All Saints Lutheran Church
Pastor Tim Johnson
July 20, 2003 

This is probably the first commandment you think has little real relevance to your life. After all, how many times have you actually plotted someone's demise other than in vengeful, wishful fantasies? Your lack of follow-through is probably explained by either the fear of being caught and punished, fear of people's negative judgment, fear of living with guilt, fear of the actual act of terminating someone else's life, or perhaps some fear of God's retribution.

Unfortunately, these deterrents that prevent people from acting upon homicidal thoughts are not foolproof. Road rage is but one example of how a somewhat innocuous situation can turn into something deadly. And we've even seen how that kind of tragedy has even taken place out here on the lake a couple of weeks ago, with not only the tragedy of the death, but with the disturbing accounts of loads of people unwilling, even, to either move their boats to retrieve the body or give any kind of testimony about what happened.

How can people be so indifferent? Maybe it is because we've gotten sort of numb to killing. Some suggest the problem is the innumerable examples of the extent to which we are surrounded by a culture that embraces death:

•  Movies like “The Terminator,” and an endless offering of others like it;
•  Video games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, or one called “War of the PuffBalls” that publicizes: “All the Innocence of a Kid's Game... Lost in the Ravages of War!”
•  Music that degrades and diminishes life, with sometimes an obsession of the dark side ;
•  Murder rates that keep people feeling fear in their own schools and neighborhoods;
•  Abortion rates that reflect a conflicted understanding of what constitutes life;
•  Wars and rumors of war;
•  And even our own run-away greed that resists accountability to the equitable distribution of the earth's resources that results in millions of humans starving.

Add to the list the strange irony, then, that we don't deal well with death. People don't like to talk about it. So, we have it all around us and we indulge it, but we sort of deny it. I wonder if the Devil isn't smiling.

But maybe it shouldn't come as any surprise that killing is so much a part of our story—after all, death and murder go all the way back to the beginning of our own human story captured in the early pages of the Bible. Right away, there is sibling rivalry for God's attention, approval, and affection that is captured in the story of Cain and Abel--humanity's first murder. God even tries to help Cain face his life's difficulties, but Cain slays Abel anyway.

God then gives Cain the opportunity to confess and repent, but Cain chooses to lie about his knowledge of Abel's whereabouts: “I do not know [where Abel is]. Am I my brother's keeper?” [1] The cosmic answer to that question is, “Yes!” According to the Bible, we are our brother's keeper, as human life is sacred; and its senseless destruction is seen as a crime against God. The fundamental assertion is that life belongs to God; if human life is taken, it is to be taken in full awareness of this fact. [2] That is to say that the one who kills is acting as if he were God; all life is God's creation.

This commandment is about not killing. Some would argue that it is specifically and only about not murdering, but the Hebrew doesn't make that distinction. The commandment is about our not taking it upon ourselves to destroy what God has created. In whatever form.

We'll miss God speaking to us if we think that because we haven't recently murdered anyone, that this commandment doesn't really have much to do with us. But, until we begin to perceive all the forms of killing that go on in our world that are excused or ignored, that happen both through our actions and in our inactions, we will not only miss the point of the commandment, we may also be duped into violating this commandment in some ways that we might not even suspect. In fact, the Evil One has in his arsenal the weapon of deception. We are deceived when we think that we can withhold life from others in any form and that that is not death itself. We may fool ourselves or one another, but we don't fool God.

One of the ways that the Devil has had his way with us is that he has deceived us into thinking that the Christian life is boring, that it's too prohibitive, that it's no fun, that there's no action, that there's nothing more than a bunch of people having to sit around and be nicey nice to others. That Christianity is somehow some sub-standard form of living. And, that real living has to have some of this adventurous mayhem.

How glad the Devil is when that's what we believe. When we trust the world more than we trust God. The problem is that we don't even know what we're missing. We get so accustomed or numbed to accepting aggression and killing and death as a way of life, that we cease believing that there is any other way to live. “Necessary evils,” we say. I'm not sure that is a statement of faith, but rather one of resignation.

I think that the ways of darkness and death can be so insidious that we even begin to forget who we are.

Some scientists, according to a story by Harold Bredsen, decided to develop a fish that could live outside of water. So, selecting some healthy red herring, they bred and crossbred, hormoned and chromosomed until they produced a fish that could exist out of water.

