Prescription for Peace

October 5^th, 2014       “Prescription for Peace”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

Exodus 20:1-21

          This morning we continue our journey with Moses and the Israelites.  Last week we read and wondered about the gifts of manna and water from the rock.  The people had been in need and cried out to God, and the Lord had consented to meet those needs.  In this morning’s reading, God continues to give the people what they need, though it is not necessarily something they are asking for.

          Our reading for today is very familiar territory.  This is the 10 commandments, sometimes called the Decalogue, and it appears here in the narrative journey of the people of Israel as well as in Deuteronomy 5 where the law is revisited.  While we are familiar with the law that God sets before the people, we are probably less familiar with the setting in which these commandments are received.  This is a time of great terror and fear for the people of Israel, as it would be for any of us in the situation.

          Let’s back up a bit and read what happens before the law is given.

“On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.  Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God.  They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.  Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.  As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.  When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to the Lord to look; otherwise many of them will perish.  Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them.”  Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.’“  The Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them.”  So Moses went down to the people and told them.”

That’s quite the dramatic scene, it sounds like a volcanic eruption.  In fact, reading the accounts of the folks who survived the eruption in Japan last week sounds a lot like this.  Smoke from the mountain and a blast of a trumpet so loud that the mountain shakes.  Once again in Exodus we don’t find a friendly, understanding, “buddy” God.  Rather this is a God of power and might, a God to be feared, a God to be wary of.  God warns Moses to keep the people at a distance, get too close and you will be killed.  In this midst of this awesome event, the commands are given.  Imagine an erupting volcano as the people hear “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”  If that doesn’t convince people I don’t know what will.

It’s an interesting contrast that in the middle of this tremendously frightening and otherworldly scene, the commands that God gives are actually very ordinary.  Rather than asking the people to do amazing things and take great leaps of faith, the Lord encourages the people to take everyday actions that make the world a better place.  Worship your God alone and treat each other with care and respect; from your parents to your neighbor you are called to honor those around you.  And more than that, you are called to treat yourself with honor as you take a day of rest. 

Even though fear may be a motivator in this dramatic delivery of the law, the real goal of the Lord is for people to respond from a place of gratitude.  Theologians love to point out that the law is given after the people have been saved.  We’ve been journeying with these folks for several weeks now, and we know they are no prize, but God continues to love and care for them.  Through love, the Lord has saved the people from a life of slavery in Egypt.  And now, through love, the Lord gives them a law in the hopes that they will follow it as a grateful response to salvation.  In a classic example of Paul’s theology, salvation cannot be earned, it is a gift.  Salvation comes before the law, not the law before salvation.

As you know, today is World Communion Sunday, a day we consider our faith in conjunction with and in community with Christians from all over the world.  It is also a day that we devote to Peacemaking, through the giving of our offering toward the work of peace, and in considering the role of peace in the life of the church.  Today’s reading on the 10 commandments is a wonderful tie in to those themes.

We have been following a story of creation, and this morning’s reading is part of the continuing creation of the people of Israel.  In a culmination of sorts, God is giving the people the laws for a just society.  If only we would all live in accordance to these commandments, then we would all live in a world of peace.  If the laws are viewed as freedoms granted rather than restrictions given, then we are given an image of a just future.  This is the prescription for life in the promised land; this is a prescription for peace.

As a clergy person, it really annoys me to see folks post these commandments at courthouses, schools, and front lawns and yet continue to totally ignore them.  Although these rules are fairly simple, we are just as bad at following them as the Israelites were.  Lying, stealing, dishonoring parents and neighbors, worshipping idols, coveting goods, and dishonoring the Sabbath are all things we are really good at and do often.  Our faith calls us to more, and though we don’t like to think of these as simply a bunch of rules, we would do well to remember them and consider the ways we could improve our obedience in gratitude for our own salvation.

On this World Communion Sunday, I can’t help but consider these commandments in light of our nation as a whole and its standing in the world community.  What would it mean for us as a nation to follow this prescription for peace?  Think of the ways we covet neighboring nations’ resources like oil and cheap goods.  Think of the ways we steal the life of other nations’ peoples by employing them in unfair and unsafe labor conditions.  Think of the ways we murder innocent bystanders in the march of the war against terrorism.  Think of the ways we trample on the poor in this very country, our own home, ignoring the needs of the most vulnerable around us by declaring that life itself is a privilege and not a right.  Think of all the idols of money, power, greed, that this “Christian” nation worships.  If only we would strive to live out these commandments for Israel, this nation and the world would certainly be a better place.

When faced with the 10 commandments, and considering God’s desire for the lives of people and nations together, we find ourselves sorely lacking.  Not only do we as individuals fail to meet the mark, as a nation we have failed on a global scale.  The wounds we have inflicted living in our ways of sin have all but blotted out our opportunities to create a world of peace. 

Thankfully, the story does not end here.  I cannot drag you this far down in a hole and leave you today.  No.  While it is important to be aware of our individual and corporate sin, it is also important to be aware of the forgiveness offered to us, and thankfully today we are gathering at the table of forgiveness together.

Of course on World Communion Sunday, we remember that we gather with the whole world at this table.  People will come from all places to share in a feast of peace and justice in the kingdom of our Lord.  People will come from Malawi and Sierra Leone, they will comes from China and Japan, they will come from Israel and Palestine, they will come from Iraq and Syria, they will even come from Missouri and join together at table.  I love that we get out our old communion set on this day because it serves to remind us that this feast is a timeless event.  People have been coming to this table for generations, our ancestors gathered here.  And people will come for generations more, our children’s children will share in this celebration.  This feast is a feast of peace which encompasses all time and space.

So come to the table today in the joy of grace and forgiveness.  Yes, we have failed to follow the prescription for peace we find in the 10 commandments.  Thankfully God decided to send his Son, to try again to show us the way of peace, to love our God and neighbors.  And thanks be to Jesus Christ, for opening the door to us when we fail at those two simple commandments as well.  The amazing thing about this table is that no one deserves to eat here, and yet all who are hungry are invited.

Today let us remember that God has given us a prescription for peace as individuals and as a nation.  Let us be honest about our own behavior and the practices of our country, admitting our sinfulness and asking God to forgive.  And let us gather at the table with our brothers and sisters from around the world to pray for justice and peace and to feast together, a foretaste of the kingdom we believe will one day come.  Thanks be to God for forgiveness, and thanks be to God for this glorious meal that we share with the world today.  Amen.