4th. October. 2020 Service

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost,

The Call to Worship

Let us worship God and listen to the Hymn:

“Be still for the presence of the Lord”

The Collect for today
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the fulness e of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

O Lord, you are God.
There is no other God but you.
We renounce all that we have allowed
to come between us.
O Lord, we worship you.
We praise and honour your name.
We worship you on this, your holy day.
For your love, for your word,
for all that you have given:
O Lord, we thank, praise, and love you..

Prayers of Adoration and confession

Almighty God,
your word bursts forth into our lives
like a glorious sunrise.
You speak, and our hearts rejoice.
You command, and our eyes are opened.
The sound of your voice brings revival to our souls.
Your words are purer than the finest gold.
True and righteous one, living Word,
light our way.
As we listen to your Spirit,
may the words of our mouths
and the thoughts of our hearts
be accepted in your sight, O Lord,
our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

No matter how righteous
we imagine ourselves to be, Lord,
your perfect word reveals our imperfections
all too clearly.
No matter how hard we strive
to fulfil the requirements of your law,
we always fall short.
We have forgotten that righteousness and perfection
come not from rules and regulations
but from faith.
We have ignored the truth that your righteousness
comes from faith.
Open our eyes to see that all we have accomplished
is nothing compared to knowing Christ
as our Lord.
Let us count everything as loss,
that we might gain heaven
and be found blameless in Christ.
In the name of the Saviour we pray.

Words of Assurance
Father help us to take heart; have faith. The goal is in sight.
Press on to take hold of it,
as Christ has taken hold of us.
Have no fear; leave the past behind.
Reach out for what lies ahead, for the prize,
for the life to be found in Christ Jesus.

Prayer for Understanding
The weight of your words, your laws,
your commandments and decrees
can become an impossible burden, Lord,
if we allow them to overwhelm and crush us.
Yet they were meant to be life-giving,
vital and alive—
the foundation for our lives,
the chief cornerstone of your church,
the living temple of God.
Loving God, this is your handiwork.
How amazing and wonderful it is!

We receive it with open minds and hearts. Give us your Spirit of wisdom, love, and grace that your transforming power may change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ your Son who taught us to pray:

The Lord’s Prayer (in the words most familiar to you)

The Readings

Exodus 20:1-17 And God spoke all these words:

²‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³‘You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷‘You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸‘Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labour and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²‘Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³‘You shall not murder.

¹⁴‘You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵‘You shall not steal.

¹⁶‘You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

¹⁷‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.’

Philippians 3:4b-14

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Amen. This is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.

Sermon

Genesis 20: 1-17

In a rather prescient sermon preached in 2009, an American pastor said this:

Today, in America, many believe that there are no “moral absolutes.” Many hold to a philosophy of “moral relativism.” How many times have we heard statements like these: “What’s right for you may not be right for Me.”; “If it feels good do it.”; “Anything goes.”; “Nothing is right or wrong, there are just different opinions?” All of this is the result of the feeling that there is no absolute truth. You are entitled to your truth and I am entitled to mine! A recent poll found that 67% of Americans do not believe in moral absolutes. Among “Baby Busters”, those born between 1965 and 1983, the percentage was even higher at 78%. Even 62% of professing Christians said that there was no absolute standard of right and wrong. My, how America has fallen! This nation was founded on biblical principles of right and wrong. Today, that foundation is crumbling beneath our feet! James Madison, the 4th President of the United States said this, “We stake the future of this country on our ability to govern ourselves under the principles of the Ten Commandments.” Carl Allen.

The Ten Commandments, what do we make of them?

Somewhere I read a 1950’s story about an old tribal elder in the highlands of New Guinea. A missionary, who happened to be strong on the Old Testament law, and maybe not so keen on New Testament love, had tried to convert this old man to Christianity. A number of times he had recited the Ten Commandments to the wizened elder. But the old man remained unconvinced.

Then on one visit the Elder said to the missionary: “You say if I become a Christian, I can no longer steal yams from my neighbour. I cannot take my neighbour’s pig or woman. I must not cheat when I make a deal, I cannot hide in a bush and kill an enemy when he comes by?”

The missionary nodded: “Yes that’s right. You cannot do those bad things.”

