Sunday 10/04/20 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “The
10-Commandments”
(“Exodus: The People of the Covenant” Series: Part 5 of 7)
Old Testament Scripture: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
New Testament Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 21:33-46
Welcome once again my friends, brothers, and sisters on this our World Communion
Sunday, and this the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
World Communion Sunday is a Sunday
that many Christian denominations or expressions of Christianity celebrate Holy
Communion, the Eucharist, together as a sign of Christian ecumenical unity.
To better explain World Communion
Sunday, let me tell you what www.umc.org says:
“What is World Communion Sunday?”
“World Communion Sunday is one of six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings
of The United Methodist Church. World Communion Sunday calls the church to
reach out to all people and model diversity among God’s children. The special
offering provides World Communion Scholarships, the Ethnic Scholarship Program
and the Ethnic In-Service Training Program”.
“When did it start?”
“According to the 1972 Book of Discipline paragraph 163.b there shall be a
World Communion (formerly Fellowship of Suffering and Service) offering to
support the division of chaplains and ministries, Crusade Scholarships and the
scholarship fund for minority groups”
(https://www.umc.org/en/content/world-communion-sunday-faq).
According to
another source that speaks about World Communion Sunday’s history, it says
this:
“World Communion Sunday is a
celebration observed by several Christian denominations, taking place on
the first Sunday of every October, that promotes Christian unity and ecumenical cooperation. It focuses on an observance of the eucharist. The tradition was begun in 1933 by Hugh Thomson Kerr who
ministered in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church. It
was then adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936[1] and subsequently spread to other denominations. In
1940, the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches), led by Jesse Moren Bader, endorsed World Communion Sunday and began to promote it to
Christian churches worldwide” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Communion_Sunday).
In this being,
once again, one of the six special giving Sundays in the life of the United
Methodist Church, there are giving envelopes in our bulletins this morning,
should we be interested in giving to this special giving Sunday. Feel free to
put checks or funds in these giving envelopes, and we will make sure that they get
to the people who need them.
With his being said, this morning we
are going to continue with our sermon series from the Book of Exodus. So far in
this sermon series, God had spoken to Moses through a burning bush, and told Moses
that God will use him to free the Israelite or Jewish people from slavery under
the Pharaoh in Egypt.
The Pharaoh refused Moses’ request to
free his people, the Israelites, from Egyptian slavery, and so a series of
10-plagues ensued. This culminated with the final plague, which was the death
of the first-born child, and the Israelites were saved by smearing the blood of
a pure and spotless lamb on their doorposts and lintels.
Moses then led the Israelite people
through the parted Red Sea to freedom, and closer to the promised land, the
land of milk and honey. Food then became scarce and the Israelites turned on
God and Moses. God then provided the Israelite of Jewish people with daily
Manna from heaven and daily quail for meat. God did this for the 40-years that
the Israelites wandered the wilderness searching for the promised land.
Last Sunday, the Israelites turned
again on God and Moses over a water shortage. Again, God intervened, and had
Moses strike a rock with his staff, causing water to flow abundantly. The Israelite
or Jewish people were again loyal and praising God.
This is where we pick up this morning,
in this the fifth week of this sermon series. Today’s sermon is called “The 10
Commandments”. I even put a picture in our slideshow for this morning of Moses,
AKA Charlton Heston, holding a depiction of the 10-Commandments on the stone
tablets.
An important thing to point out, is
that while we are given the 10-Commandments in our reading from the Book of
Exodus for this morning in Exodus 20, Moses doesn’t actually carry the actual
stone tablets down from Mount Sinai until Exodus 32. So, the 10-Commandments
that God give Moses this morning, as well as soon many other laws, are when
Moses is on the Mountain. Next Sunday, we will talk about what happens in
Exodus 32 when Moses is on the mountain longer than the Israelites wanted, and
bad things happened. As I said last Sunday, when “The Cat is away, the mice
play”. As I said then, the failure and the sin of the Israelite people at Mount
Sinai is our scripture reading for next week. Today however, God gives Moses
the 10-Commandments.
Many scholars call these commandments
and the laws that God gives Moses, the “Mosaic Covenant”. Some refer to the
10-Commandments and the law of the Old Testament, specifically the Torah or the
first five books of the Bible, as “The Law”. Some call it “The Law,” including
the Apostle Paul, because these were the commandments and the laws that God
told Moses that the Israelite or Jewish people should live by. Did the Jewish
people have to follow these commandments and laws forever? As Christians, we
would say no. As Christians we had the follow the law of the Torah, or the Old
Testament, until the Messiah, Jesus came. Jesus would usher in the New Covenant,
as laid out in our New Testament of our Bible.
In our Bibles, we have the Old
Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, in part, we have the
Jewish Law, or the “Old Covenant”. Jesus at the Last Supper though, said when
he gave the Apostles the cup of wine, “This is the blood of the New Covenant”.
As Christians then, we no longer live under the Law of Moses, or the Old Covenant.
The New Covenant is Jesus Christ, and we are not under the Law anymore, instead
we are under grace.
