Honoring The Nine Commandments

There used to be ten commandments, but nowadays there seem only to be nine.

I say that because there are only nine commandments that go uncontested. Oh, sure, in some sense we all break various commandments from time to time.

Maybe not murder per se, but we harbor rage, and Jesus had a few things to say about that.

Maybe not adultery per se, but we harbor lust, and Jesus had a few things to say about that.

As for coveting and envy, I hardly need point out how often we fall prey to that forbidden sin.

And so it goes on down the line.

We may wiggle and squirm ("It was a holy anger" or "It was just a tiny second peek, in appreciation of that person's God-given beauty") but we at least affirm the principal. We should not murder. We should not commit adultery. We should not engage in idolatry. We should not covet.

The wiggling and squirming I understand. I've done it myself often enough. But with no other commandment have I witnessed such zeal in redefining the terms. With this commandment, I regularly observe committed Christians resorting to the nuclear option. "That was the Old Testament. Jesus changed all that. We don't have to do that anymore."

Which commandment am I talking about?

Honoring the Sabbath.

It's only the fourth commandment, after all. Just after the ones about idolatry and worshipping other gods. It's probably just coincidental that it got listed ahead of murder, adultery, false testimony.

Just the Sabbath. The optional commandment.

What is it about Holy Rest that we are so averse to? Could it be we are enslaved to something that requires our time during the Sabbath? God calls us to rest on the Sabbath. Whose call are we obeying when we do not?

Perhaps, when we ignore the fourth commandment, we demonstrate that we are also in violation of one that precedes it. We serve an extra god. Perhaps two of them? Busy ones.

Not to worry, however! There is an easy solution to this problem.

Perhaps eight commandments will suffice?

The Economics of Worry

I've heard it said that one major approach to marketing involves two simple steps.

1) Give people something to fear.
2) Convince them that your product will make it go away.

There are other approaches, to be sure, but this one is certainly a common one -- and not least because it works.

In the spirit of fear and economics, here's another angle on a closely related topic — a proposition about fear that can be couched in economic terms.

We worry about things we can afford to worry about.

I came to this conclusion after reflecting on some fears that one of my children is facing. A trivial fear. One that should not cause any real distress at all. But the child sometimes has trouble sleeping at night all on account of this little matter. The whole exercise reminded me of how I, too, live.

I have a warm home. I have food. I have health care. In fact, these things are true of everyone in my family. None of us worry about those things.

So we worry about other things.

For me, family finances are OK for the moment... so I worry about unloading a financial tar baby (yeah, the old FTB) that is actually worth very real money.

My sleepless child? Schoolwork robs this little one of sleep. Ironically, the child is excelling in every class.

How silly are we? An excellent student losing sleep over school. A financially secure man worrying about a financial asset that most people would be delighted to receive as a gift. (Finding a buyer is another story, but I digress!)

Worry is not fun! So why is it that we always worry about something — even when there is nothing important to worry about? If the life of my child were hanging in the balance at a nearby hospital, it's a sure bet I wouldn't be worrying about my FTB!! But my kids are fine. So I worry about my next best options.

How stupid is that.

So a new approach is needed. The goal, I propose, is to remember what I can afford to not worry about. That list is a long one. Thanks be to God, who is my great reward! I can afford to not worry about anything. God is on my side. My eternal future is secure. And I am not alone now in anything I face.

How awesome is that?

Well, I've probably used a thousand words where a hundred would have sufficed, but hopefully in all this rambling I have cemented in an idea which will come back and poke me reproachfully at the appropriate time(s)...

Will I worry about what I can afford to worry about?

Or will I remember what I can afford to not worry about.

Precious Lord, let me do the latter. You paid a heavy price that it would be so.

What a waste to not now live in carefree abandonment to the God who bought my worries and has secured my future.

Take Your Pick

Hebrews 11:13-16
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

I don't watch TV (let alone the religious ones) enough to be certain, but if I were a betting man I'd stake a stack of pennies that this scripture passage from Hebrews does not feature frequently in those glitzy shows with pretty people flogging a health and wealth gospel.

- God wants you rich.
- God can help you be successful.
- God can let you die before he delivers on his promises to you.

Hmmmm.

Per Sesame Street, one of these claims is not like the others. The last one comes from the book of Hebrews. I cannot speak for the provenance of the first two.

Oh, people can (and do) throw out verses to defend the first two options. How about this one?

John 16:23b
Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

I know that one gets good coverage on TV. So... I need only ask God for comforts and riches (all to be used in good ways, to be sure!) and God will not withhold from me these blessings? Sounds great! Sign me up.

Ah, the joys of verses taken out of context. Only a few verses later (in verse 33) Jesus notes, "In this world you will have trouble."

How is it that will we have troubles if we can have anything we ask for? What does Jesus mean?

A fair question.

I'm not a Bible scholar, and it's too late at night for any serious rookie scholarship work on Google. That said, I have the strong suspicion that there is a little fine print involved here. And the fine print says that Jesus has an opinion about those who belong to him. One salient characteristic is that they do not ask for what the world clamours for. Jesus knows that his own yearn for something else.

What?

Well, let's look again at the whole of verse 33.

John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Peace.

What else? What else defines those who belong to Jesus?

A closer scrutiny of chapters 16 and 17 in John extend the list. Joy. Hope. Unity. Sanctification.

And a sense of Alienation — yes, Alienation with a capital A. Alienation from a world they no longer belong to.

John 17:16
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

I guess the rambling conclusion of this wandering reflection is this: We must take our pick.

Will we be Alienated from?

From Peace?

Or from the world and its desires?

I have had very little Peace today. I think I was pretty focused on worldly worries today. No fluke, that. Today I picked poorly.

But tomorrow, by God's grace, I can do better.

God, make me an alien in this world. A native in the Kingdom of God.

The Central Thread

I was struck the other day by how very often I interpret my world as backdrop to my story. This event impacts me in this way. That impacts me in that way. People I work with are important because of their impact in my life. (And not the other way around...)

Bizarre as it may sound, I too often go to the scriptures looking to them for guidance in my life. Of course, in one sense that is a delightfully good and healthy habit. Except when I forget that the scriptures were not written only for me. Duh. As if that needed to be said. And yet the sneaky underlying assumption courses along as I scour scriptures for God's message for me.

The constant testimony of the Spirit of God and of the holy scriptures is that God is the author of a great Story. And we are invited to be in it.

But the central thread in our story is Jesus Christ.

Why is it I keep living, and thinking, as if I am the center of the tapestry?

The best way to screw up a beautiful tapestry is to try to weave every thread through the very middle of it. I suspect I am not the only one making God's weaving project a rather muddled affair.

Let me adorn your tapestry, O Lord, in the corner you have woven me into. It is enough to beautify the threads around me and, as you desire, with them to provide backdrop to the most beautiful thread of all.