Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Psalm 135:15-18, Exodus 20:1-4

Katie's chin looked like it was covered in blood but she had a huge smile as she approached her daddy. Her daddy, our son-in-law, grabbed her before she was able to wipe her face on his clothes. As mommy got Katie into the bathtub, our granddaughter kept repeating, "Mommy, I'm pretty. Mommy, I'm pretty." That's when Tessa realized Katie had painted her lips and chin with mommy's lipstick.

At some time or another most children imitate something they have seen their parents do. Why? We naturally imitate those we admire. This is as true for adults as it is for young children. In fact, it is the assumption behind the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments. What comes to mind when I say that we are going to review the Ten Commandments this winter? I suspect for some the first thing that comes to mind is that we no longer can post the Ten Commandments in our government buildings.Let's review what that debate is about.

As we move toward Thanksgiving Day, I celebrate that we live in a country where we are free to worship whoever and whatever we choose. It says so in our Constitution. Americans can worship whatever gods we choose. As a result, some Americans are atheists with no gods, while others are Hindus with many gods, most are Jews, Muslims, or Christians with one God. These rights to freedom of worship, freedom to as¬semble, and freedom of speech have been protected in the first ten amendments to our Constitution, the “Bill of Rights.

Did you know that December 15th is "Bill of Rights Day" for our nation? This holiday generally gets lost in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it is worth celebrating these rights. Maybe this year we could include thankfulness for our rights as part of our Thanksgiving holiday.Don't we give thanks for our troops who put their lives in harm’s way to protect our freedoms? Maybe we could include in our table blessings on Thanksgiving Day a word of thanks for the blessing of living in this country.

And yet for Christians, there is a down side to all of this. Because of the Bill of Rights, we are a nation that refuses to post the Ten Commandments in government buildings. Let's be clear. The issue is not the last five commandments. Nobody is arguing that lying, cheating, or stealing are good things for a society. The issue has to do with the first couple of commandments. The first commandment declares that the God of the Bible is the only true God. The second commandment rejects any other religion that uses images as idolatry. No wonder Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims are upset at the posting of the Ten Commandments. I sometimes wonder whether these religions understand our Ten Commandments better than some of us do. They understand that the Ten Commandments clearly announce that our God judges other religions and other gods as wrong.

This is the struggle. As Christians, we believe everyone ought to worship the one true God. However, as Americans, we want to protect freedom of religion. We find ourselves conflicted. Do we side with the Ten Amendments in our Con¬stitution or the Ten Commandments in our Bible?

And God spoke all these words: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Exodus 20:1-4

Young children often get mixed up ideas about God. It is not uncommon for young children to confuse their parents with God. If preschool children are asked to draw a picture of God, they often draw a picture that resembles their own parents. Later, in kindergarten it is common for children to think their church pastor is God. I have a friend who was pastor in a small church. He tells about the Sunday when a boy got into an argument with his mom over who God is. The boy was convinced the pastor was God since the pastor wore a robe. The mother tried to reason with the child that the pastor was serving God, but was not himself God. The whispered discussion between mother and son came to an end when my friend stepped to the front of the church to begin worship. Not knowing anything about the mother and son debate, my friend began worship that morning with this phrase, Be still and know that I am God. The entire congregation heard the boy voice in a stage whisper, "See, I told you he was God!"

Why is God so concerned that we keep clear in our minds not only who God is, but also refuse to worship anything and anyone other than God? The issue is not God. God is not sitting around waiting for us to worship lest the Lord have hurt feelings. Please worship me, please, please. I'm nice! The first commandment has nothing to do with God having hurt feelings. Rather, God instructs us to have no other gods because of what worshipping them will do to us. The Ten Commandments are for us, not for God. We must be careful who or what we worship, because we imitate what we worship.

The Psalmist understood this important truth. Psalm 135 criticized the surrounding religions which taught their people to worship gods without eyes or ears. These carved stone and wood gods were uncaring and unconcerned. The Psalmist realized that those who worship such gods become uncaring as well.