“Ayeehah! Ayeehah” wailed the old man. I don’t do these things anymore. I am old and no longer a strong fella. I can’t do that stuff. To be Christian is to be like an old fella!

It’s a good yarn which highlights the danger of allowing one’s Christianity to be submerged by the Old Testament law. It is a serious distortion when law takes primacy over love.

Does this mean that the Ten Commandments are no longer important? (Except maybe for the elderly?!) Would we do better to forget about them and concentrate on the New Testament?

I don’t think so! Like the ethical preaching of the great prophets, the Ten Commandments have much to offer. Here are four points to make on their value and place within Christianity.

The first thing that the Ten Commandments point us towards is God who is ethical a God who is most concerned about the way we treat one another. A God who calls us to a high code of dealing with each other. Even the validity or otherwise of how we worship God is correlated with how we treat our fellow human beings.

At the time when Moses introduced this ethical concept, it was a revolutionary idea. The worship of most gods had little ethical content. What those gods demanded were certain rituals, sacrifices, and festivals, and observance of taboos. Different gods had different requirements. If you were to keep in the good books of the gods, you had to be both wily and quick footed. What pleased one might make another one angry. Pleasing or placating the gods was a demanding exercise, often a balancing act.

In a real sense, life was chaotic because of the whims and fancies of the gods. There was no ultimate sense of right and wrong. It varied depending on which god’s territory you happened to be on, or with which god’s holy day you were in.

Into this religious confusion came Moses with his revolutionary message that there was only one God in heaven and earth to whom we were responsible. Moreover, the chief demand of this one God was an elevated moral conduct. Out of the chaos came the radical worship of one God who was most concerned with how we treated spouse and parent, friend and neighbour, alien immigrant and slave, servant and even our enemy.

I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods beside me.
            You shall not make idols out of anything.
            You shall not use my name carelessly.
            Observe a day of rest– and that includes your servants and slaves.
            Honour your father and mother.
            Do not kill.
            Do not commit adultery.
            Do not steal.
            Do not tell lies about another person.
            Do not lust after any possession your neighbour has.

Later the prophet Micah was to sum up the true worship of this ethical One-God:

What does the Lord require of you, except to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?

The second thing we need to understand about the Ten Commandents is that they were for our happiness. They are intended to give us a good quality of life as they are protective of our neighbours’ wellbeing. Such is human nature that our selfish egos threaten this and that what should issue from love becomes a burden because of this. They were not, as many have feared, an arbitrary burden laid on human shoulders. The opposite in fact, they are meant to lighten the load on our shoulders. They are a meant to be blessing not a leaden duty.

The commandments direct us towards a higher level of happiness in community life. They are intended to help us get on together and to be fulfilled. We must stress this! They are concerned with the maximum good of all, not for ego-trips of a few powerful individuals who want to do things their own way no matter how many other lives they negatively affect. The ethical equivalents of post-modern individualism, ethical relativism, rampant selfishness, are banned. The commandments are for the blessing of life in community.

As Jesus was later the express it: The commandments are made for man, not man for the commandments.

A community that honours and cares for the elderly, is less anxious and happier than one that despises old age.

A community that takes a day off from work to enjoy God’s creation is healthier than one built on unceasing labour.

A community where individuals do not steal, or kill is a relaxed place in which to live.

A community that is not built on lies and deceit is a secure environment.

A community that puts store on fidelity in marriage and raises children in security is one that fosters the wellbeing of everyone,

Much of the unhappiness we see around us today is the inevitable result of losing a once-honoured ethical framework. When common ethical standards are tossed out, misery comes in.

How does this relate to our lives as Christians? As followers of Jesus, do the Ten Commandments have an absolute claim over us? The answer is in fact no. because Jesus came not to enforce the law but to fulfil it.

Many devoted Jews in strictly observing the law with admirable zeal, also revealed the serious limitations of law. Zealous observance spawned more laws to cover changing circumstances. By the time of Jesus there were an additional 5,000 regulations to be observed. Yet at the same time cunning people worked hard at finding ways to get around the laws, keeping them by the letter but denying the spirit behind them. Consider how lawyers spend so much time looking for loopholes and get around clauses in legislation to excuse clients, enable them to avoid taxes, mitigate sentences or gain a financial advantage for their clients. We are all good at considering ourselves to be the exception to every rule or regulation and finding ways to justify ourselves.

