The third covenant in this year\u2019s Lenten readings is the central one of Israel\u2019s history: the gift of the law to those God freed from slavery. The commandments begin with the statement that because God alone has freed us from the powers that oppressed us, we are to let nothing else claim first place in our lives. When Jesus throws the merchants out of the temple, he is defending the worship of God alone and rejecting the ways commerce and profit-making can become our gods. The Ten Commandments are essential to our baptismal call: centered first in God\u2019s liberating love, we strive to live out justice and mercy in our communities and the world.<\/p>\n
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The third covenant in this year\u2019s Lenten readings is the central one of Israel\u2019s history: the gift of the law to those God freed from slavery. The commandments begin with the statement that because God alone has freed us from the powers that oppressed us, we are to let nothing else claim first place in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":3770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","wpfc_preacher":[35],"wpfc_sermon_series":[],"wpfc_sermon_topics":[],"wpfc_bible_book":[],"wpfc_service_type":[6],"class_list":{"0":"wpfc_preacher-pastor-jim-mccolley","1":"wpfc-sermon-single","2":"post-4307","3":"wpfc_sermon","4":"type-wpfc_sermon","5":"status-publish","6":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"hentry","9":"wpfc_service_type-sunday-worship-service"},"aioseo_notices":[],"sermon_audio":"","sermon_audio_duration":"","_views":"22","bible_passage":"John 2:13-22","sermon_video_embed":"","sermon_video_url":"","sermon_bulletin":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sermons\/2024\/03\/03032024.docx","_featured_url":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sermons\/2023\/02\/lent.jpg","sermon_date":1709464789,"_sermon_date_auto":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/wpfc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4312,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4307\/revisions\/4312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wpfc_preacher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_preacher&post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_series&post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_topics&post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_bible_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_bible_book&post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_service_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_service_type&post=4307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}