10 Commandments: Do not murder

Introduction 

Two questions come to mind as we look at today's command: firstly what does this command really mean? Secondly is it relevant?

It is clear that this command deals with the illegal taking of human life. The original Hebrew word means to unlawfully kill, and in the society of the time, killing was permissible in self-defence, in warfare and where a serious offence had been committed – executions were allowed.

Consequently all modern Bible versions translate this commandment as “you shall not murder,” but there is a danger here.

“You shall not kill” is maybe too broad but “You shall not murder” is too narrow.

It suggests the only thing in view is the brutal premeditated assault with the intention to take a life, yet in the Old Testament you could also be guilty of shedding blood to a lesser extent through carelessness or even by accident. So the command includes manslaughter as well as murder. Perhaps the most accurate translation would be “You shall not unlawfully cause another person's death.”

We have a good idea what murder is and for most of us, it is not one of the great temptations of life - so are we actually safe from not breaking this command? Is this at last a command we stand a chance of keeping? Yet when we turn to the New Testament we find that Jesus tells us that anger is as sinful as the desire to kill - and if that’s true then we have all broken it many times. Very few of us have committed murder, but all of us have been angry.

So, the Old Testament command prohibits deadly actions and Jesus extends it to deadly emotions.

The value of human life 

Our modern understanding of human life is different from that of earlier generations. The biblical view is that human beings have been created just a little below God and in his image. The modern-day atheistic view is that we are merely the most recent results of evolution’s blind game of chance.

To be made in the image of God is a little like an ambassador sent by a powerful King. To attack that ambassador is to attack the king himself, so all men and women bear God's mark.

By respecting them we respect God. By showing contempt or hatred for them we show contempt for God. Deadly actions and deadly emotions are so terrible not because they are against men and women because they are against God.

Avoid deadly actions 

Clearly the 6th commandment prohibits the sort of murder that we associate with Agatha Christie or with headlines in the tabloid papers but there are four major issues with this command which must be borne in mind - issues over which Christians and all other people have different views. Those issues are: abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and war.

It will be too hard for me to address those issues properly and to illustrate that let me just ask one difficult question for each:

And there are 2 general points I want to make:

1. We need to uphold the value of life. We are all God's creation, made in his image and as a result we all have enormous value and dignity.

2. We also need to uphold the value of truth. We can play a vital role by demanding that accurate language is used in these matters. People have an unpleasant way of disguising appalling realities by using some harmless formula of words: removing foetal tissue doesn't sound as bad as killing a baby; letting nature take its course doesn't sound as bad as causing death; neutralising the enemy positions, degradation of infrastructure doesn't sound as bad as attacking and killing enemy soldiers.

Avoid deadly emotions 

If that was all the Bible says about killing we would have plenty to think about, yet Jesus goes further. In the Sermon on the Mount he uses the same rigorous logic with this commandment as he did with that on adultery. It is not enough, he says to avoid physically killing someone. To be in a furious rage with someone is to be guilty of murder. So the thought is the parent of the deed and is equally condemned.

This raises the question, is all anger really murderous anger? After all didn't Jesus get angry? It is important to distinguish between the emotion of anger and the focus of anger. It's what you do with anger that counts. Remember that Paul said to the Ephesians: “Don't sin by letting anger gain control over you. Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil.”

Psychologists make a distinction between destructive anger and constructive anger.

Destructive anger is the violent outburst where you lash out blindly and hatefully at someone else. Constructive anger is a cooler more focused reaction - we decide to go and do something about the problem. Destructive anger focuses on making a person suffer. Constructive anger focuses on getting a problem solved.

Sometimes it is right to be angry. For someone not to be angered by bullying or corruption or child abuse is not to be Christ-like. The prophets and Jesus got angry over sin and his followers have been right to get angry over sin ever since. William Wilberforce got angry over the slave trade and worked to have the whole trade made illegal - that was constructive anger.

But it is all too easy for constructive anger to switch into the destructive mode, and it will be wise to remember that anger is only one letter away from Danger.

How should we had handle anger? 

1. Don't just let it happen James 1:19-20

2. When we feel angry we need to try to analyse our feelings. Counting to 10 before expressing your feelings is not simply putting the pin back in a hand grenade for a few more seconds, it gives us time to look at the situation. Maybe best to step back, take a walk around the block, find someone else to talk the situation over with. Pray, ask for wisdom and grace, so instead of taking it out on someone, we take it to God and talk it through.

3. If it is an important matter and your anger is justified, ask yourself how you can express it in a way that will make the situation better. Channelling anger positively as a great skill. Saying something like, “You know this is bothering me. We need to do something here. How can we stop this happening again?” Not threatening, not abusive, trying to build bridges. A loving response.

Conclusion 

We must be against deadly actions and be in favour of life. 

It is far too easy to see human beings reduced to nothing more than a label, or statistic: a consumer, a foetus, a casualty, an occupant of a hospital bed, an enemy, a thug. In every case we need to remember that behind the words are human beings made in the image of God.

To keep this commandment is to be more than simply people who avoid inflicting death - we should be people who are in favour of life. We should be those that feed the poor, that honour and respect the elderly and disabled, that struggle to give people in deprived areas a decent quality of life.

We must be against deadly emotions and in favour of love forgiveness and peace. 

When we do hateful actions, think hateful thoughts and say hateful words it is God we sin against. We need to repent of our anger and resolve to watch our thought lives and the struggle against such thoughts when we feel anger surging through us. We need to respond rightly, analysing our feelings and determining prayerfully what is the right and loving response. The way Jesus lived and the way Jesus died show us a better way.

Within this desire to be in favour of love forgiveness and peace, there must be a readiness to help those who have suffered through anger or violence. We need to help apply God's love and forgiveness to those who still nurse bitter thoughts and grievances and those who now repent of deadly acts and thoughts they have committed in the past.

This is a hard but desperately relevant commandment in a world filled with anger and violence. Applying it in our own lives, we need to turn again and again to the mercy of God for forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit for strength.

10 Commandments: Do not commit adultery

Our series on the 10 Commandments continued with "Do Not Commit Adultery"

Introduction 

I have to start by saying that I'm walking into a minefield today.

I think it's probably fair to say that more of us in this room have been seriously hurt by issues around marriage than anything else. Whether that's the pain of being widowed, the agony of divorce, or the ending of a loving relationship that you'd hoped was going to last. It's harder than usual to say something right this morning, and much easier to say something wrong.

So I'm begging your forgiveness in advance.

The other thing we all have to contend with is an overwhelming cynicism about faithful relationships, marriage in particular. We can probably all think of jokes like “marriage isn't a word, it's a sentence.” or “marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, suffering.” And have you seen the bumper sticker that instead of saying “Baby on board,” says “Ex-husband in boot.”?

So we begin at a disadvantage, as though we're on the back foot, trying to defend marriage. Adultery has never been more popular. Good heavens, it's even got a website!

The value of sex 

People often object to Christianity saying that it's all "don't do this, don't do that." But sometimes the rules are there to protect us.

Right at the start of the Bible, we read that God created man and woman for relationship and partnership.

The principle behind sex is threefold: leaving, joining, uniting.

Leaving 

The man and woman leave their families and create a new unit

Joining 

They come together to share everything

Uniting 

By the act of sex, they become one. So sexual activity is a vital part of a marriage relationship.

So it is a precious gift from God and a vital part of our makeup. It isn't dirty or shabby. In its right place it is beautiful and good. Because it it created by God, it is special and shouldn't be cheapened.

It involves the core of our lives. Not just a more intimate version of shaking hands, or a game for consenting adults, it involves powerful psychological and spiritual processes.

Because it has such high value, God gives this command against adultery. So sex has only one place: inside marriage.

So I want to talk about vulnerability, vigilance and virtue this morning, and in between we'll have a couple of don'ts.

Our vulnerability to sex 

Consider the story of David.

His adultery with Bathsheba led to lies, murder, the death of a child and cast a shadow over the rest of his reign.

There are countless other examples of lives ruined, careers and reputations destroyed and families devastated. Sex can easily take the place of God in our lives. When the hormones start pumping, everything else, morality, habit, common sense, all take a back seat.

And it is so attractive.

Ever heard of a magazine devoted to anger? Or a website for online coveting? A film with explicit scenes of, wait for it, Sabbath breaking? Thought not.

So we ask need a healthy respect for the power of sexual temptation. It has destroyed better men and women than you and I.

Our need for vigilance with sex 

Because of its power, we need to be extra careful. Jesus warned about the power of the eyes. Look away, he said, lustful thoughts are as bad as adulterous acts. A marriage can be broken by adultery without the physical act. If one partner is full of desire for someone else, the exclusive union on physical, emotional and intellectual levels has been impaired.

Long passionate conversations at work with only the brush of hands may still be cheating on your spouse.

What's the point of this? Just to make us feel really guilty? No. But if we imagine sex with someone other than our husband or wife and say to ourselves "I will never go there," we haven't done enough. We need to draw the line much further out. By the time you get to the bedroom door, it's probably already too late.

Don't assume you are safe from sexual temptation 

We may think we are secure in our marriage, or in our singleness, but remember 1 Corinthians 10.12.

If married, keep working to strengthen your marriage. Don't make a statement like "my husband never listens to me the way you do," become true. Each partner should help to perfect the other as a Christian marriage grows stronger year by year.

Whether married or single, stay above board in all you do. Make sure no ambiguity can spring up between us and someone else. Ask yourself the question "would I say or do this if my spouse were standing here beside me?"

Be accountable. Is there someone you could share your temptations and pressures with?

Deepen your spiritual life. Root your life in the rich soil of God's confirming love.

Keep busy, doing what you are supposed to be doing. David was idle, that's why he succumbed to temptation.

Don't play with sexual temptation 

There was nothing wrong in David being on the roof of his palace. There was nothing wrong in noticing a beautiful woman. But he didn't need to make enquiries to find out Bathsheba's name. He certainly didn't need to send for her. Turn away from the slightest act or thought, and the next step will never happen.

If sin has occurred, repent immediately, don't make it worse 

Confession is better than cover up, repentance now better than revelations later. It's the devil's lie to say you're in so deep you might as well keep going.

The virtue of forgiveness 

Even the best marriage falls short of the ideal. But God doesn't just judge those who fail, he forgives those who repent and strengthens those who strive to keep his standards.

Adultery is not the only sin and it is not an unforgivable sin. John 8.1-11 shows this.

And if you have become a Christian after a history of several sexual experiences, you may have a tangled history that you bring with you. The church should be a place that welcomes and accepts you, however you have come, while still holding out the ideal of sexual purity.

Conclusion 

Although God made us for relationship and friendship, this need not involve sex. Modern society comes down hard on single people. It says you must be frustrated, a failure or a freak. That lie causes harm beyond measure.

Jesus was single, are you going to call him a failure or a freak?

We have to say that sex is the sealing of a marriage relationship, and is entirely appropriate and right within that relationship, and entirely inappropriate and wrong outside it.

Because of its value sex should not be treated lightly. Because of its power it should not be treated casually. The Bible's standard is viewed either with amazement, contempt or disbelief. Increasingly the way Christians deal with sex will make us stand out.

10 Commandments: Do not steal

Introduction 

Theft takes many forms, but none of us think we are a thief.

Because we don't like this, we are not thieves. What good news!

We conceal things further by renaming what we do. Borrowing, liberating, helping yourself – all these are kinder ways of describing what we get up to. A thief is someone who burgles houses, robs pensioners, breaks into cars. Stealing is what someone else does.

Yet stealing is wider and broader than we like to think. With human sinfulness and ingenuity being what they are, there are countless ways of taking something that does not belong to you.

Direct theft 

The most obvious type of stealing is where something is just taken; what you could call “good old-fashioned theft'. A purse vanishes, a car goes, a suitcase disappears, a till is emptied, a house is burgled. Of course it also occurs at a lower level, where it is somehow more acceptable. How many people take pens or paper from their employers? How many borrow equipment or use a firm's car for their private business? How many people steal from their employers by their misuse of phones, photocopiers or internet access?

What we need here is a ruthless mental honesty. We all need to evaluate before God everything that we do and ask of any remotely dubious practice; is this theft?

Fraud 

Let me move on to the vast area of more subtle, indirect theft. Fraud is theft by deception. It is the unholy marriage of lying and theft; the result of simultaneously breaking the Eighth and Ninth commandments.

We think of fraud as being a modern speciality and it is true that we have more ways of doing it than ever before. We have false accounts, fake documents, inflated budgets, misleading advertisements and so on. But it's as old as we are, and it is plainly condemned in the Old Testament. Moving boundary stones was one way of increasing your estate and is described as stealing in Deuteronomy 19:14

When the land was a family's source of food and wealth, the loss of even a small strip of land could make the difference between life or death.

Another way to defraud people was to have bogus weights, or misleading measuring containers or to water down or dilute what you sold. See what the prophet Amos says: (Amos 8:4–6).

The Old Testament is full of references to robbing the poor, the widows and orphans and those who are defenceless. This reminds us that God cares for such people and he is angry when we cheat them. 
Few people would directly steal hospital equipment but many people would not blink at cheating the Inland Revenue of the money that might be used to buy hospital equipment. The effects are the same.

Again, we need to look at our lives to see if there is anything in them that fits this. Are we involved personally in selling or marketing anything that is not exactly what it says it is? When someone pays us for our work do they get what they paid for? Are we ever guilty of providing a sub-standard service? And, bearing in mind the Old Testament's references to the vulnerable in society, do we have the same standard for the poor and helpless as we do for the rich and influential?

 In God's eyes fraud, however subtle, is still theft.

Exploitation 

Another way of stealing from people that is condemned in the Bible is exploitation. For example, Leviticus 19:13 says that wages are to be paid promptly.

Now in Old Testament times the focus of the prophets was on their own nation and on the people immediately around them. Our modern world has wider horizons. Our government is involved in decisions that affect the whole world; the banks we use and the firms we work for may have enormous influence on people thousands of miles from us.

Much as we would prefer otherwise, we are all linked in with national and global effects. We ourselves may not be directly involved in imposing taxes, setting rents or even making loans. But we are indirectly involved by who we vote into power, by which companies we support, by whose pension funds we subscribe to or even by what we buy at a supermarket. We need to use our power as voters, subscribers, shareholders and consumers to work for justice.

Why is stealing wrong? 

 We have looked at the different types of stealing; but what is it that lies behind them? What is it that is at the core of the whole sin of theft?

Let me give you three reasons why stealing is wrong.

Theft is an offence against God 

The heart of the problem is the belief that things are ours and we can do we want with them. But to think that is to misunderstand the whole nature of this world. In fact nothing is really ours; it is all God's. Psalm 24:1

Just think this through for a minute. Can you imagine everything in the world from plants and birds to houses and banknotes, having invisibly inscribed on it ‘Property of God'. That would mean that everything we have is issued by God on temporary loan to us. We don't own things, we borrow them.
If this is true, then any stealing is ultimately, stealing from God himself. And God sees.

Stealing betrays our relationship to God 

If we have come to faith in Christ then we have become a son or daughter of God and God has become our Heavenly Father.

So, we are to trust our Heavenly Father for what we need. If we need something that we cannot get by working, we are to pray for it. To steal it instead is to reject the idea that God our Father knows best what we really need. It is actually an act of rebellion; it is saying to him that we know best.

Secondly, God expects us, as his children, to reflect his character. We are to bear the family likeness. Time and time again the Old Testament prophets talk about the justice of God; how he is a good, merciful, just and loving God. His children are to be like him. He doesn't turn a blind eye to exploitation or to injustice and neither should we.

To be a thief is to deny that God is our Father or that we are his children.

Stealing is bad for us 

Again, we need to be reminded that the Ten Commandments are not severe rules made by a tough God who wants to put his people through impossible tests. They are instructions made by our Creator so that we can live and prosper.

For one thing, stealing is bad for us as a community. Stealing means lying and it inevitably produces anger, division and mistrust. It is impossible for God's people to live in the way that he expects if there is stealing from each other.

For another thing it is bad for us as individuals. It leads to deception and lies and it starts a vicious circle where we want more so we end up stealing even more. The thief who is caught because he or she gets too greedy is a common phenomenon.

Theft also has eternal consequences. If you or I claim to be a Christian and consistently steal, we must question whether we are indeed born again of God's Spirit or whether we are deluding ourselves. In fact I would go further; if you or I claim to be a Christian and show no spirit of generosity, no desire to give, then we must examine ourselves carefully.

So how do we respond to all this?

Reflection 

We need to think over our attitude to possessions. We need to remember that God is the source of all things; that all we possess is a temporary loan from God and that we have no right to possessions. It is far too easy to get our priorities for our lives from the media rather than from God and his word.

Repentance 

As a result of our reflections, we may easily feel that we have sinned in this area. We need to say sorry to God and to resolve to live lives that are marked by the wise use of God's gifts in the future. We need to set out God's standards in our lives and be determined to live by them.

Restitution 

Linked with repentance comes restitution. Stealing is one of the few sins where we can make amends. If we have committed theft then returning or repaying what was stolen is essential. The passage we read about Zacchaeus makes the point; in his case he was so overjoyed to be accepted by Jesus that he went well beyond what was strictly needed to make restitution. But in making amends it never hurts to err on the generous side.


In situations where revival occurs, widespread restitution can be spectacular. When Rev. W. P. Nicholson preached in Belfast in the 1920s so many shipyard workers were spiritually convicted of the sin of theft that the main firm there had to build a new shed to hold all the returned items.

Realignment 

As elsewhere with the Ten Commandments we need to look hard at our own lives and realign them according to God's word.

• We should be grateful for what we have. One day we will be held accountable for everything we have had, how we got it and how we used it. We must learn to thank God for his gifts rather than to seek what is not ours to have. 
• We need to use wisely what God has given us. The answer to so many of the world's problems, from the environmental crisis to global poverty, lies in applying the concept that we are stewards accountable to God. We are tenants not owners, and as such we need to realise that we have no right to do what we want with God's world. 
• We must give generously. It is clear from the Bible that we steal not only by taking but by withholding. A generous heart is a powerful antidote to the desire to steal. 

Finally, the model for how we are to live is found in Jesus Christ. As we read in Philippians Chapter 2, Jesus' attitude was such that he did not even choose to grasp onto what were his rights as God. Instead, he willingly gave up everything in order to become human and to become one of us.

Let us all live like Christ.

10 Commandments: Do not lie

Yesterday was the second in our series on the 10 Commandments, as we looked together at No. 9: Do not Lie. Based on J.John's book, Just 10, this series is designed to help us with our daily lives, the times spent on our frontline.
 I said less this week, and instead we spent time in small groups, discussing the issues raised by this ancient but bang up to date commandment.

Introduction 

As we go out onto our frontlines, we want to go out in God's name, representing Jesus in all that we do and say. And the point of this series on the 10 commandments is to help us to be distinctive, to be a breath of fresh air to those around us.

Do not lie 

We live in a society of truth decay. And it's rotting not just our mouths, but our personal lives and relationships.

Why do we tell lies? 

One of the reasons we tell lies is that we don't want to take responsibility for the things we do. The disease of BSE is widespread – Blame Someone Else. It really shows the state of our hearts.
James 3:7-12
When we think about the way that politicians, newspapers and advertisers tell us things that aren't true, but are what they think we need to hear, the way God conducts himself is in stark contrast.
God is the one who is always true. He never lies. He is never unfaithful. God never acts out of character. He not only speaks truth, he is truth. So consider Jesus. A man who practised what he preached, who lived truthfully and spoke of a faithful, trustworthy God who proved himself to be true in his own life by raising him from the dead.
Not only is God invariably true, everything that we do or say, think or hear happens before him. Nothing is hidden from his sight.
On the cross, Jesus paid the price for our lies and untruth. He took responsibility for the sins we tried to dodge owning up to. And because of his death, resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can be offered a new start: forgiveness, transformation and the power to live a different life.
In this new life things have got to be different.
Ephesians 4:29,31
Colossians 3:8-9
We are called to be truthful in our speech, to be aware of just how powerful our words are, and to try and tame the tongue. So I've got a few tips to help us.

Avoid lies 

We need to be on our guard all the time to resist that very human tendency to cover up and not take responsibility. Adam and Eve knew they were naked. That's a metaphor for the shame we all feel – we all want to cover up aspects of ourselves, we all want to present the best possible face to the world. But not by lying.

Avoid gossip 

Part of bearing false witness is gossiping. The book of Proverbs talks about gossip being like delicious food, like choice morsels. Tempting, appetising though it is, we have to be different. The truthful people of God should never take pleasure in someone else's misfortune, nor spread rumour behind someone's back. If we are tempted to pass on gossip, we need to ask, “Am I prepared to put my name to this?” If we are concerned about something we hear, we need to go straight to the person concerned. Muck spreaders belong on farms, not in churches.

Be encouragers 

There's a modern day proverb which puts it nicely: “Lord, may my words be sweet and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them.”

Be true to your word 

Jesus encourages us to let our yes be yesm ,and our no, no. We should say what we mean and mean what we say, and be careful before making promises and commitments we might struggle to keep. Whatever else people may say about us, at least let them not be able to say we are hypocrites.

Be a listener 

One of the best ways of avoiding lies is not to say anything. Practise listening instead, be someone who can be trusted with important truth.

Be accountable 

We must have relationships where we have a commitment to openness and honesty. We need to find people who we can share weaknesses with and who will ask us the difficult questions and to whom we have promised to tell the truth.

 Before God let us pledge ourselves to faithfulness in all the different ways we speak.

Then we split into groups to discuss the following three questions:

1. In what ways does our society encourage us to lie? 
2. How can we resist the temptation to lie, especially on our frontline? 
3. What can we do as a body, to help us individually to keep this commandment?

Afterwards, we collected feedback from the groups which Judith turned into this wonderful mindmap.

10 Commandments: Do no Covet

This week we started a new series on the 10 commandments. What follows is more or less what I said as I preached the first sermon, preceded by an introduction that attempts to explain why we are studying the 10 Commandments at this time.
We're basing the series on J. John's book, Just 10

Why study the 10 Commandments?

In the Great Commission, Jesus told his disciples to: “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
That's our task.
How are we going to do it?
We sit here in the church, and usually we think about our immediate neighbourhood, our parish, and wish that more of the people who lived in these houses round about would join us here in church. And we try to invite them to things. Sometimes they come, like to the Carol Service, or Searching for Faith. But not many of them keep coming, and we might feel frustrated, or dispirited.

Occasionally we think about people further away – in the wider world, and we do some things, we give some money, we pray for people working overseas, or for the Street Pastors or Future Hope in Hertford, who reach out further than our immediate circle.

But if that's all we ever think of, it's very hard for us to actually ever do much. Because some of us don't even live in this neighbourhood, and some of us who do, don't spend much time here – most of our waking hours we're out at work. And what's the point is saying to a work colleague, “would you like to come to my church?” They might come as a one off, but there's no way they could ever belong to this church, is there? So we're beginning to think differently. You'll have heard me talk this last year or so about our frontline. Because there is somewhere that is neither the parish nor the wider world, where we have our greatest impact on pother people – and that's our frontline. And what we're trying to do is to think how we can be as effective as possible for God on our frontline.

Last August, we had a discussion service in which we thought about all this, and now we're acting on something that came out of that service. One little group said, “What about the 10 commandments?” 

And I'm very glad they did, because I firmly believe that we have our greatest influence with people, not just by what we say, but by who we are, and the way we do things. If we're people who live life God's way, we're going to be a little bit different, a little bit special. Perhaps we'll be a friend in need, or a listening ear, or someone who can be trusted to do the right thing by our colleagues, or friends, our acquaintances. So as we look through the 10 commandments, we will notice how they are not the world's way of doing things. And we'll notice as well, that although they may be hard, they are worth it, because they add up to a better way of living.

We're going to study them in reverse order, so today it's Commandment number 10:

Do not Covet

The National Lottery prize this week reached a new record: £60 million. The website tells me that if you had won, you would be able to say 'Hello' to a fortune to better Adele, who is worth £50M. You would also be able to ace Andy Murray who is worth £48M and drive much further than Rory McIlroy who is worth £38M.


And yet, 90% of those who win a jackpot keep playing. That's the power of covetousness.
According to Oxfam, the richest 1% of the world's population now own as much as the other 99%.
And they keep on getting richer. Very very few ever seem to say, “I think I'm rich enough.”

What's wrong with coveting?

Essentially, we are letting things, not God be the centre of our hearts and our minds and our wills.
When we become Christians we admit that God is our heavenly Father and that he knows what is best for us. By making him our Lord we accept that he is the wisest judge of what is good for us. But coveting takes our lives away from his rule, saying not “He knows best,” but “I know best.”

Coveting leads to other sins.

If we start thinking that we would like things we haven't got, it won't be long before we are tempted to lie or to steal or to be unfaithful in order to get what we want.

Coveting also prevents us being generous. It stops us from loving our neighbour because it makes us put self first. Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Better to be outward-looking than inward-looking.
Better to be generous than to be selfish.
It's hard to imagine how you can have a sharing and caring community of people where coveting is the rule of life. It will corrode a church.

Finally, coveting cheats us of contentment.
Let's not forget that the 10 commandments aren't hoops that God sadistically expects us to jump through – they are actually for our own good.
If we give in to coveting, we will never be satisfied. It's like trying to walk to the horizon, or looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It can never be reached.
Jesus said, “Don't store up treasure on earth, store it in heaven – it'll never get moth-eaten, or go rusty, or be stolen by thieves. And where your treasure is, there will your heart be.”

How do we change? 

The trouble with coveting is that it's everywhere. It's thoroughly approved by society and it's easy to do.
No one can tell when you covet – it's the invisible sin.
You can even do it in church while pretending to listen to a sermon(!)
We need to realise that while there are good desires, there are also bad ones. We need also to realise that the society that we live in shapes our desires and wants to encourage us to covet.
But the source of the problem is not advertising, or the media; it is our own hearts. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Perhaps I can suggest that during the next week we evaluate ourselves and try to answer the following questions.

1. What are my main desires?
2. Are they good or bad?
3. To what extent do they control how I live, how I relate to others and how I spend my money?
4. Do I really believe that having these desires granted would give me contentment?
5. What are my priorities?
6. What should they be?

It's a new year. It's a good time to take a look at yourself, and see if God suggests that something needs to change.

We must realign our desires

When a plane drifts off course the pilot will carefully change direction to get the aircraft back on its true course.
We need to do something similar with our lives.
Let’s practice reminding ourselves again and again that our true purpose is to know God through Christ and our only lasting joy is to be found there.
Whenever the temptation to desire something that is not ours to have comes upon us, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus alone gives a real peace of mind.
To those who come to him Jesus makes a wonderful promise. 'So do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well'

If you serve Jesus you can have your cake and eat it.
If you don't serve Jesus you will find that you neither have the cake nor get to eat it.

We must keep our hearts in shape 

But it is not enough to do this only once.
You do not stay fit by running one race; you need to keep your fitness by exercise.
This is true here.


Let me give you some tips.

First, acquire an attitude of gratitude. 

Learn to thank God for what he has given you. The Apostle Paul said, 'I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances'
He was in prison when he said this, but he was able to rejoice in his difficult circumstances.
It is sometimes trite and simplistic to say 'count your blessings'. Nevertheless the idea of listing the ways we have been blessed is one that is very valuable.
Now doing this may be an act of the will; it may be something that we have to force ourselves to do. But as we do it is very likely that our hearts will follow.
We need to practice being grateful.

Second, be a wise steward. 

It is often a temptation to look out for more when we are unable to look after what we have already.
Linked with this should come the healthy realisation that the more we have we been given the greater that we are responsible for.

Third, focus on relationships, not things. 

'Better to be poor and reverence the Lord than to be rich and in trouble.’ ‘Better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meat where there is hate' (Two Proverbs from the Bible).
Relationships have a lasting value.
God desires for us to have good relationship not only with him but also with each other.
The call is to love people and use things; so often we do it the other way about: love things and use people.
If someone looked at your lifestyle, at your time, at your bank statement, what would they show about the value you put on relationships?

Finally, be a giver. 

The best antidote to coveting is a brutal one: it is to be freely generous with what we have already. The best remedy for covetousness is to be someone who gives away generously, whether money or possessions.
Jesus talked a great deal about giving.
The weed of covetousness finds it hard to become rooted in the soil of a generous heart.


We all have a choice.
We can covet - and we will find we have cheated ourselves.
Or, we can let Christ live in us and clean us - and we can be contented; both in this life and in the life to come.

Ashes to Ashes

I preached this sermon on Ash Wednesday, and slightly modified, used it again on the Sunday following.
The Bible passage I mainly used is John 8:1-11.

What do you think God is like?

I’d like you to put yourselves in the shoes of an interested visitor to our service today. Imagine someone who has probably read the service booklet by now, listened to the words of the hymns and the Bible readings, and who is probably wondering what “Imposition of Ashes” might be, and whether it hurts.
What might they think we are about?
Would they be concluding that we are a nervous, somewhat paranoid bunch of people, who feel the need to check that God isn’t cross with us, rather than confidently making our own way in the world?

What would our visitor think of the God we are worshipping? Does he sound like a stern and strict enforcer of the rules?

Or is he like a violent husband who, unless his wife keeps saying that everything is her fault and she’s so sorry, will let fly with his fists again? That may be what they would think.




But I don’t think we believe in an angry sort of God, and I don’t think we are a nervous sort of people.
So I want to take a closer look at what we’re like and what God is like. I want to suggest that we’ve got a God who loves us no matter what we’re like, and that we’ve got a God who has found a way of dealing with the wrongs in the world.

The Gift

During the week I saw a programme on telly about a man who as a boy had quite mercilessly bullied a school mate. Now grown up and my age, he was tortured with guilt and shame about what he had done, and desperately wanted to meet the man he had wronged, and ask for his forgiveness.

The programme built up the tension by interviewing a psychologist, who spoke about the immense damage that bullying can do. Then Matt Baker, the presenter, did the detective work of tracking down Simon, the bullied boy, and asking if he would be prepared to meet Jon, who had done him such harm. 

Jon was a perfectly decent family man, yet as a child he’d picked on another boy and made his life a living hell. It made me think that something is very wrong in people. Even people who ought to be perfectly decent and good don’t always behave in a decent, good and righteous way. 

Jesus came for sinners

It made me think how that old fashioned word that the church still uses – sin – still has some currency. Jesus said, “I haven’t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” So if you are righteous, holy, decent and good, I’ve one thing to say – there’s the door. Just close it on your way out, and keep us sinners warm. Because we’re the ones Jesus has come for. And in this service, we are confronting the reality that none of us are good through and through. 

We believe in Love

The truth is, we’re not all bad. Alongside that crookedness inside us all, there is also a great deal of goodness. We respond to love. We have it within ourselves to respond with kindness when we see a need. 

But the dividing line between good and bad doesn’t separate US, the good people, from THEM, the bad ones. Oh no. The dividing line runs right through the middle of our souls. And that’s the problem.

