Posted by Chris on November 18, 2007 under Sermons
When God says, “You will not commit adultery” he is giving us a word to live by. Not just those of us who are married. Not just those who have problems in marriage. It is a word for all of us to live by. This word to live by affirms that all of us are stakeholders in certain covenants and boundaries. And when those covenants and boundaries are broken, we are all affected.
See 2 Samuel 11 – King David and Uriah’s Wife
But even though we know that boundaries and covenants such as sexual purity and marital fidelity ought to be respected, they are constantly ignored. Why is that? It may be that we have bought into some really bad ideas about sex . . .
1. Sex as a commodity. Sex sells. Why does the poster for welding equipment feature a woman in a bikini? That’s not proper attire for welding. We know why. We have been taught that sex sells. The sports car does not come with the beautiful girl, but men buy the sports car anyway. We have been taught that sex sells. Sex has become a commodity. The buying and selling of sexuality is not limited to prostitution. Victoria’s Secret does not sell underwear. It sells sexuality.
When the store opened up in the Lake Jackson mall you couldn’t walk through the mall because blocking the aisles was a gang of 14 year old boys standing in awe of the 7 foot poster of the woman in her skivvies. They were not there to buy gifts for their sisters.
We are always pressured to buy the lie. The cosmetic surgery industry is growing at an astonishing rate. The goal is to enhance features of the human anatomy to make one sexy and youthful. Sex sells. It is good business. Pharmaceuticals to enhance and effect sexual ability are also a growing industry. It is just good business.
Sex and scandals involving sex make for good ratings. And if a few boundaries have to be crossed to make a dollar, well what’s the harm? If people don’t like it, they wouldn’t buy it. X-Mart and the other “Adult” stores in our area perpetuate the bad idea that sex is something with a price tag.
God didn’t intend for sex to be merchandise. Sex and sexuality are powerful forces, much more powerful than capitalism and consumerism. When sex is regarded as a commodity, people just might break the rules to “get it.”
2. Sex as an idol. God has already given us a word to live by regarding idolatry. Throughout history, people have carved images of sex gods. Sex has been worshipped and humans have submitted to sex as a power for ages. But that mythological nonsense is all in the past yes? We don’t have temples to sex gods and goddesses anymore, do we? Not with bricks and mortar, no. But we do build shrines of electronic lights and pixels. Pornography is a real power that can work its “magic” in someone’s life as effectively as any force. We like to think that we can control our idols, but in the end they tend to dominate us.
God made sex as something good. It is part of who we are, but like all things in the creation, it is not something to be worshipped. Sex and human sexuality do have power – that’s why certain boundaries will be crossed; the power compels it. All such powers are not necessarily evil, but they (like us) need to be redeemed for God’s purposes.
3. Sex as (nothing more than) a personal choice. Even if we aren’t gratuitous or shocking, talking about sex publicly can be uncomfortable. That’s part of our problem. Although sex is a very intimate subject and does have something to do with our private world, we can go to the extreme of making it so private and personal that we no longer have anything to say about it publicly. And yet, that’s what this word from God is all about. God is affirming that there are certain societal covenants and boundaries that must be respected by all of us when it comes to sex.
This is what the marriage ceremony is all about. We are affirming as a people (single and married) a public statement about human sexuality. This is why the arguments about the definition of marriage are so fierce. It isn’t merely personal choice. If I go into my neighbor’s back yard and move the fence simply because I wanted it moved I am going to have a fight on my hands. Likewise, the ancient boundaries and covenants are not casually tampered with.
So it is doesn’t really work when we trample on marital fidelity and dismiss the breaking of covenants as a matter of personal choice. God intended sex to be something that everyone respects and when everyone doesn’t respect it the way God does, it is cheapened.
God cares a lot more about sex than we do. Wait, that doesn’t seem right, does it? Isn’t God really sort of testy and prudish? Doesn’t God intend to ultimately do away with sex? Isn’t sex just a necessary evil so that we can have babies who will grow up and worship God?
No. God considers sex to be something very valuable and good – after all it is his idea. It is a fundamental part of the created order. He made male and female in his image.
Often, God has much more respect and concern about sex than we do. If we really claim that we regard sex so highly then why do we tend to regard sex as casual and recreational? Why do we cheapen it by labeling it as “hooking up or a quick romp?” A man and a woman might have a one-time sexual encounter and just to make sure there’s no misunderstanding, they check with other to make sure that “it didn’t mean anything.” That’s not a very high view of sex, is it?
