October 12, 2025 Scripture and sermon

Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a prayer. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. If we let the Lord’s Prayer guide us, our prayer lives will be transformed. 

 The Lord’s Prayer prompts us to pray for God’s own concerns. The first three requests we make in this prayer lift up God’s concerns: the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of God’s kingdom, and the doing of God’s will. With all three of these requests, we’re praying for God’s interests.

 Now, there is nothing wrong with praying for our own concerns too. Indeed, Jesus includes in this model prayer the petition, give us this day our daily bread, which we will take up next time. But that petition for our daily bread comes after these three petitions that revolve about God’s concerns. Praying the Lord’s Prayer transforms us because our concerns are lifted up in the light of God’s own concerns. 

 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. The dominant theme of Jesus’ preaching was the kingdom of God. He spoke about the kingdom more often than he spoke of anything else. 

 God’s kingdom is found wherever God reigns. It isn’t limited to a certain territory. It is found wherever God is recognized as God. Dallas Willard says, “The kingdom of God is the range of his effective will.”

 The kingdom is present now. It has come near in Jesus. It is established in the midst of this fallen world. God is recognized as God in the most unlikely places. However, the kingdom is present and it is also yet to come. The New Testament tells how God’s kingdom will one day come in its fullness, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

 When we pray, your kingdom come, we are asking for something to continue and at the same time we’re asking for something new. We want God’s kingdom to continue to grow. It’s here now, but we want it to expand. We want it to come more fully. We’re praying for that coming day, when it will come in completion.

 It’s also a prayer for the continuation of what is already happening. God’s kingdom has established a foothold in this world. There are people here who belong to God’s realm. This, then, is a prayer for the expansion of that realm. It is a prayer for the growth of the church. John Calvin says, “We must daily desire that God gather churches unto himself from all parts of the earth.” To say, your kingdom come is to ask God to bring more people into the kingdom. When we pray for the well-being of the church where it is persecuted, we’re praying for God’s kingdom to come. When we pray for the gospel of Jesus Christ to reach those who have never heard it, we’re praying for the kingdom to come.   

 But when we sincerely pray for the kingdom to come, we have to include ourselves. We ask that the kingdom would come in our own lives. We ask that we would be people who seek the kingdom with our whole hearts. Making this petition our own can’t help but change us. We’re committing ourselves to be part of the kingdom, to be willing subjects. 

 The third petition of this prayer is very closely related. We ask the Lord, your will be done. In God’s kingdom, God’s will is done. But there is an addition, an addition that pertains to all of these petitions: on earth as it is in heaven. God’s name is hallowed in heaven, as the heavenly host continually sings praise. God’s kingdom is present in its fullness in heaven. And God’s will alone is done in heaven. But when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we’re saying, “that’s not good enough!” We won’t settle for God’s will to be done in heaven only. We want God’s will to be done on earth, too. 

 We know from reading the Bible that God cares about what happens in this world. God cares about justice for the oppressed. God cares about human dignity. God cares about children who are not protected. When we pray, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, we’re aligning ourselves with God’s concerns. 

 Your will be done is a passionate prayer for God to act. It is anything but passively resigning yourself to the way things are. P.T. Forsyth writes, “‘Thy will be done’ was no utterance of mere resignation ... we actively will God’s will and aid it ... it is our heart’s passion that God’s will be done and His kingdom come” (The Soul of Prayer, pp. 83-4). 

 There is much going on today that is not the will of God. We pray against that. David Wells calls prayer “rebelling against the status quo.” It is “rebellion against the world in its fallenness, the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal” (“Prayer: Rebelling Against the Status Quo,” Christianity Today, Nov. 2, 1979, p. 33). When we pray, your will be done, we are not giving in to what will happen anyway. We are passionately laying hold of God’s great purpose, and asking that it be done here and now.

