St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount SinaiThe first reading is Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Moses led the people of Israel in the wilderness to the mountain where Moses had encountered God in the Burning Bush.
A word about Mount Sinai and St. Catherine’s Monastery
We do not know which mountain was the Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus. Tradition identifies it as Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula, pictured below (in a photo from Wikipedia). Whether or not this was the actual mountain climbed by Moses, it is typical of the region.
And I note that at the bottom of the photo you will see the ancient Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s. St. Catherine’s was so very much out in the middle of nowhere, that it was by-passed by wars and internal church disputes, with the result that it is a major treasure house of Byzantine art and manuscripts. St. Catherine’s web site is: www.sinaimonastery.com/en/index.php?lid=1
One of the most ancient manuscripts of the Bible came from St. Catherine’s, and is known as the Codex Sinaticus, or Sinai edition as it were, and it too has its own web site: http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/
Well, whether or not the mountain which today bears the name Mount Sinai was the actual one Moses climbed – what the Greek Orthodox tradition calls by the wonderful phrase the God trodden mountain – it is certainly typical of the region.
God gives Moses the Ten Commandments
In chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus, God called Moses up the mountain. A thick cloud descended on the mountain, that great image of the presence of God – an image I find especially appropriate for God who exists and is with us, is unseen, as though within the cloud. And in today’s lesson we have the Ten Commandments given by God. All ten are in the lesson, although the passage has been abbreviated. has been pointed out over the centuries, the first four of the Ten Commandments have to do with God, and the next six to do with our ethics.
The first
The first commandment is that the God who brought us out of slavery, who delivered us is to be our only God. No other gods. This one only. Not even number one – but the only one.
The second
Number two is that we are not to make any idols or worship any. Only God, and that God is not seen.
Whether or not this commandment meant or means for Christians to not make art showing Biblical characters or Christ has been a hot topic of controversy over the centuries. In the church we have a copy of an icon of St. John Chrysostom from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The reason it came from the 9th century when he lived at the beginning of the 5th is that in between there were the iconoclasts, the icon breakers. A reason St. Catherine’s in Sinai is such a treasure trove is that it was so off the beaten track the iconoclasts apparently forgot about it. But then the Greek Orthodox decided that because Christ took on human flesh and blood – was incarnate – it was OK to make representations of him.
At the top of this post is a great icon of Christ from St. Catherine’s, which I deeply love:
The third
We are not to misuse the Name of God. Take the Name in vain, swearing. (The Quaker hesitation to take an oath is based on another quote from Jesus, let your yes be a yes and your no be a no – two American presidents affirmed rather than swore).
The fourth
We are to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. In Exodus the explanation is given that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. In the explanation in Deuteronomy 5 there is the interesting statement that it is because you were slaves in Egypt and God brought you out and therefore told you to keep this. It is to be a day of Sabbath, a day of rest, a day remembering God the deliverer. Sabbath is to be time with God – a key part of a spiritual life, a life of discipleship.
The fifth
Honor your father and your mother.
The sixth
You shall not murder. (A very good example that translation involves interpretation, for the King James Version is famously Thou shalt not kill.)
The seventh
You shall not commit adultery.
The eighth
You shall not steal.
The ninth
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
The tenth
You shall not covet what is your neighbor’s.
Here is the great foundation of the Law – the ethics of Israel.
The summary of the Law
Jesus summed up it with two quotes from Deuteronomy in Matthew, that you shall love the love your God and your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets of Israel. There is a very familiar quotation of this in the Book of Common Prayer on page 324:
Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
(Ray Webster)
