Exodus 20.1-17 Philippians 3.

7-11 Thomas Edison famously said in his lab, there are no rules here - we are trying to invent something! Well of course we all wish life was like that - no silly constrains - no red tape no petty bureaucracy After all, everyone from time to time discovers the new by what is called blue sky thinking. In other words, by kicking over the restrains of rules and regulations. Yet if we do a bit of thinking about this for a moment, we soon grasp that a rule free world is not only impossible but would also be highly dangerous. So much so, the whole idea is positively to be discouraged. How could we play any game or sport without agreed rules. How could we safely go from A to B without a highway code. How indeed could we even survive in the hideous world we all glimpsed over the summer when a proportion of the British citizenry ripped up the rule book and lived for a week by the law of the jungle. Of course, other societies are this year destroying the rules. This time it is the arbitrary laws of dictatorship and oppression and corruption. And that is to be applauded. Yet they still need a law of the land. The challenge then for Egypt, Libya and Tunisia is to replace the old bad rules with new ones that are also the right ones. And that was what we now hear the Israelites getting up to. For they had suffered generations of forced conformity to the rules of their enslavers. The had been chained by the laws of servitude. Suddenly, they were out there in the desert and for the first time were their own masters. Indeed, they were under a blue sky and with a clear slate when it came to the law. Therefore they were exactly like those nations currently freeing themselves from the dictat of the tyrant. They were in

the game of picking new rules - moreover they needed to find the right ones. Here then was the point that God stepped in. And as an outcome the Israelite people became the foundation stone all genuine moral thought. In fact, what the discovered would be the basis of all genuine legal systems even in the 21st Century. Well I have said all that by way of a prelude to our tangling again with the Ten Commandments. For those simple rules were arguably the paving stones of the road upon which all human civilisation has walked. Now, of course, taking them individually would take at least ten sermons. Moreover, their study deserves a lifetime of devotion. Nevertheless, even a quick visit has much to offer us today. Since they do even on a brief reading give timely warnings to our generation. Not least about cherishing the things that we have turned into our personal gods - be it people, possessions or politics. They admonish too about what we covet even in our unspoken dreams of our hearts or the more public dreams of the advertisers. Above these, they make crystal clear the need to give God and his business poll position in our daily agendas - diaries full to the brim with attractions and distractions. But, maybe surpassing all others, the ten commandments give a strange warning. Because in a way, they give a stricture against themselves. For in every era there has been those who take religious rules even of the most wholesome kind and make them gods in their own rights. They see life as but following the law even if not of obvious benefit. Worse still, they exclude those that seem to be outside the picket fence of their regulations. And at that point they make regulations into a god. They reduce the primacy of Gods will.

Indeed, the try to tame the unexpectedness of God. And they do so for a very specific reason. Since they see in their obedience to a set of laws the way to creating their own salvations. They believe that in keeping within the rules they are pulling themselves up to heaven. In truth, they disobey the commandments by making the law a god instead of the Law of God.

Yet it is this very wrong thinking that Paul writes to the Philippians about. Since in his missive he does advise them to follow the constraints and losses of apparent freedom that Gods commandments places upon us. Yet he goes on to warn them not to follow religious law for itself. Rather Paul chides that they should follow the law though their ardour to play Gods game. In other words, we should willing follow Gods commandments because it pleases him. And whilst doing so, never earns us eternity points, it does show our gratitude to God for all that he is already doing for us through Jesus. Or as the Protestant reformers saw it, we want to be on Gods team purely because Christ is our Saviour and never ever ourselves. However, this giving back to God what is due to God has an upside. For just as he offers salvation out of mercy so too does he offer forgiveness out of his compassion. Put simply when we do ignore the game plan, when we reject the rules and break the way of Christ, God acts not as the supreme umpire. Instead he remains our compassionate father, our merciful creator and our unrestrained inventor. He remains ready to hear our - oops sorry! He remains delighted to surprise us. For there is another story told about Edison

Electric lights are so common today that we never even give them a thought. If I were changing a light bulb and I dropped one and broke it, I wouldn't worry about it. I would just go and get another one. That hasn't always been true. There is a story about when Thomas Edison was working to invent this crazy contraption called a "light bulb." It took a whole team of men working for twenty-four hours to put just one light bulb together. Well it is said that when this team was finished with that very first light bulb, Edison gave it to a young boy to carry upstairs. Step by step he carefully carried it, afraid that he might drop this priceless piece of work. You can probably guess what happened; the poor boy dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was tempted to carry his bulb upstairs himself. Yet, he gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That's true forgiveness. Mr. Edison gave the boy another chance!

God offers us the light of his perfect law. God ask us for obedience. Yet he also offers us forgiveness. Indeed, He offers us a second chance -- and even a third and many more besides! All he asks that we - reread the rules - see their loving sense and for the salvation commanded by Christ - try again.