3rd Tuesday of Lent (March 5) You shall not….

Prepare to Listen.  Grant me the grace of living by your law.
 
Prayerfully Read Exodus 20:12-17
12Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13You shall not murder.
14You shall not commit adultery.
15You shall not steal.
16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
17You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
The last six commandments, five beginning with you shall not, have to do with loving your neighbor.  Our familiarity with them means that we often fail to pay attention to them.  Take a moment to pay attention now and wonder: Which one do you think is the most challenging and why?
 
The tenth commandment, also the longest, is a prohibition to covet.  Brueggemann describes coveting as the act “that is the ultimate destruction of the neighborhood, for coveting generates mistrust and sets neighbor against neighbor.”[1]  Notice the repetition of the word neighbor (3 times) in this command.  Coveting is more than a wishful longing for what another has.  It includes “forceful action to secure what is craved.”[2]  We are commanded to protect our neighbor, to love them as we love ourselves, the commandment Jesus named as the second greatest (Mark 12:28-34), not forcefully take their stuff.
 
The 10th commandment is surprisingly comprehensive.  It includes not coveting another’s house (i.e., the socioeconomic means of the household), spouse, means of production (slaves, donkey, ox), and ends with a sweeping and inclusive phrase, “anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  Covetousness is greed, and greed, as Paul twice maintained, is idolatry.[3]  Thus the last commandment brings us back to the first three that prohibit idolatry.  To break the 10th command is also breaking the first three against idolatry.  We’ll only resist idolatry when we resist greed, and only resist greed when we resist idolatry, whatever form it takes in our lives.
 
Why do you think idolatry and greed, covetousness are related?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, forgive me for greed, coveting and idolatry.  Help me resist idols, remembering that you alone are the one who redeemed me from slavery to sin.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Do not covet.
[1] Brueggemann, Walter.  Sabbath as Resistance.  2014, p. 69.
[2] Ibid, p. 70.  [3] Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5.