Peace in Unpeaceful Places

(July 6, 2008; Exodus 20:1-18)

Peace is not found in peaceful places. If, as our worship series leads us this

morning, the things that make for peace include the Ten Commandments then I have

come to suspect that peace is not found in peaceful places. Whatever peace is being

offered by God here it is unsettling to say the least.

In our culture modern laws or commands are to do precisely the opposite. Our

laws are supposed to settle conflicts and secure peace. Law and peace are often caught

up in strange circumstances. We try to elevate diversity in our society by promoting

different cultures, lifestyles and expressions but alongside of this ideal we also have an

increasing number of written and unwritten rules protecting people against some of these

expressions calling them harassment. Our culture promotes religious diversity but

condemns people who try to change our mind about God or truth. We promote sexual

exploration but condemn people crossing those boundaries. We promote free speech but

we tend to feel pressured to edit our speech so that it doesn’t offend.

The peace that our laws promote is simply the peace of being unbothered by our

neighbour. So long as I do not have to deal with what I find unpleasant in my neighbour

I have peace. Our notion of peace is often shaped in nurtured in this spirit of defence and

often fear. Peace is that space that we can secure for ourselves and those we love that

will be immune and protected from the threats of evil outside of us. This is not the way

of peace that the Ten Commandments guide us in. In his work A Precarious Peace Chris

Huebner reminds us that “there are many different kinds of peace, not all of them equally

desirable.” If, again as we were led to think this morning, the Ten Commandments make

for peace then it may call us to question our own notions and pursuit of peace.

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 God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai which is somewhere in

the desert between Egypt and Canaan. The giving of God’s law happens between the

place of slavery under foreign power in Egypt and the giving of land and control to the

Israelites in Canaan. The place of Mt. Sinai and the giving of the law is not insignificant.

God’s law is given outside of the context of any human control or authority. Laws and

rules work in our society and with our children because we are somehow able to enforce

them through our authority. God’s laws, however, are not given through any institution.

Samuel Balentine writes this of the location of Mt. Sinai. “[T]he location of Sinai is

finally indeterminate; it lies in the wilderness somewhere between Egypt and Canaan.

This elusiveness functions in [the Hebrew] tradition as a symbol of both Yahweh’s

freedom and Yahweh’s authority. Like Sinai, Yahweh’s authority is not confined by,

indeed may stand in opposition to, the sovereignty claimed by any earthly kingdom.”

The authority of God’s law in the Old Testament ultimately lies in the presence of God

alone. This will be important to remember when we consider the implications of this law

for ourselves.

It is God’s presence then that becomes important for understand the Ten

Commandments and how they might lead towards peace. If peace is to be found in

God’s presence then it can only be experienced in a place like Sinai, in a place outside

boundaries of human power and authority. This is why right after the Ten

Commandments and other laws were given we read that God called Moses up to the

mountain again were he was given instructions on how to build the Tabernacle. God

says, “Make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” And in the heart of the

Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies where there was an empty space reserved for God.

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God said, “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of

Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites. The

Tabernacle functioned as a sort of portable Mt. Sinai. The people of God were always to

carry with them a space reserved for God alone; a space that was not influenced or

controlled by any individual or group.

I think we can all relate to spaces that are controlled or influenced by groups or

individuals. Peer pressure begins early in grade school or even before and I suspect it

exists in the halls at Nithview home as well. Each day we navigate spaces and places that

pressure us to act a certain way and think a certain way. And each day we contribute to

creating those spaces. We experience this is in the small things like feeling a little

ashamed of liking a movie that people might think is stupid or not wearing something

because someone might think it looks funny. It becomes a little more serious when we

feel like we should not say what we believe because we are afraid people may not like us.

Churches experience this all the time when addressing ethical issues. Too easily a church

takes on one dominant view on an issue and people who think otherwise shy away from

expressing their own opinion. Ultimately our entire life direction can be shaped by the

pressures we feel around and within us; pressures to achieve or pressures to conform. We

cannot underestimate the effect that these pressures have in our lives. God takes these

pressures so seriously that God recognizes them as functioning like gods in our lives and

so he calls them idols that we too easily worship.

