Exodus 19:3-7; 20:1-17 on October 11th, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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The Giving of the Law
Unlike the previous few Sundays, not a lot of time has happened since last week's story. It's only been about 45 days narrative wise from the Red Sea crossing to today's giving of the Ten Commandments. So there's not a whole lot to catch up on. We're just wondering some grumbling and God providing nonetheless.
Now we don't really talk a whole lot about the law in church. And really the only Old Testament laws that we read are the Ten Commandments, the Shema. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. And the love your neighbor text from Leviticus. And honestly I think we only read those other two because Jesus talks about them as the greater commandments. We skip over much of the 613 other laws, regulations and rules. Give us a cozy blanket and some gospel and we'll do just fine. Thank you very much.
And I think that's because we tend to think of the biblical law in negative terms. It's what keeps us from doing what we would really like to do. Whether that's taking the easy way out or simply doing whatever serves our own interests best. And when we do those things anyway, the law has a way of convicting us, showing us just how far short we have fallen.
And of course there are other reasons we tend to ignore the law. Many of those laws seem obsolete. Meaning with a way of worship and life that doesn't fit our context anymore. But interestingly enough, we're quick to dismiss laws that don't suit us and we're just as quick to pull others out of context and use them to condemn people or behaviors that we don't like, all while conveniently ignoring the ones that might challenge our own ways of life.
Obviously there is a legal dimension to the law. It is what holds us accountable for our actions toward each other. But we also turn it into a moral and self-justifying checklist. No murder today, check. No adultery either, check. So while we ignore the law, when it doesn't serve our needs, we are more than happy to show our glowing credentials when it does.
But perhaps that is not our only problem with how we approach the law. Because it's not just what we shouldn't do but do anyway. It's also what the law tells us to do that we completely ignore. We avoid the law because those demands can make us feel uncomfortable. So for most of us, we just decided we don't need to go into the details, just knowing that there is some sort of law that we fall short of is good enough for us. Where's the gospel again?
But both Jesus and Martin Luther look at the law differently. They redefine the commandments in broader ways to their less about thou shalt not and more like thou shalt. You should build up your neighbor. You should speak well of. You should love, serve, give. And those are all ways that we fall terribly short.
And that gets more to the point of God giving the 10 commandments in the first place. They are meant to guide God's people, God's freed, beloved, treasured people in the ways of living in relationship with God and with each other. The God who sets free and gathers a priestly kingdom wants to guide us in the way that God would have us honor, respect, and care for each other. The law preserves life. The law is concerned with the well-being of people. The law helps us develop wisdom and goodness. The law is a gift from God for the sake of the life, health, and well-being of people in community. And there is nothing that God wants more than for us to be in community with God.
And that's why the commandments start out as they do. These are very personal statements about what God has done on behalf of the people. I bore you on Eagle's wings. I brought you to myself. I am the Lord, Lord God, who brought you out of the land of each and out of the house of slavery. God frees them first. God brings them through the red sea first. God names them as a treasured possession first. And then God gives the commandments. God establishes the relationship and then it gives the law. It's not law for laws, it's a state who are laws to win their way. It's about living in relationship with the God who has already chosen them and then learning to live together as God's people.
So while the first point of the law is to guide us in living with God, the second point is that the law isn't just about us. It's not just about our scorecard or whether we're becoming better each and every day. Much of the law is about our neighbors. God gives you the law not so that you can be more spiritual or have your best life now, but so that your neighbor can have their best life now. Again the law was given for community, for relationship, for the building of life.
That is good news. It is good news for my neighbor. God loves them so much that God tells me not to kill, steal, commit adultery, and so on. But it's also good news for me. God loves me so much that God tells my neighbor not to kill, steal, and so on.
We live in a very insecure, volatile, finger pointing, idolatrous, done for the sake of appearances kind of world. And we are also quick to accuse and blame and make perfunctory promises while being rather slow to dialogue and love, build up, honor each other, improve others' lives, and just be a help and service. We can talk about God's law all we want, but if it doesn't lead to us caring for one another, have we really understood what God intended in the first place?
Imagine what our communities, our nation, our world would look like if we just actually did that. It is hard work, hard work, but it is good work, holy work to live as God's people in the world. And try as we might, we will fall short. And what we can could and should get it better, we will never get it right. Where is that gospel again?
Well here it is. God's relationship with us doesn't depend on us accomplishing that work. God still bears us up on Eagles' wings, God still sets us free, God still brings us to God's self. Because the goal is in a list of two dues, the goal is relationship with God. And in Christ, God acts once again to bring us into relationship. Christ comes as a neighbor to us, fulfilling the law and the prophets, loving us to the grave and back.
God brought Israel through the sea and brought them to Himself. And in baptism, God brings us through the waters and claims us as God's own. Before you could earn it, God claimed you. Before you loved every neighbor, God loved you. Before you could ever get the commandments right, Christ gave His life for you. And neither your failures nor your sins nor even death itself can undo what God has done for you. Because your place with God does not depend on what you have done or left undone. But it depends on what God has done for you.
Because before God ever said to thou shalt not, God said, I am the Lord your God. And through Jesus Christ, that promise is yours. Now and forever. Amen.