Urban Vineyard

Carrying on in our series on God's Ten Words at Sinai, Pete shows how the Biblical prohibition against stealing goes far beyond our modern ideas of private property rights. He shows how theft in the Old Testament also included participation in unjust economic systems which disposed some to enrich others. In this way, Pete challenged us to see where we too might need to be set free from patterns of hoarding and withholding which ultimately trap us in a mentality of never having enough. In the end, Pete invited us to open our hearts to allow God to lead us toward a lighter grasp of what we have and to show us how a more active use of what we have can restore the mana of those in need, in light of the one who became poor that we might become rich.

In a continuation of our series on the Ten Words spoken at Sinai, Lloyd addresses the sixth commandment prohibiting murder. He makes the point that despite feeling like a particularly extreme act which not many of us could ever fathom ourselves committing, to kill is actually the outcome of a much longer chain of events which begins with dehumanising our neighbour in our hearts. Referencing Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:21-26, Lloyd reminds us that our attitudes, thoughts and words often expose the seeds of violence in our hearts, and it is only through Jesus that we can really be free from this tendency. He concludes by bringing us back to the truth that we all need to be healed and forgiven so that we can offer the same healing and forgiveness to those who we would otherwise wish to annihilate. Once again, we discover the very good news of the Gospel that sets us free to live in God's gracious care, free from malice and the desire to constantly seek revenge.

Sarah shares on the profound reality that God is Lord of all time and that his commandment to "remember the Sabbath" is a call to proleptically enact the future age of salvation and freedom which has been secured for us in Jesus. She uses the metaphor of Sabbath as a lamp which we light every seven days as a reminder that the true dawn is coming. For now, we gather around the light of the lamp, but we do so knowing that one day we will live in the true light of Jesus forever.

On Father's Day and the first day of the Season of Creation, Jonathan teaches on what it means to honour parents.

Pete shares on the third 'word' from Exodus 20 – "You shall not make wrongful use of the of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name." He shows how this is perhaps the most misunderstood of all the commandments and therefore, perhaps the most important for us to recover. In the end, we learn that the commandment is not about being fastidiously polite so as not to offend God, but rather living in such a way that, by our words and deeds, his name is given the glory and honour it deserves.

Lloyd carries on our series on the Ten Words, looking at the second commandments which prohibits the making of images to substitute God. He makes the point that just as the first commandment pertains to not worshipping false gods, the second commandment pertains to not worshipping God falsely. It turns out to be very easy to twist our image of God by 'creating' Him in our own image (contra Genesis 1:26-27) and making this novel image agree with all our thoughts, values, and preferences. In conclusion, Lloyd reminds us that the only antidote to this tendency which lives in all of us is to continually fix our eyes on Jesus, the true image (Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-4).

Jonathan speaks on the first of the Ten Words in Exodus 20 (And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.“You shall have no other gods before me). He makes the point that worship is not something we voluntarily opt into but instead is an innate and inescapable impulse of the human heart. Looking at Romans 1:18-25, he shows how our proclivity toward worshiping created things rather than the Creator leads to an exhausting and unmanageable life. Using the acronym N.E.W. he proposes that we ought to name (N) the false gods that have gripped our imaginations, expose (E) them for what they are – slave drivers with no power to save – and to turn our worship (W) back to the one true God who wants to set us free to live under his gracious care.

In this first talk of a new teaching series on the Ten Commandments, Jonathan frames the context of God's ten words. He shows how they are best seen as the words of a father to a son, spoken to a liminal people who had been freed from slavery, and freed for a new identity as a priestly nation and holy kingdom.