So, we finally have a new Speaker of the House. Mike Johnson is one of those Christians--you know, the ones with a LITTLE bit of knowledge on the Bible, a surface knowledge, not a broad spectrum understanding. He's a dangerous Christian--he will take his limited knowledge of the Bible (and by extension, the Torah and the Quran) and he will twist the words, the verses, and the messages and twist them to suit his world view.
If you know Mike Johnson, could you please share my latest sermon with him? It's titled, "Did He Drop One?" I do not purport to be a Biblical scholar, but I do know some truths about the Bible, and I did do some research. He might find my facts interesting.
Here's what I had to say:
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Last week, Rev. Jennie
spoke about the “Burning Man” festival. Who knew our topics would sync so well?
She spoke of a gathering in the desert (check), the ritualistic burning of
something of significance (check), and the COMMUNITY of people who gathered
(and check). If you want to further
extrapolate, Rev. Jennie spoke of rules given to, and lived by, the
community…and so will I. AND, Burning Man has been a festival for almost as
long as Moses wandered in the desert: 37
years and 40 years.
I swear we did not plan or coordinate this.
So, you might very well ask, “why did you---Gale—a
UU/Humanist/Pagan ever decide to speak about the Ten Commandments??!! And I
will tell you—it happened because one night, Karen and I were talking…as people
do…about Moses and the tablets….and I said, “I think he dropped one!” Because I
cannot believe that these ten things were all, or the most important, things a
Supreme Being might want to tell their people. And after some discussion, Karen
said, “That would make a great sermon topic.” So here we are. Blame Karen (or
thank her if you are so moved afterwards).
I want to thank all of you—I learned SO MUCH preparing
for this sermon! Had the Worship Committee not asked me to speak today, I would
know far less than I do today about the Ten Commandments. Knowledge is a
valuable thing. Learning more about our Judeo/Christian UU heritage is not a
bad thing either.
If you were, as I was, raised in a Protestant with a
smidge of Catholic household, you probably know the basics of the story of the
Ten Commandments. If you’re like Eric Thiel, who has talked about watching the
movie “The Ten Commandments” yearly (?), you also have the visual of Charlton
Heston and the parting of the Red Sea. BUT, there’s so much more I never knew,
never thought about.
But first, a quiz. How many of the Ten Commandments can
you name?
According to Hassan Khan on Facebook…yes, Facebook (isn’t
the internet wonderful?): [in 2012] “A
survey by Kelton Research found that more people in America can name the
ingredients of a Big Mac than can list all Ten Commandments. 80 percent of
1,000 respondents could name the burger’s primary ingredient — two all-beef
patties — but less than six in 10 knew the commandment “thou shalt not kill.”
Less than half of respondents — 45 percent — could recall the commandment
“honor thy father and mother” but 62 percent knew the Big Mac has pickle.
What’s the reason for this?” Khan speculates:
“Is it because people are turning
(or have turned) their backs on religion, or could it be that there are
specific and clever methods to make ideas stick and get into people’s heads?
Maybe it’s a bit of both, but the truth is that there’s a science behind making
ideas more memorable.”
So, you’ve had time to think, and you now have your cheat
sheets. How many did you remember? Show of hands (and first let me say that
EVEN WHILE WRITING THIS Sermon, I couldn’t remember all of them—so no shame
here)….how many did you remember:
_____________________.
Thank you for indulging me. If you’d like to use the back
of those sheets to add some commandments of your own, I will make time at the
end for you to share—the front of the Order of Service will get you started.
Some basic information:
·
The story of the Ten Commandments appears
in two different books of the Bible:
Exodus and Deuteronomy. These books are a part of the five books that
make up the Torah for people of the Jewish faith. These books are part of the
Old Testament in Christian tradition. And, the Quran Book 7, Verses 142–5
describes how Moses received the divine tablets. but doesn't describe what was
on them. As you may remember from the readings Don and I did, the Commandments
are scattered throughout the Quran, not listed all together.
·
The phrase, “Ten Commandments” first
appeared in the King James version of the Bible; up until then, they were
referred to as the “Ten Decalogues” or “Ten Utterances”.
·
According to Jewish religious scholars,
there are actually 613 Commandments! There are 75 “Good Manners”, or
Commandments, in the Quran. I’m going to stick with the “Top Ten” here, in the
interests of brevity!
·
And, apparently I WAS RIGHT (I do love to
say that): Moses DID drop tablets—more
precisely, God writes a set of rules on tablets that Moses takes down the
mountain. When Moses gets to the bottom of the mountain, back to his people, he
finds them partying and worshipping a golden calf. In his rage, he throws the
tablets down, and they break into pieces. So, Moses goes back up the mountain
for another 40 days, and this time (a plot twist) God dictates the
Ten Commandments to Moses, who writes them down. So much room for error, in my
opinion!! Some Rabbis believe that the first set was purely the work of God,
and therefore inadequate to the task of teaching real people. The second set,
written by a human, is much more understandable to people. Moses goes back down
the mountain with the tablets, which by the way, religious scholars are not in
agreement about even how the Commandments are arranged: all on one tablet, on two tablets, or were
there two tablets, but were just copies of the “all on one”. Again, I could be
right about that dropping thing!
