“The First Commandment: Open Your Heart to the Holy” by Rev. Michael McGee, Sept. 19, 2010

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“The First Commandment: Open Your Heart to the Holy”

        OK, I know what you're thinking: why on earth are we exploring the Ten Commandments, not only for one Sunday but ten Sundays? Isn't this story a fairy tale, and aren't the Ten Commandments a right wing fundamentalist plot to get control of our government? Aren't we supposed to be religious liberals who believe in the ten suggestions instead of the ten commandments?

        No friends, we do not believe in the ten suggestions. As Unitarian Universalists we affirm ethical codes in all the religions of the world. And I hope you recognize that in spite of the mythological origins of the Exodus story, and in spite of Alabama judges and others who wish to make the commandments mandatory – as they interpret them of course -- these statements are the moral foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

        The story, as Madelyn has told it, is a powerful one and one we need to understand. And it's one that is ingrained in most of us, if not from Sunday School, then from Charlton Heston who played Moses so well in “The Ten Commandments” that we assume that's exactly how the prophet looked and sounded. Remember when Heston as Moses stood in flowing robes and long beard on top of Mt. Sinai and said, “The only way you can take my guns from me is from my cold, dead hands.” Oops! Wrong quote. But you get the idea.

        Or some of you with a more quirky imagination may visualize Moses as played by Mel Brooks in “The History of the World Part I.” Remember the bearded Mel Brooks descending from Mount Sinai, holding in his arms not two but three Tablets of the Covenant, with five commandments inscribed on each. "Hear me, o hear me! All pay heed!" Moses proclaims. "The Lord … has given unto you these fifteen” – one stone tablet drops and shatters as a perplexed Moses looks down and mutters, "Oy! ...ten, TEN commandments for all to obey!"

         The Ten Commandments are also called the Decalogue, meaning ten statements. But why ten and not fifteen or fifty? In actuality, the commandments were an abridged version of the Torah, which have an astounding 613 commandments, far too many for anyone to remember or even to put on a courthouse door. So the Ten Commandments are a kind of "Cliffs Notes" version. Rabbis Hillel and Akiva compressed the commandments even further when they summed up the whole of the Torah in just one commandment: "Do not do to another human being what you yourself would find hateful." The rest, as Hillel said, is but commentary. Latter Rabbi Jesus with a little word-smithying followed their lead.

        I imagine there are ten commandments because as Mel Brooks discovered, more than that are too difficult to hold in our hands and our hearts, and only one or two does not give quite enough detail. As Will Rogers said, “Whoever wrote the Ten Commandments made 'em short. They may not always be kept but they are understood.”

         But lacking detail means that it's difficult to know exactly what the commandments mean. There are people who have no problem interpreting them for the rest of us, but for most of us it's more complex than that. For instance, how should we interpret, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”? To Orthodox Jews it means you can't even turn a light on, and to others it means Sunday is a good day to watch football. Or what is the meaning of “Thou shalt not kill”? That seems to be a clear statement that we could all agree on, except for all the exceptions, such as capital punishment and war and telemarketers.

        In reality, I doubt that the commandments came from on high, unless you mean the high priests who most probably formed a committee. That's a scary thought, isn't it? You may have heard that, “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”

        The commandments were certainly the result of negotiation and compromises between what the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann calls the holy people and the justice people. In fact, the entire Hebrew Bible was the result of this creative tension between those who believed the top priority of religion was to pay homage and give thanks to God, and those who believed that our purpose is to live out the holy in acts of justice and compassion. Guess which tradition Unitarian Universalists come from? You might notice that the commandments are split down the middle with the first five being God-centered and the second five being justice centered -- the perfect compromise.

        But let's face it: the commandments, as significant as they have been, are a bit dated. They don't speak to our age as they have spoken to other ages. They're still good for a few zingers, like when President Reagan said, “I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress”. But for most people today they're irrelevant and invisible.

        So what do they say to us these 2500 years latter in a much different world? Or perhaps our world isn't that different. Aren't we also seeking moral imperatives that will help us resist the temptations to diminish ourselves and others?

         The first commandment is probably the most important because it states in unequivocal terms the identity of God: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Do not have any other gods before me.” Wow! How do you really feel about that God? That was a radical statement in a culture where polytheism was prevalent. People worshiped a wide variety of gods who were responsible for controlling different phenomena of nature. If a god came along that struck their fancy and gave them a little juice in the neighborhood, they would simply welcome it into their personal pantheon.

        This new god of the Hebrews could have suffered the same fate, becoming a demi-god with little power or respect. But instead he claimed to be the one and only, thus demoting every other god to a Tinkertoy. And his authority came from breaking into history to free the Hebrews from slavery. No small matter. He gave the Hebrews an opportunity to enter into a covenant with him, an agreement that if they accepted him as their one true god, then he would essentially be their main man, preventing them from being enslaved and protecting them from annihilation.

