Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

    A quick search of various news services will quickly reveal that in several state legislatures in the United States, legislation is being proposed that would allow the posting of The Ten Commandments in public buildings. The primary opponent to this kind of legislation is the American Civil Liberties Union. Not only are state legislatures debating the appropriateness of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property, but in some cases large amounts of money are being set aside to establish a defence fund in case the Civil Liberties Union decides to fight such decisions in the courts. All of this action follows a much publicised case where a monument to the Ten Commandments displayed in the rotunda of the Alabama state legislature was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to be removed, because they decided that it violated the American constitution’s guarantee of separation between the church and the state.

    Fortunately, and I say that with heartfelt sincerity, we have not been subjected to such public feuding in Canada. At least not yet, and I hope never.

    The Ten Commandments have become a kind of banner for the Religious Right in  a “feel good” no-lose kind of situation. They ask, “How could and why would anyone want to oppose the display of such age-old and obviously well established divine laws?” Hoping to cloud the difference between what the commandments express and the high profile act of placing them in a public location, the proponents for such actions attempt to challenge opponents by questioning how anyone could be opposed to such clear statements about what is right and wrong. In their minds, if you oppose the public display, then you must also oppose what the commandments have to say. It’s an old debating technique, hard to defend but easy to see through.

    The sad fact is that quite often, the public disagreements over such issues often end up breaking other well established rules about the way we should treat each other. The very act of trying to install a set of laws that determines the proper way to be in relationship with God and with each other, results in a situation which puts those laws to shame.

    As I mentioned above, the further move to set aside large amounts of public money to defend attempts to have the public displays removed is even more shameful. Rather than designating funds - one of the stories I read said the reserved amount in Oklahoma was three million dollars - does it not make more sense to use that money to ensure that the spirit of the rules is maintained, rather than to fight attempts to have public displays removed.

    Inevitably the debate ends up being a discussion about religious tolerance. The Ten Commandments become a symbol for the Judeo-Christian tradition, and opponents to the public display of them, quite rightly point out that rather than being inclusive of other traditions they represent an exclusion.

    If I were to sum up the intent of the Ten Commandments, they are community norms. They describe ways that members of a community should treat each other in order to keep the community strong. That is a clear description of the intent of the final portion of the list. No murder, no adultery, no lies, no stealing, no coveting. Clearly, following those rules helps to maintain good relationships among community members. The first part - where God demands loyalty, also helps to define the community. This is our mission statement, our guiding principle as a community of God’s people. We are the people of God, and therefore, first and foremost we are to organise ourselves around loyalty and faithfulness to God. The middle part narrows the focus to personal considerations. Keep the sabbath - rest is important - for who are as people and as productive members of the community in which we live. Honour parents. Community is built not only on the ways in which we treat each other in the present, but also in the ways in which carry the tradition forward and the ways in which we use the past to guide us.

     The ten commandments were given to a specific group of people to help them maintain a vision of who they were. They were God’s people. They also helped to put in writing a set of rules for living in community.

    We all live in community, and it is important for us have before us a set of community norms - that describe how we should treat each other, and which give us information about what helps to maintain the community. Quite often when I have led or been a member of a particular short term community, perhaps as a  member of a learning circle, or a task group connected with a church committee, some time has been spent at the beginning to establish a set of norms for the way that members of the community will work together. Often these norms are posted on a sheet of newsprint so that they can be seen and serve as a reminder of how we will be together as we do the work we have before us. The point of course is to let them help us in the way we do the work. Posting them is a reminder, but if they don’t guide the way we act as members of the community they are useless. There are often similar kinds of statements on each set of norms - but there are also differences. It doesn’t usually work to bring in some other group’s norms - for the very act of setting out norms for the community helps the group to strengthen.

    As you may know, during this Lenten season we have been focussing on water - in several different ways - in the Lenten study, during worship, and on a wider basis in some of the material developed by The United Church of Canada both for personal reflection and for public discussion. For example, this evening on Spirit Connection - the United Church news and information program on Vision TV, the first of a four-part series on water will be broadcast at 6:30 p.m.

    Now some of you may be thinking that there is not a lot of correlation between what I’ve had to say about the Ten Commandments and a focus on water - but thinking of those same ten commandments as a list of community norms got me thinking about the world community - and the limited resource of water. What kind of community norms do we need in our use of water? At our study session on Thursday evening, in a short reader’s theatre presentation, it was pointed out that Canada has refused to sign a declaration which would name the right to fresh water as a human right. At first this seems like a horrifying situation. How could we as a nation oppose such a basic statement? Until you realise that one of the concerns is that the right to fresh water as a human right might lead to cross-border demands to our water supply, primarily from our neighbours to the south. It’s all about community. Are we world citizens? Are we North American citizens? Are we citizens of the country of Canada? Which community takes priority? Where does our allegiance lie? And how do we resolve such dilemmas? I don’t have answers, but at least the material that I’ve received has prompted me to consider the questions. And I hope that my membership in the community of people who believe and want to follow God’s way will help me to make decisions and take actions which reflect that community. As I said earlier, the Ten Commandments were there for the people who defined themselves as God’s people, and the decalogue set out some specific criteria for what that meant - the way the community members treated each other and the way that their guiding principles were set out. As members of this community of faith, we too are making a claim to be community of God’s people. What does that say about a community norm for the way we share resources, like fresh water - among members of our community - and the community of people we know as humanity? May God give us wisdom and discernment. Amen.