No apology

After a couple of drafts and one or two challenges and suggestions from friends, here's how I began my sermon on "You shall not murder" today:

(The real thing may have differed a bit from these notes. The whole sermon should appear on our church website this week d.v.)

I'm going to say some difficult and controversial things today.

I know that.

I don't mean to be nasty or to over simplify or generalise or exaggerate.

You might not agree with everything I say.

You may not always understand quite where I’m coming from or what I'm getting at sometimes.

That's okay.

I'm just trying to say what I reckon the Bible says or implies about some very important and very topical subjects.

Please do feel free to come and put me right at the end.

Or ask me any question.

And if you're a guest or a visitor, it’s not quite like this every week.

Why not come back another time and give us another go?!

So, my text today is this:

The 6^th of the 10 Commandments:

God said: "You shall not murder."

This is a very short command: “No murder” with very deep and wide ranging implications.

If there’s were time, I'd deal with war, capital punishment, abortion, suicide, euthanasia, assisted-suicide, self-harm, character assassinations, keep-fit, food, drink, drugs, health and safety and the environment and a few other things beside.

Many of us will have been personally affected by these things.

Perhaps you’re struggling with one of them at the moment.

I’m not trying to make your grief or trauma worse but to bring God’s loving, holy word to bare on some of the darkest places of life today.

If you’d like to talk or pray with someone about any of the issues raised today, we can arrange that: come and have a word with me, or the vicar, or our pastoral worker.