Love God and Do Whatever You Please

October 4, 2026 World Communion Sunday Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Love God and do whatever you please 19th Sunday after Pentecost Year A Prelude Greeting Call to Worship (Japan) One: In a world that remains divided and in conflict, God is inviting us, to make us one. Many: Today we gather around one table, in answer to God’s will. One: What do we find at today’s table? Many: God's love, which endures all things and connects all things. One: What is not at today’s table? Many: The many powers of the world, which seek to stand over others. One: Let us repent, and give thanks to God’s power to bring salvation to all who believe. Many: Thanks be to God! Make us witnesses of Your love. All: Let us worship together the true God, who makes us one. (Global Ministries) Opening Prayer (Australia) We gather today as the people of God, as a community of Christ’s followers. We gather to share Word and sacrament, to discern the ways of faithful service. We serve our God in this community and throughout every land. Let us serve by working toward justice where there is oppression, by offering comfort where there is pain, by sharing love where there is hatred. The Spirit beckons us, because Jesus calls us to enact our faith. Let us now worship the one who calls us! (Global Ministries) Song Let us Break Bread Together UMH 618 A Sermon for All Ages – get in groups and list all of the ten commandments Side-by-Chart Comparison # Jewish (Aseret HaDibrot) Catholic / Augustinian Protestant (Reformed) 1 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. You shall have no other gods before me. 2 You shall have no other gods before me / No graven images. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. 3 You shall not take God's name in vain. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 4 Observe the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5 Honor your father and your mother. You shall not kill. Honor your father and your mother. 6 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. 7 You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. 8 You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not steal. 9 You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not bear false witness. 10 You shall not covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, or possessions. A Statement of Faith UMH 883 Passing of the Peace Scripture Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Sermon “Love God and Do as you please” Lloyd Douglas told how he loved, occasionally, to visit a little old man who gave violin lessons. He had a studio, if it could be called that, a small room set in a long row of rooms where other music teachers taught. "I liked to drop in on him," Douglas said, "for he had a kind of homely wisdom that refreshed me. One morning I walked in and by way of greeting, said, ‘Well, what’s the good news for today?’ " Putting down his violin, stepping over to his tuning fork suspended from a silk thread, he struck it a sharp blow with a padded mallet, and said, "There is the good news for today. That, my friend, is ‘A.’ It was ‘A’ all day yesterday ... it will be ‘A’ all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years ... the soprano upstairs warbles off-key ... the tenor next door flats his high ones ... the piano across the hall is out of tune ... noise all around me, noise ... noise ... noise; but that, my friend, is ‘A.’ " I believe it will steady your soul to remember that. Some things remain constant in the midst of noise and change ... some things are not transient ... some things are not at the mercy of popular vote . Some things in life never change, God’s love for us, human nature, the need for guidance in life, relationships and purpose. No matter how life changes there are somethings that stay the same. Into this world of upheaval and change, the Ten Commandments still ring true. Close to 3,000 years have come and gone since Moses came down from Mount Sinai. He carried with him Ten Commandments for living, not Ten Suggestions. These Ten Commandments have not budged one inch in calling men and women to the same ethical standards of life. Times may have changed, but the principles of these Ten Commandments are eternally the same. There is not a sole in this room that has not heard of the ten commandments. It is estimated that over 4 billion people in the world are familiar with the 10 commandments. But how many actually know them? And of those who know them, how many people actually live them. Acouple of years ago, I was asked to serve on a panel to discuss the problems facing teenagers in our society. The panel included a school counselor, a Juvenile Judge, a drug counselor, a couple of other experts on teenage problems, and, I guess, I was the representative of the religious community. There were a variety of people in the audience, including the parents of several teenagers. During the question and answer period, there was one woman who acknowledged that she was at the symposium because her adolescent daughter had become a handful and she could no longer control her. Then, looking at me, she began to blame the church for the problems that her daughter faced and the problems that teenagers were encountering in our society. She stated that the problems of teenagers could be traced directly to