> That’s the covenant of comma= ndment in a nutshell.

The second section of the Ten Commandments is about = life in community. We live in relationshi= p with God, but we also have to live around all these other people. Living with Go= d is easy; it’s trying to deal with the other sinners that makes for problems. So God gives us some fundamental principles to make our social life healthy:

· Honor your father and mother.

· Don’t murder. <= o:p>

· Don’t commit adultery.

· Don’t steal.

· Tell the truth. =

· Don’t be concerned with what other people have.

These are= the rules that will make our life in community good and productive and effective and peaceful.

Have you = ever watched a sea gull at the beach? When they are flying alone, they are fun to watch. They know just how to catch the oc= ean breeze and ascend to great heights, and then swoop down in majestic loops to the surface of the water. Or = if there is food on the surface, a sea gull can dive bomb with incredible speed and accuracy. It’s easy= to see why a lone sea gull is a symbol of beauty and peace.<= /p>

But let s= omeone throw a morsel of food out on the beach, or let a shrimp boat pass by, and = you see the unfortunate character of sea gull community. They fight and bite and claw one a= nother for the least little reward. = There is no courtesy among seagulls, no sharing, no manners, no consideration of = the brother and sister gulls. No, it’s every bird for himself! In fact, if you tie a red ribbon on the leg of a sea gull and make h= im stand out from the others, you sentence him to execution. The other birds will attack and pe= ck and claw at the bird who is different until he lies in a bloody heap on the san= d.= = [3]

Humans ca= n act like sea gulls sometimes, can’t they? We bite and claw and chew each other up and tear each other down until the one who is different or the one= who is defenseless is lying in a heap, destroyed by the meanness of the world.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> But we were not made for that. We were made for community. We were made to soar, not alone, b= ut in concert with our brothers and sisters who live in the covenant. God gives us rules for community s= o we can live effectively and love abundantly.

Jesus also broke down all the commandments into two statements. When he was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said, “‘You shall love the Lord your Go= d with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is = like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all= the law and the prophets.”[4]<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Like Moses, Jesus emphasized the relationship with God and life in community.

The only difficulty with the covenant of commandment= is that we just can’t do it. We can’t follow the rules. We can’t stay inside the boundaries.&nb= sp; The problem is sin. We can’t avoid it. The rul= es will be broken. The boundarie= s will be crossed. We will find ours= elves in need of grace, forgiveness, and transformation. We have to return to the promise of faith. The covenant of comman= dment ultimately ends in failure, but then it points us back to the covenant of faith, the covenant God made with Abraham, which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The law serves as a g= uide to help us realize our need of a better way.

The apostle Paul, who dealt with the failure of the = Law and the gift of grace in his own life, called the Law a “disciplinarian,”[5] literally the same word as the teacher of a child. The function of the Law was to kee= p us on track until we were able to relate to God by faith. Which we can now do because of Jes= us.

Do you see how this works? God gives us the rules for righteo= us living, for our own good, and we fail to keep them. Our failure generates a spiritual = search in our lives for a “more excellent way.” The way is Christ. When we find him, we repent of our sins. We are forgiven, and we= enter into a relationship with God through him.&= nbsp; As a response to God’s forgiveness, we attempt again to live b= y his rules. We won’t do it perfectly, but it makes all the difference when our relationship with God is not based on keeping the rules. The foundation is love, the more excellent way, and in his love we can find gra= ce and forgiveness when we need it. It’s not about following the rules of religion; it’s abo= ut the reality of the relationship.

In 1973, Peter Jenkins, a writer for National Geographic magazine, bega= n a 4,500-mile hike criss-crossing our country. His journey became the book Walk Across America. One of the most interesting facets of Jenkins’ journey was that it became a spiritual journey, because on the road across America, Peter Jenkins met Je= sus Christ.

Jenkins had grown up in a very proper Presbyterian church in Connecticut, but it was a dry, unemotional affair. One night in Alabama, he decided to attend a local church that was having a revival. It was a nig= ht that changed his life.

The evangelist could not have been more unlike Peter Jenkins. In 1973 Peter was a long-haired, b= earded reporter with a backpack wearing hiking boots. The preacher was a Texan in a three-piece suit and cowboy boots, holding a big, black Bible, yelling and dancing around on the platform and throwing his arms around until there was sweat dripping off his face. = But what he was saying was making an impact on the young man from New England. Jenkins= said, “I = honestly felt like when he was preaching the gospel, a huge sword was slicing me int= o a whole bunch of pieces. He was saying, ‘Joining a church won't make you a Christian any more than joining a Lion's Club will make you a lion. From the day you were born, you wa= nted to do your own thing, and you were rebellious against God. If you really want to know God, yo= u've got to repent of this rebellion which the Bible calls sin.’

Jenkins said, “I= could relate to that. I thought I w= as a pretty good person. I thought= I was in search of the truth. The m= ore I heard this stuff, [the more I realized that] religion is not the answer; salvation is. You just have something inside of you that knows when you hear the truth. All of the things we think about ourselves, how we define ourselves—all that is insignificant when it comes to what's going on = in our soul.”[6] In this unlikely encounter, Peter Jenkins came to know the Lord.

So what’s going = on in your soul today? Are you in a relationship with Christ, and you need to renew your commitment to the rule= s of the godly life? Or have you b= een trying to follow the rules, but you have found it frustrating because the underlying relationship is not there? Jesus Christ is waiting for the invitation to meet you today at the = point of your need. He wants to mak= e a covenant with you. He wants t= o give you life. Let him! Amen!

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