Heirlooms

I cannot claim to be a true die-hard fan of Antiques Roadshow. I do not arrange my schedule around watching it, and I don’t think I have ever watched a complete show through from start to finish. But I’ve seen bits and pieces, and it’s fun to watch. Most of you probably know how it works. It’s a show on public television. The crew travels from city to city and people from that location are invited to bring in their personal antiques. A lucky few are chosen for the show. Experts discuss the antique with the owner and then, with a twitter of excitement, provide an estimate of its value at auction.

In the segments I’ve watched, I’ve noticed that there are several different categories of antique owners. Some are accidental owners. They just happen upon some object, maybe at a garage sale, feel some personal attraction to it and purchase it. Then later, perhaps, they begin to wonder if it has some significant value. The second category of antique owners are dedicated collectors. They might have purchased a given piece because they collect Edwardian chimney brushes and this was a rare and unique example. And then, in a third category are the folks who possess an antique as a family heirloom. These are the folks I’m thinking of today, the people who possess a piece because it has been handed on to them through their family. The antique brooch was great great aunt Edna’s. And it’s opals because that was her birthstone and the setting was made in Philadelphia because that is where Edna met the man she would marry.

These folk usually didn’t pay a penny for their antiques and wouldn’t accept any amount of money to sell them, no matter what their value might be at auction. For the people who cherish heirlooms, they are valuable because they are given as a gift within a family. And heirlooms always come with a story. A very important story that speaks of family’s history and identity. A big part of the heirloom’s value is its power to bear and convey a formative story. And think about what people do with heirlooms. Most often they are shared and displayed, not guarded or hidden, regardless of their monetary value. They are a part of life. They are displayed with a sense of grateful and reverent celebration, alongside the photo of a new grandchild. They aren’t shown off like a prize or a rare acquisition. They are part of a family’s ongoing story.

All of this has to do with the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, that we heard in this morning’s reading from Exodus. Lutheran scholar Ralph Klein has written: “What makes the Decalogue unique is not the specific ethical principles it enunciates, many of which are supported by people of goodwill everywhere. Rather, these commandments are special because they are given by the one who delivered the people who are to keep them from slavery in Egypt and so created a special relationship with them.”

The Ten Commandments are special because they are given as a gift by God to God’s own cherished family. They are the most amazing of family heirlooms. A gift. From God our father. Do you know why we are bold to say the Lord’s Prayer in the Eucharist? Why is it a bold act to recite these words? Because it starts out: Our Father. As Jesus taught us, we boldly claim God as our own Father. We claim our identity as members of God’s own family. And, as members of God’s own family, we are heirs of the Ten Commandments. They come to us free, a wonderful gift. We didn’t have to search for them or purchase them or earn them. But they are absolutely, truly ours, because by some gracious act of generous love, God calls us family.

In recognizing the Ten Commandments as our family heirlooms, we identify ourselves as members of God’s family. And we take our place in the story of that family. Just like great great aunt Edna’s brooch tells a family story, the Ten Commandments tell a story about God’s family. In particular, they tell the story of the Exodus, of a people saved from slavery by God. This morning’s reading reminds us. “Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Generation after generation, up through today, these words are spoken personally to us, God’s family. Cherish the Ten Commandments for the story they tell of who we are as a people. It’s a formative story that shapes our identity. We are loved by God, and over and over again, God has acted to save and free us. The Ten Commandments have value for us because the story they tell forms who we are as God’s family. You cannot put a price tag at auction on that story by which we know ourselves as God’s own.

The Decalogue. A family heirloom, which we have acquired by grace alone. Having immeasurable value to us because they are an heirloom given by God to God’s family, and we are part of that family. And they family story they tell shapes us, forms us, as people loved and saved by God. And, like any family heirloom, the Ten Commandments are hopefully something we are eager to share and joyously, freely pass on to other members of God’s family, our family.

To cherish the Ten Commandments as heirlooms seems to me to revere them and value them even more highly than we might if we assessed them on content alone. But I am not saying we should be indifferent to their content. Just as we would be loath to casually break the ancestral family china, surely we should be loath to break the vessel God has given us for faithful living. Family heirlooms are displayed. We best display the Ten Commandments by living them.

But it is helpful to remember why we seek to follow their direction. We do not keep the Ten Commandments to earn God’s love. Remember, they were given as a gift because God already loved us, his family. We do not keep them out of fear that God will disown us if we fail. God gave them to us because God already fully and unconditionally owns us as his children. God will not disown us, but if we are indifferent to the family heirloom, we do disown ourselves from God’s family. The Ten Commandments are not rules with which we must comply to retain membership in some sort of club or society. We are not God’s club; we are God’s family. They do not earn us standing in some exclusive group. After all, as Professor Klein points out, the Ten Commandments are pretty universal and general guidelines for moral living. Most of us would probably try to keep most of them, whether or not we were people of faith… Most generally good or decent people eschew things like stealing, murder, lying, adultery, or coveting our neighbor’s donkey or Lexus. It is interesting to note, though, that the two or three commandments that are most specific to us as the family of God are those we break most often. Do not favor any idols above God. Do not take the Lord’s name lightly or for vain purposes. Keep the Sabbath day holy, set apart for God.

The Ten Commandments are a gift, given to us at no cost simply because God calls us his own. A family heirloom of unimaginable value for us as the children of God. A symbol and a vehicle for knowing ourselves as part of God’s family. As a gift, an heirloom, the Ten Commandments are something to celebrate, honor and cherish by living them. They are part of a wonderful story for us to share and pass on in love, free of charge, to others who come into our family, God’s family.

I think there is an interesting parallel between today’s Exodus reading and the epistle from Philippians. At first it seemed very odd to me to have the Ten Commandments as the Old Testament reading today right before St. Paul’s apparent condemnation of the law. The Ten Commandments are the very foundation of the law. But Paul isn’t really condemning the law, just reminding us that the content of the law is not the means by which we may earn or guarantee salvation. Salvation is a gift offered freely through Christ to the family of God’s beloved. Salvation cannot be earned or acquired or deserved or certainly not enforced, but only received because Christ makes us his own, Christ embraces us. Sound familiar?

Paul was very clear that he had accomplished a lot “in the flesh”, that he deserved a lot in life, more than anyone else if you really asked him, but all that counted for rubbish when compared to his totally unexpected, undeserved experience of being found by the living Christ. God loved Paul, came to him, overwhelmed him, touched him with the living presence of Christ, enfolded him into the Body of Christ. And Paul spent every living breath he had after that seeking to live into that gift and share it with others.

The living presence of Christ. As members of Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church we are part of the Body of Christ, the family of God. We are given the heirloom, the wondrous gift of the living presence of Christ in our lives. As family members of the Body of Christ, the church, we are also given the living presence of Christ by Christ himself in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Given to us absolutely free as a gift, a family heirloom of value absolutely beyond measure. Think about the language we use. We receive communion. (Don’t ever say you “take” communion. You take vitamins. We receive communion.) And when we receive this gift literally into our bodies, we are found by the living Christ come to sanctify our own lives, to unite our lives with God’s life. And as we receive the living presence of Christ in Holy Communion, we also receive the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection to new life. It becomes our personal story, our family story. The living presence of Christ. What an awesome gift to receive and to share with all of God’s beloved family.