the church which was no longer teaching "the basics." She talked about the failure of the church to give proper instruction and moral guidance to the younger generation. Her strongest and most self-evident point was that children were no longer required to memorize the Ten Commandments. Finally, when she had finished listing her complaints, I asked her, "Madam, do you know the Ten Commandments?" "Of course," she responded, somewhat insulted by the question. Looking directly at this woman in the audience, I challenged her by saying, "Name them!" She coughed and sputtered and looked embarrassed. Finally, she was able to name three or four of the commandments and a couple of quotes from Shakespeare before giving up and sitting down. While I can sympathize with that woman and her worry about her daughter, I think it is a mistake to attribute magical qualities to the Ten Commandments. Instead, I think it is more appropriate to look at them as rules for living. A pompous gentleman once announced to a group which included Mark Twain: "Before I die I will go to the Holy Land, climb Mount Sinai, and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top." "I have a better idea," said Twain, "you could stay home and keep them." The good news is that most of us have mastered the big ones – thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, honor they mother and father, we even try not to lie unless it is absolutely necessary. And that is just it, we have no problem obeying the laws. As a matter of fact, many of the 10 commandments are in fact actual laws of the land. We are good at keeping these laws, until we have some need that is beyond our resources, and we feel like we need to get ahead. We get ahead, by interfering with someone else’s pursuit of happiness. When Moses brought down the tablets from God, he had two tablets of commandments. The first were guidelines in our relationship with God, the second were guidelines in relationship with family, neighbors and others. Moses went to God to help the Israelites come together into a new community. They had lived 400 years in a society that dehumanized them, took advantage of them, that took possession of them mind, body and spirit, just to get rich. God’s first words to them in Exodus 20 – I brought you out of the land of slavery – here are some instructions on how to live free – first and foremost – put God first in everything in life. There is a Jewish legend that a certain leaf wanted to be free to fly like a bird. It struggled to separate itself from the tree and floated to the ground. But without the life-giving power of the tree, the leaf slowly withered and died. As it died, it cried to the other leaves, “Don’t do as I have done. It is death instead of freedom.” True freedom is living in connection to God and to one another. The 10 commandments teaches us to do both. There was an ancient expression in Judaism that stated: Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Jesus took these words out of the negative and put them in the positive: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, the golden rule. In other words, love requires us to take action. It is not enough simply to refrain from coveting what our neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing bad. But the call of the Christian life is to do good. Jesus took those 10 commandments and turned it into2, no actually 3 rules – love God, Love neighbor, love yourself. He said Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. There are three commandments that I want to focus on in the love yourself category – Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy – take time to rest, Thou shalt not Covet- don’t judge your life based on what others have, and keep no graven idols. There is an old legend that Abraham, as a young boy worked in his father’s shop where the old man made idols according to customer specifications. Since various religions abounded, and gods were believed to have kingdoms which were geographically limited, many people believed an idol depicting their god would bring good luck. Or that at least they could thereby appease their gid if he became angry. Abraham, however, didn’t believe in all of this and questioned his dad, who explained that the boy was wrong, each god had certain powers. Then one day the old man went out of town. When he returned, every idol in the shop was destroyed by a hammer except for one, against which the hammer was leaning. Furious, the old man called his son, Abraham, and charged him with the damage. But the boy said, no, it was that one idol which you told me had great powers. He was greater than the others and destroyed them. The old man had no answer. We all have idols. An idol is anything that we are so obsessed with, that we put before God. How much time do we spend working to death seeking some type of idol, because we are trying to keep up with someone else’s standards of living. We take pride in our freedom to do what we want, but modern life can be just as suffocating as the Israelites living in Egypt, unless we remember the guidelines to love God, love ourselves and love ourselves. Sometimes God needs to bring us out of the land of modernism, into the wilderness of reflection. Learning, remembering, living the 10 commandments – can remind us of our freedom in Christ. St. Augustine once said that in