What do the 5 Best Pizzarias in Atlanta have in common with the Children of Israel?

This week’s passage of scripture transports us back into the Wilderness where the Israelites have escaped bondage in Egypt and are headed to their destined Promised Land. When we left the wilderness two weeks ago God had just made provisions of food for the Israelites. To catch you up on what has happened since then: They camped in a place where there was no water. The children of Israel again complained that God was not with them. God, again shows up and provides them with water. Following that there is battle with the Amalekites, giants, and God is with them through Moses and through two friends of Moses as Moses holds up his hands becoming a symbol of force bringing the Israelites victory over the Amalekites. Moses was then visited by his father-in-law wife and children. His father-in-law recognizes that Moses is up from dawn until dark surrounded by the children of Israel who are bringing their disputes and questions to him and he passes judgments and makes decisions. His father in law wisely tells him he can’t do it all and gives him some advice for being a delegator of responsibilities. That leads us to today as Moses stands at the foot of Mount Sinai, leaving the people to climb the mountain and be in the presence of God in a way that no man had ever been before. Look at the description. This is in Chapter 19: Listen with all your senses, imagine what this scene would look like in a movie:

16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain[b] trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.[c]

These are the only words that could describe that moment of being in the presence of our awesome God. Then we get the famous Ten Commandments. When I saw that the passage this morning was the Ten Commandments, I was stumped. What do I do with the Ten Commandments? A sermon could be written on each one alone. Whole books have been written around the ten commandments. The Ten Commandments have been the subject of much controversy. There are people who do not wanting them displayed in court houses and people who think it blasphemy not to display them. . What do I do with the Ten Commandments? A Whole Movie is made of the Ten Commandments. I put my usual posting on face book in search of reactions. The First reaction: “Thou shalt not break any of the ten.” Well now that is short, sweet and easy. We could leave now and beat the entire church crowd to the lunch tables this morning. Then there was this from my brother: “Thou shall put no other brother before me, though shall make my brother dinner once a week, thou shall clean my brothers house, thou shall bring your brother breakfast every morning....for starters” He came from the angle of creating his own ten commandments, ones that would be advantageous to him. Do we do that sometimes? A mention to my Uncle about the subject of the Ten commandments brought about a discussion of law vs. grace. Many people believe that being a Christian is all about living by a code of thou shalt nots. There are lots of judgments against people who break the thou shalt nots. The thing that I’ve realized over the years however are that many of the thou shalt nots are about things that have nothing to do with the ten commandments. They were human made commands or understandings of commands. This was my face book prompt for this week. What are some of the “commands” you associate with Christianity and others views of Christianity. This is kind of how those go:

Thou shalt not drink alcohol.
Thou shalt not dance.
Thou shalt not wear make-up.
Thou shalt not curse.
Thou shalt not have tattoos.
thou shalt not cut your hair.
thou shalt not wear your hair long,
Thou shalt not wear makeup.
,Thou shalt not pierce your ears,
Thou shalt not wear jewelry.
Thou shalt not marry someone of another race, denomination, gender, faith etc.
Thou shalt not listen to secular music.
Thou shalt not eat meat on Friday.
Thou shalt not do anything fun or pleasurable from sun down on Friday until Sundown on Saturday.
Or maybe thou shalt not do anything for pleasure at all.
Thou shalt not do anything resembling work on Sunday, ,especially mow the yard.
Thou Shalt not seek truth about God or the afterlife outside of the Bible or you will be cast into hell.
Thou shalt not ever play any kind of card game.
Women shalt not wear pants ever.

