You shall not covet, part II

Bible reading for the day:

The Ninth Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house.” Exodus 20.17a

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not plot to take our neighbors’ possessions, inheritance, or home, or obtain them through deceptive means, but assist and serve our neighbors in keeping what is theirs. (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

The Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his workers, or his livestock, or anything that is your neighbor's.” Exodus 20.17b

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not ruin our neighbors’ relationships with their husband or wife, workers, or livestock, or try to lure them away, but encourage them to remain and serve each other faithfully. (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

 

“Follow your heart.” How many times have you heard this said? It sounds so touching, so romantic and exciting… and popular. Follow your heart. It is the cry of the self… Proclaiming itself… A cry as old as Adam and eve, listening to the serpent… And a cry sung in a new voice every generation. “Follow your heart” is the song of myself. Better to listen to Jack Ingram when he sings that following your heart, chasing the big time, will end you up, “living like a king in a castle of sand.”  Even better still to listen to Jesus in Luke 12: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you and the things you have coveted and prepared, whose will they be?” 

In the final two Commandments, God protects your neighbors’ property and his relationships from your coveting heart. If you’ve been paying attention, or if you know the Commandments and their meanings by heart, then you might say, “But wait, didn’t God already protect my neighbors’ property and relationships with all the previous commandments?… Particularly with the first, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, Commandments?” Yes, you would be exactly correct. 

With these last two commandments, God seeks to protect your neighbor and end, killing, adultery, stealing, and lying where they start. Coveting starts with your eye, and then follows your heart. Your eye sees something or someone that is not yours, something it wants, something that belongs to your neighbor, and to God… And your heart immediately schemes and plots to get it. As Carson McCullers wrote eighty years ago, your heart is “a lonely hunter”… Always seeking to lay up treasure for itself. So God wants to head off, killing, adultery, stealing, and lying where they start… By keeping your heart from going hunting in the first place.

The truest treasure, your heart could ever have is Christ himself. Well, I’ve got great news: you don’t have to go looking for him, he has already promised himself to you in your baptism. Before he gave the commandments, he gave you himself in a promise: “I am the Lord, your God,” Thank you, Jesus😊. And, if it just so happens that you are not yet baptized, well let us know, and we will arrange a trip to the baptismal font with you😄.

Let’s pray: Gracious and almighty Father, teach us to fear, and love you, so that we don’t desire to get our neighbors possessions by scheming, or by pretending to have a right to them; and so that we don’t try to tempt or coax away from our neighbor, his wife, or his workers, but encourage them to remain loyal. Each day, Lord, teach us to fear, love, and trust you above all else… That we may delight in the property and relationships you have already given us. I ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Hymn: follow this link to a beloved classic that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47B3AyVcA4I

Benediction:  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:20-21)