Exodus 20.1-20, Matthew 21.33-46
The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 8 October 2023
Austwick, Keasden Harvest Festivals
Why read the Ten Commandments at Harvest-time? Perhaps because Harvest is a time for remembering; and the Ten Commandments are an act of remembering.
At Harvest-time we remember to give thanks for the food we eat, the soil in which it grows, the sun and the air and the waters which nurture that growth. At Harvest-time we remember to give thanks for the creatures and the plant life who share themselves and this good earth with us.
And the Ten Commandments are an act of remembering who we give thanks to - the Creator of all this vital life which is a gift from the heart of his divine love.
The Ten Commandments are often thought about as a simple list of rules for life: you shall not kill, commit adultery, steal, or lie against your neighbour. But that’s just four of them.
The tenth commandment asks us to remember why we succumb to these things: we kill, commit adultery, steal, or lie when we misplace our desires: when we covet what our neighbour has, and do those things we ought not to, to claim those objects of our desires for ourselves.
The first three Commandments focus our remembering who we give thanks to - the God whose name should be honoured; the God we should hold before all other idols in our lives, the God who we should put first in all things, because this is the God whose desire is to free his enslaved people to fulfil their lives of promise on this earth.
This God announces his presence in the same way as all the other ancient Gods: in thunder and lightning, trumpet sound and smoke; just like all the other Gods this God is jealous for the people’s attention, and will punish their unfaithfulness and iniquity.
But these Commandments also ask the people to remember that this God, our God, has a different side. This is a God who loves: who promises his people that he will ‘show steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.’
This God wants us to remember him as we remember our parents. Honour your father and mother, he tells them: remember the gift of life they’ve given you, the way they’ve helped shape you; hold close to your heart the good values they’ve taught you. In this way you will learn how to also honour Me.
And remember to take the time to do this. Keep the Sabbath, God says. Yes, work hard and work well to shape the world as beautifully and lovingly as I do. But remember to keep space in your lives to celebrate and nurture that love we have between us.
Right at the start of the Commandments God asks the people of Israel to remember that ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’. Remember, in other words, how I have shown you how deeply I love you, by freeing you from harm and directing you to a place where you can live a fulfilled life together.
We read the Ten Commandments at Harvest-time because Harvest is a time for remembering; and the Ten Commandments are an act of remembering.
If we want to, we can disregard these Commandments, and the other laws of Moses which are detailed in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, as a dry and dusty set of rules with little relevance to us today. Or we can embrace them as statements of purpose alive with vital guidance as to how we can live a life of love, in communion with this earth, in community with its people and its creatures.
You shall not kill, rather you can remember to be a creator of life, whether that means tending the earth to nurture food, trees, shrubs and beautiful flowers, or tending to your relationships on this earth to make them all life-affirming.
You shall not commit adultery, rather you can remember to be a faithful, loving one who learns how to be reconciled with those you are alienated from; and how to reconcile others who have fallen out or drifted apart.
You shall not steal, coveting what another has, but instead remember to direct your desires towards what God has gifted you, and remember to be a generous giver, even a self-sacrificial giver, for the building-up of others and the benefit of life on earth.
You shall not lie against your neighbour, rather you shall seek to know the truth about them which will unite you: remembering that each of you are beautiful in your imperfections, sharing a journey into wholeness, one step at a time, never reaching completion. [1]
Remembering that we are loved by a providential Creator God who requires that we love just as he does, is a radical act today.
Read on in the book of Exodus and you’ll find these words: ‘You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt’. Imagine a world whose leaders and people are minded to talk generously about the incomer, and act generously to the outsider. [2]
Read on into Leviticus to God saying, ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: for I am the Lord your God.’ [3] Imagine a world which works hard to find ways to farm and trade by God’s generous economic rules.
And read further in Leviticus where God asserts that ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants… You shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.’ [4] Imagine a world where the accumulation of wealth and property by the few is replaced and enriched by a system which affirms and celebrates community for all.
The Commandments acknowledge that our world often leans towards the way things are in the parable of the tenants which Jesus told: a world whose resources are monetised and which is violently divided between haves and have nots. But The Commandments invite us to remember that this is God’s world, and that God has a different view of how life on earth can and should be lived and arranged.
The Commandments invite us to remember where we are from; that we are in essence, all from Him… and to live in the knowledge that ‘The opposite of poverty isn't property. The opposite of both poverty and property is community. For in community we become rich: rich in friends, in neighbours, in colleagues, in comrades, kindred spirits with all creatures with whom we share this earth. Rich in God. Together, as a community, we can help ourselves in most of our difficulties.’ [5]
Notes
[1] Pip Wilson, You are a beautiful human person but I accept that you do not feel that sometimes! - a lot of the time? pipwilson.com, 21 February 2016.
[2] Exodus 22.21
[4] Leviticus 25.23; Leviticus 25.10
[5] Jürgen Moltmann, The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life. Altered.
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