        Unfortunately there have been some big loopholes in that agreement over the millennium, and yet this covenant is still at the heart of the Jewish faith. The High Holy Days is one way that Jews keep faith with that covenant. The tragedy is that this exclusive relationship has been claimed not only by Judaism but by Christianity and Islam, which has resulted in a theological rumble with massive collateral damage.

        Let me tell you a story to illustrate that tension. Terry and I spent several weeks at Chautauqua Institution this summer, a place we've been going for over twenty years. I love Chautauqua because as someone said, it's a Disneyland for brains. I go mostly for vacation, but I was also the Unitarian Universalist Minister of the Week for the UU Fellowship there, preaching a sermon and doing some programming. One program was called Communities in Conversation, and I was on a panel discussing pluralism with a rabbi and a Muslim.

         Everything went well with the three of us giving similar messages of tolerance and compassion, until the Q & A when someone asked about the building of the mosque in Manhattan. I answered that we should support the building of the Islamic Center as a way to heal wounds and achieve unity.

        The rabbi who had just given a homily about seeing the Messiah in all people suddenly changed his mind about Muslims, and not only objected to the Islamic Center but made some painfully derogatory remarks about Islam. The Muslim responded with a strong though controlled objection. And off to the races we went with people in the audience jumping up like popcorn to grab the mic and make their case one way or the other. When I was finally able to respond again, I supported my Muslim colleague and made the point that we were all in the family of Abraham and that fear of our differences kept us from recognizing compassion as our common value.

        I'm not sure any minds or hearts were changed, but I do believe one of the reasons people have such a hard time accepting our differences and embracing our diversity has to do with this first commandment. At the time when that commandment was written into scripture, it was a revolutionary step towards universality. Instead of having a hodgepodge of different gods for different tribes, the concept of one God for all people – that is all Hebrews – united them as a religion and a nation-to-be.

         Christianity and Islam went through a similar process of evolving deities that defined and united their respective religions, but at the same time excluded those of other faiths, turning them into heretics. So what we have today are three great world religions that are all in the Family of Abraham – that is they accept Abraham as their common patriarch. And they all recognize Moses as a prophet. And they accept almost the identical Ten Commandments – including the first commandment that “I am the Lord your God; Do not have any other gods before me”.

        And yet each faith has a vast following that believes their god is the only true god. Does that make any sense? It's hard for religions to be respectful and tolerant of each other when they're essentially saying, “My God is the one and only God and yours is a punk with bad breath.”

         I'm sure this makes no sense to you because our tradition as Unitarian Universalists is one in which we challenge ourselves and others to have a vision of the holy that is beyond all names, all images, all creeds and faiths. For taking on that task many of our followers have been persecuted, jailed, and killed.

         Instead of fighting over whose god is bigger and better, our tradition calls us to open our heart to the holy. What that means is we continually strive to experience our unity, our oneness with the the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. And we envision the holy, the sacred, and the universal within every human being.

         Our tradition calls us to open our heart to the holy by refusing to diminish and demonize others and instead to truly see the Messiah, the divine, the inherent worth and dignity in every person. This is a spiritual calling, and we renew our spirit whenever we refuse to live superficially and instead connect with a deeper purpose and meaning in our lives and with the holy within humanity, nature, and God.

        This is a great calling and a great challenge that requires commitment and discipline. I would like to suggest two spiritual disciplines that can help you open your heart to the holy. First, I invite you to have a one-on-one conversation with someone today, perhaps over a cup of coffee after the service or with your partner or children when you get home or with a friend during half-time. Each of you take five minutes to answer this question, “When was a time in your life that you felt spirituality renewed?” – with spiritually renewed meaning deeply connected. When the other person is speaking, don't say a word; just listen. When the ten minutes are over, feel free to continue the conversation.

        We used that question as a check-in at the covenant group facilitators yesterday and one person said he felt renewed when he came to this church for the first time and saw me wearing this stole with the question mark on it. His revelation was that if the Big Guy, as he called me, doesn't know the answers, then it's ok for me not to know the answers.

        And second, if you haven't already done so, consider joining a covenant group where you will have the opportunity to be in conversation with people who are listening deeply and speaking from the heart.

        That's your homework for the day folks. May we renew the first commandment by living in the depths of the spirit and opening our hearts to the holy.

Watch The Video of The Sermon

Photos From The Service

The Tablets and Mel Brooks

Charlton "Moses" Heston

Sermon Sources

• An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination. Westminster John Knox Press.
• Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes. Westminster John Knox Press.
• Theology of the Old Testament. Fortress Press
• Understanding the Bible by John A. Buerhens
• Why Christianity Must Change Or Die by John Shelby Spong

Covenant Group Questions

• When was a time in your life that you felt spirituality renewed?
• If you've had a one-on-one conversation with someone about the first question, can you tell what that was like?
• What are your memories of learning about the 10 Commandments?
• How would you translate the first commandment in a way that is most helpful to you?
• In what ways is the Bible meaningful to you?

The Ten Commandments Old and New
First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me
Renewed: You shall open your heart to the Holy