Exodus 20:1-17
And God spoke all these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt , out of
the land of slavery.
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters
below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your
God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your
son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the
alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you
may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor.
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox
or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
When I was in high school, we lived in a very small town. It was a mill town where there was only one
mill -- a textile mill, and my father was the General Manager of that
mill. Like all Southern Mill Towns, the
General Manager lived in a home provided by the company. It was, like all General Manager homes, the
largest home in town. It was on a hill
and overlooked the rest of the community.
Like all General Managers of small town mills, my father was watched and
observed and talked about. Sometimes,
we had a lot of fun with some of the gossip that we heard about my father.
The mill owned everything in town,
including the community recreation center.
One day, they were doing some repair work there, and the workers found a
time capsule in the cornerstone. You
know what I mean, a box imbedded in the concrete and bricks. It contained things like a program from the
4th of July picnic, a newspaper, photographs, an annual from the local high
school. Nothing of value, just things
that people wanted to preserve for the future generations to find.
Well, word got out that there was a bar
of gold in that time capsule. My father
displayed the contents of that time capsule in the office. And everyone wanted to go and see it. Lo and behold, no one saw any bar of gold
there. So word got out that my father
had stolen the bar of gold.
A few days later, my father fell and
injured his ankle. It was hard for him
to get around on crutches, so he set up office at the house. People noticed he
didn't go to work at the office, so word got around, that my father had been
fired, because he had stolen that bar of gold.
This all happened around Christmas time,
and one evening, my mother was cleaning up from the Christmas decorations and
tried to burn some boxes in the fire place.
She didn't realize these boxes had been treated in some way, and they
wouldn't just burn up like most paper.
Instead, they burned very slowly.
Bits and pieces of the boxes went up the fire place and through the
chimney and into the sky above the house.
From the outside, people could see all of these little bits of glowing
material rising from the fireplace. Word got around that my mother was melting
down the bar of gold into smaller pieces so she could sneak it out of town.
Well, one of those burning embers fell on
one of the canvas awnings over a window.
The awning caught on fire, and as people drove by, they noticed my
father and me trying to put out the fire.
Word got around that my mother was so mad at the company for firing my
father for stealing the gold, that she had a nervous breakdown and tried to
burn down the house.
Small towns have reputations for that
sort of gossiping, but don't be fooled.
Even in the largest cities we are every bit as tempted and enticed to
gossip as any resident of even the smallest town.
The example I've shared this morning is
entertaining. It did no harm. In fact, the more the rumors like that grow,
the sillier they get. And the sillier
they get, the more we are able to laugh it off.
The fact that the whole town thought my father had stolen the company
gold never jeopardized his job in the company.
If anything, it made him a more intriguing individual in the eyes of the
mill workers.
In the Ten Commandments, we are told very
clearly, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Don't be confused by the legal language
here. The concern is not simply
courtroom moments. Most of us have
never served as a witness in a court of law.
I haven't. But most of us have --
and indeed probably ALL of us have --
been guilty of bearing false witness.
The Internet has given
fuel for bearing false witness.
Every few days I see an
email or a meme online showing a picture of Donald Trump. He is quoted as saying “If I were to run, I'd run as a Republican.
They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on
Fox News. I could lie and they'd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be
terrific.” There is even a reference to
People Magazine, with a 1998 date.
But it is not true. Look at the
issues of People Magazine for that entire year and there is no reference to
that quotation. That quotation mentions
Fox News, and while it did exist in 1998, it was very new and was a very small
market that few people had started watching.
And yet every time we post that or forward that email, we are bearing
false witness. We are perpetuating a
lie.
And just to be sure that there is equal time in this sermon, the other
political party is just as bad. For
years there has been a photo circulating of President Obama putting his LEFT
hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance, as if to say that he
purposefully disrespected the American flag.
But look in the background of that photo and there is a US Marine, and
all the decorations on his uniform are on the wrong side – someone simply took
a photo, reversed it, and circulated a lie about the President.
Bearing false witness.
We bear false witness
against our politicians, our teachers, our co workers, our boss, our pastor,
our barber, all of our neighbors.
One study has suggested that we are lied to about 200
times each day.
Most people lie to others once or twice a day and
deceive about 30 people per week.
The average is 7 times per hour if you count all the
times people lie to themselves.
Michael Lewis in his
book, Lying and Deception in Everyday Life, states that, by the age of 3,
two-thirds of American kids have learned to lie. By age 7, about 98% lie.
In the Ten Commandments,
we are told very clearly, "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
This is serious stuff –
it is not always innocent or comical. It
is telling a lie about someone, and we are putting a person’s reputation and
integrity on the line.
In a courtroom, a witness stands before
the court, places one hand on a Bible and raises the other hand, and
dramatically says something like, "I swear to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." From that moment on, the witness is "under
oath."
The Christian lives his or her entire life
"under oath." The expectation
is that when we talk about others, we speak only the truth. James, in his New Testament letter, quoted
Jesus when he said (in James 5:12), "Above all, my brothers, do not
swear-- not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes"
be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned."
Mark Twain is reported to have said,
"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on
its shoes." Now that we live in an
age of technology, the lies move faster and further than ever before.
We
have a responsibility to speak the truth, especially when we speak about
someone else.
Rosewood, Florida , was a town not too far from
here. It was made infamous in the 1920s
when a white woman was beaten up by a man with whom she was having an affair. Wanting
to come up with some story that explained her bruised face but hid the truth,
she made the claim that a black man attacked her. For two or three days, gangs of white
vigilantes moved through the community beating and killing black residents in
search of the one who is guilty. Before
long, houses had been burned. A church
had been destroyed. Families were split
up. Lives had been forever changed, and
some had been lost. All because of one
person who failed in obedience to the commandment, "Thou shalt not bear
false witness."
She
lied – and worse, she lied about someone else.
There
is no Rosewood Florida any longer.
As children, we frequently sang out a
chant in response to someone calling us a name.
"Sticks and stones my break my bones, but your words will never
hurt me." We knew then, and we
know now, the words of others may not break our bones but they hurt us deeply.
In Proverbs, there is a list of things
that God hates. That is an interesting word to use in connection with God. God is a God of love, and it is difficult to
think of Him as capable of hating, but the Word of God says in Proverbs
6:16-19,
There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty
eyes,
a
lying tongue,
hands
that shed innocent blood,
a
heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet
that are quick to rush into evil,
(AND)
a
false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up dissension among others.
So when we see some interesting
tidbit about a politician we don’t like, we had better verify the truth before
sharing it with others.
When we hear gossip about other
people, we’d better be sure we speak the truth when we tell others.
When we are angry and want to hurt
others, we’d best not yield to the temptation to hurt the other person’s
reputation.
We are called to be a people of love,
and we are called to be a people who protect the reputation of others.
And now unto
God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the
Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory, today and
forever, Amen.
Copyright 2016.
Dr. W.
Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights
reserved
Ministers may
feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long as
they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to the
author.