We are now in week three of our summer series on what we all grew up calling the Ten Commandments, but which we are reading as Ten Commitments by which covenant partners in relationship with God and one another agree to live. They’re parallel both to Jesus’ Beatitudes and Paul’s Fruit of the Spirit in that they describe normal life for those who are children of God in Christ. One of the things that has struck me as I have re-read these ten words slowly, closely, and carefully this summer, is that they are not ten discrete, unrelated sentences in… Continue reading →

The text of what we call the Ten Commandments is found in the midst of the story of Israel’s liberation from Egypt by a mysterious God whose name sounded something like the Hebrew word “I Am,” or “I Cause to Be,” or even “I Am Present.” The story continues from Egypt, through a miraculous crossing of the Sea into the wilderness to Mount Sinai where “I Am” invited a mixed multitude of Hebrew folk to unify around a covenant. If this people chose to enter into this covenant there were ten commitments that God expected of them. These were also… Continue reading →

Today we are beginning a series of sermons on what we call the Ten Commandments. In last week’s sermon, I held that it is well to begin thinking about these great words by thinking about the God who offers them up. I suggested that God is of higher and deeper mystery than any words of description we might use, even words of the Bible. Nonetheless, there is in such words, insight into the God we worship and serve.

These Ten Words (as Hebrew calls them) are first mentioned in Exodus 20. They begin: “And God spoke all these words: “I… Continue reading →