God also cares about our bodies. He isn’t simply interested in saving our souls – he treats us as total beings and the fact that Jesus was risen from the dead in a new body teaches us that God cares about the sort of things we do with our bodies.
According to God, sex unites two people with bodies and makes them one (Genesis 2). That’s a high view of sex. Adultery is just one activity that doesn’t fit into that view of sex. If two people are one flesh, there are problems when a third is involved.
So if we respect the physical boundaries, then there’s no problem right? Not quite. God respects sex so much that he made it a matter than involves our hearts as well as our bodies. Jesus understood this. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)
Jesus is teaching us that sex is related to our character. It has something to do with the purity of our heart. This applies to married and single people. We all have a stake in keeping the boundaries.
Posted by David on November 15, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
To me, there is a significant degree of assurance to realize Christians of the first century often struggled with problems similar to ours. The Jews were quite geography-centered in their worship (Deuteronomy 12:5, 11, 13, 14; 16:16). The Temple was the holiest place of all places! They were quite ritualistic with priests, sacrifices, and correct procedures. They wore tassels on their clothes (Numbers 15:37-41) [as did Jesus-Matthew 9:20; 14:36; Mark 6:56; Luke 8:44]. They were careful about what they ate (Leviticus 11) and observed special days (Exodus 12:15-20). To Jewish Christians it was unthinkable that God would call those who did none of this His people!
To me it is obvious why the New Testament acknowledges the enormous dispute between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. Jewish people and non-Jewish people were distinctively different in virtually every way.
The first four chapters of 1 Corinthians addressed (in various ways) the internal divisions in that congregation. These are the divisions noted in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. Their internal “quarrels” seemed to focus on the person responsible for their conversion-Paul, Apollos, Peter, or Christ.
Among his arguments against internal division is the one in the text. There was more at stake than their group and its perspective. God’s temple that houses His presence (read 2 Chronicles 7:11-16) is no longer a building at a place, but a people who belong to Him through a commitment to Jesus Christ (read 1 Peter 2: 5, 9, 10).
To those firmly committed to Jesus Christ, there is always something more significant than personal views and preferences. It is the understanding of God’s purpose clearly declared in Genesis 12:3c. God intended to bless everyone. He would not do it in a place, but in a people. He would do it in His people, devoted to His character, honoring His values, committed to His purpose.
Paul’s statement (above) is frightening. The KJV translation correctly notes the “you” Paul used is plural. Christians (plural-congregations) comprise God’s temple now-Jewish Christians, gentile Christians, agreeing Christians, disagreeing Christians, people from all backgrounds. They must not use differences to discredit God’s work and purpose. If a Christian does discredit God by harming what is now His temple, Paul said God would destroy that person (strong language for Paul) because God’s temple is holy.
To me, preserving unity is one of the more difficult tasks God gives us. Nothing about it is simple. We are not one because we are wonderful, or can justify our behavior, or God endorses our point of view, or because people agree with me, or because our culture endorses the best and most sensible way. We are one because we are in Jesus Christ.
May God’s purpose always be our purpose. We belong to Him, not ourselves.
Posted by Chris on November 11, 2007 under Sermons
Do Not Kill
- Kill or Murder?
- Ratsach – Translated as kill and murder
- Numbers 35:27 – Kill and murder in English translations are the same word in Hebrew
- Is this absolute or generic?
? How can we be consistent?
- The law seems to forbid and condone killing
The Value of Life
- Only God can give life, only he can take it away
- Humans are the only creatures made in God’s image
- Killing ruins culture and community by making life disposable
- Genesis 9:6 – Image of God
Matters of Life and Death
- War
- Punishment
- Abortion
- Euthanasia
War
- What is it Good For? – Edwin Starr song
- Is there a “Just War?”
- Criteria for Just War:
- Justice
- Redemption
- Civil Authority
- Neglect is lack of compassion
Capital Punishment
- The value of human life justifies the death penalty (Life for Life)
- The value of human life condemns the death penalty (dehumanizes society)
- Three approaches to capital punishment
- Capital punishment as humiliation and retribution [clearly unacceptable]
- Capital punishment as justice and deterrent [debatable]
- Capital punishment as legal maneuver (sentence of death but converted to life imprisonment) – [potentially meaningless]
Abortion
- This is not only a woman’s issue – If men will take responsibility for their sexual ethics then there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies.
