10 Commandment Countdown: #10

Scripture: Exodus 20:17 & Matthew 6:24-33

Preached 03/08/2015

We all know by now, hopefully, how dangerous it is to talk on the phone or text while driving.  But what about simple daydreaming while driving?  Well, a man named William Hampton attempted to answer this question, and his findings might surprise you.  He looked over the data from more than 65,000 fatal crashes that had been compiled by Erie Insurance Group, and found that 1 in 10- so about 6500-could be attributed to distracted driving in general. Of that about 6500 crashes, about 12.5% were caused by texting or talking on the phone.  Any guesses on what percentage were caused by simple daydreaming?  62%.  Five times as many as texting or talking on the phone.

Hard to believe, isn’t it?  Daydreaming seems so normal it just has to be harmless.  I mean, we all day dream.  Even kids day dream! And yet, we have those awful fatal crash statistics, with daydreaming causing more than 4,000 deaths behind the wheel.  It’s jarring that something that seems so innocuous, so natural even, can cause so much harm.

And really, that’s what this 10^th commandment is like.  “¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  Coveting seems like really small potatoes compared to some of the other stuff that’s coming in this 10 commandment countdown- adultery, perjury, murder.  What in the world is something as simple and innocuous as coveting doing on this list?  It’s almost like God had run out of the good stuff and just really wanted the list to be 10, so she stuck this bit of fluff on the end.

Because everybody covets, and we do it all the time.   I know I do it.  When I’m driving to church, I can’t help but notice the Baptist church on the way has a really cool digital sign that changes messages every few seconds- and I totally want one of those for this church.  Or I come in here, and notice how put together you all look, how rested, and that you don’t have spit-up in your hair.  And I want that.  I want and I want and I want, and this cannot just be me.

Because we are surrounded, all the time, by messages designed to get us to want more than we have.  Whiter teeth.  Smoother skin.  Fancier clothes.  A nicer car.  Or, perhaps as a church, more money, more members, fewer hard decisions, and fewer arguments.  And yet there’s this commandment, right there alongside the ones that tell us not to kill each other- ¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  God gave us this commandment for a reason.  And it’s because, like daydreaming, coveting is both rampant and deadly.

Much like daydreaming behind the wheel, the danger of coveting isn’t necessarily about what you are paying attention to. The problem is what you’re not paying attention to- in driving this would be the car crossing your path, or the stop sign that’s there to protect you.  And in our spiritual lives, the problem with coveting isn’t necessarily the things we pay attention to- the things that we want for ourselves like the fancy church sign, new shoes, or lots of members.  The problem is that in paying attention to that stuff we don’t have in front of us, we can’t pay attention to the things that do matter, and that are important.  We can’t serve God and mammon at the same time- mammon being that stuff we covet, because we can’t pay attention to both of them.  When we covet, we are paying attention to that other stuff, and not God.  And that can cause us to veer off in some seriously dangerous directions, following after stuff, after money, after other people instead of on the right path following God.

As Jesus reminds us, our goal for our life drive is to end up in God’s kingdom, a life where we experience God’s righteousness.  Not to die in some distracted crash amd float on up to heaven, mind you, but to make it to see God’s kingdom in this life. God, and God’s righteousness, and God’s kingdom.  Those are the things that really count.  And we can’t see them, we can’t notice them intersecting with our paths, jumping out right in front of us if our heads are lost thinking about the newest, flashiest, nicest thing that we don’t have.  Through this 10^th commandment not to covet, through Jesus’ reminder that we can’t pay give our attention to God and all this stuff at the same time, we are reminded that it’s the Holy intention for us to notice God, God’s righteousness, and God’s kingdom.  We don’t want to just run them over and leave them there on the pavement.

So how do we get ourselves out of the mindless coveting habit, and into the habit of noticing God and God’s intentions at work all around us?  We can return to that daydreaming study for some help here.  Because the experts on safety gave some suggestions of what to do to avoid daydreaming danger.  First, the driving experts suggest playing a game of “what if.”  What if that child ran after a ball into the street?  What if there is a stop sign around the next corner?  We can use this as a spiritual practice as well, to keep us from mindlessly coveting, focusing on the wrong stuff, and missing God.  Rather than playing “what if” about all the bad things that could happen, or about the things that we could have- don’t let this turn into a game that makes you covet!- we can play “what if” with God’s intended work.  “What if the hungry people in our neighborhood were fed- what would that look like?”  “What if the lonely person I know in this congregation got the connection they need- how would that happen?” “What if that person were Jesus?  How would I interact with them then?” Playing this kind of spiritual “what if” keeps us alert for God’s presence all around us, and, so importantly, the role that we might be called to play in bringing about God’s intentions.

The second piece of advice the safety experts give to avoid the dangers of daydreaming might sound a bit strange, but here it is- chew something.  Chewing something keeps your mouth moving, usually involves some taste, and therefore keeps you alert.  So, to avoid the dangers of coveting, chew on something.  Like the scripture we read this morning- write it up, print it out, and keep thinking about it, not stuff.  Mull it over in your mind.  Pray about it.  Read more scripture and chew on what it means for your life.  Keep exercising those little spiritual muscles, get those tastes of God’s wisdom for you, and it’s easier to keep from drifting off into covetous places, and instead keep us on a faithful, God-noticing, not stuff-noticing path.

The final piece of advice from the experts?  To keep from day dreaming behind the wheel, change up your routine.  Take a different route to the store and your brain has to think more and can’t just go on autopilot and daydream the whole way there.  The same advice applies in our quest to keep from coveting- change up your routines. 

This may mean physically changing where you go- like avoiding the Baptist church sign, or not heading to the mall to window shop.  Or it might involve the addition of some spiritual practices into your life path.  If you always read scripture before bed, read it in the afternoon instead.  If you only come to church on Sundays, try joining us for our Wednesday prayers and meals during Lent.  Go out of your way and talk about Jesus with someone.  Break out of your spiritual routine and get yourself working harder, and it’s not so easy to drift into covetous ways, and much easier to see God and God’s intentions in your path.

Your challenge for this week then, is to follow that expert advice.  Avoid the dangers of coveting, of stuff-focused living.  Play “what-if,” chew on something, and change up your routine.  Keep as alert as you can for God’s presence in your path, God’s righteousness, and God’s kingdom appearing before you.  And let God’s grace, love, and power keep you safe from the sneaky dangers of coveting.