Texts: Psalm 71; Luke 13: 2-13

In 1992 Circuit Judge Julius Swann from Etowah County Alabama died in office and Governor Roy Hunt was charged with selecting a judge to replace him until the next election. Alabama, like 37 other states in the Union, elect their judges, and although one may raise the question of judicial independence when judges are elected, that question is for another day. He selected Roy Moore, a fundamentalist Christian whose past included West Point, Army service in Vietnam, professional kickboxing, practicing law, and losing various election tries for D.A. and local judge. Judge Moore brought his wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments and hung them in his courtroom and thus ignited a controversy that is still not over.

Sued by the ACLU for that practice, the stone sculpture of the Commandments erected in front of his courthouse, and his practice of beginning every court session with a Christian prayer, he refused to change his practice even when ordered to do so by a court. Buttressed by an 88% approval rating among Alabamians he won the position of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He argued that the Ten Commandments were the foundation of “all moral law” and began applying his version of the Commandments to any behavior he considered immoral, notably homosexuality and same sex relationships. To make a long story short, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, hardly a bastion of liberal thought, ordered the removal of the monument that was in front of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003. To find out what finally happened to Judge Moore and the monument, you’ll have to stay until the end of the sermon.

So, why am I telling you this story? How should we keep the Commandments and what was Jesus talking about in his rebuke to the ruler of the synagogue? In this passage Jesus has not only theoretically transgressed the Fourth Commandment but has broken a cultural and religious taboo by touching a woman not his wife or betrothed. Women were considered not only inferior to men but under their absolute control and clearly were not supposed to talk to strangers. Jesus, of course, points out the hypocrisy of those who claim they keep the Sabbath by noting that they would untie their beast of burden to water it but not heal. And he really drives the point home by calling her “a daughter of Abraham.”

What Jesus was getting at, of course, was that keeping the Commandments is more than abiding by the letter of the law. It is the spirit of the law, what the law was intended to do, that counts. If you read that Commandment really carefully, you will see that not only are you to keep the Sabbath but that you must give your servants and slaves a day off as well. We’re not supposed to work people or animals seven days a week until they drop from exhaustion. Even during the horrors of the early Industrial Revolution when both adults and children worked 12 to 14 hours a day, factories were usually closed on Sundays. Things are quite different now, of course, with Sunday hours for many of us who work during the week -- except in Bergen County which still enforces blue laws.

In our modern age what does keeping the Commandments mean? Indeed, we might ask whether there is any meaning left at all. Judge Moore notwithstanding, I would argue that the spirit of the Ten Commandments constitute the foundation of moral principles in that they set before us our relationship with God and with each other. However, common as the understanding of the broad principles of the Commandments are to the Abrahamic faiths as well as the non-Abrahamic faiths, narrow interpretations of the Commandments actually stultify them and narrow them in such a way as to make them irrelevant to our lives. I venture to guess that many of our friends in Reform Judaism have the same argument with various forms of orthodox and fundamentalist expressions of their faith.

As we examine the question of what the Commandments mean in our lives, we might think about how our lives reflect or do not reflect what they call us to do. What does it mean to hold God above everything else? Our modern forms of idolatry such as nationalism and xenophobia are in many ways more insidious than little stone idols. We should not hold the Lord’s name in vain, calling on God to support our own narrow way of life. And to honor our parents means we must care for the elderly in a humane way, respecting them for the wisdom they can give us.

People try to wiggle around the meaning of the word “kill,” meaning only murder not justifiable self-defense; that, too, is a discussion for another day, but I’ll wager it does include the destruction of our environment. And adultery is not just an act but a violation of trust in a relationship. If we want to look at stealing, just look at the economy over the last several years and how those who benefited from the financial problems of others have tried to justify their profits. Malevolent gossip is only another form of bearing false witness, and greed-filled envy of the rich stoked by the media is nothing more than coveting. In one way or another, many of us have broken at least one, if not more, of the commandments in spirit if not in fact.

This isn’t how Roy Moore might see the Commandments, but I don’t consider his interpretation of them to be much more than the leader of the synagogue against whom Jesus railed. Where is Roy Moore is now? Removed from the bench, he has made a career of being a featured speaker for the Foundation for Moral Law, offering so-called legal seminars on our inalienable right to have God in our public life. By the way, court proceedings, not to mention school board meetings and other public events, are still opened with prayer in many counties in Alabama.

The fundamentalist kind of thinking shown in Alabama is not just reflected there but in the current debate over the Cordoba House in New York. That debate actually has two prongs. First there is the question of location; however, the debate has reignited the question of our presumed national identity, which, I believe is an even more fundamental question. That question was part of the Roy Moore issue. What is our national identity? In the past, “Judeo-Christian” was an inclusive term; it has now become a narrowing term, excluding not only Muslims, but the millions of Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, as well as adherents to other religions. How do we look at ourselves? These are questions that we must tackle and resolve to have a truly inclusive society.

Let us pray: God of infinite names, you have guided us throughout our past. Guide us now into the future where we keep your commandments in spirit and welcome all into a truly inclusive society. Amen.