- Discussion of abortion needs to respect the guilt and regret of those who have aborted a pregnancy
- Abortion is a medical procedure; respect of life is a spiritual, ethical, and political matter
Reasons Given for Abortion
Risk of Life
to Mother |
Rape and
Incest |
Abnormal
Development |
Retroactive
Birth Control |
Euthanasia
- It means “dying well.” – But it avoids discussion of what it means to live well in light of suffering.
- Kevorkian’s machine was auto-suicide – this is a euphemism
- What happens to our respect of life as a people?
- The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitudes of the physicians. It started with the attitude, basic in the Euthanasia Movement, that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick. Gradually the sphere of those to be included in the category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted and finally all non-Germans. – Testimony of a psychiatrist at the Nuremburg Tribunal explaining how the Nazi government was capable of atrocities.
- What is a life worthy to be lived?
J. John, Ten: Living the Ten Commandments in the 21st Century, was an important resource in the development of this lesson. His outlook focuses on the application of the Ten Commandments in the UK. It is interesting to apply his observations to the U.S.
Posted by Chris on under Sermons
The sixth word to live by is just three simple words – Do Not Kill. [In fact, in Hebrew it is even simpler – it is just two words. Maybe “No Killing” would be a good translation]. This ought to be a very simple word to live by. No sermon necessary. Let’s just affirm that we will not kill and we needn’t discuss this any more.
But it really isn’t that simple, is it? The very fact that such a terse word to live by even needs to be spoken indicates that we have a problem. It may be easy for nearly all of us to say, “At least I haven’t murdered anyone.” But we are all connected in a culture that participates in killing.
Scanning through the commentaries and discussions on this matter, I have been confronted with the complexity of this issue. First of all, is the word “kill” better translated as “murder?” Is there really a difference? Some scholars say yes, and some say no. There’s more debate, can one be opposed to abortion but support capital punishment? Can one oppose euthanasia but support war? Some say it is not right to be inconsistent and still respect this word to live by. Some say the circumstance and issue are different.
It’s complex. We could spend hours engaging in the discussion of these issues — and that would not be a bad thing! We could probably stand to engage in more discussion if we seriously respect God’s instruction on how to live. And we intend to spend almost one hour on that tonight. Differing voices that make their cases quite well are engaged in the discussion of three simple words that make up this sixth word to live by. Today, let’s pay attention to one voice. It is the voice of our Lord and Teacher. What does Jesus say about this word to live by?
Matthew 5:21-26
“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ?You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an [empty-headed] idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.
“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus takes “God’s Words to Live By” very seriously. So seriously that he is not content just to take them at literal face value; rather, he teaches us that there is wisdom and principle within these statements – even the ones that seem so simple. Jesus understands that the root of murder is hatred and the seed of hatred is anger. Being angry without the courage and maturity to resolve the anger leads to violence. Violence and killing result in judgment.
Jesus is listing examples for us under the general banner of what you can expect from unresolved anger:
- Insulting someone in anger can get you taken to court. We call that terroristic threatening these days. In a land where children and disgruntled employees vent their rage with semiautomatic rifles, we have learned to take angry words seriously.
- Cursing someone in the name of God is presupposing that we are the eternal judge of others. And the third word to live by taught us that God doesn’t overlook the casual, thoughtless useless of spiritual language used in anger.
- All the time people leave worship mumbling about those things that distract them or ruin the experience. Have we ever stopped to think what ruins God’s experience in worship? Jesus knows: God is distracted when his children are living in un-reconciled contempt for each other. God is worshipped in the place – anytime and anywhere – where men and women settle their difference and defuse the power of anger and bitterness before it turns to any form of violence.
- Rick Atchley points out that the first funeral on earth was for a murder victim. Cain killed his brother. It began with anger and grew into hatred. It finally ended with violence. What started this spiral? According to the story, it began in worship. Cain should have settled the matter with God and his brother, instead he was consumed by his pride and rage. He killed Abel. And God grieved for both of his children. Wouldn’t we rather make God happy than offer him sorrow?
