2 short reflections

This Sunday there are two shorter times of reflection, rather than a sermon as such. the first is after we read Psalm 19 responsively and is found here http://www.thebillabong.info/year_a/59A_sunday27a.html
while watching this youtube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMIjwf0SVw&feature=related

then after hearing Exodus 20: 1-20,

 

Reflection:

A quote:

"The Ten Commandments don't begin with 'Here are ten commandments, learn them by rote,' or 'Here are ten commandments, obey them.' Instead, they begin with a sweeping announcement of freedom: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery' (Exodus 20:2). We will probably always think of the declarations that follow as the Ten Commandments. But we could, and probably should, think of them as invitations to God's liberation. Because the Lord is your God, you are free to not need any other gods. You are free from the tyranny of lifeless idols. You are free to rest on the Sabbath. You are free to enjoy your parents as long as they live. You are set free from murder, stealing, and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land." – Joe Roos, The Foolishness of the Cross

This passage from Exodus has God telling Moses how the people will live, it starts with the preamble or the forward, the bit that tells us who and why: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery.

What might our lives look like if we lived the Ten Commandments as invitations to freedom, to life, rather than a set of rules to be followed?

What would life be like if we lived in the awareness that life comes from God, that we do not need to worship the false God of consumerism, or bow down to the idol of celebrity?  What if we celebrated that we can speak God’s name in praise and prayer? What if we recognised that life was about more than work and took up God’s invitation to Sabbath? What if we took up God’s invitation to respect people, honour life, and honour relationships? And what if we were on the receiving end of that respect and honour? What would that feel like? What would life be like?

And I wonder what the Ten Commandments or Invitations might look like if they were written now, by this group of people. We haven’t just been set free from slavery in Egypt; we are not a nomadic people looking for the Promised Land.

If the Ten Commandments are about our identity as God’s people, an invitation to liberation, what might today’s version look like?