The peh Factor
“Seeking balance in a polarized world”
I know we are into the exciting start of college football season. I also know that the Pac-12 with whom I grew up has now fallen apart with all but two of the original members now dispersed to other leagues. Four of those teams, Washington Huskies, USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins and the Oregon Ducks are now part of this more than the Big 10 mid-western conference. In this blog I want to address the Other Big 10…the Original Big 10.
It was in the early 1970’s. I am assuming that I was working at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington, in part as Youth Director. Somewhere along the line I stumbled across a very interesting publication that teamed theologian Rev. Dr. Vernard Eller of La Verne College in North Pomona, California, and MAD Magazine. The publication can still be found on numerous websites ranging in price from $6.00 to $29.95. As you can see from the cover, it was originally $2.79. The Title of the publication was The MAD Morality, or The Ten Commandments Revisited. I have carried my copy with me for over 50 years and in reviewing its contents have rediscovered how it helped shape my understanding of the Original Big 10.
I live in a part of the country where many in the population are angry that US Supreme Court ruled in 1980 (Public Schools) and 2005 (Kentucky Court Houses) that public displays of the Big 10 broke the rule of separation of church and state. As a result, and because of the impact it has made on many other areas of our public life, residents of my region have posted large billboards on private property pictures of the Big 10. In Columbia Falls, MT, there is even a large center right off the highway going into Glacier National Park area that has a billboard for each of the Big 10 and an interpretive center for anyone who would want to drive in to discuss and/or explore.
It is not the Big 10 that I want to discuss in this blog…that will be the next. The text from Exodus 20 that has risen to the top of my thinking come from the opening thesis of Dr. Eller as spelled out in his introduction. It reads:
We ought not to think that the Ten Commandments begin with Commandment #1; the preceding verse is the most important of all. Exodus 20:2 reads: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Yahweh is saying in effect,
“You are free men, right?”
“Right!”
“I have rather adequately demonstrated that your freedom is my prime concern, right?”
“Right!”
“And having done what I did, I have proved myself to be the world’s leading expert on freedom, right?”
“Right!”
“Fine! Then let old Yahweh give you a few helpful tips on how to be free men and stay that way, OK?”
“You people don’t know it, but you stand in danger of losing your new freedom. No, it is not that the Egyptians are about to repossess you; I too good care of them. But in the first place, there are a lot of other gods around here who would dearly love to have you sign on with them. They will make you big promises about the freedoms they have to offer. But be careful! I’ve already proved that I am the God of freedom, right?”
“Right!”
“What these gods offer as freedom always turns out to be slavery – that’s why they are false gods. One God frees men; another god enslaves men – that’s the difference between the true God and false gods. Therefore …you free men shall have no other gods before me, right?”
“Right!”
The Big 10 are not from a big ogre who wants to rob people of their freedom and their pleasure. Rather, the commandments come from a God who wants to ensure the best life possible for the people God loves.
Yes, the commandments are given in the negative. But note what the negative can do. If I would say (because in my vast wisdom I simply know this type of thing), “Thou shalt not eat chocolate chip mint ice cream.” Such a negative command would certainly put some restrictions on me. However, it would also open the door and give me permission to eat vanilla, chocolate, rocky road, pralines and cream, … It we would say to children at school, “You shall not go through a door that is painted grey” (because the doors that are painted grey lead to closets for custodians or mechanical rooms, etc.) it would still allow them to go through doors that are red or yellow or white or purple.
Giving a commandment in the negative can be a way of protecting innocent or ill-informed people from going somewhere or doing some thing that someone with greater knowledge and wisdom understands would be harmful. In my humble impression this is certainly what God was doing at the very beginning when God told Adam (and Eve)
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
“You can enjoy everything else in the garden! You can go anywhere you like in the garden! But, this one tree you can’t handle. Yes, it is good to eat but the consequences go beyond your ability to control and direct. Don’t eat it!”
God loved Adam (and Eve) enough to set boundaries for their protection. God loved us so much that God gave us The Big 10. Will we be wise enough to listen?
Paul
Comments