The Park Road Pulpit

The first week of June, Jackson and I returned to McCall Royal Ambassador Camp in the mountains of South Carolina, where I had worked for nine summers. I had been invited to return as the Camp Pastor for the first camp of the summer. One evening, standing on the porch of the “Snack Shack,” I was talking to a father who works for one of the cellular telephone companies. (“If I turn my phone off, put it in a suitcase, get on an airplane, fly across the country (in any direction), and then Amy calls… how does it know how to find me?”) And as we talked, the conversation got even more interesting. “Did you know that there are exactly 666 area codes in this country?” he said.[1] It had been a long time since I had had this conversation with anyone, but with the mention of the number, 6-6-6, I knew where we were going. “And now, they are planning to give everyone a universal telephone number that will stay with you, forever. No matter where you move, you will always have the same number.”

In John’s dramatic, biblical vision of a cataclysmic end of the world, all who follow the Antichrist are required to receive a mark on their foreheads. It is a mark of possession. A symbol representing the evil of the one who gives the mark, and the weakness of the one who receives. Only the faithful, who would be few, according to John, would deny “the mark.” And for their refusal, they would receive unmerciful persecution, but, finally, unending reward. The “Mark of the Beast” is a dreadful sounding thing, isn’t it? It’s the stuff of hell-fire revival preaching and childhood nightmares.

As dependent as I’m getting on my cell-phone, I do hope that 704-995-4385 doesn’t turn out to be the mark. I really don’t want to have to do without that thing until the end of time!

On Thursday someone said to me, “I’ll be gone this weekend so I’ll miss your sermon – but it’s OK -- I’m against murder anyway!”[2] “Thou shalt not kill,” is, perhaps, an easy command to dismiss. We are against murder. So we say. This command is for those deserving few on death-row,[3] not for us on I’ve-always-lived-a-good-Christian-life-street. Most of us too easily check this one off our list. And if the sixth commandment is easy to dismiss, on the other hand, it is also easy to abuse. To wield it as our own weapon.

And on the far side of the political spectrum, others say, “I’m anti-NRA… Thou Shalt Not Kill.”

But like the rest of the commandments, the prohibition against killing is not a legalistic trinket to be tossed about, flaunted proudly to support our own causes.[4] The temptation has always been to understand the commandment too simply. Which is it? “Thou shalt not murder” (strictly speaking), or, “Thou shalt not kill” (prohibiting killing, in general)? If we take such a literal approach to this word, it will be easy for us to dismiss as one that does not apply to us. It will be tempting to define the issues by our understanding of the word, and then to simply line up toe-to-toe with those on the “wrong side” of the issue, creating a gauntlet of conflict.

For example, in the creation narrative God gave to Adam and Eve every fruit-bearing tree and shrub and said, “you may eat of this.”[5] It was only after the fall, only after Cain shed his brother’s innocent blood, that our original, vegetarian ancestors were introduced to fried chicken and barbeque ribs. Does “you shall not kill,” then, mean no grilling out? On the other hand, and much more seriously, how does this command inform our conscience and our ethics with regard to self-defense? War? Capital punishment? Do these kinds of killing amount to murder?

Unfortunately, the power and life-giving force of the sixth commandment will not be found by simply defining the two Hebrew words, lo tatsach. There are no easy answers, and the Bible itself is filled with contradictions to this prohibition. The scripture celebrates Ancient Israel’s slaughter of men, women, children, even livestock, as proof of God’s providential hand at work among them. And the text clearly outlines capital punishment as an acceptable judgment – even, as I mentioned last week, stoning as just punishment for your disobedient child.[6]

I will tell you that I, personally, understand the Hebrew text to be better translated by the broader English word, “kill”, but I want to stop short, today, of defining for you what “killing” means. I do this for two reasons. First, I will not tell you today whether to be “pro-life” or “anti-NRA,” because in the end, you must make these choices, for yourself. (Mind you, I do want to influence your thinking here!) So, as you think through the issues involved, let me encourage you to consider what such biblical inconsistency might mean? How could the same book condone the slaughter of innocent thousands (virtually by God), and claim that the greatest power, the truest virtue comes in turning the other cheek, in loving our enemies, in laying down our own lives? What changed from the time of the recording of these early scriptures to the time of Jesus’ life and ministry? Did God change? Did Truth or Justice change? Or did the human perception of God, Truth, and Justice change?