In fact, the Apostle Paul who was a
Jewish religious leader, and a convert to Christianity said in Romans 6:14:
“14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14, NRSV).
So,
as Christians we are living under the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, not under the
Old Covenant that God gave to Moses. If we are no longer bound as Christians by
the Old Covenant, or the Mosaic Law, why then are we encouraged to follow the
10-Commandments? I will explain this but let me first let me give you a couple of
supporting scriptures. Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt. 22:37-40, NRSV).
So, Jesus is saying that all the Old Covenant, or the Law
of Moses can be boiled down to this. Since Jesus did not mention the
10-Commandments here though, why should we still follow them? Do we have to
follow the 10-Commandments? Let me give you a couple of more scriptures.
Jesus says in John 14:15:
“15 “If you love me,
you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15, NRSV).
This
means that we should keep and follow everything that Jesus said and taught. Jesus
also says in Matthew 19:18-19:
“18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 19:18-19, NRSV).
So, Jesus here is quoting five of the 10-Commandments. So,
do we follow the 10-Commandments as Christians or not? I thought we were not
under the Law as Christians, but that we are under grace.
For me and for many scholars, this is the simple answer,
God cannot contradict Himself. Further, if God gives us a moral law, should we
disregard a moral law? It is true that loving God and our neighbor is what
Jesus says that all the Law and all the teachings of the prophets can be boiled
down to. Yet, many, like myself still think we are to follow the moral laws of
the Old Testament. We do not need to follow dietary laws, like we cannot eat
shellfish or pig meat, but we are to follow the moral laws. Why?
Well do we honestly think that God wanted the Jews to not
kill others, but that it is ok for Christians to do it? Do you think that God did
not want the Jews to steal, but that we still can? The reality is that the
moral laws that God gave to Moses in the Old Testament are still in effect I
believe, because these are God’s desire for how we are to live together. If God
does not contradict himself, then how can God not be ok with murder under the
Law, but now it is ok for us to murder? Jesus cites some of 10-Commandments for
precisely this reason.
While Christ and his gospel are the New Covenant, the moral
laws that God gave to Moses, I believe, should still be followed. I believe that
is still not good to commit adultery, that it is still not good to covet or desire
other people’s possessions or steal them. Having no other God but our God, and
not worshipping idols are still good things. Honoring your mother and father is
still a good thing to do.
It is true then that we are not under the Law of Moses, or
the Law of the Old Testament, and that we are indeed under the New Covenant
through Jesus Christ. We are not under the Law, and we are indeed under grace,
but God’s desire for how treat each other has not changed. So, the 10-Commandments,
are still good to follow and practice.
Regarding the following of the Old Covenant or the Old Law,
and the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul speaks to this, this
morning in Philippians 3:4b-14. Once again, the Apostle Paul says:
4 If anyone else has reason to be confident
in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the
law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever
gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ” (Phil. 3:4b-7, NRSV).
The
Apostle Paul is saying that as a former Jew and a former Pharisee that he was
righteous and blameless under the Old Covenant or the Law of Moses. Yet,
because he now knows Christ, the New Covenant, the Law of Moses does not matter
to him anymore. So, we are not as Christians under the Law, the Old Covenant,
or the Law of Moses anymore, but we should follow the moral and the loving parts
that explain how God wants us to treat each other.
With
this said, let me also briefly touch on the gospel of Matthew lesson for this
morning, which is often called, “The Parable of the Wicked Tenants”. In this
parable, a landowner planted a vineyard, and at harvest he wanted to get his
share of the produce. The vineyard owner, therefore, sent a group of slaves to
collect for him. The tenants of the landowner’s vineyard beat one slave, killed
another, and stoned another.
The
vineyard owner then sent another group of slaves to collect from the tenants, and
the wicked tenants treated them the same way, as the first group of slaves.
Lastly, the vineyard owner sent his own son, thinking that the wicked tenants would
respect his son. Yet the wicked tenants seized the landowner’s son and killed
him to. The vineyard owner then decided to put the tenants to a miserable death
and lease the vineyard to other tenants. Jesus then said that he similarly would
be rejected, as the cornerstone of humanity. Jesus lastly says that if we do
not follow God, we will probably end up like the wicked tenants.
For
nearly 2,000 years most Christian scholars have interpreted this parable of “The
Wicked Tenants” this way, God is the landowner, and the tenants are our fallen
and sinful humanity. The first group of slaves that are sent to collect, are the
first group of Old Testament Prophets, and the second group of slaves sent to
collected are the second group of Old Testament Prophets. The son of the
vineyard owner is Jesus, and again the vineyard owner is God.
God
made a covenant, an agreement with the Israelite people, making them the
covenant people. This agreement had the 10-Commandments and the rest of Old Covenant,
or the Law. Jesus is our New Covenant, the New Adam, and while we are no longer
bound by the Law or the prophets of old, we are still to follow the moral laws
of God. Therefore, my friends, brother, and sisters, the 10-Commandments sill
matter. Amen.
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