The list could go on and on. I imagine if I opened the question up to the congregation this morning we could make a list of 30 more. Let me make it clear that I am not endorsing nor negating any of these as being right or wrong. The point is many times ones perception of Christianity encompasses the above rules that are outside the Ten Commandments. The focus becomes so much on law and rule following that we completely miss out on what it really means to be a follower of God. What happens to the God of I John 4:7-8? “Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who Loves is born of God and Knows God. He that Loves not knows not God for God is Love.” What happens to the God of Grace and Mercy. The God that is the focus of Micah 6:8 “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Is there a place for rules and commandments and law in the midst of this mercy and grace? I like what my friend, Russ Conner had to say about this. He says As he read all of the responses above he replied: “Wow...we really have no idea who our God really is. Looks like everyone else grew up with the same bad theology that I did. Very sad that we were not taught that he gave us gaurd rails to protect us from pain, but instead we were taught He is this big, mean, angry God with all of these impossible rules. So glad I finally learned the truth...it changes everything. To clarify further he states: “These "rules" came from my family and church, not from God. God gives us gaurd rails because he knows if we go off the path we are going to experience pain. What I have recently learned is that the actual commandments were given in love to spare us pain. Much of what I was taught was not biblical, but "religion", and in my humble opinion religion is what pushes people away from Christ.

The other thing I really like about sermon writing is making sure that I find out what Jesus has to say about a particular topic. What does Jesus have to say about the Law? Look at Matthew 22:36-40. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

If you look at these two commands and then look at the 10 commandments you will find the truth in this. The commandments can be divided into two sections. The first section defines how we love God and the 2nd sections defines our relationships with others. There is a third component to this however. Love your neighbor as yourself. I remember my 4th grade Sunday School teacher, Marietta Crayton, doing a Sunday school lesson around this verse. She had three boxes we looked in to see what we were to love based on these two commands. Why three boxes? The first box had a picture of God. The second box had a picture of other people symbolizing our neighbor. But what would be in the third box. As we veered into the third box there was a mirror, we were viewing ourself. She explained, to love your neighbor as yourself first implies that we love our selves for who God created us to be. What a powerful lesson to learn at 8 or 9 years old.

So the question? Is there a place for Rules and Laws in the midst of an atmosphere and love and Grace. This weekend at cousins weekend we had a pizza contest. My Uncle and cousin and her husband have been in search of the best pizza in Atlanta for the last 6 months or so. They narrowed it down to their 5 favorite Pizzerias.. Last night they brought in a pizza from each of the 5 pizzerias and we voted on which we felt was the best pizza. As I sat at the table writing this sermon, they sat around the table picking the pizzas they were going to order, deciding how they were going to keep all the pizza’s warm while picking them up and bringing them to the house, and deciding on how the vote was going to go. They decided that they would need a vote monitor who would serve to make sure that none of the tasters voted twice or cheated in any way. Well I got to thinking if we needed rules and monitors for a pizza contest, how much more do we need rules for life. I go back to what my friend, Russ Conner, said. God gave us guardrails to keep us from experiencing pain. That IS the God of Love and Mercy. What kind of parent would I be if I allowed my son to just do what he felt like doing when he felt like doing it. What kind of parent would I be if I didn’t set up those guardrails to keep him from experiencing pain, or worse death.

Barbara Brown Taylor has written a sermon on the text in chapter 19 of Exodus that sets the scene for today's passage, when Moses went up high on the mountain at Sinai, and an extraordinary (and very long) conversation began. She entitles her sermon, "Peculiar Treasures," because that's what the people were to the God who had brought them out of bondage, out into the wilderness on their way to a new life. One is reminded of treasures in the way she describes the story of this people: "God's covenant with their grandfather Abraham had three shining jewels in it: descendants as plentiful as the stars in the sky, a special relationship to God, and a land of milk and honey all their own." But "something was still missing," she writes, "something Moses went up the mountain to get" (Gospel Medicine).

When you are searching to reach your promised land, make sure you have the right guardrails to guide you along the way. And remember God’s presence with you along the way.

We remember God’s presence this morning as we come to the table together this morning not just as one community of faith but with the world community of faith. We are reminded that at God’s table there is no male or female, Greek or Jew, black or white, there is no nationality, no denomination. God’s table is for all. Let us prepare to come to God’s table.