 This first section of the Lord’s Prayer, these three petitions about God’s concerns, will transform our praying. Our prayers will be more expansive as we pray about God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. We will still pray for our daily bread and all sorts of things that concern us. But our own concerns are brought out into the open country, now part of something much larger. For instance, we pray for the sick. Prayers at prayer meetings and worship services are always offered for health concerns, and rightly so. But the first half of the Lord’s Prayer would have us bathe our health concerns in our commitment to God’s kingdom. We’ll pray for a sick person to get well, for the sake of that person, but also as a sign of the coming kingdom. This larger concern makes our prayers more bold and passionate.

 Praying about God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will changes us. To pray the Lord’s Prayer sincerely is to reorient one’s whole life! It’s like opening the windows wide and letting the sun shine in. Let’s make this prayer our own!

 Lord, teach us to pray. This is what Jesus’ disciples asked him to do for them. They had observed his life. They saw that his life was above all a life of prayer. They wanted their own lives to be like his, so they asked him, Lord, teach us to pray.

 If we could speak directly to Jesus, and be sure of being heard, maybe this is what we would say. Lord, teach us to pray. Of all the things we do each day, perhaps the most important of all is prayer. 

 Few of us feel competent in prayer. I don’t know what to say when I pray. I don’t know how to get started. When I pray, my mind wanders. We’re not where we want to be. So we too ask Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray.

 When you pray, pray like this. Jesus gave his first disciples a model prayer. He did not say, pray these words, as though the only fitting prayer would be confined to a certain formula. Pray like this opens the door. It is a model we can use to fashion your own prayer life. The model prayer he gave them, and us, gives direction to all of our praying. 

 Jesus’ followers remembered the model prayer he gave them, which we call the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is short. It consists of an address to God and seven petitions. 

 Apart from the opening address, the Lord’s Prayer is nothing but petition, asking God for things. Sometimes people feel uncomfortable about asking God for something. God has a whole universe to run. How could God have time for my desires? Well, here in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus authorizes us to ask God for what we want. The seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer give us a direction in the kinds of things it is good to ask for. In our conversations with each other, we ask things all the time. We ask for information, we ask for understanding, we ask for favors. In our conversation with God, it is fitting that we ask things of God. 

 Let’s consider the Lord’s Prayer, and see what direction we can find for our prayer.

 The Lord’s Prayer begins with an address: Our Father in heaven. In prayer, it is good to begin with a clear sense of who you’re addressing. When we say, our Father in heaven, we’re taken outside ourselves. Our focus becomes, not only ourselves, but God. 

 One benefit of beginning in prayer with an address like this is that we realize that there is One who hears us. This is important. When we pray, there is One who listens. The Scriptures go even further, and say that God not only hears us, but prompts us to pray in the first place. Knowing that we are addressing God is good because it combats a common tendency, which is to think that prayer is no more than talking to ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with talking to yourself, but prayer is more than that. Prayer is addressing a God who is there, really there. 

 Prayer is addressing a God who is there, who waits for us to call, who is actively concerned about us, who is our heavenly Father. Addressing God, as the Lord’s Prayer encourages us to do, reminds us that prayer is communion with God. It is more than talking to yourself. Prayer takes us beyond ourselves to a relationship with God. 

 Jesus, in this model prayer, has us begin by recognizing that we are speaking to our Father in heaven. Jesus’ own prayer was striking to those who were near him because he addressed God with the intimate word, Abba, which is what a young child would call his or her father. It’s baby talk! It’s like calling God “Daddy.” It’s speaking to God in an intimate, familiar way. 

 Now Jesus is saying to his disciples that we can address God in the same way. Because we know Jesus, his Father is now our Father. We have a relationship to God through Jesus. Now we are permitted and encouraged to speak to God as our Father. 

 The word our may not seem too significant, but it reminds us of something very  important. No prayer of ours is purely private prayer. Whenever we speak to God, it is to our Father. We speak as a member of a community. God isn’t only my Father, or yours. Even when we are praying alone, we pray as part of a people for whom God is our heavenly Father. Whenever we pray, it is a part of the prayer of the whole people of God.

 Our Father in heaven brings together both God’s intimacy and God’s greatness. We speak to God as beloved children. We approach God through Jesus, the Son of God, who invites us to pray as sons and daughters. Prayer is a relationship. Prayer is communion with God.

 Knowing that we are speaking to God our Father, we ask God for what we desire. The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is Hallowed be your name. It is literally, “may your name be made holy” or “treated as holy.” 

 In the Bible, a name is more than the particular word that identifies you. The name is the person so designated. God’s name, then, speaks of God’s character and God’s reputation. In the Scriptures, there is great concern about God’s reputation in the world. 

 The first petition, then, is for us to ask that God’s reputation will be accurate, that people will know who God really is. We’re asking that God’s name will not be dragged through the mud, but will be lifted up. We pray that people will recognize God as God. 

 There is a principle of prayer that is worth mentioning. When we ask God for something, we’re often called upon to be part of the answer to our own prayer. It’s like God saying, “That sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you do something about it?” When we say, Hallowed be your name, we’re asked to hallow God’s name in our own lives. To pray like this means that we don’t want to dishonor God by faithless and disobedient lives. It means that, instead, we want God’s name to be lifted up through our words and deeds. In so doing, we will be part of the answer to our prayer.

 Today, we’ve begun to ponder the Lord’s Prayer. There is much more that we will be examining in the weeks ahead. Here is a summary of what we have seen so far:

 In this model prayer, Jesus gives us a direction to guide us in all of our praying.

 Prayer is more than talking to ourselves. It is addressing a God who is really there.

 We pray in a relationship we have with God through Jesus, as God’s own beloved children.

 In our praying, it’s good to recall who God is, our Father in heaven.

 Let’s seek in the coming to make God’s own name and glory our prayer.

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From recent Sundays at Westminster: 

Scripture and sermon from September 28, 2025

Exodus 20:17 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Philippians 4:10-13 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

This tenth commandment is a strange one!

Coveting is something you can’t detect.

Is your neighbor coveting or not? Hard to tell.  

There is nothing like a smoke detector that alerts you to fire.

There is no loud siren that will get your attention.

Besides, coveting is not the sort of thing that lands you in jail.

It’s not like murder or stealing, even false witness.

In a courtroom, perjury can get you into big trouble.

Coveting, since it’s no crime, doesn’t seem to be as serious as the others.

So let’s be done with it! Let’s take out the scissors!

Then we’ll have nine commandments, which will be easier to handle than the traditional ten!

However, before we make that move, I wonder if we can look at it from another angle.

Granted, some of the other commandments are fences that protect my neighbor.

No murder. That’s a fence around my neighbor’s life.

No stealing. That’s a fence around my neighbor’s belongings.

No false witness. That’s a fence around my neighbor’s reputation.

Then at the end, we have this one, No coveting.

This one breaks the pattern.

Where is the harm?

Will my neighbor even be aware that I covet his hat, or his sports car?

Maybe, maybe not.

Coveting seems to be so subtle, so hard to spot.

If you insist on calling it a sin, you may want to call it the hidden sin.

But before we delete this one from the list of ten, consider this.

Perhaps it too is a fence, as the others are, but in this case, it’s not a fence around my neighbor but a fence around me.

I am thinking that coveting may or may not harm my neighbor, but for sure, it harms the one who covets. 

What if the prohibition of coveting is designed to protect us from ourselves? 

It’s a lot like one of the famous seven deadly sins, envy. 

Envy is different from the other deadly sins because you don’t even enjoy it.

When you are envious, you are definitely not happy!

Likewise, when we covet things that are in the possession of another person, it’s more likely to make us miserable rather than happy.

What if the tenth commandment is given to protect us from self-harm?

Now you may wonder if I’m going too far.

What’s wrong with a little bit of coveting?

If I like my neighbor’s hat or my neighbor’s sports car enough, maybe I’ll go get a job and work hard so that I can have something even better.

Perhaps coveting is actually good for the economy.

In that case, the clever schemes that advertisers are paid to create so that we will want more and more aren’t so bad.

If they succeed in activating our tendency to covet what we don’t have, then we’ll be more anxious, enough to get us to spend and consume more and more, so that coveting will be our constant way of life.

I would like to counter that way of thinking by noting that No coveting is the tenth of the ten words that the Lord spoke to the people.

This word has its rightful home among the other nine.

It may be listed tenth in the series for a reason.

It circles back to the concern of the first one, which is what is most important in your life.

Of all the possibilities out there, what or who is worthy of your ultimate loyalty?

The first commandment is clear that the Lord alone is the rightful center of our lives.

Could it be that the tenth word is a fence designed to protect me from allowing anything else to become first in my life?

No coveting is, I believe, actually given to us for our own good.

When our desire for something that is not ours grows and grows, we can no longer render worship and loyalty to the God who has created us and redeemed us.

I’m saying, then, that coveting is not a victimless crime.

When coveting what is not ours becomes our way of life, we are ourselves the victim.

If you agree with me that, all things considered, the tenth commandment should be retained, then you would raise this question.

If coveting is out, what is in?

Is there a positive alternative that is actually good for us, something that will enable us to live by the first commandment, which is to worship God alone?

The Bible is relentless in commending another way of life, the very opposite of coveting.

This is called contentment.

We combat the harmful effects of the never-ending trap of coveting, not by gritting our teeth as though we could fight it out, but by taking up a countermeasure, which is far more powerful.

This is to be content.

In Jesus Christ, we can be content, not eaten up by coveting things we don’t have.

The positive alternative to coveting is to know God as the true provider of what we need. If the root of coveting is discontent, then the alternative is contentment. 

I can think of no greater witness to contentment than the apostle Paul. He writes from prison, where he is being held unjustly. What a situation for discontent, for questioning and complaining! But what does he say? I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Christ strengthens him. Paul is not eaten up from within because he knows Christ.

Of course, Paul would rather be out of jail. He would prefer freedom. But at this point in his life, he isn’t free. His circumstances are less than ideal, to say the least! But in less than ideal circumstances, with unfulfilled desires, he can say, I am content. To be content is not living without desires. Paul had extremely strong desires. Contentment is not the absence of desire, nor is it a lack of goals in life. Contentment is the ability to live thankfully even with unfulfilled desires. Coveting is the opposite. Coveting is complaining about what we don’t have.

In this life, we have many desires. Some are fulfilled, some are not. 

To be human is to have desires. We all have many desires. The things of this world are good. God has created a world with many pleasures. These are good in their place. The danger is that we would put our ultimate trust in the things of this world, that we would ask them to satisfy us at the deepest level. When we do that, we are putting them in the place of God. 

The things of this world are good in their rightful place. But if we expect them to give us complete satisfaction and happiness, we will be greatly disappointed. Sometimes people say, If I could have that hat, or that new sports car, my life would be perfect. Then they get it, whatever it is, and after a while discover that life still has its share of problems. Houses, cars, promotions, and new relationships are good things, but none of them can take the place of God.

So the way to stop coveting is to receive good things from the hand of God. We know the goodness of the Lord, even while we’re living with unfulfilled desires. We will not look for the things of this world to take the place of God.

So this strange tenth commandment, which seems so trivial compared to the others, is actually an invitation to do what is most important, to find our contentment in God who loves us. Let’s rediscover what Paul discovered long ago, when he said, I have learned to be content with whatever I have. … I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

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Scripture and sermon from September 14, 2025

Exodus 20:15 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

You shall not steal.

Luke 19:1-10 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

It is a terrible thing to have something stolen. You feel vulnerable and angry, because someone has trespassed. When something is stolen, it isn’t just your stuff that is taken. In a strange way, it’s a piece of yourself that is gone.

The eighth commandment is a boundary around our neighbor. This boundary also includes the things that belong to the neighbor. Those material belongings that are your neighbor’s are on the other side of the fence that you are not to climb. 

There is nothing that breaks down community faster than theft. Israel was given the eighth commandment for the health of the community. It is a boundary that says hands off! to any would-be thief. The property you’re thinking of taking for yourself isn’t yours to take. If you take it, you’re taking a piece of your neighbor, a fellow member of the community. 

But the eighth commandment is actually more than a prohibition. It’s also a promise of a different kind of life. Imagine what life would be like if everyone honored this commandment! We’re a long way from that today. Theft is an all-too-common part of life. Worse yet, there is a little bit of thief in each of us. There is something in us that is drawn to the prospect of getting something for nothing. The eighth commandment says plainly, no stealing. This would include stealing that shows up in crime statistics. But there are other, less obvious forms of stealing. 

The root of theft is the human heart. And who can change that? Police and prisons can arrest and restrain thieves, but who can change hearts? 

Consider the story of a thief whose heart was changed. This was a real thief, even though everything he did was technically legal. But anyone who knew anything about the way things worked knew that this man, Zacchaeus, was a thief. He stole legally, but it was still stealing. He was a tax collector, a chief tax collector. He had gotten rich by charging high commissions from his own people. If he were here today, he would have a spectacular house on a large estate, encircled by a high fence.

Then Jesus came into his life. Jesus invited himself over to the house of this unhappy rich man. Meeting Jesus changed everything for Zacchaeus. Jesus didn’t even have to tell him what to do. Zacchaeus suddenly realized that it was time for a total change of life. He gave away half of his net worth to the poor. Then he resolved to pay back those he had defrauded four times the amount he had stolen from them. The law didn’t require him to do this. Zacchaeus went far beyond what the law called for in his desire to make things right. Jesus says, Today salvation has come to this house. Salvation took concrete shape in the life of a thief whose heart and actions were changed.

Zacchaeus was transformed. He shifted from stealing from others to giving generously. That is the difference that Jesus makes. Not only does he make us want to stop stealing, legally or illegally, he creates a new desire in us to give generously. The alternative to stealing is generosity. Zacchaeus shows us that when we meet Jesus, we don’t just stop taking other people’s stuff, we start making contributions to them.

The eighth commandment could be summed up this way: don’t take what belongs to others, but build others up by contributing to them. There are many ways to give, just as there are many ways to steal. We can give money to others as Zacchaeus did. But we have more to give besides money. We can give our time. This may be even harder than giving money. We can share certain skills with other people. We can give attention to people who are hurting. Active listening is a form of giving yourself to another person. 

The eighth commandment is a call to build up others, to contribute to their lives. Instead of always asking, how can I get something for nothing?, we ask, how can I contribute something good to my neighbor? That’s the difference Jesus makes.

Zacchaeus let Jesus come over to his 

house, and nothing was ever the same. Give Jesus half a chance, and he’ll change your life. He’ll change everything, including our relationship to money. There is a bit of the thief in all of us. Thus, we have a hard time letting go of money. Money can be a source of anxiety and bondage. Let Jesus come in, and you’ll change. You’ll move from greed to generosity. It may not be a change as dramatic as it was for Zacchaeus. There may be a lot of back and forth between greed and generosity. But if you give him a chance, Jesus will change your heart. The eighth commandment is not only a boundary around our neighbor’s belongings. It is a call to share what we have with a glad and generous heart.

Zacchaeus gave generously after he was touched by Jesus. His giving was marked by great joy. We belong to Jesus. We give with gratitude for all we have received from him. This is how we keep the eighth commandment.

