Sermon Blog

A fourth-grade Sunday school teacher once shared a concern with the pastor.   He had just completed a quarter’s lessons on the Ten Commandments.   The teacher had asked the kids, “What’s the hardest Commandment for you to keep?”   Most of the kids then responded, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” The pastor and the teacher, along with most of the adults in the church couldn’t understand why fourth graders would find that command a problem.   That is, until one of the mom’s quizzed her son on what he thought committing adultery meant. The boy was quick to answer.   That’s easy mom, it means, “Thou shall not sass back to adults.” If only that was what adultery meant.   That would make this sermon so much easier, because we would just refer back to “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.”   However, since it is not about sassing back to adults, or cutting down adult trees, as another young persons suggested, we must move forward. In today’s world, you get one ...

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six years old.   After explaining the commandment to “honor thy father and thy mother,” she asked “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, “Thou shall not kill.” We are in the sixth week of our ten week journey through God’s ten words of community design.   We continue to look at how what we traditionally call the Ten Commandments are less about ten rigid rules that God wants us to follow simply because He said so, and more of God’s words giving us direction for what it means to live successfully into His rich, sustaining, life-giving community.   We considered the first four that are traditionally associated directly with how we view and consider God.   Last week we considered how the word to “honor our father and mother,” is a complex word that ties the divine to humanity, tying together how we honor o...

The last Sunday in July we began a journey through God’s Words of Community Design.   We took a break from this journey through the month of September with all the wondrous goings on of our outdoor service, 9/11 remembrance, homecoming, and youth Sunday.   Today, we resume that journey.   Let’s begin by reflecting back on what we have covered. To begin with, what are God’s Words of Community Design?   We more often refer to them as the Ten Commandments.   The word we translate as commandment, the Hebrew word dâbâr ( daw-baw’ ), literally translates, “word” or “saying,” so we could more accurately describe these not simply as the Ten Commandments, but God’s Words or God’s Sayings, as he called the Hebrew people into a relationship with Himself and with one another.   God offered these Ten Words as a description of what it means to live in His Community. Just to help us remember or to catch us up, this is what we considered with the first four words: God’s Fi...