Christ, we are free to love God and to do whatever you please. Someone once said, “Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them.” I want to tell you that God is in love with you. No, you’re not perfect, but God sees you through the eyes of love, the same eyes through which God hopes you look at others. And even though you are not perfect, God has prepared a place for you among His saints. When we live in God’s love – we are free to show that love to others as a rule. Augustine’s full quote says Love God and do what you please, for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved”. So keep God first. .. some things, like the Ten Commandments, are timeless and permanent! You can come back to them and confidently follow them with your life. They are rules or guidelines for living that come to us from God. Are you following his guidelines for living? CSS Publishing Co., Inc., Greatest Passages Of The Bible, The, by Robert Allen Receive the gift of rest, and help others receive it too. Practice gratitude. Open your hands in generosity. Love God, and love your neighbor in the choices you make each day. The God who brought the people out of Egypt is still teaching us how to live as free people. May we listen with reverence, respond with trust, and walk in love. Amen. Song You Satisfy the Hungry Heart UMH 629 Prayers of the People One: We pray for the people of Africa. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Asia. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of the Pacific. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Europe Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of the Middle East. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of North America. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of every place whose names we know—and those we do not. All: May we be strengthened together as one body of Christ. (Global Ministries) Pastoral Prayer Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Offertory Prayer Generous God, You have set a table that stretches from Charlotte to Kinshasa, from Bogotá to Seoul. You have fed us with grace and invited us into your holy community of justice and joy. So now, we offer back to you a portion of what we have received. May our gifts, of money, time, and lives, be used to extend your welcome, to build tables in places long denied a feast, and to nourish hope in hearts still waiting for home. Bless and multiply these gifts for your glory and your people. Amen. (United Methodist Board of Discipleship) Call to Communion One: From every corner of the earth, Christ calls us to the table. Many: We come from many peoples, many places, many traditions. One: We come with the songs of our ancestors and the prayers of those who came before us. Many: We come carrying stories of faith, struggle, hope, and joy. One: From the villages of Africa and the islands of the Pacific, from the mountains of Asia and the cities of the Americas, from the churches of Europe and the Middle East— Many: We come as one people, gathered in Christ. One: Some come to this table with abundance. Some come longing for daily bread. Many: Christ welcomes us all. One: Some come singing. Some come grieving. Some come with questions. Some come with gratitude. Many: Christ welcomes us all. One: Today, the walls that divide us do not have the final word. Language does not divide us. Geography does not divide us. Culture does not divide us. Many: At Christ’s table, there is room for all. One: Come, people of God. Come with open hands and open hearts. All: We come to receive. We come to remember. We come to share. We come to be made one. (Global Ministries) World Communion THE GREAT THANKSGIVING FOR WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY (Do not Print) The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. The pastor may lift hands and keep them raised. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth. You have made from one every nation and people to live on all the face of the earth. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn: The pastor may lower hands. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The pastor may raise hands. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. He commissioned us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all nations, and today his family in all the world is joining at his holy table. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup. When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." The pastor may raise hands. And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. The pastor may raise hands. Renew our communion with your Church throughout the world, and strengthen it in every nation and among every people to witness faithfully in your name. