Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Carol Swanson.
Knowing I was to write devotions on the Ten Commandments, I had been thinking about them a lot. The Israelites were living under oppression in Egypt when the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob heard their cry and rescued them through Moses. They had left Egypt and slavery. But what did it mean now to journey with, to live in, this large community moving through the wilderness?
And then last Tuesday, October 3rd, as I was driving home from YogaDevotion at Prince of Peace, I listened to MPR, “All Things Considered.” Rachel Martin was interviewing Sir Patrick Stewart on his new memoir, Making It So. I’m sharing some of this with you and have hi-lighted some phrases that caught my attention. See what you think (whether you are a Trekkie or not.)
Rachel Martin explains that in her early days of teaching English in Japan to middle school kids in the late ’90s, she found tapes of Star Trek: Next Generation left by the previous teacher, and she felt comforted and less lonely watching her “good friends Jean-Luc and Data. She continues, “I did make real friends in Japan, but that show, those characters navigating the galaxy, were an important touchstone as I explored my own new world.”
Martin tells Stewart: “I talk to a lot of people about spirituality and about the value of spiritual communities, which I think are when people who have similar values gather together and have or seek transcendent experiences.” For avid Star Trek fans, the series “is a spiritual world. They treat it with religious reverence. Have you encountered that? I mean, do you get it?”
Stewart: “Yes. I see it very, very clearly and very strongly. It was about truth and fairness and honesty and respect for others, no matter who they were or what strange alien creature they looked like. That was immaterial. They were alive. And if they needed help, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, his team, were there to give it. So, yes, in a sense, we were ministers. And I have heard now so many times from individuals who … tell me aspects of their life, of their health, of their mental health, and how it was all saved and improved by watching every week.” He says the cast often talked about this. And he admits playing such a role made him a better man.
Can you see connections to the Ten Commandments? Their purpose?
I first memorized the Ten Commandments in 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School. “You are to fear and love God…” FEAR??? We learned that was a way of saying “respect” in a big way. This is about our relationship with God, after all. And our relationship with others, which also reflects our love and respect for God. While memorizing them, I learned to appreciate Luther’s explanations. They make me think about how I might cause harm to others, and Luther gave good ideas for doing the right thing for each commandment. They are a solid foundation for becoming a mature, responsible adult.
“You shall not .…” The Ten Commandments say NO to that which kills and destroys the goodness in our relationships with God and with one another, NO to that which keeps us in bondage to sin. Our loving Creator wants us “free to be,” to live into our potential selves, each with special talents and gifts that can be shared with one another. How we treat one another and ourselves is then our response to God’s gracious and generous acts of creating, saving and claiming—already accomplished! (Remember Free to Be, by Gerhard Forde and Jim Nestingen.)
Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise… and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut. 6:4-7, 9)
We pray: Loving God, may we keep your words in our hearts, and recite them and live them in our families, in our communities (our churches and neighborhoods), and in our world.
God says, Make it so.
Link to full (8 minutes) interview on MPR: