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 6.

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, a magnificent 80-year-old Moses.

I think I 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 memorizing the Ten Commandments,

perhaps you were moved on to memorizing the Sermon on the Mount.

And if so, you might remember the sinking feeling

when you learn that you can murder with your mouth as well as with a machine gun,

...