It seemed the most natural thing to me that our reflections together on the ten commandments

that we started last week should actually take up ten podcasts and spill over into

this second week. They are, after all, meant to be the Christian's friends, not his enemies.

They're like guards posted around our life to keep us safe and faithful. And so it's

worth lingering over them and reflecting on them one by one. And today we've come to

commandment number six. We're not to murder.

I remember my mum and dad taking me to the famous Cecil B. Demille movie, The Ten Commandments.

Charlton, Heston, Magnificent, 80-year-old Moses. I think it was only eight at the time,

but the voice of God booming down on Mount Sinai actually held no surprises for me because

I'd been made to learn the ten words off by heart long before then. And I suppose someone

thought I needed to be kept in order. But if you were anything like me and had to learn

the ten commandments when you were young, you'd probably shared my relief when you got

to number six. You might not have loved God with all your heart and soul and strength.

And you'd probably sometimes not fully obeyed your parents. But at least with number six,

you could relax and say with the rich young ruler, this commandment I have kept from

my childhood upwards. But now we know better, don't we? And perhaps for the same reason,

after memorising the ten commandments, perhaps you were moved on to memorising the Salmon

on the Mount. And if so, you might remember the sinking feeling when you learned that you

can murder with your mouth as well as with a machine gun. And you can lacerate with a look

as well as with a knife. And you can kill with a computer keyboard as well as with a blunt

instrument. That's what Jesus said, this commandment really meant. And of course, when we realise

this, we begin to see that the ten commandments have all got an inside as well as an outside.

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