And or course God knows all about it. He knows we aren’t perfect, so he gave us a book with rules to follow, he taught us right from wrong. God’s ways, the Bible’s ways, are the basis of the law of our land.

The law is very good at telling us what we should do. But the law is a lot less good at telling us what to do when we’ve done what is not right. We tend to resort to punishment, in those circumstances. 

But punishment doesn’t put right what was wrong. It just makes the perpetrator suffer. The injured party is still injured. 

If I broke into your house and stole all your possessions, and if I was then arrested and sent to prison, you wouldn’t have your things back. I’d be suffering for my crime, but you would still be dealing with the shock of being burgled, the fear of it happening again, the loss of your treasured belongings. Two wrongs don’t make a right. 

And yet we still think that a little bit more suffering will cure our suffering. A little bit more violence will fix our own violence. One more war will end all wars. But it never does.

We need more than the law.

Jesus was different. He knew what to do with people who had done something wrong. And we’ve got a brilliant example in our gospel reading today.

Jesus and the woman caught in adultery

First of all, this is not about the woman. The pharisees weren’t wanting to know what to do with someone who had committed adultery, They knew perfectly well. They just wanted a situation to throw at Jesus, something to test him with. They just wanted to say “It’s all very well for you to criticise us for being judgemental and unloving, but let’s see you deal any differently with a crime!”

The man

He is concerned with everyone, the pahrisees, the woman, and the person who isn’t there. Let’s just mention him first. You can’t commit adultery by yourself. What happened to the man involved?

Nobody knows. All we know is that he managed to get away. Maybe he was hopelessly in love with this woman, maybe he was heartlessly using her for his own pleasure, whatever the situation, he was savvy enough to make himself scare when the religious police came knocking. He exemplifies our modern morality nicely, doesn’t he? The only thing that’s wrong is getting caught. Like HSBC thinking that making money out of tax evasion was fine, so long as nobody knew.  So the man, the absent man, is a very important part of this story.

The Pharisees

Jesus doesn’t confront them back. He crouches down.  

He doesn’t escalate. He finds something very interesting on the ground instead, until finally he says “who’s good and who’s bad here? Just show me where the dividing line goes.” And they can’t. They can’t draw a line that allows the adulterous woman to be on one side, and the upright, religious people to be on the other side. They find that it can’t be done, so they slink away.

The woman

At last Jesus turn to the woman and points out that no one has condemned her. “Neither do I condemn you, Go and leave your life of sin.” Jesus opened a door for her, and gave her the chance to step through into a new life. 

The key that opened the door was Truth.

The tv programme I saw last night had Simon, the victim of the bullying saying “Yes I will meet Jon. But I won’t forgive him. I’ll never forgive him for what he did to me.”

Jon the bully said “I can’t keep this a secret any longer, I have to put my cards on the table. I don’t know what Simon will say when we meet, but I have to believe it’s better to tell the truth about what I’ve done.”

When they met, Jon said “Simon, will you forgive me?”

And Simon said “Yes.”

The truth will set you free

The woman had no choice about telling the truth – the truth was told for her. Jon felt he had to tell the truth, because the secret of his shame was eating him up. 

We’re in the happy position of being able to choose. But if we want a door unlocked in our lives, maybe we need to tell God the truth about ourselves.

Jesus is the truth, he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is present here, by his Spirit.

So we’re in good company, we’re in safe hands. 

And what does he have to say to us? “I do not condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus walking on water

Tomorrow I'm telling the story of Jesus walking on water. I started writing, and this is what came out.

Jesus had done another amazing thing. Yes, another one. 

What a day it had been. There was a huge crowd of hungry people, who needed a square meal but they were miles from home. All of us disciples had said to Jesus “Stop talking now, and let the people go home so they can have something to eat.” And he'd said, “No—you give them something to eat.” 

Well, we’d looked and we’d asked everywhere, and all we could find was one young boy who hadn’t eaten his packed lunch yet. Perhaps listening to Jesus had made him feel very generous, or perhaps he’d taken a look at the tiny little barley loaves (slightly mouldy in places) and the two little strips of dried fish, and didn’t fancy them. Anyway, he gave us his lunch, and we gave it to Jesus, and Jesus had given it to all those people, and then we’d spent the rest of the afternoon clearing up the bits!

And you know what? That’s not the amazing thing I’m talking about. 

No it isn’t. Because what happened after that was even more amazing. The people were so in awe of Jesus that they kept bowing down to him, and singing to him, and chanting his name, and one of them had this strip of shiny metal that he’d made into a circle and he kept trying to slip it on Jesus head—like a crown. I don’t know if it was a joke, or whether he meant it seriously, but when the crowd saw it, they all shouted for joy. “King Jesus!”

Jesus went wild. He flailed his arms about, he flung that little crown so far into the distance that nobody ever saw it again and he jumped up onto a little hill and started screaming with rage. Everybody was scared and went quiet. He started issuing orders—like I’ve never heard him before. He lined those people up like they were his soldiers, and told them he wasn’t going to be their king and he wasn’t going to be their general and if they didn’t stop thinking like that they were never welcome in his sight ever again. And he made them march away without looking back.

We stood there, not knowing what to do, and he gave us orders as well. He told us to go across the lake while he stayed behind all night to pray.  

