Monday, September 16, 2019


Word Six: Create
A Sermon on The Sixth Command, Genesis 4:2b-16; Matthew 5:21-26
For the Fourteenth Sunday Following Pentecost (10 Words Series)
September 15, 2019
For the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith

Incarnate and Resurrected God, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your presence here in this space and in these words, God. For if we are present to you, then nothing else will matter; but if we are not present to you, then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter.  Amen.

“Thou shalt not kill.”

Finally, an easy one, right? I thought so, too. Let me warn you: I was wrong.

The sermon was titled, “Lest the Living Forget.” It was preached on November 10, 1946 by a brave Unitarian minister Arthur Davies. Let me read a bit of this over you this morning: 

“I have with me have with me here in the pulpit this morning a page from a newspaper. From a very fine newspaper. It contains a picture – as it seems to me, an utterly loathsome picture. If I spoke as I feel I would call it obscene. I do not blame the newspaper for printing the picture, or the photographer for taking it. What fills me with bitterness is the fact that such an event could take place at all. It is a picture of two high naval officers and a very beautiful lady. They are in the act of cutting what is called an atom-bomb cake. And it is indeed a cake shaped in the form of an atomic explosion. The caption [in the Post’s photo] says it is made of angel food puffs. I do not know how to tell you what I feel about that picture. I only hope to God it is not printed in Russia – to confirm everything the Soviet government is telling the Russian people about how ‘American degenerates’ are able to treat with levity the most cruel, pitiless, revolting instrument of death ever invented by man… The naval officers concerned should apologize to the armed service of which they are a part, and to the American people. No apology would be sufficient to efface what it may mean to the people of the world.”

My God, we need brave voices and preachers like that in our world today.

The picture he was referring to is on the front of the worship guide this morning. It is from the Washington Post and was taken on a Tuesday evening at the Officer’s Club of the Army War College at a celebration of the disbanding of the Joint Army-Navy Task Force that organized and oversaw the first post-war atomic tests in the Pacific. The celebration of the atomic bomb. 

The celebration of the weapons of war that now exist which could end the very existence of human life on this planet; weapons which have only grown in strength since that day. And the celebration included a cake that was designed to look like the explosion of an atomic bomb, a weapon of war that our tax dollars helped create. Actually, our tax dollars continue to help create and sustain these.

I look at the photo and, in my soul, I hear the stirring of the Scripture that we read earlier in the service. I hear the voice of God in my heart and it’s a grieving voice; a whisper, almost, at this point because shouting has robbed the voice of its initial strength, yet it will keep on with its message: “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper.”

Yes, First Austin. You are your brother’s and sister’s keeper.

I made the mistake of thinking “thou shalt not kill” might have been an easy word. I mean, surely, we can all agree murder is wrong, right? That killing is wrong, right? This should be easy. 

Except surprisingly, this is one of the most debated commands; a lot of it has to do with language. There is a lot of spilled ink over whether or not this is about murder or killing – a distinction that I actually think does not matter. Murder or kill – what you have done is taken the life of one of God’s beloved creations and ended it. Surely, we agree that is wrong, right?

Don’t answer too quickly. 

Cain and Abel… it’s not an easy story. Two brothers both doing the best they can, one a farmer and one a hunter, both bringing their sacrifices to God and for reasons that still remain unclear, God favors the sacrifice of Abel but not Cain. And this makes Cain very upset. So, Cain calls his brother Abel to go out to the field, and when they are there, he attacks him and kills him (and note that Scripture writes it that simply… we have so long been desensitized to violence that our holy book in the 4th chapter, the first murder of the book, just writes it “attacked his brother and killed him.” By the time this story is written, violence and killing is so normal, the verb does not even need a buildup.)

Along comes God: “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know God, am I my brother’s keeper?” 

Yes, you are. And God continues, “your brother’s blood cries out from the ground.” What God has done in creation, create, Cain has now undone. And Cain might be able to go about with his life as if this is no big deal, but God is crying out and creation itself is crying out.

Because humanity might be desensitized to violence, but God and creation will not be.

There is an interesting phenomenon in science that can’t really be explained. After large-scale catastrophes, scientists measure an inexplicable increase in radioactive decay after events like September 11 or the 2003 Indonesian tsunami. Nuclear decay is about one of the few constants we have in life, and yet after these events, there is an increase. The best explanation I have found comes from a poet who asks if, perhaps, creation itself cries out. 

Our violence makes God weep, makes creation weep. 

And it’s worth pointing out that this one might be the one Moses struggles with the most. The command “do not murder” is given to a murderer. And as our story continues, we are going to see a lot more violence. Abraham almost kills his son. Jephthah kills his daughter. David kills just about everyone. Israel is often victorious in wars that are horrific. As the story continues, the violence actually escalates. 

