“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Ninth Sermon on the Ten Commandments

Lent V; April 2, 2006

Galatians 5:25-6:5

I’m wrapping up the Commandments today with this one; if you’re wondering what happened to the tenth commandment – “You shall not covet” – then you weren’t here last Sunday. This is a good time to point out that the Ten Commandments are not really a law code, in the strictest sense of things. They are, rather, a list of characteristics of the people of God. They are prefaced with, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Since I am your God, and you are my people, says the Lord, this is how you will behave.

I believe it important to point that out because it means that the Commandments should be kept in the spirit of gratitude, of gratitude that God has made us his own. That is, do these things not because you’re afraid that if you don’t someone will catch you. That’s the way some of our fellow citizens treat traffic control signs, right? I’m sure this doesn’t apply to anyone here! That octagonal red sign with the letters S-T-O-P on it means, “Slow down and see if there are any police officers watching before proceeding into the intersection.” Right?

Anyway, we keep God’s commandments whether anyone notices or not because we are the people of God and this is how the people of God behave. It’s in that spirit that Paul writes these concluding words to his letter to the Galatians: you don’t need a law; you simply need to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Guided by the Holy Spirit, these are some of the things you will do. A fundamental characteristic of the people of God is a humble and gentle honesty.

Now, as of yesterday I have been with you six months. That’s not nearly enough time to know what sins you in particular need to repent of. So I’m going to speak generally about what I have observed as the failure to keep this commandment, and the failure to be guided by the Spirit in our relations with one another. It will be helpful to keep in mind the other text of the day (Matthew 18:15-20), in which Jesus describes how his followers deal with difficulties between them. We’re going to look at this in three ways: as individuals, especially in the Church; as groups in the Church; and nationally.

The most frequent infraction of the spirit of the ninth commandment, I find, is the tendency to talk about other people instead of talking to them. In a church, it is often the minister people are talking about, but not always. Unfortunately, you and I might form an opinion about someone based on what someone else says, rather than based on what we experience. We then try to relate to that person on wrong information.

Here’s a story. My friend George was pastor of a church that was planning a renewal weekend. Somebody said that George was against it, and that story spread. Nobody asked George his opinion; people didn’t seem to notice the hard work George was putting into the planning of the weekend. Members of the church simply kept telling each other, “You know that George is against the Renewal Weekend, don’t you?” When the word finally got to him by some circuitous route, what could he do? Here’s what he did: he made a big sign that read, “George is not against the Renewal Weekend” and he pinned it to the back of his robe. During the processional hymn, as he followed the choir up the aisle, everybody in the church could read the sign.

That was an example of bad behavior; let me give you an example of good behavior. I have Melanie’s permission to tell this story. Two weeks ago I preached about sex and marriage, and had to deal with Jesus’ strong statement against divorce and remarriage. Darrel and Melanie were here, but had to leave the service early because of a commitment at Darrel’s church.1 Melanie was concerned I would think they had walked out because of the sermon, so she made sure one of you told me the real reason they left early. Even better: one of you thought they had left early because of the sermon, and you did the right thing. Instead of spreading a story – “Darrel and Melanie were mad at Bob’s sermon and so marched out” – you asked Melanie about it, and she told you the real reason. In other words, everyone in this story behaved like a Christian.

The wrong sort of thing often happens in families, too. On television, the wrong message usually sets up a funny situation and it’s generally resolved in twenty-four minutes. In reality, the situation is rarely funny and, if resolved at all, it can take years and a lot of heartbreak.

I’m told that Don Fisher once talked to you about his being an introvert. Well, on the same personality scale he was using, I’m a radical extrovert. I am literally almost off the scale. One of the effects of that is I talk too much. Specifically, given this morning’s concerns, I will sometimes say what I really think when it is not a good time, hurting someone’s feelings. And I will sometimes get carried away with my imagination and say things that turn out not to be strictly true. Now almost fifty, I have matured a great deal and do both things a lot less than I used to do them. But they both still happen, and Kathleen is not always next to me to kick my ankle before I go too far.

What to do? If I hurt your feelings, talk to me. I’m a big boy and will apologize, or explain myself, or both, whatever is needed. If someone complains to you that I have hurt their feelings, tell me who it is and what I have done, and I will apologize, or explain myself, or both, whatever is needed. And if you catch me exaggerating or saying more about a subject than I really know, show me the reality; I will take it as an opportunity for learning.

I tell you this about myself simply because, as pastor and congregation, we will be thrown together in lots of circumstances. And also because some of you may have a personality type similar to mine, and may be glad to hear that the Bible is less concerned with our always doing the right thing than it is in our learning from our errors, and apologizing for our misdeeds.

I have spent most of my sermon time talking about these individual relationships for two reasons. One, I hope that you will pay attention to how you relate to others in humble and gentle honesty; that’s what the Commandment and its interpretations desire. Two, I hope you can extrapolate for yourselves from these thoughts to how we relate on a larger scale. To help your imagination, I’ll give some suggestions.

When we have our theological and political fights in the church, it is all too common to say things about the other side that we should not say. “Those liberals just don’t believe in the Bible.” “Those conservatives are trying to protect their own power.” By attacking the motives of others, or attacking their personalities, we can avoid actually listening to what someone else has to say. We bear false witness because we claim to know something that we cannot really know: the heart of another person, a person we have not really listened to.

Much the same thing happens in our public life. Right now, we are embroiled in national conversation about immigration policy, particularly as it applies to immigrants here illegally. A lot of intelligent things can be said on many aspects of the issue. But there is also a lot of “those people” talk. You know what I mean: “Those people just want to come here and sponge off the government.” “Those people are racists.” We bear false witness when we accuse “those people” – whoever they are – of something we cannot possibly know, when we say things about folks based on our own prejudices or ideology, rather than based on knowing them.

Here’s what Jesus would say to us: “Those people” are our neighbors. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. One thing I have learned in almost twenty-five years as a minister is the sacredness of every human life. We can all enjoy the talents, accomplishments, imagination and contributions of everyone, even folks you and I are tempted to label as “those people.” I am speaking of something deeper, though. Whether you have shared them with anyone or not, you have your hopes and your disappointments, your dreams and your regrets, your sins so deeply hidden that even you may not be aware of them, your simple joys and your dark terrors. These are precious, from their first appearance in childhood to the accumulation of memory after many decades. These deep things of your life are sacred, a part of what makes you a child of God. “Those people” have all those things too. They have their hopes and disappointments, their regrets and dreams, their hidden sins, their simple joys and dark terrors. Their life is sacred, and so is yours.

Let us pray. Dear God, thank you for the friendship of Jesus Christ, who is the truth for us, and who shows us ways of truth. Thank you for friends and neighbors who encourage us and who challenge us. Guide us by your Spirit, so we will bear true witness to the sacredness of life, which you have given us in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa

[1] Melanie is a member of Westminster; Darrel is a member of another church. They have both been divorced from their previous spouses and their marriage to each other is the second marriage for each.