"Fencing the Heart' - 6th Wednesday of Lent

We draw now to the close of our study of the 10 Commandments. From the first to the last, God has been showing us how to live in community with God and with each other. It is not an easy task that God has placed before us. With many of the commandments, as Luther interpreted them in the Small Catechism, we are to be more concerned about our neighbors than about ourselves.

These final commandments, that we heard read this evening, are not exception. In fact the last two, regarding coveting, point us to the cause that drives us to break the others. When we see what someone else has, whether it is their spouse, implements, land or hired hands, and we have a strong desire to have them for ourselves, we may be tempted to do whatever we can to get them. This leads us to steal, kill, spread lies, and even commit adultery in order to get them for ourselves.

Have you ever wanted something so bad that you more than just wanted it; you desired it, you craved it? The drive of desire is strongest when you see the item of desire in the possession of someone else, perhaps a friend. You are so driven to possess it that you would stop at nothing to have it for yourself. Not, probably not. We’re all fairly level headed adults here; but it may have occurred to you as a child.
Although we don’t grasp the concept as a child, coveting is the root fear of sharing. On the one hand the child who does not have the toy wants it for themselves. Sure, they say they just want to play with it, but give them an inch and the will take the mile. Just try to get the tow back when playtime is over. That’s why we don’t like to share. We are afraid that we won’t get our toy back. Both kids experience jealousy, one over not having and the other over not wanting to lose the toy.

Why and how do we succumb to the eighth commandment? The easiest and most socially acceptable way of getting what we want, away from someone else is to make up stories, or help perpetuate the truth, no matter how damaging it may be. Every couple of years we are bombarded with the flagrant misuse of the 8th Commandment as election time rolls around. Politician A tells us what is so wrong about Politician B and vice versa. We never know why we should vote for one, but know every reason why we should not voted for the other. Coveting drives this whole world.
A story is told of a day when President Lincoln was walking down the street with his two boys. The boys were crying and squabbling and carrying on. When a passerby asked him, “Abe, what’s wrong with the boys?” He replied, “It’s the same thing that is wrong with the whole world. In my hand I have three walnuts and they each want two.”

Such is nature that we all begrudge another person having as much as we have. Everyone acquires all he can and lets others look out for themselves. Yet, we all pretend to be upright. We think up sly tricks under the disguise of justice. We brazenly dare to boast of it and insist that it not be called mischievousness but shrewdness and business wisdom. In this we are supported by jurists and lawyers who twist and stretch the law to suit their purposes.

The commandments, then, are not addressed to those whom the world considers wicked rogues, but to the upright who wish to be commended as honest and virtuous because they have not offended against any of the other commandments. When we think the world revolves around us, we begin to think of others in terms of what they can do for us. Our sinful actions develop out of our basic inability and more so our unwillingness to trust God.

November 16th, 1930, Henrietta Garret passed away at the age of 81 years. Her death sparked a great conflagration in US inheritance law history. She left no will to direct the distribution of here $17 million estate. At the time of her death she only hand one known living relative, a second cousin. Within a short time, however, more than 26,000 people from 47 states and 29 countries laid claim to her estate claiming to be long lost relatives. The various tactics employed were faking family records, altering data in family Bibles, changing their own names, and concocting tales of illegitimacy. As a result 12 were confined, 10 received jail sentences, 2 committed suicide and 3 were murdered. It was a story of greed, of covetousness, in which many went to great lengths to get what rightly belonged to another.

It is an inward sin that is manifested in all of the others. In the New Testament the word, covet, has as its root meaning to have more. It is really a combination of two words: have and more. So the word “covet” means to desire to have more. When we think in terms of covetousness we think primarily about money. Of course, people do desire to have more money. In I Timothy 6:10 the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So, there are many people who covet for material things.

Someone asked the millionaire Howard Hughes, "How much money does it take to make a man happy?" He replied, "Just a little bit more." So, the word, covet, means to have more. At the root of the word is the word, desire. It really is a two- pronged definition, actually. First of all, it is an excessive desire for something you do not have. It is when your desire for something you do not have becomes the ruling passion of your life. Modern words would be words like greed or materialism. Excessive desire for something you do not have.


Here, then, we have in the 10 Commandments, a summary of divine teaching on what we are to do to make our whole life pleasing to God. Luther calls them the true fountain from which all good works must spring.

The First Commandment illuminates and imparts its splendor to all the others. When we keep the first three commandments, the fear, love, and trust should impel us not to despise God’s word, but learn it, hear it gladly, and keep it holy and honor God’s name and Word.

So on through the rest of the commandments, which concern our role as community members, everything proceeds from the power of the 1st Commandment. We honor our parents, and others in authority, not on their account but for God’s sake. Likewise, we are to do our neighbor no harm, injury or violence to himself, his spouse, his property, is honor or rights. Rather we are to uphold our neighbor out of love to God. Thus you see that the 1st Commandment is the fountainhead of all the rest.
After Martin Luther died in 1546, his friends found a scrap of paper in his pocket on which he had scribbled a few words: "We are beggars. This is true." He meant that even though God brings our daily bread to us in so many ways each day, we know that sinners like us don't deserve a bit of it. In truth, deserving has nothing to do with it. Certainly we don't deserve God becoming human in Jesus and then dying for our salvation.

When we learn how much Christ does for us, it creates what Psalm 51 calls "a clean heart." We can relinquish our hold on the center of the universe. Our unbounded desires will focus on faithfulness in an unbounded service to our neighbor and an undying praise of God. When the fullness of God's mercy hits beggars head-on, even they have something to share.

The 10 Commandments are to be exalted and extolled. Let all wise men and women and all saints step forward and embrace God’s words and instruction. Let us therefore prize and value God’s commandments above all other teachings as the greatest treasure God has given us.

Thank you to Martin Luther and numerous other pastors who inspired and added to these Lenten Ramblings.