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever. Amen. Copyright: “The Great Thanksgiving for World Communion Sunday,” Copyright © 1972 The Methodist Publishing House; Copyright © 1980, 1985, 1989, 1992 UMPH. Used by permission.” Announcements Closing Prayer for YouTube Go now as those who have been fed, not only with bread and cup, but with remembrance, mercy, and the wild welcome of Christ. Let your faith, even if only a mustard seed, uproot indifference, plant compassion, and prepare a place for someone else to be seen, to be heard, to be healed. Wherever you go, Babylon or Jerusalem, downtown or dirt road, may you carry the table with you. And may the Spirit of God go before you to stir courage, walk beside you to offer peace, and dwell within you to keep setting the table of grace. Go in love, go in justice, go in belonging. Amen. (United Methodist Board of Discipleship) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction (Cuba) May God prosper you. May your days be long and your nights serene. May your friendships honor you, and your family love you. May you eat at your table, and may you be gathered into God’s embrace with a smile. (Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ Global Ministries) Additional Illustrations when was the last time you got lost? Was this the result of human error or technological error? Or both? Last year, a news station in Indonesia broadcast a story about an Indonesian groom who went to the wrong wedding and almost married the wrong woman because of an error by Google Maps. It appears that this was an arranged marriage, so the prospective bride and groom did not realize the mistake. Family members from the two families discovered the mistake as they chatted before the wedding. Fortunately, the wedding never took place and both families handled the situation gracefully. (1) GPS technology gets a bad rap sometimes, but there are some of us who can’t do without it. A few years ago, a man in Australia accidentally drove 400 miles away from his intended destination because wouldn’t stop and ask for directions. Eric Steward set out to pick up a morning newspaper, but he took a wrong turn and ended up driving for hours on a major highway until he finally stopped and asked the police for directions back home. He told the police officer who gave him directions that he didn’t need a GPS because he had only been lost once before in his life. (2) Some people have to get really lost before they’ll admit they are lost. There is a Jewish legend that a certain leaf wanted to be free to fly like a bird. It struggled to separate itself from the tree and floated to the ground. But without the life-giving power of the tree, the leaf slowly withered and died. As it died, it cried to the other leaves, “Don’t do as I have done. It is death instead of freedom.” The oldest candle company in the world is based in Dublin, Ireland. Rathbornes, which first sold candles made from tallow, or animal fat, was established in 1488 and is still in business today. The Irish government once considered candles to be absolutely essential to the safe functioning of society. In fact, in 1616 the municipal government in Dublin passed the “Candlelight Law,” which required that every fifth house keep a lit candle in the window during certain hours to guide passersby safely through the streets. (7) The Ten Commandments serve as a “Candlelight Law” for the Israelites and all the nations around them. They were intended to make the Israelites into a living embodiment of God’s character and purposes in the world. Someone has said that there was a reason why the Ten were written on stone instead of parchment. They were written in stone so that people could only keep them or break them -- they cannot bend them. When I first entered seminary I, along with several other first year students, had spent several years in "the real world" before deciding to become a clergyman. So, too, had a new classmate. Toward the end of our first quarter, our class in church history gathered for our final exam. Those of us who had been away from the classroom for several years were quite apprehensive about the threat of final exams. Soon, the exam books were opened and we all began to write. Suddenly, we were appalled to see the professor walk over to the desk where my classmate was seated and roughly yank the exam booklet away from the poor fellow. For a moment he sat there, his face flaming red. Then quietly, he gathered his books and a briefcase and left the room. I never saw him again. He had cheated, and the professor had caught him. I have often wondered about that man in the years since. What explanation did he give his wife and children for suddenly leaving seminary? Did he lie and make matters worse? Did he tell them what happened and forever lose their respect? What explanation did he give the members of the church which had proudly sent this second career member off to be a Methodist minister? How has he lived with himself? Where is he now? What is he doing? He never became a minister. What a tragedy, all because a man failed to think what his actions could cost. There it is, then. A practical, down-to-earth formula against which to measure the daily choices of our lives. Does it make good sense? Is it faithful to the rules in which I believe? Is it true to the person I want to be? Would I mind if other people knew? Could I be pleased if the people I admire did the same? Will the consequences really be what I want? If the answers to all of these are "yes," then it's probably the right thing to do. CSS Publishing Company, TIMES OF REFRESHING, by E. Carver McGriff Recently, I read a little fable about a young girl who was walking through a meadow. She saw that a beautiful butterfly had one wing impaled by a thorn. Very carefully, so as not to further damage the wing, she released the butterfly from the thorn and it began to fly away. Then, the butterfly came back and changed into a beautiful