Sermon for October 7th, 2023

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Exodus 20:2-17

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods beforee me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Ten Laws, One Love: You Shall Not Covet

A rich man and a poor man are neighbors. The rich man has a large mansion, several expensive cars, the finest clothes, and every gadget or power tool a man could possibly want. But his poor neighbor has one thing that the rich man does not have. Every day, the poor neighbor comes out to his front porch (which is very humble) sits down on his humble chair, and takes out a magic lamp. He rubs the lamp, and a genie appears, asking "How can I serve you today, Master?" And every day, the poor neighbor says the same thing: "I'll have a cup of tea, thank you very much." And the genie pours him a cup of tea.

Well, the rich neighbor watches this routine for some time, and eventually he tries to buy the lamp from the poor neighbor. He offers a thousand dollars, then $100,000, then an even million--all to no avail. The poor neighbor refuses to sell the lamp, and every day, he appears content merely to ask the magical genie for his cup of tea. The rich neighbor becomes desperate, and finally offers to trade the poor neighbor everything he owns--house, cars, gadgets, bank accounts and all--in exchange for everything his neighbor owns, including the magic lamp. After all, he tells himself, he can just wish it all back again. The poor neighbor thinks about it for a minute, and finally agrees.

The next morning, the formerly-rich neighbor is sitting on the porch of his new, very humble house. With great anticipation, he takes out the lamp, rubs it, and the genie appears, asking "How can I serve you today, Master?" The man takes out his list, and among other things wishes for a house ten times larger than his previous one, twice as many cars, a much, much larger bank account, and at least 50 more things he'd been thinking of all night long. When he finally comes to the end of his list, the genie pauses awkwardly and then says... "I'm sorry, Master, I can only do tea or coffee. But would you like some decaf?"

You shall not covet your neighbor's possessions. This is the tenth and final commandment, and so today is also the conclusion of our fall sermon series on the ten commandments. Just to review, as we've worked our way through each of the commandments, we have seen that:

• The Ten Commandments are not, and were never intended to be a legal code. There are plenty of laws in the Bible and elsewhere in the ancient world, but these ten principles are not among them. The ten commandments (or in the original Hebrew language the "ten words") are intended to be a covenant, a treaty, a commitment between God and his people.
• The Ten Commandments are not a disconnected list of do's and don'ts. All of them are about putting first things first, so that everything else in our lives can fall into the right place.
• The theme that ties all of the commandments together is Love: Love for God, Love for each other, and Love for ourselves (in that order).

• interiority
• Maimonides (the Rambam) viewed the prohibition of coveting as a fence or boundary intended to keep adherents a safe distance away from the very serious sins of theft, adultery, and murder
• The New Testament stresses thanksgiving and contentment as proper heart attitudes that contrast covetousness.
• For where your treasure is, there'll your heart be also.

And that brings us to number 10: You shall not covet. A literal translation of this commandment from the ancient Hebrew is actually...You shall not covet. By now you know just how much I love to squeeze out new and alternate meanings from the biblical words, but this time, it really means exactly what it says. Don't covet. So what does it mean to covet?

Just about any English dictionary will tell you that to covet is to desire something...but it's not just any kind of desire: It's a strong desire for something that belongs to someone else. It's desire at the crossroads of "I want that" and "I'm actively plotting how I can take that away from you."

But this is precisely what makes the 10th commandment different than all the others: So far, all of the commandments have been about outwardly visible actions. Worshiping, resting, killing, stealing, careless speech. Here, with "you shall not covet," we move from the outside to the inside. This commandment is about the intentions of your heart, not the actions of your hands.

Throughout this series, I've said that the ten commandments were never intended to be a legal code, hung in a courtroom, applied to all people and enforced by civil government. This commandment is a perfect example of why: It's unenforceable. The government may already read my email, but I'm thankful they don't (yet) try to read my mind and my heart, and hold me legally responsible for my innermost thoughts. Besides, if it were illegal in America to covet our neighbor's possessions...the entire advertising industry and most of capitalism would be in trouble.

By moving from our actions to our intentions, the 10th commandment anticipates and prefigures the direction that Jesus will ultimately take the commandments in the New Testament. When asked about the commandment not to kill (outward action) Jesus says don't even hate (inward emotion). When Jesus is asked about adultery (outward action) he says don't even look at someone with lust (inward emotion). When Jesus is asked about the commandments in general, he says we should love God with all our hearts, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Love, of course, is internal. Jesus recognized that long before we act out against God or neighbor, the seed of those actions begins in our thoughts, our hearts, our attitudes.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

This is perhaps the most difficult of all the commandments to keep. If we break it--assuming we are able to keep our thoughts from turning into actions--who will know?

John D. Rockefeller Sr., America's first billionaire, was once asked by a reporter "How much money does it take to satisfy a person?" His answer: "Always a little more!"

Always a little more. I am limited in how much I steal by how much I can carry. I'm limited in how much I can kill by my strength. I'm limited in how many false gods I can make and worship by time and what I can afford. But when it comes to desiring what other people have...there are no boundaries on my imagination. My capacity to covet is unlimited. That's what makes this commandment more difficult than all the others.

I believe there's a reason we have unlimited desires. I believe God created us with an unlimited capacity for desire. Our problem is not that we have unfulfilled desires. It's that the things we desire so strongly...are, at the end of the day, unfulfilling things. All those things that belong to our neighbor, all those material possessions--they are limited, finite things, and even if we piled them up to the highest heavens (and some people try!) their limited number would still run into our unlimited desire, leaving us still wanting a little more.

There is only one thing that can meet and match our infinite desire, and that is God's infinite love for us. We were created to desire God and to desire his love. When those two things meet, there is finally enough. Incidentally, remember that quote about how much money it takes to satisfy a person? John D. Rockefeller Sr. said, "Always a little more." His son, John D. Rockefeller Jr., who grew up around more money, more wealth, who had more material possessions than any of us will ever see in a lifetime--after experiencing all that, his son said "There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ."

Ok, there is one Hebrew word I want to teach you today. It's דַּיֵּנוּ (dayenu) and it means "enough for us." In Jewish culture, this word, this concept comes with a song that is sung at passover. The words go something like this:

If God had only brought us out of Egypt and nothing else...dayenu.  It would have been enough for us.
But he split open the sea for us, too.  
If God had only split open the sea for us and nothing else...dayenu.  It would have been enough for us.
But he fed us manna in the wilderness, too.
If God had only fed us manna in the wilderness and nothing else...dayenu.  It would have been enough for us.
But he gave us the Torah (the ten commandments), too.
If God had only given us the Torah and nothing else...dayenu.  It would have been enough for us.
But he brought us into the promised land, too.

The song actually goes on for quite awhile after that, each verse ending with "dayenu. It would have been enough for us."

I think the solution to our problem of covetousness, of always desiring more, is to acknowledge God's presence in our lives, to acknowledge how much we are loved, how much we have been given, and to say that it is "dayenu." It is enough for us. In fact, if we can keep this one idea fixed in our hearts, all of the commandments fall into place:

1. The Lord is my God. Dayenu. His love is enough for me.
2. The Lord my God is one. Dayenu. One lord is enough for me, and I have no need for other gods.
3. His name is Yahweh. Dayenu. His name is sufficient, and I need not call on any other name.
4. The sabbath day is set apart for me. Dayenu. It is enough, and I will be at rest.
5. My mother and father brought me into this world. Dayenu. If that was all they had ever done, it would have been enough.
6. Each day God gives me life. Dayenu. It is enough, and I will value the life he gives to others.
7. My spouse is a gift from God. Dayenu. She is enough, and I have need of no other.
8. God has been generous to me. Dayenu. I have enough to to share with my neighbor and not steal.
9. My time is a gift from God. Dayenu. There is enough time for me to share it with my neighbor.
10. God's love for me is infinite. Dayenu. It is enough to satisfy all my desires.

Well, this is it. This is the end. We've come to the last commandment; the last of God's "ten words." I hope you will keep coming back to them many times in the months and years to come, not as as laws to be obeyed or rules to be followed, but as reminders of God's love, as reminders of how we can live together in relationship, loving others as we love ourselves.

The world is busy building its empires of bricks and steel, of stocks and bonds. But God calls us to build a different kind of Kingdom: Our currency is kindness and our trade is compassion. Our king is a carpenter, a shepherd, a humble servant. His law is love, and Dayenu--it is enough for us.