Sermon Tone Analysis
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*/#6 Today, God says, “Respect Human Life.”/*
/ “And God spoke all these words: //“You shall not murder.////
Exodus 20.1, 13/
What does it mean to be ‘pro-life”?
IS it simply a stance on issues around pregnancy?
Not according to the Bible.
To be pro-life, to reject murder has far-reaching implications that Jesus himself shares with us.
But like the rest of these commandments, how is ‘you shall not murder’ to be acted on positively in a world still marked by brokenness, racism, prejudice, fear and violence?
Focus
– The commandment calls for love between people so that life will be honoured.
Function
– The challenge will be for the hearer to recognize how love transforms and how participating in murderous ways, everything from attitudes to violent action, deforms the human person.
*Message*
* *
*Drama – */A Nice Guy/
/ /
/“And God spoke all these words: //“You shall not murder.////
Exodus 20.1, 13/
Murder.
A harsh word.
We hear it and read about it.
We watch it almost daily if we view television or movies.
And generally the reaction is – that’s wrong.
Murder is awful.
Murder is violence unleashed often in pathetically self-centered ways.
People brutalized for what?
Money, jealousy, hate.
And then we watch a drama that uses the word murder, yes murder for bullying.
And is it just possible that our indignation now moves to a different thought.
Bullying?
Seriously!
Let the kids figure it out, boys will be boys.
Girls are just like that.
Who was bullied in school?
Statistics say that many of us were.
And who knows in their heart that they were the bully?
And somewhere between outright killing and bullying lay a whole number of other ways that humans degrade – kill – each other.
How about racism, gender inequality and gay bashing?
How about verbal abuse and emotional abuse?
The list is too long.
There are just too many ways we hurt each other and it costs all of us something.
Murder robs a person of life.
Murder robs a community of dignity.
And murder, you shall not murder is a far more comprehensive commandment than we may think or care to admit.
And it is a commandment that wants to answer the violence with a solution.
In the movie Iron Man, one of the characters says to the effect that the only way to preserve peace is to have a bigger stick than the enemy.
Sound familiar?
That seems to be our way.
Violence to control violence.
The commandment points to another way.
A better way.
*In the sixth commandment, God is intrusting us to cherish, preserve and protect life.*
Let’s see how that works.
We’re going to look closely at the text and the surrounding context to see why God gave the command.
Then we’ll take a hard look at what God is asking us in the commandment and finally we’ll look at how we can keep the commandment and discover the promise God has for us.
1.
Why Did God Give The Commandment?
Simply put, God gave the commandment to impress on humanity the value of human life.
Back in the day, back when Israel received these words, life was cheap.
Slavery was their lot and life any other animal breeding program, the weak and injured were useless so they were left to beg or die.
The strong were valued as long as they were strong and let’s not forget the high value placed on women by the oppressor: breeding stock.
Just like a cow or sheep.
God says no.
Let my people go.
They are more valuable than that.
All people are.
Are they?
Has much changed in our world?
Thousands left to die in Myanmar, sex slaves in Thailand and imported into Canada?
They needed this command then and we still need it today.
In giving the command God says that human life is precious.
Incredibly valuable.
Looking back to Genesis 9 we hear his words to Noah and the rest of us:
Genesis 9.5-6 “And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being
6“Whoever sheds human blood,
by human beings shall their blood be shed
for in the image of God
has God made humankind“ (Genesis 1.27)
Human life is so precious that only human life is as precious.
There is no other way to compensate for loss of life.
And rather than being a brutal retaliation, God is saying respect life!
It costs too much to deface.
And notice too, the general nature of these words.
There is no distinction made between those who are worth and those who are not.
All life is precious.
Criminals and law abiding citizens alike.
No crime is so heinous that the person quits bearing God’s image.
No person is ever beyond God’s power to redeem.
How big is our God?
2 Peter 3.10 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
God loves life.
Only God has the ability to make life and only God has the authority to take life.
God gave the commandment so that humanity would remember that life is precious, to be cherished.
2 What is God Commanding us to do?
Again, very clearly, God expects us to cherish human life.
Let’s take a closer look at the text.
It’s only two words long and with grammar taken into account, literally means ‘you must not kill.’
Kill or murder?
Strictly translated the best choice is murder.
The word means slay, assassinate, murder.
So it includes what we call first degree murder, second degree murder and man slaughter.
And it would also include suicide, physician assisted suicide, abortion, active euthanasia but not war.
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