The eighth commandment is a boundary given by God: no stealing. It is a word for us as much as it was a word for ancient Israel. But the really good news today is that Jesus Christ can do for us what he did for Zacchaeus. He can change our hearts. Now we can keep the eighth commandment, no longer grasping and stealing, but giving and sharing. 

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Scripture and sermon from August 31, 2025

Exodus 20:13 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

You shall not murder. 

Matthew 5:21-26 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment, and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council, and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” 

No murder.

In this commandment, God is placing a fence around my neighbor.

Don’t climb over that fence! No trespassing!

My neighbor’s life is protected by this commandment. 

Don’t murder. 

End of discussion.

Along comes Jesus. He takes this commandment and intensifies it. 

He says that you shall not murder prohibits more than what people do with guns and knives. 

The commandment, according to Jesus, also prohibits destructive anger against my neighbor. 

It is a boundary that stops me even from insulting the other person with some choice words. 

Calling somebody idiot or jerk is, according to Jesus, a form of murder. 

Maybe it’s true that words can kill. 

Jesus intensifies the commandment in a way that makes us wonder about ourselves. 

He gets at the anger and hatred that are the root of actually murdering another person. The anger and hatred that sometimes erupt in violence can be found in every human heart. 

The commandment, then, speaks to any form of destroying another person. 

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “if looks could kill.” 

Well, looks do kill! 

A nasty glare sometimes does quite nicely in reducing the esteem of the person you want to harm. 

But words are even more useful. 

Our words wound deeply. 

A word of malice can devastate, and leave scars for life. 

Some of us have been hurt deeply by murderous words spoken years ago. 

Slanderous words can destroy the reputation of another person. 

If we follow Jesus’ logic, then slander is also a form of murder.  

In the sixth commandment, God builds a fence around my neighbor, and says, “Don’t climb over that fence! No trespassing!” 

Let’s go deeper. 

The solid foundation for this commandment is that human life belongs to God. 

The fence around my neighbor has been placed there by God. 

God says, “this person belongs to me.” 

Thus, I am not given the right to number my neighbor’s days. 

None of us has the authority to take another’s life. 

God is saying, you belong to me, and no one has the right to destroy what is mine. 

This means that the commandment pertains even to a neighbor of ours who is disagreeable. 

Even if our neighbor is anything but neighborly, God still says, “hands off!” 

It’s not for us to destroy another, by deeds or by words, even dirty looks. 

The reason is not that our neighbors are such wonderful people, but because all human life belongs to God. 

God is the Lord of all life: the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

This is the foundation for the sixth commandment. 

So far, I’ve been speaking of the sixth commandment as a prohibition. 

It prohibits us from destroying the lives of other people. 

But if we don’t destroy life, what are we to do?

Jesus offers a positive alternative to murder when he speaks about reconciling with your accuser. 

Reconciliation is a way of doing the opposite of murdering your neighbor. 

It is not just doing no harm, it is doing actual good. 

In light of Jesus’ teaching, we must say that the sixth commandment is a call for us to respect human life, to affirm life, and to protect it. 

The Scriptures are full of calls to love those around us, and to look out for those who are in trouble. 

The call is clear enough, but figuring out what that means in practice can be extremely difficult.

The most difficult issues we’re facing today are the issues of life and death. 

What about capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, use of embryos, when to stop medical treatment, war, and self-defense?

We would like the sixth commandment to simplify everything, to straighten out all of these complex issues that we face today. 

The sixth commandment does not solve all of our problems, but it is a witness. 

It is a powerful witness to God, to whom we belong in life and in death. 

The commandment forces us to take all human life seriously. 

It keeps us from being casual about human life in any of the areas I have mentioned. 

The commandment is a witness, and it is a starting point for us as we approach these exceptional cases. 

Whatever we conclude, we have to listen to the sixth commandment, with its stark “No trespassing!” sign, telling us, “no murder.” 

