A Holy Blueprint

These aren't some binary checklist of do’s and don’ts. They are the human standard for divine being.

Every year around this time, I tell the story about the time I decided to fast from the 10 commandments for Lent. It was a joke I made while imbibing. It was Mardi Gras after all.

The next day, on Ash Wednesday, I decided to proceed as planned. But with a slight modification. Instead of giving up all ten, I choose to focus one: Murder.

It seemed like an easy goal since I don’t have the stomach for killing things. Well, it didn’t take long for me to realize that wasn’t really true. In fact, I was pretty good at it - killing people’s ideas, dreams, hopes, and desires

But over the next forty days I would discover how this spiritual exercise actually killed me in a good way. By focusing on this one area of my life, I began to listen to other people’s opinions and welcomed their ideas. Instead of shooting them down I began to lift them up.

In the end of Lent, not killing taught me how to live. It opened my heart and transformed my behavior for the better. By looking seriously at those four words, “you shall not murder” I began to understand them not as law but as a way to live faithfully with God and others.

I mention this story again because today we’re given a reading to shape the way we live out our faith in the world. And I believe if we use these words as a guide to teach us how to live right with God they will also redefine and reshape all our relationships.  ​Read Exodus 20:1-17 here

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,...You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God,...Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother,..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;... Ex. 20:1-17

I think it’s safe to say that laws are a good way to ensure order and to protect public safety. When obeyed, they help our communities thrive and keep her citizens moving in the right direction.

Thanks to them, we know what side of the street to drive on, or how fast we can go down them. But driving is more than simply obeying the speed limit. You must also be mindful of those around you. Being a considerate driver is an act of kindness. Although the law doesn’t force you to let someone into your lane, you know that when see a car’s blinker on you have to make a moral decision to either let them in or not.

Like the lines on a basketball court, we need laws to guide us in this game of life. And I believe that’s what these ten sayings are doing for us. They are ethical guides, sacred teachings, a holy blueprint for living a good life in right relation with God.

But they are more than “kindly suggestions,” as Barbara Brown Taylor warns. These particular practices, “express the purposeful will of God for God’s people.” We can ignore them but do so at our own peril. Not because God is looming over us with a giant gavel, “but because these teachings describe a way of life.” And not just any life, but an abundant, everlasting life with the One who created it.

Unfortunately, most of us have been taught to see these words as commandments - laws that can’t be broken or bent without some form of retribution. I have seen how they have been used as a litmus test to find the perfect Christian. Or as parameters to keep control over people. And in many ways, that makes sense. That’s how they seem to be set up in Exodus…as ways to keep God’s people in line.

But when that’s the only way we see these words, we might forget that God gave them to us as a gift - one that was forged by a covenant and fashioned by grace. And this gift defines the essence of faith which helps us understand who we are and where God wants us to be.

While that might sound simplistic in nature, trust me when I say they’re not that easy to put into practice. That’s because they’re not hard, immovable laws. Instead, they’re more like living, evolving spiritual standards that lead every individual, in their own unique way, towards a right relationship with God and one another.

Now, theologically speaking, these words are separated into two parts, or two tablets. One that teaches us how to live before God. And the other on how to live with one another. They would become the building blocks of the communal and corporate life of God’s people. The way they worshiped and attended to God was defined in the way they lived and attended to their neighbor.

These were the guidelines handed down throughout the generations. And where teachings that shaped the ethic of Jesus who used them as the moral compass throughout his ministry. And thus, they are the essence of Christianity.

Jesus taught us how our righteousness is not defined by simple blind obedience to the law but in all the ways we integrate these teachings into everything we do.

This tells me that these sacred words aren’t some binary checklist of do’s and don’ts. They are the human standard for divine being.

If we are to follow Jesus’ lead, we will learn that the most sacred and holiest form of worship is simply loving God, loving others, and serving both.

Because if we say we love God, then it should be a no brainer to love everyone made in God’s image.

If we honestly make God’s love our highest priority, we won’t be tempted to worship a politician, a celebrity, or a bank account, or any other false idol.

If we make God’s love the center of our being…then we won’t covet what others have. Or steal that which isn’t yours. 

If we refuse to use God’s love in vain, then we won’t cheat on our spouses or business partners; we won’t lie or bear false witness to cover up our wrongdoings. We will care for all people, especially our parents, even if we disagree with their politics or principles.

If we remember to truly take a day of sabbath rest, we might discover what a life in God’s love is all about. And that is, to enjoy the splendor of God’s glory in a community that welcomes everyone, no matter who they are.

When we embrace these sacred words and make them the human standard for divine being, then we begin to see why Joslyn Schaefer describes them as, “an umbilical cord, tethering us to what nourishes us, energizing us so that we can discern and accomplish God’s good purposes for our lives.”

Jesus showed us how loving God and one another is the way to live a faithful life in the fullness of God’s righteousness and grace. When we come together in love, the hope and promise of God’s covenant comes alive.

I like to think if we truly apply these teaching to every aspect of our lives, like Jesus did, then maybe laws might become a thing of the past, if only because the way we look out and care for one another would make them obsolete.

So let us embrace these sacred words from God’s mouth and use them to become human beings instead of just humans doing.

Lent is a time to embrace the essence of our faith. It’s a time shape and mold our hearts in the image of Christ so that we can bear witness to God’s unconditional love and grace. And make the kingdom of heaven come alive in real time.

As I have learned in my Lenten fasts from years back, when we apply these teachings, making them the blueprint that shapes our lives in the image of Christ, things change.

We see and worship God differently. And meet and treat others differently without judgment, exclusion, or harm.

This is the essence of what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to to be holy as God is holy. And so it is that Jesus sends us out into the world to be the visible presence of God’s glory, not with laws but with love.


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Work Cited
Adapted from Lenten Message Three from March 7, 2021 at jesusnotjesus.org
Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word, Year B Vol 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).
Schaefer, Joslyn Ogden. The Law. March 7, 2021.