So it is in the context of God meeting Moses on Mt. Sinai and God giving the

instructions for the Tabernacle that God gives the Ten Commandments. If we can begin

to understand that what is important here is that space is given for God’s presence then

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we can then also understand that these commands were not simply rules to follow so that

a person could achieve righteousness or please God. Rather the Ten Commandments

appear to be given so that people could create and maintain a space for God in their life

and community; a space where our desire for control would not be allowed.

The Ten Commandments themselves are divided clearly into two sections. The

first three commands deal with our relationship with God and the last six commands deal

with our relationship with our neighbour. Samuel Balentine emphasizes that immediately

we must draw from this that in faithful living “there can be no separation between the

community’s devotion to God and its commitment to the world.”

God begins his speech with the affirmation, “I am Yahweh your God, who

brought out of Egypt out of the land of slavery.” God does not assume that we can alone

bring ourselves out of the bondage of whatever pressures we face. In Egypt the people

cried out to God and God delivered them. It is already in the gracious and liberating

space created by God that God calls us to a particular way of living, a way of maintaining

that space. And with this God offers the first command.

Do not have any gods before me.

This can also be read, “Do not bring any gods into my presence.” And the second

command follows closely on the first.

Do not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on

earth below or in the waters below.

Do not accept other gods and do not make your own gods. The third command then

points to how we relate directly to God.

Do not abuse the name of Yahweh your God.

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Do not take the name of God and use it for your own benefit. Do not come before the

name of God, or the presence of God in vanity or self-service. These commands are

telling us not to open ourselves up to spaces of influence and authority apart from God.

Do not create spaces of influence and authority apart from God. Do not use God for your

own purposes of power and influence.

These first commands demand a rigorous evaluation of our lives. These

commands seek out our basic experience of the world in our fears and our desires. If you

would like to understand what idols, or false gods, you may have in your life then

examine your fears and your desires. In the Old Testament fears and desires were linked

closely to the weather and family as their livelihood depended directly on it. Idols then

were the gods like Baal and Asherah who controlled the weather and fertility. I see these

fears and desires ultimately connected to the basic desire for control and the fear of losing

it, of vulnerability.

Today our idolatries are located around strength and beauty, around wealth and

status. Our idols are often crystallized in how our children’s toys reflect our adult

anxieties. In our action figures men and women exhibit the ability to control the forces

that threaten them. They exhibit the bodies and minds we wished we inhabited. The

third command tells us that not only are we not to form our own idols but we are also not

to take the name of God and use it for our own purposes. Do not use the name of God to

leverage your own war whether it is with another country or with your neighbour. Too

often we turn Jesus into an action hero thinking of him as the best version of what we

would want to be. We say that if Jesus lived on earth today he would be a liberal, a

conservative, a feminist, a pacifist, a football player, a metal head, a poet, an intellectual.

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We use God to elevate our own priorities rather than allow the presence of God to shape

and create our priorities. God will not tolerate idols and will not be used as one.

One aspect of worship that God instructed Moses about on Mt. Sinai was that

priests were to prepare themselves by sacrificing a bull in front of the Tabernacle. It is

likely no coincidence that the next thing we read about is how Aaron, the chief priest, and

the rest of the people reacted to Moses being gone so long. It says that the people

gathered around Aaron concerned that perhaps Moses would never come back. So they

asked Aaron the priest to make a god for them. Aaron seemed to not even hesitate as he

pooled their gold jewelry together created an idol in the shape of a young bull. And then

he said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt. The god who

delivered you is one of wealth and strength. A god you can grasp and create. A god

whose power ultimately comes from human strength and ability. This happens while

God is still instructing Moses. It is at that time that God tells Moses that for the priests to

be able to function in their role, to be able to worship properly, they must take a bull and

sacrifice it on the alter. This is the ongoing priestly task of the first three commandments

to sacrifice your idols, to kill your idols before entering into the presence of God. In the

Ten Commandments God calls us first to create and maintain space for the presence of

God, a God who will not share influence or authority with anything or anyone else.

The last six commands teach us about space for our neighbour.

Honour your father and your mother.

Parents stand as a type of analogy or illustration of God. We did not create ourselves.

We began this world helpless, completely dependent on a source that could care and

nurture us. Soon enough we stand up on our own two feet and feel that perhaps we do

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not need our parents and may even feel some resentment towards them. If we are to

practice an expression of humility and gratitude towards all that God has given us, then

let it begin with how we express these things to our parents.

