The Fourth Commandment

“Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

I am very clear about this commandment. To the extent that I have kept it, it is more of a reflection upon my parents than upon me. To the best of my memory it was always easy for me to honor my parents. In my memory they always loved me. They had an uncanny ability to make each one of us 9 kids feel like we were very special and yet not being their single most favorite. Their actions (probably somewhat purified by selective memory) seemed fair, loving, and patient. Of course, they were strict (yet not harsh nor punitive.) I do remember that on rare occasions they spanked, but I only remember one such incidence where my Mother spanked me for flipping wet dish towels at my sisters rather than at the dishes.

While I know this Commandment speaks of us honoring our parents, one of my best memories is when my Father honored me. I made a vocational choice, which I feared would upset him. When I explained my decision to him, dad said, “Mel, I raised you as a son whom I could trust. So, of course, I trust you made the right decision for you. And that is what I want!”

Martin Luther added an interesting dimension to the 4^th Commandment when he insisted that honor due to our parents should be extended to “all who are in legitimate authority over us in the state, church or work place.” I try to remember that when I am tempted to bad mouth those who have those roles and make a mess of it. Even when I cry out in disgust at some of what they do, I hear brother Martin say. “That may be right, but do respect them as God’s representative over you. Disagree, but with respect for the position they hold.”

Since I worked for ten years with wonderful Chinese colleagues in Hong Kong I immediately think of them when I think of the Fourth Commandment. It was they, out of their Confucian tradition, rather than Judaic/Christian that really taught me about filial piety. It is they who modeled for me respect for the entire family tradition, reverence for protecting the family name, humility in the face of age, respect for those in the family who came before me.

There is one little argument I do have with God over this Commandment. Now that I am 85 and wake up with some pains, a memory that is not as sharp and a will that is not as strong as in the past I am sometimes ready to say, “Forget about that long life stuff. I am ready to be with my Mom and Dad right now!”

The Third Commandment

The Third Commandment to Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy was drilled into me-from about the time I was 10 days old. In my family the rule was “In church every Sunday.” No excuses.: I am sure that some Sundays we even carried germs to that assembly when we probably should have stayed home. But the ritual was demanded. Get those shoes polished. Put on your Sunday best. Get you hair slicked down with hair oil. Get your nickel for the offering basket. Be in church.

And a good habit that was (and is. Every Sunday I get time for reflection, for praise, prayer, instructions. In my later years the highlight for Sunday worship has become the weekly Eucharist,. When I kneel each Sunday morning and get the elements of bread and wine, my slate is wiped clean. My soul is renewed. My total being gets new strength for the days ahead.

But there was an important element of the Third Commandment which was not stressed in my early life. Nor did I heed it very well for much of my adult life. The commandment certainly does include the direction to “get your Sabbath rest.” I was lousy at that. I often worked as hard or harder on the Sabbath than on the other days of the week. In general, I failed to get appropriate rest. To my regret I even thought I was being extra virtuous by NOT taking a day off, by not taking my allocated vacation days. I was wrong.

Certainly one of the key elements of observing the Sabbath is remembering that God rested on the Sabbath. We need to take our Sabbath rest-.I need to remember the little sticker my wife Jane has on our refrigerator door. “Fret Not ! It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest. For God gives sleep to his beloved.”

I am working on doing a better  of heeding this important Third Commandment.

The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment; Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

When I was in about the second grade my mother made me take some strong lye-

filled homemade soap and wash  out my mouth until it really foamed ! She had heard me use the expression “son-of-a gun”. This , to her was cursing. So it is not too likely that I would break the Second Commandment with expressions like “God damn you” or “Go to hell!” And I guess that focusing on that kind of misuse of God’s name or even  questioning “omg” in texting is really not the most serious aspect of what God is here forbidding.

It gets much closer to home when people of my Christian faith act and speak in ways that seem to be in every way contradictory to the command to speak kindly, pray, share words of love and comfort in the Lord’s name.

Bit what disturbs me most about the current world scene is to hear people make statements or do acts “in the Lord’s name” which are entirely contradictory to anything that the Lord would ever approve of. I am thinking of using God’s name to deny women and children their rights, to kill  and torture in God’s name, to start wars or commit acts of terror in God’s name.  It will take more than a few bars of home-made soap to stop these horrors, so I will just use my very small voice to call for a halt to these abominations aand to pledge myself to using God’s name to call upon God for forgiveness and hope.

The First Commandment

The First Commandment “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

(I am currently team-teaching a series on the Ten Commandments and have decided to share a few thoughts on each of them here in my blog.)

A stir was created in the media last week when it was announced that a flashy new billboard was being erected along a major freeway in San Diego. The message: “Atheism-A  personal relationship with reality”. The local sign is merely the latest evidence of a growing effort among some atheists to promote their particular belief (to which they certainly have every right here in America.)

This public advocacy is also in line with latest studies which show that atheism in America is growing at a significant rate, something like 1% of the US population per year so that now more than 5% of American citizens self-identify as atheist.

That atheism is now a more commonly accepted belief is even evident in the Retirement Community in which I live. Our community has an active organization called Atheists Anonymous. However, in the contrast to Alcoholics Anonymous which assists people to overcome their alcoholism, this organization features speakers who promote atheism and other presenters who point to perceived weaknesses and evils of organized religions and deistic belief systems.

In contrast to atheism is the continued belief many in multitudes of gods. I always recall a weeks-long negotiation that I carried on while building a Lutheran School in Hong Kong some nearly 50 years ago. A sacred stone idol was on the property on which we were to build and when we put a fence around our construction site we blocked access to that god. This greatly disturbed those for whom worship at that stone was vital. We negotiated a mutually satisfying solution (but that is a story for another day.)

The term “idol” and the worship of idols is very much alive in the USA, especially also noticeable in this week of Super Bowl. It is very obvious that American idols include sports figures and entertainment idols like Beyonce and Bieber at whose feet millions get into a worshipful frenzy. Of course, even some Christians have been found to make church leaders like charismatic preachers and other church leaders into idols.

My concept of God surely keeps changing and I continue to learn from my AA friends that “there is only one God – and it’s not me!” The God whom I cannot fathom becomes ever more unknowable in God’s “otherness”. God’s being is beyond names, attributes, and finite descriptions. And then I contradict that by still asserting that the God I worship chose to dwell among us, empty Himself and even die and be resurrected.

So while listening to and taking seriously my growing number f atheist acquaintances and friends I end up with my simple and yet profound statement of faith: “I believe in God.”