- Jesus even gives a legal advice. He’s a big believer in out-of-court settlements. Not because it is necessarily a better legal move, but because it is a better way than that of the angry soul who wants fight it out in the courtroom. There are a lot of angry people going to court against one other. But just as a drunk has to be convinced that he cannot beat up everyone in the barroom, an angry person needs to know that they will not win every court battle. If it is personal, settle the matter between individuals. The court may not favor you today.
- [The People’s Court was the first of the courtroom reality shows. The announcer Doug Llewellyn would always tell the viewers: “Don’t take matters into your hands, you take ?em to court.” Jesus would disagree with Doug, with the stipulation that it is better to take matters into your own hands if you are going to settle things in righteousness and peace. Of course there are times when matters have to be settled in court, but in court or out of court we cannot be ruled by anger, hatred and violence if we want to Live as Jesus Teaches Us and as God Wills Us.]
Jesus teaches his disciples well. One of his disciples, John the Apostle, understands Jesus’ teaching and the meaning of this sixth word to live by that God spoke.
I John 3:11-20
For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a fellow believer is a murderer, and you know that no murderers have eternal life in them.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
There is a lot to discuss when it comes to this simple word to live by: Do Not Kill. Let’s continue the discussion – but only if we take it seriously. Taking it seriously means that we are not going to be haters. Haters, says John, are murderers. He is basing that on what Jesus says.
“But what do we do about being angry?” Augustine said that Hope has two beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to believe it can change. We all get angry. Even God gets angry. Just remember that Anger doesn’t do well on her own. She needs her sister Courage and together they remind us of Hope. On her own, Anger has a tendency to get lost in hatred and violence — because Courage is absent and there’s no Hope.
Do you have the courage to change the way things are? Hatred, violence, murder or Hope? Which do you choose to live by?
Notable sources used in preparation of this sermon:
- Rick Atchley, Sinai Summit.
- J. John, Ten: Living the Ten Commandments in the 21st Century.
Posted by David on November 8, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
Recently I had opportunity to drive across several wastelands, some of which were just plain deserts. Vegetation ranged from sparse (with small scrub bushes that occasionally dotted the landscape) to absent, with hills gutted by gullies with little to hold the soil.
Occasionally, I saw a ribbon of trees snaking along a low place in the landscape. When I saw that ribbon of trees, I knew there was water available-a small stream or a low river. In the dry areas, the problem was not the nutrients in the soil, but the absence of moisture. Strong trees would grow and produce their fruit if water were available.
In the southern regions of Palestine, the psalmist saw a similar situation. Some regions are extremely arid. In those areas, occasionally there will be a spring and a pool. Around that pool, there is incredible vegetation, including strong fruit-bearing trees with strong root systems.
In short, there is life in a lifeless landscape. Life exists because there is water. The contrast is incredible-no water, arid; water, life.
Once as Jesus was teaching, he said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ?From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water'” (John 7:37, 38).
Consider what Jesus said to the woman at the well near Sychar in John 4:10, 13, 14, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ?Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. … Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Knowing and listening to Jesus is like providing a tree in the desert with water. Knowing Jesus will do more than change what you believe. It will change who you are.
In our American society, people need more than information. While they need information, they also need examples. The person who trusts in God must be like the tree in an arid region growing by the water source. The person who trusts God must be sustained by the living water, Jesus Christ. He or she obviously does not thirst. Instead, he or she is a well springing to eternal life in others.
In a society that mistakes pleasure, money, possessions, power, and influence for life, to have the courage to let Jesus quench the thirst for life is the difference between a scrub bush in an arid region and a tree by a water source. Have the courage to be God’s tree. Have the courage to let Jesus Christ be life to you and a well to others through you.
Posted by Chris on November 4, 2007 under Sermons
- Domestic or Foreign
- Globalization has shrunk the world
- Here is there and there is here
- Acts 8 response to change
- Evangelism or Edification
- Discipleship involves both
- Which is for “us” and which is for “them”?
- “Insider” or “Outsider” ministry distinctions fail
- Service or Evangelism
- How do we proclaim good news?
- Jesus’ ministry was teaching, healing, casting out evil
- Luke 4 and Isaiah 61
- Ministers or Members
- Do we believe in the “priesthood of all believers”?