Do not murder.

Do not assume that you can judge the life of another person.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not assume that the love of another can be experienced outside of faithfulness.

Do not steal.

Do not assume the right to more than God has granted you.

Do not give false testimony against your neighbour.

Do not assume that your rights and abilities are more important than your neighbour’s.

Do not covet what is your neighbour’s.

This is perhaps better translated simply,

Do not desire for yourself what is your neigbour’s.

In many ways this command addresses the last four. It is again our desires when

misdirected that get us into trouble. In misguided acts of desire we do not allow our

neighbour to have a life given specially to him or her by God. Our desire for our

neighbour’s possessions leads us to steal. Our desire for our neighbour’s position may

lead us to speak falsely about him or her. Our desire for our neigbour’s marriage may

lead us to adultery. Our desire to have our neigbour’s life may ultimately lead us to

murder. When God is not given the central place in our life then our desires take that

place becoming powerful forces that move us to commit acts against our neighbours. In

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these acts we are not creating idols to serve we are ourselves are acting as gods in how

we treat those around us.

The Ten Commandments are grounded in the space of Mt. Sinai a place out of the

slavery in Egypt but before receiving the land of Canaan. They are grounded in a type of

groundlessness, a place beyond our control where God can be received as the one who

moves beyond our expectations, desires, and our fears. This space also allows our

neighbour to be formed in relationship with ourselves and God. It almost becomes

obvious then that when Jesus is asked to summarize the Law he says that it is love God

with all your heart, soul and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. This is the

two sides of the Ten Commandments.

What does all this have to do with peace? We often assume that following these

commands will lead to peace within ourselves and peace with our neighbours. There is

an extent to which that is true. But if we look at the structure of this passage something

more significant emerges. We find that the people witnessing this event on either end of

the Ten Commandments are trembling with fear. As God meets Moses on the mountain

the people witness smoke, fire, thunder, lighting and earthquakes. The people are not yet

prepared to enter the presence of God and so they roped off at the foot of the mountain.

Then after Moses brings the Ten Commandments to the people it says that “when the

people saw the thunder and lightening and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in

smoke, they trembled in fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us

yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” When

God’s commands come to us they shake our foundations. They search out our thoughts

and actions sitting in judgment on them. They force us into confrontation with our

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neighbour as we attempt to throw down the idols within and around us. If they are

allowed into us these commands leave us trembling, vulnerable and at the mercy of God.

They leave us in the wilderness in the space of Mt. Sinai where no one can claim power

and status. According to the text it is then, and only then, as we enter into the commands

from either side, the commands to love God and to love our neighbour that we encounter

something in the centre.

For those of you who were counting I have left out one commandment. It is at the

centre of the commandments. It is at the place where the love of God and love of

neighbour meet.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all
your work, but 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. For 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.

This the heart of the commandments and the place of peace. This is where God is

honoured and neighbour is loved. After the commands have searched us out and we have

trembled before them as they overturned our idols and desires then we are able to receive

peace from God and peace with all those who gather in this place. This is Sabbath. The

place of peace is a place of the worship. We gather each Sunday so that in some real way

we can enact and honour Sabbath and this way live at the heart of the commands. This

was God’s call on Moses. God called Moses to lead a kingdom of priests and a holy

nation; a kingdom not of kings and generals but of saints, a nation not ruled by war and

economics but by right relationships with God.

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 As we leave from here we are called to overthrow the idols of our culture and

undermine the national foundations of wealth and power. We leave knowing that as the

Tabernacle was a portable place to live with God’s presence now our bodies are the

temple of God’s Spirit. Our bodies carry the place where God met with Moses on Mt.

Sinai. The Spirit searches us and shakes us until we let go of control and fear and

misdirected desires. The Spirit moves in us so that others also might tremble as their

idols are exposed. The Spirit empowers us so those who suffer under the powers and

idols of the world may find rest. The Spirit carries us so that we might travel to heart of

God. This is the place of Sabbath. This is the place of peace where are passions find

fulfillment and our fears are healed. May we not be afraid at God’s commands for

though they are often not peaceful they are indeed the way to peace.

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