fairy princess right before the little girl. "For your kindness," the fairy told the little girl, "I will grant you your fondest wish." The little girl thought for a moment and replied, "I want to be happy." The fairy princess smiled and leaned over and whispered something into the girl’s ear. Then, the fairy princess vanished into thin air. But, as the girl grew older, there was no one in the kingdom who was happier than she. Whenever anyone asked her for the secret of her happiness, she would only smile and say, "I listened to a beautiful fairy princess." As she reached the last years of her life, her friends and neighbors were afraid that her fabulous secret of happiness would die with her. "Tell us, please," they asked. "Tell us what the fairy said!" The little girl, who was now a lovely old lady, smiled and said, "The beautiful fairy princess told me that the secret to happiness is to realize that everyone, no matter how secure they seem, has need of me." One of the great secrets of life is to realize that everyone has need of us. And the willingness to give ourselves to others ... the willingness to develop a relationship with others the willingness to love others, is one of the rules of living ... which leads to a happy life. That does present a problem. Think about this: It is possible to keep negative commandments by simply doing nothing. A person might truthfully be able to say that he had not stolen, committed adultery, or murdered, but that does not mean that that individual is loving and caring. There was an ancient expression in Judaism that stated: Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Jesus took these words out of the negative and put them in the positive: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, the golden rule. In other words, love requires us to take action. It is not enough simply to refrain from coveting what our neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing bad. But the call of the Christian life is to do good. So let's just get it out on the table at the outset of this sermon, the Ten Commandments are not meant to be an end in themselves. Still, having said that, we must also concede that the Commandments are so basic to life that if we disregard them, we court disaster. Look at it this way. Jesus called upon us to go the second mile. But to go the second mile you must first go the first. The Ten Commandments represent the first mile. Love represents the second mile. Both are needed; both are necessary. One is law, the other is grace. One is duty, the other is joy. Both go hand in hand. Let us now look at the first mile--the Ten Commandments. In, James Mitchener’s novel The Source, he describes an ancient family. The father of the family sacrifices his son to Malek, an ancient God. The mother grieves while the father then goes and visits the temple prostitutes. She is deeply grieved at what her husband is doing in the name of religion. She laments: “With a different god, he would have been a different man.” We are shaped by our god or gods. Martin Luther once wrote: “whatever you confide in, that is your god.’ Whatever we count on to give us meaning and value in life, that is our god. We are sometimes mistaken. We believe that the great conflict is between religion and atheists. Interestingly, Jesus never once, as far as we know, addressed the issue of atheism. Maybe he never met an atheist. Or perhaps Jesus realized that everyone has some god that they worship. They address the two major issues of our time: Our relationship with God and our relationship to one another. Is it any wonder that when Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment, he answered in this way: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with al of your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Amen. ChristianGlobe Network, eSermons.com Sermons, by Brett Blair I have thought of this experience many times while observing worshipers enter other places of worship, continuing conversations which had begun outside. The organ prelude, I fear, is frequently taken to be a pleasant background for the chatter of pre-worship. Certainly, the attitude of reverence is not the same. There is more truth than poetry in Robert Louis Stevenson’s remark, "I never weary of great churches. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral." Again, if the first four* (*As Lutherans count them, three.) Commandments contain one’s service to God as being performed out of a sense of reverence, we can but wonder to what extent reverence is still a part of the modern experience. The first table relates:** (**Lutherans: (1) You shall have no other gods ... (2) ... the name of God ... (3) ... the Sabbath ...) (1) you shall have no other gods before me; (2) do not worship idols; (3) do not take the name of God in vain; (4) remember the sabbath. The elaborations here are limitless, but the hinge word which encompasses the whole is reverence. The second table is no less demanding. As the first four* (*As Lutherans count them, three.) Commandments prescribe one’s reasonable service to God, the remaining six* (*Lutherans: Seven, the last two of which deal with coveting.) prescribe one’s service toward others: (5) honor your father and mother; (6) do not kill; (7) do not commit adultry; (8) do not steal; (9) do not bear false witness; (10) do not covet. Perhaps the hinge word here is respect. Without respect for parents, human life, neighbor, property, truth, and achievement, the second table is unintelligible. Lack of respect may be the result of, among other things, ignorance, arrogance, crudeness, or stupidity. "But," you may say, "the Ten Commandments were prescribed for an ancient time and are not relevant for the twentieth century; and besides, has not Christ fulfilled the Law already?" Antiquated? Consider the morning newspaper, the ten o’clock news, and the testimony of human experience. Christ has fulfilled the Law for us already? It is nowhere implied in the scriptures that we are personally exempt from idolatry, swearing, stealing, coveting; in short, reverence and morality have not been rescinded. Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die." And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to prove you, and that the fear of him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin." (20:18-20) CSS Publishing Co., Inc., On His Way, by Larry Powell During the days of the Gold Rush, a young man and his bride set out across the country to make their fortune. Some where along the way they drank some contaminated water, and the young bride died before they could reach Fort Kearney. Heartbroken the young man took her body to the highest hill and buried it, using the wagon bed to make a coffin. He drove down some wooden stakes to mark the grave, thinking that he would go on west and later come back. But as he thought about it, he said to himself, “I’ll forget where this is. I will never remember it.” So he retraced his steps all the way to St. Joseph, Missouri. He found a stone cutter, and had him prepare a tombstone with the name “Susan Hail” on it, along with the date of her death. He tried vainly to get someone to haul it back for him, but all the wagons going west were already over loaded, and they wouldn’t help him. Finally, he bought a wheel barrow, put the stone in it, and walked those weary miles back to Fort Kearney and set the stone up on her grave. That is a tender story. The man knew that there was something he must never forget. Here was a sacred spot on earth and he must always remember where it was. “So it is with the Ten Commandments. They have been set up for us so that we will never forget the importance of some things. We keep coming back to them for they speak to us of eternal truths and values.” (T. Cecil Myers, Thunder on the Mountain Abingdon Press;. 1965, pp. 94-95) It's not that the behaviors ordered by God to the Israelites in the wilderness aren't commendable. It's not that The Decalogue isn't an excellent guide for human justice. It's just that the Ten Commandments aren't heaven's standards. McManus notes: "They are not the standards by which the angels live. They are not God's attempt to pull us up beyond the human into the spiritual. The Ten Commandments are the lowest possible standard of humane living. Stop and consider what they demand of us. Maybe it would help if we rephrased them in everyday language. Here goes: 'Hey, could you stop killing each other? Oh, yeah, by the way, could you not steal each other's stuff? And it would be really helpful if you wouldn't lie to each other, either. And here's a thought, could you not take other people's husbands and wives and just, sort of, like keep your own?" (Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force [Group Publishing, 2000]). The Ten Commandments have traditionally been difficult to translate into the language of children. A third grade Sunday school teacher was particularly uneasy about the lesson, “Thou shalt not com¬mit adultery.” She asked, “Would someone please explain what adultery means?” A young fellow answered matter of factly, “Adultery is when a kid lies about his age.” One Sunday school teacher asked her class if they knew what the last commandment was. One little girl proudly stood and said, “Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor’s wife.” And, of course, there is that central commandment to all boys and girls, the fifth commandment: “Humor thy father and thy mother.” How do you think our society interprets the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”? I think it means, “unless there’s a football game or a soccer practice.” Still, these commandments are important to Jews and to Christians. They give us guidance in dealing with issues we face every day. We need to know them and we need to live by them. There is a silly little story about Moses. It seems that Moses wasn’t feeling well and was very upset. He decided he would go up on the mountain and see God. “You know my life has not been easy. First my mother put me in a basket and floated me down a river,” Moses said. “Then I left Egypt for 40 years. You remember the burning bush, the plagues, and then the Passover.” God allowed that, yes, He remembered. “There’s a lot more,” Moses continued. “You remember everything, so I don’t have to tell you the rest. But I really can’t handle much more, and I have this splitting headache.” God looked at Moses and said, “Here, take these two tablets. That should help.” (3) 3. Kirk Kirkpatric, “Tested Humor and How to Use It,” “The Speaker’s Digest,” Quote, Vol. 54, No. 10, October 1994. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Dynamic Preaching First Quarter Sermons 2009, by King Duncan