And, as you reflect on the issues, let me encourage you to reflect on how Jesus himself approached this law. For the life of Jesus Christ is the lens through which Christians are to interpret both ancient scripture and modern ethical issues. How did Jesus respond to injustice and violence? To personal attack? To those who insisted on a legalism, on following the “letter of the law?” He is our guide.

But the second, more important reason, I will not devote a sermon to getting you lined up on the correct side of all the hot-button issues is that this is too easy preaching. It is the preaching of popular piety. But it is preaching which misses the real focus of the commandment itself. With today’s command, we begin a list of “don’ts.” (Don’t kill. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. etc…) We will miss the real, broadening, life-expanding intent of the commandment if we only concentrate on the negative of the command, “Do not kill.” (For, clearly, most of us have not killed.)

The truth is, this commandment has much more to say about living than about dying. Much more about what we should do, than about what we should “don’t.” In his book, The Ten Commandments from the Backside, Ellsworth Kalas re-states this word, positively, as, “You shall embrace life.” Understood as such, the command becomes more challenging. In what ways this week have you “embraced life,” promoted, affirmed, celebrated life? Your life? The life of your neighbor? The life of your enemy?

In our increasingly sophisticated world, it is not always easy to define life. The report this week that a group of scientists has successfully re-created the polio virus, using only a textbook description of its RNA and a supply of readily available chemicals, brings this question to life. The lead bio-chemist in that project denies that he has “created life,” but the lines do begin to blur, don’t they?[7] And, with the advance of medical treatments, the lines between life and death also blur. When is a patient really dead, given life-support machines all that can be done (and the hope of what might be discovered tomorrow that could be done). We have played God. In some sense, it is our duty.

The opponents of human cloning claim that such science is “playing God.” I’m not necessarily a proponent of cloning, but I disagree with this argument. We have been “playing God” for many years – and I’m grateful for it. How many of you, or your loved ones, are alive today because of a medical advance not known in prior generations?

Life? What it is? When does it begin? When does it end? These are increasingly difficult questions in our world, but what is clear is that this planet is teeming with life. (Dying to live!) Scientists, from cosmologists to bio-chemists, say they can sufficiently explain the genesis of life from spontaneous creation – in scientific terms, no “God” is needed to justify our existence. But what they cannot explain is why our universe is so tuned as it is to yield life at all. Why is there life instead of no life?[8]

In the deepest oceans, beyond the reach of the rays of the sun and its life-giving photosynthesis – there is life. On the coldest mountains and in the most arid deserts – there is life. Trees sprout and grow to maturity in tiny crevices of solid granite. Animals, such as starfish, show life’s tenacity. Even when cut in half they refuse to die. Instead, each half regenerates into a full, new creature – double the life! And in the most advanced form that we know, “Life” walks and talks. This Life considers its own existence and contemplates its own reason for being. This life prays, falls in love, gives of itself for another, and like all other forms of life on this planet dies -- reluctantly.

The nursing school at Birmingham’s Samford University was named for Ms. Ida V. Moffett. She had worked tirelessly in the hospital system in Birmingham, and lived well into her 80’s. Though she had been very ill in her months of life, on that last night, she lay on her death bed and for hours repeated over and over, “No. Not yet. Not yet.”[9]

All across this planet, this “tiny, blue-green grain of sand,”[10] in a vast universe, life springs forth mysteriously, persistently, in infinite and beautiful variety, demanding its right, and clinging, tenaciously, to the promise and hope of just one more breath.

His hands were covered in blood. In his right hand, he held a stone, still, that had become the first weapon of war. He trembled, energized by the full rush of adrenaline. Or was this trembling, fear? His own hatred and inhumanity discovered. Uncovered. In the heat of that day, in the searing light of the sun, standing above his brother’s lifeless body, repulsed by his own anger, his conscience spoke, “Where is your brother?”

God did not even bother to reply to that question.[12] We all know the answer. Then, banished from the garden paradise forever, Cain calls to God, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! I shall be hidden from your face… and anyone who meets me may kill me.”