Which might be why Jesus decides to just reframe the entire argument (he is going to do this with two commands – pay attention to that, it’s telling). Jesus in the sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it was said do not murder, but I tell you that actually anyone who gets angry with another will be subject to judgement.”

It’s as though Jesus has looked around enough to know that the ban on murder is not working. People get to the edge of violence and it seems they can’t stop before they are diving off the cliff. So Jesus says, let’s put a bigger boundary here – murder and killing begin with anger, they begin with a broken relationship, they begin when you look at someone else and don’t see their humanity (this is key in the other command he redefines, as well), so let’s just stop it there. You are not to be angry with another, you are not to get to the point where you have broken a relationship with another so that you don’t see them as human and thus, can kill and murder them. 

And Jesus continues and says that if you do have someone with which you have a broken relationship, that you no longer see as a sibling, well… don’t even practice your faith until you have made that right.

What Jesus does is step back from the simple “thou shalt not murder” and says ‘No, that is not enough; you need to learn to be so connected to one another that you do all you can to help them live… Even if that means putting your relationship with that person ahead of your faith.’ Did you hear that? It’s shocking and so important. ‘Even if that means putting your relationship with another ahead of your faith.’

Jesus sees life as the beautiful web that it is; when it’s done right, we are all so intimately connected with one another and our joys and sufferings that we don’t even see the end of our life and the beginning of another – we don’t know where “I” ends and “you” begins because we are all connected. 

And in a place like that, violence has no home. That is peace. 

That is Jesus when he knows that there are soldiers coming to kill him. He knows the end is near and he himself is about to be murdered. It’s Jesus stopping one of his disciples from using the sword to bring about violence and saying “no… it is better to die than to kill because I am my brother’s keeper.” 

If you thought “All People” meant we open our doors and tell everyone we love them and we sit and sing happy songs together, you are missing it. “All People” means that everyone who walks on this earth belongs and we will sacrifice our very lives for their well-being because we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper.

Which makes this guiding word a whole lot harder this day. 

A day where mass shootings have become the norm; where there is a horrible shooting and we get up in arms for about 2 days and then we go back to wait until the next one happens, and we can express outrage once again. How many of us have done anything meaningful to combat gun violence in the last few weeks? Shame on us.

A time period where war is still rampant. Do you know that 60% of death in war happened in the 20th century? Do you know that we live in a world where at the push of a button, the entire existence of humanity could be killed in atomic war? How many of us have done anything meaningful to end that? Shame on us.

A day and age where our world is literally dying beneath our feet because we have forgotten to take care of it? A world where children are forced into labor so that we can buy things at cheaper prices… a world where my ability to live well and save money comes at the expense of a child working in a factory for less than living wage? A world where teenage suicide continues to be the number one killer because we are not stopping online bullying and building a better world of love and acceptance? A world where your skin color and gender and orientation can drastically increase or decrease your life expectancy, your income, your likelihood to be the victim of crime? Shame on us. There is a lot of blood crying out from the ground and God is weeping. 

This command is not simply ‘don’t murder someone.’ This command is the duty of love, of care, of working to create life. 

The question this command brings to our attention is this: do your actions create life or not? Because if they create life, you are doing good. If they don’t, you are failing this 6th word. 

And that question, “does your action create life or not,” follows you to the grocery store, to the shopping mall, to how you care for creation, to how you act in the office, to how you parent, to the political positions you hold, to the way you deal with those on the edge of life, to the entertainment you watch… this question of life and creation or killing and murder is a question we face every day. 

Because God’s verb is “create,” and any other verb is wrong.

I heard a brilliant Talmudic parable the other day.

Imagine a cruise ship with many levels and many floors, and people having a great time on their journey. All is going well until the captain begins to realize that something on the ship is not right. He is not sure what, but something is wrong. In fact, it appears the ship is sinking. As they investigate, they start on the bottom floor and sure enough, there is water coming in from one of the cabins. Immediately opening the door, they see the problem: there is a hole in floor of the room. They look at the passenger quite confused – what are you doing?

“Well it’s my cabin. I paid for it.” He replies.

And down goes the ship.

Thou shalt not kill; don’t have broken relationships. It’s God reminding us that this is not a journey we take alone; our actions have very real implications on the world and the people around us. Actually, to put that better, on God’s world and God’s people around us. 

The Sixth Word: Create. Make sure that every action you take creates better, fuller, further life not just for you, but for the world and people around you. 

Amen and Amen.

*artwork: Salute to Bikini, Washington Post, November 7, 1946

0 comments:

Post a Comment