Thick as a Brick

 Exodus 20:1-17

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; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

“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.”  That may at first seem like a throw away line before you get to the meat of the commandments but in Walter Brueggemann’s book “Sabbath as Resistance” (book study on Tuesdays at 7 pm) he insists it’s actually the hinge on which all the rest of these commandments swing.  

It's the answer to the question, "Are you one of the gods of Pharaoh?  A god that is never satisfied?  The god for whom enough is never enough?  The god who always wants more and more bricks to build more and more bins, to store more and more grain, to provide more and more wealth to those at the top of the pyramid?  No?  You’re not that god?  So, which God are you?  Oh, YOU are the God who brought us out of that land of insatiable, and unrelenting demand!  You’re THAT God, the One who threw the Divine “Let My People Go” monkey wrench into the brickworks of Pharaoh and his gods.  You AREN’T the god of endless producing.  You AREN’T the god of relentless box checking, resume building, ladder climbing, award collecting, and money hoarding.  You AREN’T the god who sells the lie that “if you buy this one more thing you’ll finally be happy” over and over and over again.  You… YOU… you are the God who pulled us OUT of that endless repetitive mire!  You are the God who stopped that not-so-merry go-round and brought us OUT of the land of Egypt.  You… YOU… you… you’re different.  You, God… are VERY different."  

VERY different indeed, because Pharaoh’s gods sacrifice humanity for the good of production.  This God… Israel’s God… OUR God… sacrifices production for the good of humanity.  This God… Israel’s God… OUR God… insists that RELATIONSHIPS, not more bricks, should be at the top of the pyramid.  This God created us for relationship, not for slavery and it wasn’t just Egypt’s particular brand of slavery that God had a problem with either.  It turns out that God had… and still has… a giant problem with ANYTHING that grinds humanity down to the bone in any sort of endless loop of production and consumption.  

The gift of the commandments (and they really are meant to be a gift) is that they are a set of tools that all of us can use to help keep ourselves and our neighbors out of ANY sort of slavery, and IN relationship.  In relationship with God yes, but just as importantly, with our neighbors as well.  God created us for relationship, not to be ground to bits by the machinery of any ancient or modern brickyard run by some two bit gold plated god.  The first three commandments are the tools that guide us into a healthy relationship with God.  The last six guide us into good relationships with our neighbors.  Then, right in the middle of those nine, is the commandment on Sabbath that links the two together.  

In that same book, “Sabbath as Resistance” (Book study on Tuesdays at 7 pm Eastern) we are shown that it is in Sabbath… right there, at the corner of God and Neighbor… where you and me, our neighbors, AND God the Divine self… ALL OF US TOGETHER, stop our creating, our doing, our making, our running, and our going.  It is there, in that Sabbath temple, that we, God and everybody... all together, just stop… and in that stopping we all join together in a mini rebellion against the culture (and the gods) of “always more” and the lie that there is never enough, and we can’t afford to stop working, achieving, reaching and striving even for a second.  

Author Michael Fishburn writes that Sabbath is, “a time of mindfulness in a society of increasing mindlessness.”  It is a time to push back and tell the rat, that for today, we simply refuse to race.  Today, my dear rat, we’re only going to BE… with our God and with our neighbor.  Today we’re going to build one other back up, after a week of the world’s gods trying to grind us down into dust.  Today we are going to be neighborly, right smack dab in the middle of a world that tells us there is no time to be neighborly because being neighborly takes away from making more and more and more bricks.

“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.”  So, for God’s sake!  Don’t be in such a God awful hurry to rush back into slavery so dang fast!  You weren’t created for slavery!  Not the slavery of brick making.  Not the slavery of endless shopping.  Not the slavery of the market and making more and more money.  You were NOT created for slavery.  You were created for relationship.  YOU were created to BE… with God and with one another.  SO STOP... BE WITH THEM and be FREE!

The pharaoh’s and taskmasters of this world are constantly calling us, enticing us, wooing us all back into a slavery of one sort or another every moment of every day.  It is very hard to resist that call with all those around us racing at full speed determined to always get back to making more bricks!  So take these commandments as the gift they are meant to be… Divine tools to arm yourself for the resistance.  Use them so that you are not so easily lured back into being less than you were created to be.  Use these commandment to deepen the relationships with God and neighbor that give you life!  THAT, is what God want for you... life.    Amen.