Reformation Monday: I am the LORD your God

I am the LORD your God.

That is where it all begins.  It is the foundation stone for all that follows, and what follows are 10 commandments that draw a broad picture of what it means to be a covenant people, a people who live in community, who are God's people and worship this God known as YHWH. (Exodus6.7)

The story began with creation, and then Abraham, and down through Joseph who welcomes his people into Egypt only to have them become enslaved.  Then we get Moses, the episode with the Red Sea, and the beginning of a wandering in the wilderness that would continue until an entire generation passed away.  God clearly had the power to get the people out of Egypt; it took 40 years to get Egypt out of the people. (but that's another story for another time).

Moses goes up the mountain to talk with God (truly I think he just listened).  God thundered, spoke the commandments and, apparently, engraved them on stone tablets.  (I say apparently because the story doesn't mention tablets at this point.  Later, the text tells us Moses was to make tablets like the ones from before.)  But all of that is back story.  See Exodus 20

This is how those commandments begin: 

I am the LORD your God

 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 

out of the house of slavery; 

you shall have no other gods before me. 

Our relationship with God is founded on this primary profession of faith:  The LORD is God, and the LORD alone.  In case you are unsure of which LORD, it's the one who got you out of Dodge when the slavery got to be too much.

All the other commandments flow from this one.  There are many good reasons to abstain from killing your neighbor or sleeping around with another's spouse, or stealing their new electronic devices.  Almost every civilization has some version of these same basic rules for living peacefully in community.

But the Ten Commandments of the book of Exodus are predicated on knowing who God is and pledging allegiance to this God alone.  This involves honoring God's name and setting aside time dedicated solely to giving thanks and worshipping this God. 

Little of this explanation is specific to Reformation theology.  In his Small Catechism, Luther explains this first commandment this way "We are to fear, love and trust God above all things."  In his Large Catechism Luther notes that everyone worships a god, just not this God, the Creating and Redeeming God.  Idolatry is rampant, for 'that in which you put your trust, is your god' according to Luther. 

Acknowledging that God is God......and its corollary, that we are not.........is the first step, and we stumble over it all the time.  It is our North Star: guiding our way, leading us home, establishing particular values, granting us light in the darkness.  This God.  No other God.