The commandment will always be a starting point, and a powerful witness, for followers of Jesus.

But most of the time we aren’t dealing with those complicated questions around the beginning and the ending of human life. 

Most of the time, our lives are fairly ordinary. 

The real force of the sixth commandment is what it means for our ordinary days. 

If this commandment gets inside of us, it will shape the way we treat those who cross our path every day of the week. 

Ordinary days, yes. But no ordinary people. 

This is what C.S. Lewis tells us: There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

We Christians agree that there are no ordinary people. 

Only those for whom Christ died. 

Only those created in God’s image. 

Only those who belong to God in life and in death. 

We all belong to God. 

For this reason, we have this commandment, “you shall not murder.” 

And for this reason we will respect, protect, and affirm human life.

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Scripture and sermon for Sunday, August 17, 2025

Exodus 20:8-11 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

Mark 2:23-28 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

One Sabbath he [Jesus] was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, 26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?”27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not.

After being told what not to do, it’s great to come to something positive!

Here is a welcome word: Take a load off. Rest!

It sounds so good.

So good, and yet so hard to live out!

One reason that so many words are devoted to the fourth commandment is that the people couldn’t do it.

Neither can we.

A rhythm of work and rest is so inviting and so impossible.

When I was a freshman in college, I was overwhelmed with work.

I hated the thought of failure, so I went at it seven days a week. 

Two students who were a couple of years ahead of me took it upon themselves to confront me.

They had the nerve to tell me that the commandment to remember the Sabbath was still in effect, even for college students.

They reasoned with me, telling me that I could actually get more done in six days than in seven.

While I resisted their interference for a while, I now know that they were giving me a gift.

It changed my life.

I still fall short, but from that point on, I have been convinced of the importance of having a rhythm of work and rest.

One day in seven, you cease and desist.

Eugene Peterson says that the Sabbath day to do two things: pray and play. 

Israel had a hard time with this one.

So do we.

I think that the deep reason is that we don’t really believe in God! 

We think that, without our help, the world will fall apart. 

It’s hard for us to accept the reality that God can keep the world going for a whole day when I’m not contributing anything. 

I know retired people who say that every day is the same. 

There is no such thing as a weekend because every day is a weekend.

However, being retired is no different from being on the payroll in our human need for a rhythm of work and rest.

People who no longer receive a W-2 form at the end of the year are still invited to join God in the great work of restoring this broken world, so that all things will be united in Christ.

Finding the particular way to do that can be very tricky, so that a lot of people flounder when one season of life ends and another begins.

But whatever the season, you need that rhythm. 

The wording of the commandment is daring because it suggests that even God needed a rest after creating the heavens and the earth.

I don’t think it’s teaching us that God actually sleeps.

That’s a frightening thought!

Rather, it’s telling us that we’re all hard-wired to need that rhythm of work and rest.

Ancient Israel had a hard time keeping that rhythm.

There’s always work to do.

Plus, we’re accustomed to work at everything.

Jesus got into trouble because his opponents thought he was playing fast and loose with the Sabbath commandment. 

Were they right about that?

Whether or not you agree with Jesus’ critics, you can’t help but admire the way that he reframes the whole thing.

This Sabbath commandment, he says, is for our good.

We don’t exist for the sake of the commandment. 
It’s the other way around.

It’s given to us so that we can flourish.

I can’t claim to be living up to what those two older students were setting before me when I was a freshman.

All too often, I have the sense that my work keeps the world going.

But I am thoroughly convinced that God is still on the job, that salvation is a gift of grace, and that we thrive when we maintain a life that includes both work and rest.

Work has an important place in our lives.

All of us can serve in some way, whatever our age, whatever our financial stake.

All of us need to cease and desist from that work on a regular basis, one day in seven.

The free life that the ten words are calling us to live is a life with a rhythm of work and rest.

That’s what Sabbath is all about.

Again, Eugene Peterson taught that there are two things we do on the Sabbath.