But the project director wasn't satisfied. He suspected that though the fish had learned to live on dry land, it still had a secret desire for water.

“Re-educate it,” he said. “Change its very desires.”

So again they went to work, this time retraining even the strongest reflexes. The result? A fish that would rather die than get wet. Even humidity filled this new fish with dread.

The director, proud of his triumph, took the fish on tour. Well, quite accidentally, according to official reports, it happened—the fish fell into [water]. It sank to the bottom, eyes and gills clamped shut, afraid to move, lest it become wetter. And of course it dared not breathe; every instinct said no. Yet breathe it must.

So the fish drew a tentative gill-full. Its eyes bulged. It breathed again and flicked a fin. It breathed a third time and wiggled with delight. Then it darted away. The fish had discovered water.

And with that same wonder, men and women conditioned by a world that rejects God, discover him. For in him we live and move and have our being. [3]

We are called to life in the water! Baptized in the water, we are made new again for life! “If anyone is in Christ he or she is a new creation!” God created us in his image to be a co-creator with Him, and we walked away because we've wanted to do it on our own. And most of us discover sooner or later that left to our own ways, we self-destruct and we hurt others.

That's when God comes to us in Jesus to save us from death. “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” The gift is life itself—but will we trust him enough to let go of the old and grab onto the new life that he offers?

To follow this commandment is not only to keep from killing it is to pursue life! It is to be about the things that promote life! It is to put away the weapons of death and to take up the glories of life.

The challenge is that you and I are driven toward murder and the taking of life away from others. When we're wronged we seek revenge. When we want to get ahead we step on those around or under us. When we want extravagance in our lives, we try to wear blinders on our eyes and neglect the stirrings of our hearts that might otherwise have us generously respond to those in need.

But we are called to be about the things that promote life—and to be confident that as we do that we do so with the power of God at work in and through us.

What does that look like in each of our lives, then? Well, we can begin by taking a personal inventory on what our outlook on life is like.
•  Is it filled with doom and negativity?
•  …Or is it hopeful and filled with confidence?
•  When we think about ourselves—our own self-worth— do we internalize the love of God and of others?
•  …Or do we keep everyone and their affection at a safe distance from us?
•  Do we approach the challenges of each day with a sense of courage and trust that we are not alone and that God is here to help us?
•  …Or do we wake with such apprehension and fear, that we feel defeated even before we get out of bed?

And, how about our relationships?
•  Do you treat others with a fundamental belief that they are created in the image of God and they are deserving of your treating them as such?
•  Do you promote the well-being and the life of others?

Martin Luther said that we should be blameless in our behaviors toward others. [4] But it's what he says next about this commandment that really needs to get our attention.

In the second place, he says, this commandment is violated not only when a person actually does evil, but also when he fails to do good to his neighbor, or, though he has the opportunity, fails to prevent, protect, and save him from suffering bodily harm or injury. If you send a person away naked when you could clothe him, you have let him freeze to death. If you see anyone suffer hunger and do not feed him, you have let him starve. Likewise, if you see anyone condemned to death to death or in similar peril and do not save him although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. It will do you no good to plead that you did not contribute to his death by word or deed, for you have withheld your love from him and robbed him of the service by which his life might have been saved.

Furthermore, says Luther, we are to honor this commandment in relationship also to our enemies, because showing kindness only to our friends is but an ordinary heathen virtue, as Christ says in Matthew 5 [5] .

So, you and I are called to life. Life-giving. Life-protecting. Life- enhancing. Life-intensifying acts of kindness and bold compassion.

Anyone who thinks that following Jesus is for wimps or is boring, simply hasn't tried. And the more that we do, the more we discover the deeper purpose of our lives.

You are I were created for life. And we are uniquely suited and situated to make a very real difference in the lives of others in this world.

“You are the light of the world,” said Jesus. “Let your light shine! [6] ”

Amen.

[1] Genesis 4:9
[2] Genesis 9:5-6
[3] Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, editor: Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, Grand Rapids MI , 1993, page 131.
[4] Large Catechism, Luther's comments on the 5th commandment
[5] vv. 46, 47
[6] Matthew 5:14, 16