We've been reading about covenants with God for three weeks now. First God makes a covenant with all flesh through Noah. Then God covenants that great nations shall spring from Abraham and Sarah. And now we hear what God requires of the Israelites after rescuing them from slavery in Egypt . Each covenant is initiated by God and is unconditional. God does not say: “If you do this, then I will be your God.” God says: “I am your God and this is how I will be with you: never again will I destroy all flesh by a flood. I will make of you a great nation and kings shall come from you, Abraham.” In this third covenant with the Israelites, God takes the guesswork out of how the Israelites are to be in Covenant with God in return. Having left a life of enslavement with every move and every relationship dictated by a human master and custom, God teaches the newly freed Israelites how to relate to God and to other human beings in ways that are life-giving, life enhancing and build up our relationship with God and with one another. All Ten Commandments are more descriptive expressions of how--by our actions-- we love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and love our neighbor as our self.

Four of the commandments deal with how we are to relate to God and in simple language they are

1. Worship only me
2. Don't make idols of anything I have made
3. Speak my name with reverence
4. Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day of rest and six commandments tell us how to relate with one another
5. Show that you honor to your father and mother
6. Do not murder anyone
7. Be faithful to your wife or husband
8. Do not take what is not yours
9. Do not speak falsely about others
10. Do not envy what someone else has.

Now I confess, it's a little to difficult to stand up here and tell you we should obey these ten commandments when first of all what is in this beautiful stained glass window behind me? A picture of a ????? Sure the lamb is a symbol for God in Jesus Christ, but aren't we violating the Commandment about making an image for God? And second in today's gospel lesson we hear about Jesus driving all the sheep and cattle of the temple. Did these animals belong to Jesus? And wouldn't you bet more than a few of those coins Jesus poured out found there way into strangers pockets?

So how am I suppose to preach on keeping the ten commandments with these two glaring violations staring us in the face this morning?

Of course holding up the ten commandments as something we should all obey, while simultaneously breaking the law, is nothing new. During the dead of night, The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, installed a two and one half-ton monument to the Ten Commandments in the rotunda in the Alabama State Judicial Building. When it was determined this action violated the constitution's required separation of church and state, Judge Moore refused to obey the order to remove it. Thereby setting up his removal as a judge. Because, according to the Presiding Judge in Moore's trial, William Thompson, "[t]he chief justice placed himself above the law." In closing arguments, the Assistant Attorney General said Judge Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system" and "What message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it. Judge Moore, on the otherhand maintains that separation of church and state does not mean separation of God and government and the ten commandments are the visible symbol upon which all of our laws should be based.

Similarly, in an ash Wednesday service Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney of Los Angeles said he would instruct the priests in his diocese to defy proposed legislation requiring churches and other social agencies to ask immigrants for legal documentation before offering them assistance. “The church is here to serve people,” Mahoney said. “We welcome people as Jesus welcomed people“ regardless of their status.

Both Judge Moore and Cardinal Mahoney are following Jesus' example in the strong action Jesus takes in removing the animals required as sacrifices according to God's words to Moses in chapters 1 and 3 in the book of Leviticus. Since many of pilgrims coming to the Passover could not bring animals with them, they needed to buy them once they arrived at the temple. Hence having them readily available on site is considered a smart business practices today—having the goods where the customer needs them. But that's not how Jesus saw it.

When what we believe God and Jesus would have us do and be conflict with our civic duty to be law abiding, we answer to God. Allegiance to God's law is always higher than allegiance to the laws flawed human beings pass. On this point I believe both Judge Moore and Cardinal Mahoney would agree, although they might differ on which human law God would have us ignore or even break.

Our Moravian Covenant for Christian Living speaks to duty we Moravians have to obey the laws of our nation and church, but that when we believe such laws conflict with our allegiance to God, God comes first.

Principles by Which We Live and Bear Our Witness

IV The Witness of a Christian Citizen

A. Recognition of Civil Authority

25. We will be subject to the civil authorities as the powers ordained of God, in accordance with the admonitions of Scripture (Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13-14) and will in nowise evade the taxes and other obligations which are lawfully required of us (Romans 13:7).

B. Responsibilities

26. Considering it a special privilege to live in a democratic society, we will faithfully fulfill the responsibilities of our citizenship, among which are intelligent and well-informed voting, a willingness to assume public office, guiding the decisions of government by the expression of our opinions, and supporting good government by our personal efforts.

C. A Higher Loyalty

27. Though giving our loyalty to the state of which we are citizens, we do recognize a higher loyalty to God and conscience (Acts 5:29 ).

So how do we weigh, how do we decide whether the laws our elected representative pass conflict with our loyalty to God and what God would have us do in loving our neighbor as our self? What laws should we advocate for that further how the Bible tells us we are to live in relationship with God and one another? The key is found in this morning's epistle lesson. Paul tells us in the letter to the church in Corinth : “God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.”

The wisdom of the world teaches us values that are counter to the values contained in the Bible for covenant living with God and one another. Or said another way, the world's values conflict with biblical values. The world teaches us to value competition. Our world tells us to be self-reliant, and self-sufficient. The world, not the bible teaches us “God helps those who help themselves.” To need anyone or anything is a sign of weakness so says the world. The world tells us to pursue our own self-interest and by the invisible hand of Adam Smith's theory, some of us, mainly we who were born on 2 nd or 3 rd base, will be better off and successful by the world's standards. For there to be winners, there's got to be losers.

The bible gives us a different set of values. In covenant relationship with God and one another cooperation is more valued than competition. Our interdependence on one another is a reality. We cannot exist either as a church or in the world without the help of others. We need farmers to grow our food, utility workers to keep the power on, doctors and nurses to care for us, police and firemen to protect us and our property. Teachers to teach us. No one lives without assistance, without the support of others. As a body, as a world, we are interdependent with one another not autonomous self-reliant individuals. We have responsibilities towards one another, and our laws and values should reflect this reality.

As Christians we worship a loving and gracious God who shows steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love God and keep the commandments. For our triune God love is embodied in our empathy and our care. Real love is not a feeling that makes us want to spend every waking minute with the object of our love—that's infatuation which borders on idolatry. Rather real love is putting ourselves in the shoes of our neighbor and extending our self for their benefit. While we can't legislate feelings of love, we can legislate actions that are in keeping with the values of the bible, rather than the foolishness of the world. The values of care for God's creation and creatures; the values of protecting the weak and vulnerable—the modern day equivalent to the widows, orphans and aliens the bible tells us to protect. The value of trusting in God rather than our own power and might. When our values are in sync with God's values as revealed in scripture, then we are keeping our part of the covenant and being light and salt to a world of hurting and need.

Let us pray:

Dear God, sometimes it is so hard to know what the right thing to do is. The values we are rewarded for in our culture conflict with what you teach us. Give us strength and insight, O Lord, to live and act in accordance with your values. Amen.

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