On the other hand, Jesus on occasions seems to have broken the religious law. Jesus was not a legalist. When the law came between him and helping other people, he appears to break it. For example, he defended the right of his hungry disciples to gather and eat some heads of barley on the Sabbath.

To be accurate we should say that Jesus went beyond the law. What we have suggested was breaking the law was in fact going to the significant part of it and fulfilling it. That is why he asked his disciples to exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.

Best known of all is his summary of the essence that lies behind the Old Testament commandments. Love God and love others as you love yourself; this is the fulfilment of the ethics of both Moses and the prophets. Love becomes the litmus test.

Some critics think that this is too permissive. They miss the point because, far from being permissive, to live by love leaves no loopholes at all through which the cunning can extricate themselves from morality. All situations are subject to Christ’s test of love.

What then is the use of the Ten Commandments?

The Ten Commandments are not for old people who no longer have the energy to do bad things.

The Ten Commandments remain a vital practical guide for people in the full vigour of life. They guide us to discover what it means to be a loving person. Without a practical guide, love can be turned into some abstract notion or into some sentimental feeling. True love is not based upon feeling, but a conscious willingness to act in the highest and best way. The commandment to love our enemy is not dependent upon how we feel it is a conscious decision to treat him as one who is as vulnerable and in need of love as ourselves. Yes, we may defend ourselves from an enemy, but we may not repay evil with evil.

The Ten Commandments anchor things in real life. We may liken them to guideposts along the side of a highway. It is wise to drive within those guideposts. Drive outside them and we may soon hurt ourselves and others

However, there may be exceptional circumstances when to be genuinely loving, you may need to go beyond the guideposts. There are many examples given of moral dilemmas by ethicists. One well-known and frequently discussed example of an ethical dilemma was offered by Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre asks us to imagine a young man who lives with his mother; he is her only happiness in life. But the young man lives in occupied France during World War II and feels obliged to fight in the war. What does the young man do? Another dilemma is a situation in which three family members are being held captive. The captives give one the choice of which of the other two will die. If there is no choice, they all will be killed. Or, there may be times when for love’s sake you must tell a lie: for instance, if a psychopath with a gun in his hand asks where my son is, I am not likely to tell him the truth.

Fortunately for most of us, most of the time, the loving course to take will be the way of the Ten Commandments. They are a very practical guide for loving in a complex world. They were given for a benefit, not burden. They are a blessing from a most loving God.

In all this, it is our own motivation which is extremely important. Do we try to follow the high ethical ground out of love or out of fear?

Far too often the law of the Bible has been observed out of fear. People have kept the commandments because they fear divine retribution if they don’t. They keep the law like an oppressed people living under the iron heel of a dictator.

Fear and selfishness are both powerful emotions. They will usually achieve quicker results than love. An orator who preaches a fierce divine judgement on law breakers, who elaborates on terrible punishments and damnation, can gain a powerful influence over some. However, a consequence of this can be self-righteousness and a readiness to condemn others who are seen as sinners because they are hot. The law condemns, but grace moves the heart and mind to holy love. Keeping the law by itself does not change the heart, it does not give liberty and joy. Fear is not the Gospel of Jesus. Fear can of course lead to repentance in which God’s grace changes fear to love.

Love changes people. It changes our motivation. To have love awakened within us by God’s most beautiful love in Christ Jesus, is to find a resource that bubbles up like a limitless spring. It reshapes the way we think, it changes the things we want, and it alters how we see one another, and transforms how we treat each other. Love may be slower than fear, but it is a liberating power that is inexhaustible.

Out of love, in true liberty, we can delight in the commandments and follow their guidance for the wellbeing of those around us and for the fulfilment of our own happiness. Amen.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Holy God your word today challenges us to live as a people who are dedicated to live in love for you and all our neighbours. Thank you for grafting us into the life of Jesus Christ the true vine your pleasant planting. Make us rich in bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit, to your glory and for the nourishment of a world starved for your love.