Saturday, August 21, 2021
More on the 10 Commandments
Judy Howard
John Stromgren’s reflections on the Ten Commandments have reminded me that when I was a girl, growing up in the Episcopal church, every church service began with a recitation of the Ten Commandments. I knew them by heart, and because of that, I did my best to live my life according to those laws. I don’t think I could recite them all from memory now.
The church where I spent my youth, All Saints’ Episcopal in Belmont, Massachusetts, was at the time considered to be ‘low church.’ The 8:00 service was always Communion, no music. The 9:30 service was always for families with children, with music and our massive (50+) Junior choir. The 11:00 service was with our Senior choir, for people who wanted a lower volume in the pews. But except for the 8:00 a.m. service, all services were Morning Prayer, unless there happened to be a fifth Sunday in the month. That’s what I remember. As a Junior choir member beginning at age 4, I knew most of the settings of most of the canticles by heart. The settings changed with the seasons. I had favorite seasons, and favorite anthems and hymns. Being the shortest, I led the procession, since we lined up by height. Church was my world. In those days, we used the 1928 Prayer Book and the 1940 Hymnal.
Liturgically, I do not know what changed when the Prayer Book changed in 1979. I just know we stopped reciting the Ten Commandments. I wonder how many other churches and synagogues stopped reciting them too? There have been many other influences on our world and societies since 1979 - I don’t want to blame all of the demise we’ve witnessed on the discontinuation of the recitation of the Ten Commandments, but I often wonder if the worldly state of disintegration would be lessened by reciting and remembering these ten simple rules. I’d like to see us start doing that again, every Sunday. They are powerful words to live by. Perhaps the speaking of them would change the way some people have become toward others.
Exodus 20: 2-17; Deuteronomy 5: 6-21:
1. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself any graven image.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy. 5. Honor your father and your mother. 6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his wife, nor his servant,...nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
David and I were talking about this, and he added that these words, simply put, from Matthew 22: 37-40, were just as wonderful:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
These words aren’t just powerful for children to hear, but for adults, too. Knowing them, keeping them in our hearts and on our lips, is an eye-opening reminder of how our lives can be lived.