We pray and we play!

There are any number of ways to pray and to play.

We have to know ourselves so that we can pray and play in ways that will do us good.

But because we have a God who loves us, who has saved us and who wants us to thrive, we are free to set aside one day in seven to cease and desist from our ordinary work.

Let’s welcome and live out this fourth commandment, challenging as it was and is to practice, because it has been given to us a a gift of God.

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Scripture and sermon from July 20, 2025

Proverbs 15:1-5, 18, 23 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

A soft answer turns away wrath,
    but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
    but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
    keeping watch on the evil and the good.
A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
    but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
A fool despises a parent’s instruction,
    but the one who heeds admonition is prudent.

Those who are hot-tempered stir up strife,
    but those who are slow to anger calm contention.

To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone,
    and a word in season, how good it is!

Ephesians 4:1-6, 25-32 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: 4 there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up,[b] as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

We have a problem.

In this country of ours, which we love, we have a problem, a big problem.

We now have trouble talking with each other and working together when we don’t see things the same way.

Having different views on important matters is not new at all.

We have had rival political parties for a long time.

But something has changed.

Members of political parties now see the people on the other side of the aisle not only as different, not only as mistaken on consequential matters, but as evil.

A Christian woman from Texas named Elizabeth Neumann has been studying these matters since she worked at the White House in the Department of Homeland Security.

Her focus was terrorism, domestic terrorism. 

She has found lately that the very things that make hate groups so dangerous are now widespread in the general population.

Our rivals don’t merely see things differently. 

It’s common for us to believe that they are actually evil people who must be stopped.

Survey results that Elizabeth Neumann discusses are alarming because they reveal that an increasing number of us are even willing to entertain the use of violence as a viable strategy.

She and others who are studying these trends are worried that political violence, which we can already see taking place, may well increase.

Like a lot of observers, I’m concerned about the future of the nation. 

But especially troubling to me is the way that people who identify as Christian are not exempt from engaging in these same behaviors.

A Christianity Today article in the May/June 2025 issue is called “A Splintered Generation.”

The authors, Skyler Flowers and Michael Graham, are sounding the alarm. 

They call attention to the way that church people interact in person and on social media.

They observe that even when we have the same position on a matter, we may have differing postures. 

It’s not only what we believe that shapes our common life, but how we arrive at that belief and how we embody it. 

Their article shows how the very problems that we see in our nation are also playing out in the Christian community.

We Christians are, these authors claim, splintered.

So I believe that we have a serious problem in our nation and in the Christian community.

I also believe that there is help at hand.

Our Christian faith provides resources that will help us find our way.

I’ve been happy to find people like Elizabeth Neumann and many others who have been wrestling with these difficult matters.

We’re blessed to have a number of wise Christian mentors.

We’ve even more blessed to have the Word of God.

Though the biblical writers don’t speak directly about partisan politics in the 21st century, they have plenty to say about how people who know the Lord are called to live.

I want to draw on a couple of different biblical writings that can provide us with wisdom for our time and place.

Scripture has plenty to say about what ails us.

We have in the book of Proverbs insight and counsel for many realms of life.

Some of the proverbs are insightful and relevant for our use of words.

They seem especially fitting for our in-person conversations and for online conversations as well.  

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

It’s not only what we say that matters, but how we say it.

The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Words are powerful, which is both good news and bad news.

Those who are hot-tempered stir up strife, but those who are slow to anger calm contention.

One peaceful person can have a massive impact.

These sayings are so true-to-life that you wonder if the biblical author has been reading our social media posts!

Lest we come away discouraged and cynical about our use and misuse of words, we have a proverb that is especially encouraging and hopeful.

To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone, and a word in season, how good it is! 

Wouldn’t it be great if Christians were known as people who who regularly says what needs to be said? 

These proverbs about our words are common sense observations on the way that life works.

Our words, both spoken and written, both i