Keeping the Tenth Commandment by "Walking" in the Spirit


Last night I preached a sermon at Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York City on the Tenth Commandment closing out our summer series on the Ten Commandments. If you'd like to, you can purchase it here.

What follows is an abbreviated intro and the outline:


Intro
We may think that the Tenth Commandment is the least important of the Ten and/or it may be the one we least understand. We may think it's the least important because it's the last in the list of the Ten. So we think to ourselves, if it's the last in the list, then it must me the least important. But the Tenth Commandment may be the second most important simply because it is the tenth; simply because it one of the bookends of the Ten.

But also, it may be the one we least understand because we've become completely desensitized to its meaning. Think of all the synonyms for the word covet: desire, envy, crave, yearn. Every one of these words has a perfume named after it. So we have Desire by Dunhill; Envy by Gucci; Crave by Calvin Klein; and, Yearn by Victoria's Secret. Therefore, our culture has done a good job of desensitizing us to its meaning.

So, let's figure out what this commandment means by looking at it under three headings. Let's look at:

1. What It Is (let's define it)
2. What It Leads To
3. How It Can Be Kept

PROLEGOMENA: Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Sunday, August 12, 2007


This past Tuesday, in the Op-Ed Section of the New York Times, David Brooks had a column that spoke about the significance of names entitled, “Goodbye, George and John.” Now, while the article was a little tongue-in-cheek, Brooks tried to point out the fact that a person’s name can really matter and define who they are. And in the humor of David Brooks, he says that’s why he named his two children President and Hedge Fund Manager, respectively. But despite the humor, I think Brooks is onto something. Yet, I don’t think Brooks is on to anything new.

You see, in the opening chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we read this, “Mary will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

You see, the God we come to worship this morning; the God we come to sing praises to, has always understood the significance of a name. And the Apostle Paul makes that clear in his letter to the Philippians when he says, “That now, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So, are you ready to worship the One this morning whose name stands above every other name? Welcome to worship!

PROLEGOMENA: Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Sunday, August 5, 2007


This past Thursday, on the front page of Metro Section of the New York Times, there was an article entitled: "When a Mayor Plays Just Another Straphanger.” And the article spoke about one way that NYC mayors have attempted to rub elbows with their constituency over the years and paint themselves as “regular guys.” And the way that most mayors have chosen to do this (according to the article) is by using the subway system from time to time--because to ride the subway is to do something that every New York does. It’s a way of condescending; a way of stepping into the shoes of the average New Yorker. In other words, it’s a way of becoming…one of us.

And that’s something like what the God we come to worship this morning has done.

You see, the God we come to worship this morning; the God we come to sing praises to, has lived in your shoes, has felt what you have felt, and has experienced all the ups-and-downs of this life the moment he became…one of us.

So, are you ready to worship the God who has become one of us this morning? Welcome to worship!

PROLEGOMENA: Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Sunday, July 29, 2007


For the past week I’ve been re-reading the memoir of Dalton Conley, the Chair of the sociology department at New York University (my alma mater). And in his memoir, Conley recounts the story of being a young white kid growing up on the Lower East Side in 1970s among the ethnic color in that neighborhood. And the gist of his memoir is, how he came to an understanding of race, class and (even) gender distinctions at a very early age. And at about one-third through his story he says this: “Race was not like something mutable, like a freckle or a hairstyle; it defined who looked like whom; who was allowed to be in the group--and who wasn’t.”

Now, Professor Conley’s realization is probably historically accurate for almost every group that has ever existed. That is, every group except for this group--the church.

Listen to Paul’s words from Galatians 3, “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither freeman nor slave; there is neither male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

You see, the God we come to worship this morning; the God we come to sing praises to, has made a way for all people everywhere to be in this group, the church, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, are you ready to worship this God this morning, the one who can be worshiped by everyone? Welcome to worship!

PROLEGOMENA: Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Sunday, July 15, 2007



Thirty years ago this week, on July 13, 1977, New Yorkers were able to equate two concepts that the ancients have equated for thousands of years. We were able to equate darkness with chaos. You see, on that hot and sticky night in July, the city experienced a blackout. And as a result of the darkness, there was mayhem. Neighborhood stores were looted; much of the city was vandalized; and, block after block of the city was set ablaze. Furthermore, this chaos continued until the power was restored late the next day when all the lights of the city went back on.

Now, the opening chapter of the Bible tells us something similar. It reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was chaotic and void while darkness covered the face of the deep… And then God said ‘let there be light.”’

Do you see what I’m getting at?

The God we come to worship this morning; the God we come to sing praises to, has ordered the chaos when his light broke through the darkness of the world. And that light (we’re told by the Apostle John) is none other than Jesus Christ himself.

So, are you ready to worship the light of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord? Welcome to worship.

PROLEGOMENA: Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Sunday, June 24, 2007


A few weeks ago, in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, there was an article that described how one man single-handedly changed the Lower East Side.

Now the Lower East Side when I was a kid was a neighborhood in steep decline. And the only reason you’d find yourself down there was to get a pastrami on rye from Katz’s Deli on Houston Street (pronounced House-ton; not pronounced like the city in Texas).

But Sion Mishrahi has found a way to breathe new life into that community. He has single-handedly restored the things that were once broken; he has brought beauty to a place where beauty was once hard to find; and he has given new hope to a community that once felt abandoned by the powers that be in the city. Sound familiar?

It should! Because this story is merely a faint echo of the story that the Bible tells us.

You see, the God we come to worship this morning; the God we come to sing praises to has also brought restoration and new life to a community--except this community is not defined by geography, but by those who believe in the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

So, are you ready to worship Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the renewer and restorer of all things? Welcome to worship!

The Covenant Faithfulness of YHWH in the Skies of Harlem!


Two Sundays ago I awoke to be reminded of God's covenant faithfulness. God even reminds New Yorkers of his fidelity!

"Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’"

--Genesis 9:11-17 (NRSV)