In any system of justice, such a death would be fair. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.”[13] “Do the crime, serve the time.” But God’s justice is never just fair.

[So] the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.

And Cain lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden, away from the presence of God, but still within God’s great mercy. Even in this separation, Cain the murderer of his brother… Lived – because he had been marked.[15] It was the Mark of the Best.

The good news of the sixth commandment is this: You have been marked. I have been marked. Even Osama ben Laden and Saddam Hussein have been marked. For God said, “Let us create humankind in our image…”[16] Define “life” however you may, the scripture defines all human life as good, worthy, mysterious, miraculous, beholding and bearing the divine image.

But the real question of the sixth commandment for those of us who are not, literal, murderers is this: Whom have you marked? By caring words or by thoughtless anger? By generosity or by greed? By forgiveness or by revenge? By practicing “[intentional] acts of kindness”[17] or by a selfishness which blinds us to the reality of human pain all around?

[1] Actually, I don’t remember whether it was area codes, or some other feature of the telephone system that he referenced, but according to this technician, there are exactly 666 “somethings” in the system. The number for him was an ominous warning.

[2] The comment was made by Frank Porter, an attorney in Charlotte, who is an active member and leader of our congregation.

[3] I hope that my sarcasm is not missed. The irony inherent to the sixth commandment is that we are all killers in our own ways. To relegate this command to only convicted criminals is to miss the depth of its life-giving power.

[4] In the introductory sermon in this series, I made the following statement: “Though these ten words were “etched in stone,” according to the biblical tradition, they were not written in “black and white…” These ten words of God do have the power to liberate, but, contrary to the religiously popular opinion, this liberation will not come by their polarizing judgment of “right and wrong,” and the consequent punishment of the accused. Only if we can see through them the liberating love of the God who brought [us all]… out of the house of slavery will they free us for abundant living in a world, which is cast in infinite shades of gray.”

[5] Genesis 2.16.

[6] Leviticus 21.18-21.

[7] Though I cannot call his name, I heard an interview this week on NPR radio in which the scientist made this denial.

[8] As a citizen of a modern world, I believe that it is incumbent upon us all to accept the findings of science, or at least to interact, intelligently, with them. We are not free simply to accept what we like of modern science, e.g., breakthroughs in medicine and technology, and to reject that which is uncomfortable to us. That science rejects the notion of “creation,” in any literal sense, should not be troubling for believers. Even if life began “spontaneously,” why is this so?. Why is our universe tuned for life? To reject an antiquated understanding of “creation” is not to reject God.

[9] This story was told to my by Catherine Allen who was at Mrs. Moffet’s bedside when she finally died.

[10] From a song by Kyle Matthews. I cannot locate the specific recording.

[11] “Ben Turnbull,” in John Updike’s book, Toward the End of Time, celebrates the mystery of life: “Alive. I’m alive, I sometimes think now, listening to the rain in the gutters, feeling the extensions f my limbs in space, beneath the soft sheets. What bliss life is, imagined from the standpoint of a stone or of a cubic yard of black water in the icy ocean depths. Even there, apparently, conglomerated molecules manage to light a tiny candle of consciousness. The universe hates death, can it be?”

[12] I am intrigued by the “literal words of God” in the Bible. Did biblical characters really hear God, audibly? Speak to God in a different way than we do? I believe this is not the case, and I am drawn to try understand and explain how an experience of “God’s speaking” comes to be recorded as the literal voice of God in biblical narratives. If you were to write of your own experiences of God “speaking,” would it not sound as if it were as “literal” as the stories of scripture?

[13] Exodus 21.24.

[14] This quotation is on a bookmark that was given to me.

[15] The story is from Genesis 4.

[16] Genesis 1.27.

[17] I allude to the bumper sticker which says, “Practice Random Acts of Kindness.” Kindness should be intentional and not random.

[18] Exodus 30.15-20.

[19] These words are taken from the prayer of St. Francis, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace…”

[20] Mark 12.27.

[21] In his book, The Ten Commandments from the Backside, Ellsworth Kalas restates the negative sixth commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” positively as “You Shall Embrace Life.”

[22] John 10.10.