Displaying the Ten Commandments, #4:

One of the requirements on Old Testament Israel was the keeping of the Sabbath.  God, Himself, set the example on creation week by resting on the seventh day.  The requirement was formalized in the fourth of the Ten Commandments, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."  (Exodus 20:8)

I have met Christians who meet for worship on the seventh rather than the first day of the week, also observing at least some of the Sabbath restrictions.  Others have transferred the idea of the Sabbath to Sunday.  My wife grew up with a version of this.  Others of us, following the pattern of the early church have concluded that the Sabbath is part of the ceremonial aspect of the law fulfilled in Christ.  The Book of Hebrews has a lot to say about Christ fulfilling the law.  It is significant that in Acts 15:20 when the leaders of the early church announced expectations for Gentile believers, nothing was said about the Sabbath.   

All of the Ten Commandments emphasize important principles.  Just as the tithe made known that really all that one has comes from God, the Sabbath clearly indicates that all time is His.  Makes sense; as C. S. Lewis pointed out, we are incapable of making any.  The Sabbath also teaches us the importance of worship.  The New Testament says that serving the Lord is our reasonable service.  The word in Romans 12:1 is the word from which we get "liturgy."   Our worship ought not to be limited to one day a week; everything we do, whenever we do it ought to bring glory to God.  (1 Corinthians 10:31)

It is another opportunity for us to display the Ten Commandments.  Those who read our lives ought to see clearly that God is worthy to be worshiped.

  

Stay tuned.

It's STTA.

Displaying the Ten Commandments, #3:

Many Christians are quite passionate about maintaining our "right" to display portions of scripture and religious symbols in public places.  

The central symbol of Christianity has been a public symbol for two millennia.  Our Lord was crucified in plain view, and the early martyrs gladly owned the cross as they went to their deaths, some of them, like Peter and Andrew, even dying on crosses like their Lord.  The word of God, as well, ought not to be a private matter.  The book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament tells the story of how the early church spread the Good News from Jerusalem to the far reaches of the known world.  I don't see that the concern of those disciples was to get the Romans to let them hang copies of scripture in the Coloseums where they gave their lives.  Rather they made the Word known by lives that clearly demonstrated the power of God's word to change the world one life at a time.

There are good reasons why it makes sense to have a copy of the Ten Commandments displayed in a High School.  The sweeping secularization of our public spaces ought to be appropriately resisted, but far more important than a plaque on a wall, is the Word of God shining out from a life.  Perhaps the courts in our land will prevent the display of Ten Commandments in our schools and other government buildings. No power on earth can prevent us from living out the truth of those ten guidelines for Godly, sensible living.

The third of the Ten Commandments says that we are not to "take the name of the LORD [our] God in vain."  When I consider this with other passages of scripture that speak about my speech, like Ephesians 4:29 and 5:4, I see that what I say ought to display the fact that God is in control in my life.

When I open my mouth, what comes out? 
 

Stay tuned.

It's STTA.

Displaying the Ten Commandments, #2:

Not far from where I sit, a  case is being decided related to displaying the Ten Commandments in public space.  It is not the first such lawsuit, and likely won't be the last.
I am not so much in favor of the display of the Decalogue as I am opposed to the mentality that has forced the removal of similar displays.  We are on an ice-coated incline.  What I am heartily, and completely in favor of, is the display of the morality and ethic that is presented in the law received from the hand of God on Sinai in the lives of God's people today.
Take the second of those ten terse statements:

 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:4)
It is a standard that the People of God in the Old-Testament habitually violated.  In fact before Moses had even returned from the mountain they had made a golden calf to represent God.
One of the clear points God makes about Himself is that He is beyond all such constructs, be they wood, gold or stone, whether they are produced in the Sinai desert, Hollywood, Detroit, or Wall Street.  (Deuteronomy 4:12, 1 Timothy 6:16)  

When Moses came down from having met with God, there was no doubt what was going on, Aaron's lame excuses not withstanding.  I fear that even a quick, casual observation of the average Twenty-first Century Christian would demonstrate a modern version of idolatry every bit as obnoxious as the reveling of the people before the calf that, according to Aaron, just came out of the fire.  

I need to ask myself, "Does my life show that I worship and obey the God, Who is other than all that is around me, or do I look way too much like everyone else--devoted to a god of human manufacture?"

Stay tuned.

It's STTA.

Displaying the Ten Commandments:

I just saw that the Giles County 10 Commandment case is back in the headlines.  It will likely surprise no one to hear that the case is being driven as a result of a suit brought by well less than a handful, maybe one student and a parent ( here).

The Giles County display includes a number of historic documents

I am thoroughly convinced that our schools and other public institutions would be far better places if the there was a greater awareness of and adherence to the Decalogue.  Yet as I think of the horrendous persecution inflicted on Christians in some lands dominated by Islam, I certainly want my nation to respect the faith of nonChristians.  The rights of minorities--even minorities of two--need to be respected.  

I'm not saying the display at Narrows High School--a school, by the way, my pastoral associate attended--constitutes discrimination, or coercion.  I'm not sure that any of our founding documents guarantees the right to never see anything that makes one uncomfortable.  Since the two complainants in this case have remained anonymous, I don't know, but if they are like others who have similarly complained in other cases, their problem is "I am an atheist.  Seeing this display makes me feel that I am not a welcome part of this public--as in, "paid for by my tax money."--institution."  Do atheists demand the right to practice atheism, or the right to not practice theism?  (Here is one atheist's viewpoint on the dispute in Giles.)  Either way they have that right, and I endorse it.  I'm open to being convinced, but I don't see that this display violates either right.

I won't be filing an amicus curiae in this case.  Instead I'm advocating for a far more effective and, as far as I know, totally legal, display.  I'm advocating that we live out the principles of the Ten Commandments in our everyday life.  Start with #1.  Live in such a way that it clearly shows that there is one God and that He is my Lord.

Stay tuned.

 

It's STTA.

Ultimately the law shows out profound need.  When you see that look here to see the soul-u-tion.