Don Friesen
My brother and I were once guests at a run-down cottage where the rooms were small, the furniture shoddy, and the walls covered with cheap wall-paper. On the wall in each room was tacked a scrap of paper on which were poorly-typed rules, such as:
1. Don't tear the paper off the walls.
One would have had to be a complete moron to need these rules, but my brother, being of a contrary frame of mind, read the rules as instructions as to what to do! Even though I'm much younger than him and was a teenager at the time, my cool head prevailed and instead we laughed ourselves silly at these dumb rules.
One can find similar instructions in John Irving's Cider House Rules. On the wall of the cider house was tacked a set of rules which included:
* Please don't operate the grinder or the press if you've been drinking.
The fact that the migrant workers who lived in the cider house couldn't read didn't seem to matter. Rules are rules!
Some of us Are Rule-Makers, Others Rule-Breakers
Now, some of us are comfortable with rules, while others among us see them as a challenge. Some of us like things neat and tidy. Others are quite at ease with free-floating ideas and behaviour. Some of us may be like the man who built himself a cabin, and quite proud of his creation he also put up shelves around the walls. One evening he was visited by a friend, and as the evening went on the friend--a carpenter--became noticeably restless. When the host inquired as to the cause of his uneasiness, the carpenter replied, "If you'll forgive me, it's those shelves! Everyone of them slopes down toward the right."
"Do they?" exclaimed the owner of the cabin. "I never noticed."
The shelves pleased the host, but irked his guest, the carpenter, because he saw those shelves against a true vertical, which ran like a plumbline through his mind.
Now, some might say that the carpenter was not only a rude guest but that he lacked flexibility. Others, of course, would say that the host ‘carpenter-wannabe' was sloppy and should never have been set free with a hand tool!
My Quest for Freedom, My Need for Orthodoxy
I share some of this ambivalence about rules. To be sure, I share of my brother's contrariness, and if you ask me not to do something I almost feel compelled to do it, but there are times in my life when I've needed to jettison some rules, and there are times when I've reached for them.
When I was young, fresh out of high school and finding my own way through my beliefs and my doubts--caught between what the Church had taught me and what I was learning elsewhere--I came across a very helpful book entitled The Christian Agnostic (1965, 1979), written by British writer Leslie Weatherhead (1893-1976), a friend of C.S. Lewis. Some dismiss his book as blasphemous, encouraging nothing but moral relativism, but I found it very helpful in sorting out the teachings of the Church. I realized that some doctrines and rules were central to the faith, while others were really quite periphery and one could be agnostic or uncertain about these less important beliefs without leaving faith and church altogether. I had wandered away from the faith because of the Church's inflexibility, but this book gave me the freedom to set aside my religious upbringing and to look at Jesus' life and teachings afresh. I found, as a consequence, that I was drawn to Jesus.
Weatherhead wrote this book at the end of his tenure as minister of the Methodist Temple in London because he was upset that so many people were told they had to sign on the dotted doctrinal line and believe all of their received doctrine. He contended that the Gospels did no such thing; they simply tell the story of Jesus and invite us to follow him and learn to love God and our neighbours, in the manner that he did.
Weatherhead's book occupies a prominent place on my bookshelf, right alongside G. K. Chesterton's book, entitled Orthodoxy. While Weatherhead wanted to encourage those who had doubts to develop a sense of Christian agnosticism about any doctrine that doesn't jibe with our God-given logic, Chesterton (1874-1936) applied a little more intellectual rigour to his quest and a little more humility to his personal insights and qualms. Chesterton admits, in the preface to his book on orthodoxy, that like many of his solemn school-mates he was as eager as the next to discover and proclaim the latest truth. He too wanted to be "ten minutes in advance of the truth," only to discover that he was nineteen hundred years behind! He confesses he is the one "who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before." The book, he says, "recounts my elephantine adventures in pursuit of the obvious." "I did try to found a heresy of my own," he says, "and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
These two spiritual mentors--Weatherhead and Chesterton--represent the two poles of my own inner quest for certainty and freedom. I'm what I like to call a flexible rule-lover. I have a fairly conservative theology, but I'm flexible about its application. I'm not trying to be flippant or cute; I think our faith places some profound and significant restrictions on our behaviour, but I have a lot of empathy with, and compassion for, those who transgress them.
