# Ten Commandments: Do Not Covet — September 6, 2026 ## St. John's United Church of Christ | Season after Pentecost | Green ## Scripture Readings *Scripture text: New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, from the Bible text already stored in the 2nd Brain vault.* ### Gospel Reading: Matthew 22:34-40 **34** When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, **35** and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. **36** "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" **37** He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' **38** This is the greatest and first commandment. **39** And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' **40** On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." ### Sermon Text: Exodus 20:17 **17** "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." ## Sermon Context - **Preacher:** Rev. Caroline E. Saxton - **Sermon theme:** Ten Commandments: Do Not Covet - **Liturgical season:** Season after Pentecost — Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18 - **Liturgical color:** Green — growth, discipleship, and the church's common life - **Liturgical year:** Year A (Matthew) - **Hebrew date:** 24 Elul 5786 - **Sacrament:** Holy Communion - **Lectionary relationship:** The local readings continue St. John's Ten Commandments series rather than the Revised Common Lectionary. The Narrative Lectionary Year 1 schedule starts the following Sunday. ## Themes and Imagery The cover shows one person helping another walk with crutches, placing need, prayer, and shared strength at the center of the service. Exodus turns attention toward coveting: the inner desire to possess what belongs to a neighbor. Matthew answers with love of God and neighbor as the measure of the whole law. Bread broken, wine poured, talents employed, and gifts freely shared make Communion the central visual pattern: grace received becomes generosity practiced. Green Ordinary Time frames this as steady formation in a common life rather than a single dramatic act. ## Hymns and Music ### "This Is the Day" A licensed gathering chorus by Les Garrett, based on Psalm 118:24. The bulletin does not print its lyrics. ### "Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ" First stanza: > Let us talents and tongues employ, > reaching out with a shout of joy: > bread is broken, the wine is poured, > Christ is spoken and seen and heard. The refrain pictures Jesus alive, the earth breathing again, and abundant loaves passed around. Fred Kaan wrote the text in 1975; LINSTEAD is a Jamaican folk tune adapted by Doreen Potter. ### "Open My Eyes, That I May See" The bulletin shortens the title to "Open My Eyes, Illumine Me" and lists Rosemary Elder as performer. The phrase "Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine" points to Clara H. Scott's 1895 public-domain hymn. The bulletin does not print the arrangement or performed stanzas. ### "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" > Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; > Praise him, all creatures here below; > Praise him above, ye heavenly host: > Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Thomas Ken wrote the text in 1674; it is sung to OLD HUNDREDTH. ### "I Have Brought You Out of Egypt" First stanza: > "I have brought you out of Egypt," Moses heard the Lord God say. > "I have saved you! I have freed you! people, listen and obey. > Have no other gods before me; don't make idols for yourselves. > I will judge those who reject me; worship me and no one else." Carolyn Winfrey Gillette's 2012 text sets the Ten Commandments to NETTLETON and closes by joining grace, law, love of God, love of neighbor, and justice. ## Key Concepts for Visual Representation - **Helping hands:** A standing figure steadies a neighbor using crutches; strength becomes something shared rather than possessed. - **Coveting and open hands:** Closed hands grasp what belongs to another; open hands release, offer, and receive. - **The double command of love:** Love of God and love of neighbor form two connected halves of one faithful life. - **Bread and cup:** Broken bread, poured wine, and abundant loaves show gifts becoming communion. - **Tablets and heart:** The commandment moves from stone tablets into inward desire, exposing how the heart relates to a neighbor. - **Green growth:** Ordinary Time marks patient formation in generosity, truth, mercy, and shared life. ## Visual Palette and Motifs Use green as the grounding liturgical color, with earth tones for bread, wood, and stone. Pair the hard geometry of tablets, property lines, and clenched hands with the softer shapes of a shared table, open hands, flowing wine, and growing vines. The strongest contrast is not rich versus poor but grasping versus giving.