Weekly thoughts from the Rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, where these words remind us that Jesus’ peace goes with us into the world.

As I’ve written previously in this season of Lent, Anglican Christianity reads the Ten Commandments as they are described in the Book of Exodus (as opposed to the way they are listed in the Book of Deuteronomy). In his biblical commentary Exodus 20-40, William Johnstone, an emeritus professor of Hebrew & Semitic Languages at the University of Aberdeen and ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, provides this helpful introduction to thinking about these words in their context in Exodus:

The “Ten Commandments” (better: the “Ten Words or “Decalogue”) are probably the best-known part of the book of Exodus, if not of the whole Bible. Their affirmation of the values of family and community life — the care of the elderly, the sanctity of marriage, and the right of the neighbor to security of person and property and to justice at law — gives them universal appeal. For the faith community, the affirmation of the first four “Words,” that the prior action of God and the continuing acknowledgment of that action laid the foundation of individual and corporate human life, gives the Decalogue supreme authority. The New Testament too endorses the Ten Words in the summary, “Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

For reading and understanding the book of Exodus as a whole, these Words also provide a good starting point. They stand in Exodus 20 in virtually central place in the book and divide it into two roughly equal parts. Their “Prologue” looks back at the story of the first nineteen chapters, God’s great act of deliverance of Israel from crushing slavery in Egypt (see Exodus 1-19). The remaining chapters state the response that God expects from Israel as the redeemed community (the topic of Exodus 20-40).

— The Rev. Neil Alan Willard, Rector

Weekly thoughts from the Rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, where these words remind us that Jesus’ peace goes with us into the world.

A few weeks ago I offered a quick survey of the Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue or Ten Words, for the Tuesday Morning Men’s Bible Study as a prelude to the Sermon on the Mount and for the Rector’s Forum as a prelude to our use of these Ten Words in several liturgies during this penitential season of Lent.

One of the things that most interested people was the variety of ways that those Ten Words can be outlined. Since the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Christians have read them in the same way that Orthodox Christians and Reformed Christians have done so: The first commandment refers to having no other gods, the second commandment refers to a prohibition against making idols or graven images, and the last commandment speaks against covetousness. This way of reading them follows the pattern in the Book of Exodus. Following the lead of Saint Augustine, however, Roman Catholics and Lutherans look to the pattern that is implied in the Book of Deuteronomy. There the words about no other gods and not making idols are combined into the first commandment. The last one about covetousness is then split into not coveting a neighbor’s spouse and not coveting the possessions of a neighbor. Confusing matters further, Jewish tradition counts as the “first word” the introductory statement, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Like Roman Catholics and Lutherans, Jews then combine no other gods and not making idols into a single command. Finally, like Orthodox, Anglican, and Reformed Christians, they end with a single command against covetousness. Who knew it could be so complicated to count to ten?

— The Rev. Neil Alan Willard, Rector

Weekly thoughts from the Rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, where these words remind us that Jesus’ peace goes with us into the world.

For the next several weeks, both the 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Choral Eucharists will include at the beginning of those liturgies the recitation of the Ten Commandments from the Book of Exodus. They are also known as the Decalogue (i.e., Ten Words) and are often divided into two “tables of the law,” the first oriented toward God and the second oriented toward other people. One can hear in that an echo of the words of Jesus when he summarized “the law and and the prophets” by commanding us to love both God and our neighbor. In his Commentary on the American Prayer Book, the late Professor Marion J. Hatchett recalls the history of the liturgical use of the Decalogue in the Church of England and post-Revolutionary Episcopal Church:

In the 1552 Book [of Common Prayer] the decalogue replaced the ninefold Kyrie of the 1549 Prayer Book. The revisers may have wished to include in every Sunday rite the three things which were to be known by every child before confirmation — the Lord’s Prayer, the [Apostles’] Creed, and the Ten Commandments. From Elizabethan times it was required that the three texts be displayed prominently before the people in every church, a custom which [fell] into disuse only in [the mid-twentieth century]. . . . The 1892 revision [of the American Prayer Book] allowed omission of the decalogue, “provided it be said once on each Sunday,” and the 1928 revision altered the requirement to “at least one Sunday in each month.”

— The Rev. Neil Alan Willard, Rector

Weekly thoughts from the Rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, where these words remind us that Jesus’ peace goes with us into the world.

Today is the First Sunday in Lent, which is a time to prepare ourselves through inward repentance and outward acts of love to celebrate the joy of Easter Day. In order to mark this shift into a new season, there are some changes to the normal patterns in our liturgies. This morning, for example, the 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Choral Eucharists will begin with the singing of the Great Litany in Procession. On the following Sundays in Lent, these services will begin with the Decalogue (i.e., the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai), followed by the Confession of Sin. All of this helps to shape how we reflect on our spiritual lives.

Another change is something that actually follows more closely the rubrics (i.e., the instructions) in the Book of Common Prayer. Although there are lots of options that are allowed for ending a eucharistic service, the rubrics never really envision the dismissal separated from the blessing. Palmer, like many other Episcopal parishes, has most often offered the blessing from the altar and then sung the final hymn before the Deacon sends us out into the world with words from the back of the church. This Lent, however, we will use the pattern in the Book of Common Prayer with the blessing and the dismissal given at the altar before the last hymn. In this way, the procession at the end of our worship will be leading all of us out into the world in response to the words of the Deacon. We go on our way rejoicing, singing even as we take up our cross and follow Jesus. So once that hymn is finished and the organist begins the postlude, we are free to leave the pews and continue our journey of faith as we cross the threshold of the church onto Main Street.

— The Rev. Neil Alan Willard, Rector