Well, we didn’t hang about. It was getting dark, and Peter had his boat, so we all climbed in and set off. The fishermen knew what to do, and they got us moving pretty fast. We wanted to get out of Jesus’ way as quickly as possible. We’d never seen him so cross. Jesus didn't wait looking at us, he turned on his heel and walked off up the hill. He always went up a hill to pray. Or a mountain. The higher the better.

We were sailing across the lake, but it was getting hard work. The fisherman puffed and pulled on the ropes, and turned the boat this way and that. Eventually they pulled the sail down and announced “We’re going to have to row.”

“But there’s plenty of wind!” said Matthew.

“And it’s blowing in the wrong direction, you idiot!” said Peter.

Matthew turned red and shut up. He hated being on the sea. I think it scared him. Peter was muttering under his breath. He hated it when he was on his boat and things went wrong. It made him embarrassed. Like that time when there was a really bad storm and Jesus was asleep. We had to wake Jesus up because we were afraid we would drown, and Jesus had just told the storm to be quiet and it died away.

Another amazing thing. Jesus was full of them. But Peter hated it. He never talked about that day, because that was the day Jesus had seen him in charge of his boat and totally unable to make it go where he wanted it to. He didn’t like Jesus seeing him at sea and being, you know, all at sea.

Soon, Peter’s irritation made him want to get at somebody. He chose Matthew again. “Oy landlubber—come and take a turn on the oar—perhaps you’ll learn what it’s like, pulling into the wind.” He didn't let James or Andrew stop rowing, but he stood up and held out his oar in Matthew’s direction. Matthew tried to stand up but he couldn’t keep his balance—the boat was tossing and turning, and it was nearly dark—there was no warning when a wave was coming to rock the boat. He wailed a bit, tried to take a step, and fell over Thomas’s feet. Nobody laughed, except Peter.

“Come on lazybones! Get up!”

Matthew shouted back, “You think you're so brave standing there in your little boat, don’t you! You’re only doing this because you know I’m scared of water and I can’t swim! You weren’t so brave that night you thought you saw a ghost, were you?”

Yes, everybody knew that Peter was scared of ghosts. Ever since he’d had a bad dream one night and woken up shouting about it. That was the thing about Peter. He couldn’t stop his mouth, even when it blurted out secrets he didn’t want anybody else to know. We all had a joke: “If you want everybody to know something, whisper it to Peter, and tell him it’s a secret.”

But Peter didn’t say anything this time- he didn’t answer back. He was staring out to sea."What’s that??” he said.

Everybody turned to look. It was hard to see—it was very dark now, but it looked as though there was someone out there, quite close to the boat, standing still as if there was a rock just below the surface of the water, standing quite still even though the waves were going up and down. The figure started to walk, and seemed to be going past the boat—not slowed down by the wind or the waves, just walking calmly along as if it was a sunny afternoon.

It looked...it looked a little bit like Jesus.

Peter was crouching down now, hands over his face. But Matthew stared out at the figure and called out, “Jesus, is that you?”

“Of course it is!” said Jesus.

When he heard his voice, Peter looked up, shot a glance at Matthew, as if to say, “Don't you dare say I'm scared.”

“Jesus, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water!” he shouted.

We gasped. All of us. Even though Peter was stupid, unthinking sometimes, this was taking recklessness to a whole new level.

James called out “Peter, don’t be stu -”

But Jesus interrupted him – hand held out, he said “Yes, come.” He was walking half sideways, half backwards now, to keep pace with our boat which was drifting now, the oarsmen being too preoccupied to row. The waves splashed up and down his body, but in the half light I couldn’t see if they were making him wet.

We all held our breath as Peter lifted himself up over the edge of the boat (Matthew closed his eyes and leaned the opposite way, afraid that Peter’s bulk would capsize us). Peter put one foot, then the other, into (onto?) the water and stood up, rocking backwards and forwards like Matthew had earlier.

He glanced at Jesus, and a big grin formed on his face. A matching grin beamed back at him from Jesus. I suddenly realised – the last time I’d seen Jesus he’d been angry with us. Now – he just seemed to be having enormous fun.

But Peter couldn’t keep it up. He glanced down at the water, and breaking his eye contact with Jesus seemed to be fatal. He floundered, like a non-swimmer would, like Matthew would, and yelled “Save me Lubullubullub!” as his head disappeared under water. I saw Jesus darting forwards, bending over and straightening again with his arms under Peter’s shoulders. He grunted as one of Peter’s flailing arms caught him across the back of the head, and with a mighty heave lifted him back against the side of the boat, which lurched crazily, bringing squawks of alarm from Matthew and several others. As the boat lurched back again, Jesus bent down once more, shifted his grip to Peter’s waist and propelled him back into the boat, where he landed with a mixture of a splash and a thud in the middle of us all. A splud!

People scrambled backwards away from Peter, as he floundered to his hands and knees, half expecting him to shake himself like a dog. But he just crouched there, dripping, with his breath whistling in and out. Jesus swung a leg over the side of the boat, slapped Peter across the shoulders playfully and said, “Where’s your faith, big man?”

I looked round. Suddenly, the waves were dying down, the clouds overhead parted, and the moon peeped through.

A nervous laughter began somewhere in the boat, took hold and grew until we were all hoarse with hysterical relief.

What. An. Amazing. Day.