The Ten Commandments Are Different
This is some of the baggage I bring to the Ten Commandments which were recounted in our Old Testament reading. The Ten Commandments, to our ears, sound like rules. One could muster an argument that they're not rules and that to call them rules trivializes them, but to our ears they sound like rules and like rules they're expressed in mostly negative terms: "Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't do this or that!"
Though the Ten Commandments sound like rules to us, they are different, in several ways. Firstly, these are not petty rules. We may bring the same contrariness to the Ten Commandments that we bring to petty rules, but the Commandments are not petty. That is not to say that petty minds can't make them appear petty. Some years ago Ted Turner, the founder of CNN (Cable News Network) told a convention of newspaper executives that the Ten Commandments are out of date and suggested that we replace them with "Ten voluntary initiatives" to guide "sensitive persons through the new age". (Mennonite Brethren Herald, 1991?)
In fact, to say that the Ten Commandments are not petty is to trivialize them. Stated positively, the Ten Commandments are different than other rules in that they represent a profound and enduring spiritual and social contract that has undergirded much of our history. Not only do the Ten Commandments have a decisive place in the life and history of Israel, they are also cherished by Christians, including all Protestants as well as members of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic communions. They appear in many manuals of conduct; they have been memorized by millions of children; they represent an important part of our spiritual heritage and are basic to Western law and civilization! The Ten Commandments have been called the Magna Carta of the social order; they are foundational to our Western religious and cultural existence.
The Ten Commandments Are Foundational
Secondly, the Ten Commandments are different from other rules in that these are foundational rules, not provisional rules. Some rules are petty, some are provisional, but some are profound and foundational to our existence, without which we have no reference point. In music, for example, it's very difficult to sing harmony if you don't start on the same pitch. Believe me, I speak from experience. Even improvisational music, like jazz, is very devoted to a basic structure. Improvisation depends upon a frame of reference! Just as a carpenter is bothered by shelves that are slightly askew of the true vertical; just like ships at sea in the northern hemisphere have as their point of reference the North Star; so the Ten Commandments are a basic code of conduct without which we would be at sea! They are intended for our well-being. They have bequeathed to us basic values, values of fidelity, respect, and reverence for life and the sanctity of human relationships. They are foundational rules, and while they may not always describe what we do, they lay out in no uncertain terms what we ought to do.
The Ten Commandments Are Given in the Context of a Relationship
Thirdly, the Ten Commandments are different from other rules in that they were shared in the context of a relationship. The first few verses of our Old Testament reading are very important. They read, "Then God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery....'" (Exodus 20:1-2) God doesn't begin the Ten Commandments with some legalese, stating, "In so far as" or "Inasmuch as" or "Whereas heretofore". God begins with a brief reminder of Israel's relationship with Him. The common image of the Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone conveys their enduring value but it tends to obscure the warmth of the relationship that had developed between God and His People.
Without this warm relationship, the Ten Commandments are no more important than cider house rules. The Ten Commandments are not impersonal rules imposed out of concern for someone's liability! God and Israel had a history! The people of God had been in slavery in Egypt for centuries, but God rescued them from that awful situation. God sent Moses to confront the mighty Pharaoh, to lead them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, and when, in the desert, the people became hungry God fed them manna. God led them to the Promised Land. All this God did for his people before the first commandment was even uttered! And so when God introduces the Ten Commandments with this abbreviated reminder of their glorious salvation history, the people were his to command. God had them the palm of His hand. They knew what God, out of His divine goodness, mercy and grace had done for them.
It puts a whole different spin on a rule or commandment when such words of guidance emerge out of a warm and loving relationship. It's as if God said to them, "I am your God and you are my people. Therefore, this is how I want you to live as God's people. This is how I want you to relate to me and how I want you to relate to each other. I'm not trying to be mean or oppressive. If I wanted to be mean, I would have left you as slaves in Egypt! No, it's because I love you; it's because I created you and called you by name; it's because I know you even better than you know yourselves that I now give you a standard by which to live so that you will get the most out of life--so that you will be able to live in peace and harmony with each other."
The Ten Commandments rest on a foundation of love and grace, and when accepted in that spirit they read as an invitation--an invitation to be God's Beloved People. It's a gracious invitation to live life in fellowship with God and with one another, and to show by the quality of our life together what is God's intention for the human race.