- Networking and designated ministers still work together
- Luke 16
- Who Evangelized? [Evangelism is the church’s project. Network of relationships.]
- God or Us
- It is God’s work
- We are God’s work
- God works within us
- Ephesians 3:20-21
- “I am with you always” [Christ’s promise]
Posted by David on November 1, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
One of the results of being “strange” is looking at and listening to things a bit differently. I find that to be a powerful source of learning and self-evaluation. Often, the lives of others cause me to see things about myself I had rather not see or know.
Recently while we were taking a relaxation trip, we visited an impressive congregation in an extremely small town. It was a much larger congregation than one would expect to find in such a small town and sparsely populated terrain.
It was a very active congregation that was both community-focused and foreign mission-focused. Their contribution and their projects/programs were nothing less than astounding. Obviously, instead of feeling sorry for themselves (as many congregations do in their setting), they were actively involved in helping others and ministering to Christ’s family.
Significant in the congregation were a number of retired, much experienced elders and ministers. The level of talent and experience in that small congregation was truly impressive. Though they did not comprise the bulk of the congregation, they were active, prominent, and significant in the congregation’s work.
Such people form “living mirrors” who challenge us to examine ourselves. Time transforms us all in small, silent ways. I find those transformations are not obvious until we look at ourselves reflected in such “living mirrors.”
Perhaps this transformation is best understood with an illustration. It is the soul of the meaning of, “He/she seems so much younger than he/she actually is.” In a positive way, he or she does not act his or her age. He or she refuses to allow physical aging to change “who I am.”
To mature spiritually, two things are necessary: (1) Know who you want to be. (2) Know who you do not want to be. The two are not the same. You know who you want to be by looking at Jesus Christ and scripture. You know who you do not want to be by (a) backing off from yourself, (b) being honest with yourself, and (c) seeing yourself in your actions and attitudes. We must know both who we are and who we do not wish to be. Instead of justifying ourselves, we examine ourselves-and that is demanding!
From Paul I learn it is as important to be honest about who I am (absent God’s grace) as it is to have confidence in whom Christ Jesus made me (with God’s grace) to be.
Posted by Chris on October 28, 2007 under Sermons
Thesis: God’s vision of the kingdom is multi-generational. There is a place for all ages and the Holy Spirit is poured out on all.
There is a wisdom of the world that separates us not into generations, but demographics. I am soon to enter into a new demographic. The subtle implication is that I am very different those younger or older than me.
Next week I will be forced to leave the demographic that has been my home for the last 21 years – Male 18-39. Even at 39 it was kind of inspiring to think that I had something in common with 18 year olds. After Wednesday [October 31] I will join the group of 40-62. Hooray! I can look forward to Senior Discounts.
According to their definitions, generation suggests a continuation while allowing for differences. A demographic is a division, slicing up group by certain criteria and making comparisons.
If we are going to be the people of God – the continuation of ancient Israel and the heirs of Pentecost – then we need to have a generational mindset rather than a demographic mindset. By a generational mindset I mean a perspective and vision that views all ages of people from God’s point of view and not from our limited point of view.
However, it is difficult to overcome the limiting “demographic” perspective. One of the typical ways we limit ourselves is we play the age card – I am too old or I am too young.
What’s the Right Age?
I’m too old … Noah; Abraham & Sarah; Moses; John; Anna & Simeon; Elizabeth
I’m too young … Samuel; David; Jeremiah; Josiah; Mary; Jesus
God intends to use people of every age …
If I were to come before you and say, “Some of you are just too old. You need to retire and get out of the way.” You would be offended. But some of you say that very thing about yourselves! Why are you offended if I say it, but it is justified for you to say so?
If I were to come before you and say, “You younger ones need to keep out of the way and stay out of trouble. Stop demanding all the attention, you are young and you need to just wait until you get older.” Not only would you be offended, but many adults would be too. But how is it that everyone would be offended if I say those things, but some of you and some of the adults often say “Well he or she is just too young for that.”
At every point in your life you are either going to be able to say you are too old or too young. God’s spirit rests on the young and old, on men and women empowering them all to serve
- Joel 2 and Acts 2 – God intends all generations to serve him and to serve one another.
- The Cloud of Witnesses – Hebrews 11 – We complete the faith of the witnesses.
Institutional view of church orients us to think demographically – it limits us.
Family view makes us think generationally – it creates options that God works in.
