The Fifth Commandment

In the Catholic and Lutheran system of numbering the 10 Commandments the fifth is “Thou shalt not kill”. I recently co-led a great discussion on this commandment at my church. My co-leader began by saying “No, we are not off the hook. If we really take this commandment seriously we will discover that all of us have broken it.”

From there the conversation quickly got very personal and reflective. First comment: “Actually, a better translation of this commandment is “Thou shalt not commit murder and I certainly never committed murder, that is, I have not taken another person’s life.”

“Well, said a third, “I am sure I have taken another’s life. I dropped bombs over Viet Nam and I am sure people were killed, even though I tried to steel myself into not imaging that.”

The military chaplain chimes in,” Now I have Marines coming to me asking about their moral culpability if they press a computer button and a drone launches a missile which kills someone on another continent.” From there the conversation quickly went to the centuries-old religious teachings about “just war” and the criteria which we apply to killing in a just war that not only allows for but actually demands that a loyal citizen kill others.

 The conversation went into an entirely different direction when a class member reflected, ” Forty years ago my Dr. told me very firmly, ‘You are pregnant. You have a very visible and fragile aneurysm in your brain. It is my great fear that should you carry this fetus to term and give birth there is extreme danger to your life.’  I chose to abort that fetus. It still bothers me, especially when I am accused of murder.”

An older gentleman shared this insight “I learned a new version of a limerick I had learned as a child. The new version is ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones; but words can really hurt me.’ Isn’t that another form of killing?”

All of this before we even began looking at what Luther says this commandment demands, namely that we help and befriend our neighbor in every bodily need.

So we agreed that we couldn’t get off the hook. We asked for forgiveness and for strength to protect and enhance human life, our own and that of every other person on this planet.

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.”

Rituals

I was surprised to feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. That seldom, if ever, happens when I am watching television. But it happened last Monday while I was observing the inauguration of the USA president. My tears were not related to the politics of the day. Rather they flowed because of my emotions being caught up in the ritual. I was moved by the singing of the ancient American classics like “America , The Beautiful” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. My eyes joined the poet as he verbally toured us from the redwood forests to the lobster traps of Maine. The waving of handkerchiefs by the thousands. The peaceful passing of the torch. Yes, the ritual stirred up patriotic  feelings aroused by Zion Lutheran School picnics in Walburg, Texas to hot dogs at the American Consulate in Hong Kong. All it took was the ritual to lead to remembrance, pride and petitions.

That’s what rites and rituals do. And that is why each of us must play our part in preserving them. Keep those family rituals alive. Recreate those birthday party rituals with birthday cake loaded with candles, and home-make chicken salad sandwiches and ice cream.  Some are silly like singing  a crazy version of the O Tannenbaum Story told with a new twist each Christmas Eve. Others are formal like the prayers and blessings of late night family devotions.

Lovers of all ages need to keep the rituals alive, the time and way we kiss, the gifts we exchange, the looks we sneak, the special touches.

Those of us who are spiritual know that all faiths have rituals around births and deaths and new beginnings. In my church The Holy Eucharist and Baptism are absolutely essential.

And so, too, our country is well served by all those wonderful rites around inauguration. Regardless of our political persuasion we reflect as the oath of office is taken, as the National Anthem is sung, as the pledges are made, the prayers spoken. the military parade…

Rituals connect us to the past, ground us in the present and propel us into the future.

Lazy Saturday

I an having a lazy Saturday. Got up late, ate a leisurely breakfast, took my walk, watched golf, replied to emails. Nothing scheduled for this evening. This is a new experience in my life and I am enjoying it.

Saturdays were big when I was a young kid. My father was a teaching minister in a rural Lutheran church and school. We lived in the “teacherage” - ala “parsonage”. There were a couple acres of land that went with that. So there were gardens to weed, what seemed like acres of grass to be mown with the hand mower, corn to be  husked for the chickens and cows and manure to be piled up

  

While I was doing this my dad was “up at church”. He cleaned the church, posted the hymn numbers, practiced the pipe organ and prepared the Bible Class he taught every Sunday for decades.

I felt like a had a role in helping dad in his ministry. My job was to polish shoes, especially his. They were always patent leather black. They had to be able to give off a reflection from the buffed shine. I loved getting them ready for him.

In my high school days I attended Concordia Academy, a boys only ministry prep school. We had classes until noon on Saturday. During football season we ran directly from class to the University of Texas football stadium. For 25 cents each we could sit in the end zone and cheer on the Longhorns. In my four years there twice I had a date. They were nice - and led to nothing exciting.

Saturdays at college were wonderful. Sports and dates, especially the three years with Jane who is now my wife. If I had set enough pins in the bowling alley to have a bit of cash we would take the El to the Chicago loop and see a movie. Always (except for one 1:30 a.m. permit per semester) required to have her checked in to her women’s dorm, by 11:00 with the house mother waiting to make sure our good-night embrace did not last too long or ever dare to end in a kiss witnessed by another person.

Then came 50 years of teaching, administering, raising kids, traveling the world. Saturdays were always full.

But now I have passed my 85^th birthday and I am keeping my vow (most of the time) to be retired. Today I am doing that. I wonder if it will be true for me that on this Saturday I will be ready for bed at around 9:00 pm.