Relationships and rules

Often when we read the 10 Commandments, we conflate this top ten list with rules we need to unquestionably obey.  Etched in our mind is Charlton Heston coming down with his hair flowing... his beard flowing...his robe and words flowing saying, "I thus giveth thee tenth Commandmenths".  But when you read Exodus 20, God speaks.  God does not have Moses play secretary, God simply speaks and a relationship with God's people is formed and fashioned.  

That is pretty much how every relationship is formed.  You talk...and talk...negotiate and re-negotiate.  The rules around relationships are bendy and flexible.  Which is a pretty good description of God's relationship with us, it is flexible.  I know this is not the normal interpretation of the Ten Commandments.  But throughout Scripture these ten guidelines for life that is true life, keep getting discussed...sometimes debated with others.  Rabbis and teachers would keep entering into dialogue with people as they tried to put God first, even as other voices (like say, Caesar) clamored for that spot.  They wrestled with what was an idol and whether art pointed to (rather than tried to contain) our relationship with God.  They wanted their words to be honest and authentic.  They wanted to honor other relationships too, whether intimate or other human connections.  All of this was up for discussion.

Somewhere we stopped participating in the dialogue.  Somewhere we lost our history and our nerve of talking about how we form a meaningful relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others.  Yet, we can rekindle this love affair.  The first three commandments deal with our relationship with God:

1.  Put God at the center

2.  Don't try to confine God to the palm of your hand

3.  Don't use God for your own agenda...one that lots of us struggle with today.

The fourth is about our relationship with ourselves

4.  Keep the Sabbath...or as Barbara Brown Taylor says, "One day, be good for nothing."  Just be, rest in God and not in your accomplishments.

The last six have to do with our relationship with others:

5.  Honor parents...or better yet, honor all elders and those who have wisdom to offer.

6.  Be careful with weapons and words, both can be used for violence that kills

7.  Honor relationships, intimate and others too.

8.  Honor other's possessions...we all learned that in kindergarten

9.  Honor your own words...let them be authentic

10.  Let your deepest desire be God, or put God at the center, so we come full circle.

I invited the church today to not just read these, but to actually come up with concrete ways to live these Ten Commandments.  I encourage you to do the same.  In the next post, I will offer some of the ways I have come up with for my own life.

Until then...happy pondering!

Blessings ~