I thank God for Wilma Chase at the West-Side Church in Russellville. She taught the 2-year-olds. When she was in her 70’s and widowed she was teaching our 2-year-old son. Demographically, she ought to have stopped. That is something for younger people. But generationally, she was a great teacher with every year.
She would often say, “Why don’t more people my age teach? They have nothing else to do.”
Legacy …
“Little Christians are not growing up to be big Christians.” Why? Because we don’t see our faith as a legacy – something handed down to us and that we hand down to another. Too often we see faith as something we have and those older or younger than us don’t.
The notion of a personal faith is limited. Yes, each of us has to own faith – but if that faith is going to have substance it has to be part of something larger than us.
Deuteronomy 6 – Invites the older generation to respond to this you language with we language. They recount the faith narrative in a way that incorporates each new generation into the story. And those who told the story, received the story from those before them.
Telling the story in that way challenges the younger generation to a heroic form of faith. It invites them to see the link of past present and future rather than the selfishness of a single generation (their own or the older one – note that the response in Dt. 6 is not, “Well, back in my day we knew everything from an early age.” That kind of response distances the generations and eliminates common ground and story.)
Crete
This was also a first century problem and Titus (who was mentored by Paul) was an evangelist on the Island of Crete – a place that suffered a breakdown in the family. Paul’s advice to Titus was to bring the generations together in nurture and mentoring [Titus 2:1-7].
Levites
This mentoring was ancient wisdom among the people of God centuries before Paul. [Numbers 8:23-26] – The Levites tradition of mentoring.
When is the last time you took an interest in someone outside your generational group? To mentor them or to be mentored – those of us who are younger need to be asking the older ones. Those who are older need to respond and be available.
Interpretation of the Cord of Three Strands – Who is your mentor, Who is your peer, Who do you mentor?
Paul – Gamaliel, Silas, Timothy and Titus
Let the older ones make the first move … We must enter into their world of another generation incarnationally. We have to be ourselves, but we can still reach out to the younger ones (whether that means teens or middle-aged). If I can do it, you can too. We cannot fear being rejected – Christ didn’t.
Connections and Consideration/Respect
Randy Harris’ vision – the old and the young hating but deferring to each others’ worship styles … Could we do that? Why wouldn’t we? How would we be blessed if we did?
Posted by Chris on under Sermons
The fifth word to live by is not simply a rule to keep children in check. This word to live by, just like all the others, is directed to believers of every age. So, the charge to honor our mother and father is aimed at adults also.
What does it mean to honor our mother and father?
To honor means more than demonstrating sentimental feelings. The word “honor” literally means to give weight or heaviness. To honor someone then means that we take them seriously.
That sort of honor may run against the grain in our culture. We find it easier to not take parents seriously. We laugh at parents. We lampoon parents. [Simpsons comic.] Marketing to teens and adults contributes to the myth that the older generation doesn’t understand. Or that older people are cranky and crabby. [Maxine comic.] The jesting and the marketing isn’t malicious, it just silliness. No one is supposed to be hurt by it. No one is supposed to take it seriously … and there is the problem.
A little jesting and silliness isn’t the only way to dishonor mother and father by not treating them seriously. Locked up in our cultural mindset are certain stereotypical assumptions about what parents or grandparents ought to be. These are flat, simplistic assumptions. Sentimental concepts of “mom and dad” are a way of disregarding the fact that our parents, of any age, are real unique individuals with their own histories and needs. The danger of these assumptions is that they could become an unrealistic expectation. Likewise, to be overly sentimental can lead adult children to patronize their aging parents. It’s good to take parents as they age, but to pat them on the back as kindly old folks who mean well but have outlived their usefulness is dishonor.
When, for any reason, we fail to take our parents seriously, we dishonor them. And that becomes a problem not simply for our parents, but it infects our culture and community with some very negative values …
The Brothers Grimm – There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son’s wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. Then they bought him a wooden bowl for a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.
They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. “What are you doing there?” asked the father. “I am making a little trough,” answered the child, “for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.”
The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.
We can teach our children how to honor us by the way we honor our parents. The fifth word to live by is foundational to teaching us how to live as a community of believers. The remaining words tell us how to live with one another. The foundation of all these words is the first word about God. The next layer of the foundation is the word to honor our parents.