The Psalmist was thinking of the popular Canaanite relig¬ions such as Baalism. According to this traditional religion of Canaan, the god Baal was married to the goddess Asherah. Worship of these fertility gods included child sacrifice and temple prostitution. The annual cycle of worship reminded the people that Baal was a powerful god who did whatever he chose in order to get what he wanted. What kinds of people come out of such worship?

Jezebel was the most famous Baal worshipper of the Bible. Today her name has come to mean a woman who is manipulative, deceitful and vicious. One of the memorable Bible stories about Jezebel recounts the time her husband, the king of Israel, was depressed over not being able to purchase a piece of property (1 Kings 21). The king offered to trade a better piece of land if Naboth would sell his vineyard so the king could use it for a garden. The offer was refused. The property owner wanted to keep the property in the family. Thus, King Ahab was saddened by his rejected attempt. He became so depressed that he refused to eat. He lay on his bed and did not feel like even getting up.

When Queen Jezebel found out the cause of her husband's depression she was astonished. She could not under¬stand this nation of Israel, which protected the rights of the common person at the expense of the king's wishes. She promised her husband she would take care of the situation and get the desired property.

Queen Jezebel instructed some government leaders to falsely accuse the Vineyard owner, Naboth. At a public banquet these government officials, under Jezebel's guidance, accused Naboth of a horrendous crime. He was hastily judged guilty through the corroborating evidence of lying witnesses. He was killed in a quick act of apparent justice. Thus, Jezebel received the property and presented it to her husband.

When people worship a god like Baal, they turn into people like Jezebel. If their god can do whatever he wants for his own pleasures, then so can his people. If the god devalues human life, then the followers tend to devalue human life as well. If the god manipulates and abuses, so do the leaders. We imitate what we worship.

The Ten Commandments begin by reminding us that there is only one true God and we are created to worship that God. The more we worship God, the more we learn to imitate God's character and qualities. This God is the One who heard the cries of the oppressed and set the captive Israelites free from their slavery in Egypt. This was a God of compassion and heart-felt concern. Our God acts to set people free.

What we worship is what we imitate. When we worship this Creator God who helps, we learn to help others as well. When we worship this God who hears our prayers and cares for us, we become better listeners and more compassionate toward others. When we discover that our God loves us, we learn to love others.

Some years ago I heard Fred Craddock remind a gathering of preachers what happens when we teach our people that we are created to worship God only. He recalled his early years as a young preacher serving in his first parish church. He was invited by the Sunday school teachers to help teach a class in Vacation Bible School. When he offered to teach wherever he was needed he discovered that he had been given a class of known troublemakers.

The curriculum that summer was about God as Creator. The lessons revolved around Genesis 1, the seven days of creation. His first morning he had used all the material he was supposed to teach for the entire week. On Tuesday he barely held the class together. By Wednesday he was clearly losing control. That was when he had a brainstorm. He told the class, "I'm going to let you run into the nearby fields and find something in creation that reminds you of God. When I ring the bell, come back to class with your chosen object. We'll each show the rest of the class what we have found and explain what it teaches us about God.

He admitted to the group of pastors that he had no intention of calling the class back with the bell. He figured he would take the rest of the day to recover from the exhaustion of managing the first half of the class time. However he started feeling guilty. All the other teachers were busy with their classes and his class was running wildly across the fields. So, he eventually rang the class bell.

Dr. Craddock invited the children to take turns showing and telling what they found that reminded them of God. The first girl held up a flower. "What does that teach you about God?" Fred asked. She responded, "God makes things beautiful, like this flower."

The second child had a rock. "What does that teach you about God?" The boy answered, "God never changes.

As the children had returned Craddock noticed that one boy, the worst troublemaker, was chaperoning his little sister. Fred figured that the boy had run past the nursery class and been roped into helping with his little sister. Dr. Craddock asked the boy, "What did you bring to show us?" The boy raised his sister's hand and said, "I have my sister." Fred asked, "What does that teach you about God?" The boy said, "People are created as the image of God."

The first two commandments teach us an important truth. The reason we do not make or worship images is because we imitate what we worship. The more we worship the God of love and justice, compassion and truth, the more we grow into the image of God!