The Ten Commandments Are a Gift
Fourthly, the Ten Commandments are different in that they were regarded, not as restrictions, but as a gift. It's a distinction very similar to the emphasis on our relationship with God, but it helps us appreciate these commandments even more.
The story is told of a village plagued with disaster after disaster because someone had planted land-mines all over their countryside. It's a story that resonates with many people around the world. People in this village were constantly being maimed or killed. And then one night a village elder had a dream. In the dream he saw a map showing the location were each land-mine was hidden. The elder awoke, sketched out the map as he recalled it, and shared it with the people. It proved invaluable and life-saving. The villagers were delighted and profoundly grateful. (John Killinger, To My People with Love" 1988)
The Ten Commandments are like that: they tell us what to avoid--those actions and attitudes that would blow our world and relationships apart! And for that one can only be grateful. That is the spirit that permeates passages of Scripture like Psalm 19. The image of commandments and law that emerges from this psalm is hardly one of imposed authority; it is rather one of delight in the liberation God's law offers. Psalm 19 tells us that the "law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb." (Psalm 19: 7-10)
Read Psalm 119; it's more of the same--unequivocal delight in God's law! Remember the Old Testament story of the rediscovery of the law in a long-neglected storeroom in the Temple, and read of the delight and liberating reforms that followed. Only then do we begin to understand the spirit in which the people of God first received the Ten Commandments.
In a World at War ...
We may complain about the negative, restrictive character of the Ten Commandments, but as great and fundamental principles they provide but boundaries to an orderly and harmonious human existence. If we cross those boundaries, we risk a breakdown of harmonious fellowship with God and with each other, for they warn against the things that rupture those relationships. Within those boundaries, however, there is lots of room for imaginative and creative wholesome living.
I am very grateful for the Ten Commandments. I'm not sure I can wax as eloquent as the psalmist about the delight they afford, but they are certainly a gift. Despite history's brazen disregard for them on too many occasions, we are the heirs of foundational commandments that have worn well. Nineteenth century poet James Russell Lowell wrote:
"In vain we call old notions fudge,
The Ten Commandments are an enduring legacy, and brief enough that even I could memorize them. Jesus, in fact, offered an even shorter version: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." (Luke 10:27) How shall we live? The Ten Commandments give the answer: "Worship God, resisting the alternatives, and be a people at peace with one another." (David F. Wells, "God Spoke these Words")
In a world in which many gods clamour for our attention, claiming our time and resources, the Ten Commandments dare to call them idols and chide us for confusing mere fragments of creation with the Creator. (Exodus 20:3-6)
In a world in which God's name is frequently trivialized in ordinary conversation and His holiness cheapened by our irreverence, the Ten Commandments dare to call us to respect. (Exodus 20:7)
In a world with blatant disregard for any holy days, the Ten Commandments call us to remember the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11) We've got six other days to work!
In a world that worships youth, dotes on its beauty, and seduces older people to act like kids, the Ten Commandments call us to honour wisdom and tradition by honouring our parents.
In a world that trivializes the sanctity of marriage, the Ten Commandments dare us to avoid adultery, and all of the attendant land-mines thereto.
In a world rife with disrespect for life, marriage, property and truth, the Ten Commandments remind us that unless we respect basic boundaries, we cannot live in peace.
And in a world at war--a war as barbaric in intent as it is advanced in technique--the Ten Commandments continue to instruct us, "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13, KJV) Jesus took this commandment even further, telling us, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...." (Matthew 5:44)
Some dismissed Leslie Weatherhead as being doctrinally loose, but I think he understood our Lord's teaching in this regard very well. While a pastor in London during World War Two, Weatherhead spent almost every night for three years in the underground stations with the people of central London, leading prayers, helping to calm their anxiety, and helping to disarm his fellow citizens' hatred of the Germans, whose bombs and rockets were destroying their city. He often spoke of the need to forgive our enemies and to find forgiveness for our own failures and shortcomings.
May God forgive us.
2. Don't use too much toilet paper.
3. Don't leave the hot-plate on when you leave the room.
* Please don't go up on the roof if you've been drinking--especially at night.
* There should be no more than half a dozen people on the roof at any one time.
* Please--even if you are very hot (or if you've been drinking)--don't go into the cold-storage room to sleep.
And bend our conscience to our dealing;
The Ten Commandments will not budge,
And stealing will continue stealing."
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.