So,
that’s the story, shared by three faiths, and passed down through the
centuries. Before I get to central idea of my sermon, I’d like to share some
other thoughts I came across. In the book The Ten Commandments: How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew
Modern Life by David Hazony, the author says this: “Often, when encountering the central texts
of Christianity or Judaism, we abandon our ordinary tools of reading and
thinking about what we’ve read, whether out of awe, skepticism, revulsion, or
fear…Reading the Ten Commandments with fresh eyes requires overcoming the
instinct….to dismiss the text as archaic rather than foundational, as symbolic
of the kind of God-on-the-mountain revelatory symphony that we thankfully left
behind long ago, along with the establishment of religion and the political
authority of religious leaders. But it also means resisting the opposite
instinct, common among many religious people, which suggests that because the
text is believed to be the Word of God, we cannot really study, question,
challenge, or understand it on our own terms. Both instincts are problematic in
our attempt to learn important truths from the Ten Commandments, for in both
cases we are led away from applying our creative thinking to what is in fact a
difficult text.” To follow that last thought, I have always found it
fascinating that, when telling a religious person that I am not “a believer”, I
am asked, “Then what keeps you from murdering someone?” Perhaps that’s happened
to a few of you too?
Hazony’s
premise is that the Ten Commandments are not a sacred religious
command at all—we do not need religion to understand them. He says, “they are,
rather, a set of extremely concise statements about the best way to build a
good, upright society.” Indeed. Following that logic a little further, it’s
striking that what some modern people think is SO IMPORTANT was not in God’s
Top Ten at all: apparently a person’s sexuality
or gender identity were NOT important to the Supreme Being when giving laws to
humans—probably because sexuality and gender identification are personal,
and have no bearing on societal function? Note to our all-powerful
lawmakers: whether you are LGBTQ or not
has NO BEARING on sustaining a civilized society—according to the more
All-Powerful. So, knock it off.
Okay,
so we could all agree that this—the issuing of the Ten Commandments--was one of
the first attempts to lay down rules and guidelines to sustain community? A
community of ALL humanity?
Or
not? In Judith Plaskow’s pioneering work, Standing Again at Sinai, she
begins by pointing out that the exclusion of women from the Sinai experience is
embedded in the introduction in Exodus: “Exodus
19:15 And he said to the community, “Be ready in three days’ time, do not come
near a woman”. The “community” here is defined as the community of men. Thus,
the text actually and decidedly excludes women from standing at Sinai and from
receiving the Commandments, thus from participating equally in the foundational
myth of Torah reception.”’ This echoes the sentiment put forth by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton in The Women’s Bible.
Furthermore, Prof. Athalya
Brenner-Idan, Professor (Emerita) of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament chair at
the University of Amsterdam, makes the compelling case that the Ten
Commandments were written for men ONLY. She states, “[God]’s self-definition,
exclusivity, warning against paganism, and proscription against illegitimate
pronouncements of God’s name, attributed to his own voice overtly implicate an
all-male audience. Thankfully the likes of me, daughters and female slaves at least,
are cited as participants in the Sabbath rest together (if in second place to
males) with other social inferiors to and dependents of male…It is gratifying
that respect and support are due to mothers (in the second place, after fathers
in this text’s word order) as well as fathers... The prohibitions concerning
killing, theft and perjury are [male] oriented. So is the prohibition of
adultery addressed only to men…, and logic be hanged. The last Commandment is
addressed explicitly only to men, just as the standing at Sinai verse was. It
prohibits envy—covetousness of a male’s material possessions: his house, his
male and female slaves, his domestic animals…And what about his wife? There she
is: in Exodus she appears between “house” and “slaves,” but in Deuteronomy she
is positioned first as the prize possession and coveting her becomes a
prohibition in and of itself. Female envy—of other women’s husbands or property
for instance—and its possible outcome is not referred to.”
But
Prof. Brenner-Idan makes this brilliant conclusion: “What, then, should we do? For me, now as in
the past, the answer is clear although not simple. We should have the courage
to admit that the Bible should and can be updated, not by re-writing it through
translation and interpretation, but through looking at it and saying: This is
how things were, but this is how we want them to be.”
So,
perhaps Moses didn’t exactly drop a tablet or two (I still like that visual),
but perhaps we need to say, “This is how things were, but this is how we want
them to be.” How do we want our world
community to be? What Commandments do we think need to be added to make our
world community a better place?
I’m
going to give Jesus the first word. The “New Commandment” is a term used in
Christianity to describe Jesus's commandment to "love one another"
which, according to the Bible, was given as part of the final instructions to
his disciples after the Last Supper had ended. It’s an expansion on The Golden
Rule, which is found in nearly every religion in the world—treating others as
you would like to be treated— but I’ve talked about that before.
What to add? One that comes to my mind after doing all
the reading I have done this week is:
“No person is a slave.” Because interestingly, although Moses led his
people out of slavery, there was still the apparent expectation that they had
slaves themselves.
Another one I would add? A commandment to care for the
earth and ALL creatures—that’s sorely lacking, and I believe it has led to the
destruction of our natural world.
And what about you? Do any of you have a new Commandment
you would like to share?
My friend Tanny, posts “News with Betty” on Facebook.
These are videos of her elderly mom, sharing news and wisdom from the day. And
I love Betty’s closing words, so I will share them with you to close: another Commandment, if you will. Betty says,
“Be kind to one another.” So be it.
