Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "Whose Version of ‘Reality’?"

Text: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Van suggested to us that one way to think about

the story of the Exodus,

and the Hebrew people’s sojourn in the desert,

was as a reality TV series:

"Survivor: The Wilderness of Sin."

I like that.

The lectionary readings we have heard the past couple of weeks:

grumbling about food and God providing manna and quails,

grumbling about water, which God provides from a rock …

these are only the tip of the sand dune

of the people’s griping, mean-spiritedness,

picking at each other, taking sides,

trying to pit Moses against Aaron and vice versa …

While I, also, have actually never watched a single "reality TV" show,

one reads enough about them as so-called "news"

to realize that this is right up their alley.

Vote someone off the island.

Eat bugs.

Stab your teammates in the back.

To say nothing of other charming shows like "Cheaters" …

who ever knew adultery could be so lucrative?

Scads of women competing for a millionaire bachelor

who turns out to be no such thing?

Dump a bunch of Amish kids in the big city

and then follow them around with cameras?

Ask a bunch of educated young adults to perform mostly stupid tasks,

tattle on each other’s mistakes,

and publicly humiliate themselves,

all for the purpose of maybe getting a job with

an aging millionaire with bad hair?

Whose version of reality is this, anyway?

Unfortunately,

judging from the popularity of such shows,

it’s ours.

Oh, we may not watch them,

or at least, not follow them slavishly,

but what they represent is our version of reality.

Competition.

Win at all costs.

Only the strong survive.

If you’re not number one, you’re a loser.

Rewards come to those who take without giving.

Blame anyone but yourself.

This is the world we live in.

This, apparently, is our reality … like it or not.

And that’s just about what was going on with the Hebrew people

at about the time that God summons Moses

and gives to him the ten commandments.

And what these two stone tablets do

is offer to God’s people

a new and different version of reality.

A reality in which people work with one another

instead of against one another.

A reality in which people are satisfied with what God has given them,

and don’t feel a need to go out and grab more.

A reality that balances work and rest.

A reality in which people live in partnership with God and creation,

instead of trying to avoid one and exploit the other.

A reality based on cooperation,

rather than competition.

I’ll say more about that in just a minute,

but here’s something else we need to keep in mind.

In our present-day version of reality,

it’s all about individuals trying to get all they can.

One only needs to look at recent court cases

against executives who have robbed their companies blind

in order to see that the "common good"

is almost a forgotten notion.

So ten thousand workers lost their pensions?

Big deal; I’ve got my Learjet.

Similarly, we tend to read the ten commandments

as if they were primarily aimed at individuals and individual behavior.

The third commandment means that I shouldn’t use swear words,

or at least, I shouldn’t throw God’s name in there.

The fourth commandment is taken to mean that

I, personally, should not work on the Sabbath day.

The fifth commandment causes problems for those

whose own fathers and mothers did things

that are not worthy of honor.

The sixth commandment is taken to mean that

I, as an individual,

should never kill another human being

(except maybe in self-defense).

Etc.

We hear and understand these as

rules for the governing of our own individual lives

in order to stay on God’s good side.

That’s not surprising;

rampant individualism is our version of reality.

Well, it’s not inaccurate to read the commandments that way;

it’s just incomplete.

Because God gave this list of rules not just to problem individuals,

but to a people who were behaving problematically.

So, for example … let’s start with an easy one …

when they, and we, are commanded to honor our fathers and mothers,

that may or may not have anything to do with

the individuals who birthed us and raised us.

It has to do with remembering and honoring our ancestors …

our literal and figurative ancestors.

With reminding ourselves that we are not the first or the only people

ever to command God’s attention.

It’s a reminder that we did not get where we are

solely by our own hard work,

or, solely because of our faults and failings.

We have a past that extends back long before we were born.

You may remember several years ago now,

Ann Richards got a huge laugh when she remarked about George Bush the first,

that "he was born on third base, and thinks he hit a triple."

That is, born to privilege,

and thinks he got there all on his own.

We can laugh at that if we want,

but really, it’s true to a certain extent of most of us.

Nearly anyone born in this country

was born at least on second base,

compared to most of the rest of the world,

yet we do like to give ourselves credit

for all that we have and all we have done.

When we do so,

we are failing to honor our fathers and mothers.

When we assume that everything good we have

we got by our own strength, or smarts, or luck,

we are living outside of God’s version of reality.

The community of which we are a part

not only extends horizontally, to one another, and beyond …

but also vertically, to those who came before us

and those who will come along after us.

We are never isolated individuals;

we are always connected to a community.

So, then, will we choose

to do the community good, or to do it harm?

Which version of reality will we choose?

We don’t have time on one Sunday morning

to make our way through all of the commandments,

thinking about them in this way.

But let’s just pick a few,

and look at what difference it makes

if we understand them as being about

a common, community reality

instead of just a personal reality.

Let’s start with an easy one, relatively speaking.

I understand perfectly well that remembering the Sabbath day

means that I should not work seven-day weeks.

That even though I can’t very well take Sundays off,

I should be taking time to rest, to honor God.

That it is not up to me to work harder and more hours

than God did in creating the whole world.

But what does it mean for a community,

to remember the Sabbath day?

Does it mean that stores should be closed on Sundays,

so that their workers can have that day off?

Does it mean that it’s problematic

for kids’ sports teams to schedule games on Sundays?

Maybe, except then we have to deal with the issue

of Saturdays for Jewish kids,

and Fridays for Muslim kids,

and it’s not easy to sort out.

What I think it means, big picture,

is that our culture’s present system of rewarding workaholism

has simply got to be broken.

The notion that it’s okay to fire one-third of your employees,

and expect the other two-thirds

to pick up the slack,

is wrong.

The expectation that salaried employees

will work eighty-hour weeks "to get the job done,"

is wrong.

If it takes that long,

it’s more than one job.

The idea that we are most efficient

when a certain percentage of the population is overworked

while another percentage cannot find work,

is an un-faithful idea.

The commandment about Sabbath

insists that we honor both work and leisure.

Our present competitive culture honors neither.

Or, let’s look at the very end.

I understand very well that not coveting

means that I as a person of faith shouldn’t lust after

that ’58 Buick Roadmaster that one of the car club guys owns,

or the BMWs that some of my students drive.

But in the big picture, what might it mean?

What happened in the 16^th century

when Spain, and others,

coveted the gold to be found in the New World?

What happens if a wealthy business-owner

covets the land on which your house is sitting

in order to build a football stadium?

What happens when one nation covets

the fossil fuels that lie beneath the ground

of another nation?

Oh no, she’s quit preaching

and gone to meddling again!

Look what happens when the ten commandments

ask us to consider a different view of reality.

If it’s no longer just about my own personal

behavior or misbehavior,

but about us, collectively, and how we will live together.

To be sure,

the Bible is not silent about individual sins,

and mistakes, and evil.

But it is much less concerned about those

than it is about how we behave as a community of faith.

The "Survivor" view of reality,

so common and so popular in our culture,

is not God’s view of how things ought to be.

We were not created by God

in order to grab for ourselves whatever we can grab,

or to step over each other on our way to some goal.

We were created to share what we grab,

and to step forward to reach God’s goals together.

First and foremost,

that’s what the ten commandments are all about.

Whose version of reality will govern us?

Ours, or God’s?

Whose version of reality is real?

Amen.