Learning to live as a community with generations side by side is not easy for us. The way we structure our social life and our home life doesn’t encourage our sense of legacy and community. Politics and marketing tends to pit the needs of one generation against another. [I recall having a conversation with a elderly man years ago. I was delighted to see interest rates falling because it meant that my young family could begin to think about buying a house at a reasonable rate. But the older man was disappointed and worried because it meant that his savings and investments that represented his life’s work were barely earning enough to sustain him.] And those sort of imbalances are see-saw options are what we have in a society in which we see ourselves first and foremost as individuals.
When we regard ourselves ultimately as individuals and do not take our connections to others and other generations seriously, then we may see ourselves as members of a group, but we don’t find it very difficult to disconnect, withdraw, neglect, or push away others.
It is because this fifth word has implication for all of the community that we do not get a pass on honoring parents because they are not very honorable. A word of caution here – we do not want to interpret this word as saying too much – it is not a bludgeon for parents to use to demand authoritarian obedience, neither is there a loophole for those whose parents are bad parents. Honoring parents – that is treating them respectfully and seriously – is how we learn to be community – even when that isn’t easy …
Honoring our parents teaches us that we are vitally connected to one another in bonds of community that are not so easily cut. For instance, it is a fact that you cannot divorce your parents. You can disagree with parents, you can reject them, neglect them, disown them, ignore them, but you cannot divorce them. I have a friend who has such bitterness toward his father that when we married he left behind his father’s family name and adopted the name of his wife’s family. I don’t criticize him for that, it was something I am sure he needed to do. And even though their relationship may change, his father is still his father and changing his name doesn’t alter that reality. There are all sorts of difficulties that come up between the generations, between children and parents. Our interactions within the home are where we first learn how to interact with community. The sooner we learn to take one another seriously and honor one another the better we will be able to live as community.
God spoke these ten words to live by and attached a promise to this fifth one. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. God’s timeless vision sees his community of people across time as well as space. This fifth word just gives us a glimpse of how we can see things across the generations. We need that sort of vision. It would serve us much better than our narrow focus as individuals on the here and now. Our limited vision convinces us that the crisis and anxiety of today is the way it always has been and the way it always will be. When both old and young have that sort of view we turn inward and get selfish and don’t think of the ability that God has given us to bless one another across the ages.
[Story attributed to Paul J. Meyer] – Once upon a time long, long ago there was an old country chapel that had been a part of the community forever. The worship house had been built by the community over 200 years ago. But now the roof began to leak and was the beams were starting to collapse. Many feared that they would have to take down the old chapel. They didn’t want to. They loved it. But they didn’t know how they could repair it. Then one day, the original plans for the chapel were found. They included instructions on repairs. But more than that, the plans included a detailed note and a map explaining that a forest had been planted nearby. In this forest the future generation would find a specific type of tree now matured that the original designers recommend for fashioning new support beams. The people who followed the map found the trees planted there in neat rows just for them by a generation that had lived 200 years before them. They set about repairing the chapel – not for themselves, but to honor their fathers and mothers.
Posted by David on October 25, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: ? (Romans 2:1-6)
For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written. (Romans 2:24)
In grief-filled fascination, I realize the American Restoration Movement began about 1800 as a unity movement. In time, the movement transitioned to a defensive movement. In less time it transitioned to an isolationist movement. Now it is fragmented. One large fragment seeks to understand God’s purposes with scripture as the source. Another large fragment identifies “the right to exist” with a desire to declare everyone’s error inside or outside the movement.
It is difficult to learn from others’ mistakes. Jesus said to a Jewish audience in Palestine, “Do not listen for the wrong reason. Listening to learn what is wrong with people you resent is the wrong reason. Listen to transform your lives. Life is full of moral and ethical floods. The real issue: ?Will your life stand after your floods come?’ Do not listen for others. Listen for yourself. Listen to act. Listen to change yourself rather than listening to discover what is wrong with others.”
Paul was upset with the Jewish people who thought they were experts in knowing others’ errors. He was concerned because these self-appointed judges were as ethically deficient as those they condemned. People who were supposed to be God’s people were a significant factor in idol worshippers not considering the living God seriously. Thus, one of God’s obstacles was the misimpression created by those who claimed to represent Him. Evidently, Paul often had to teach godless people about God by dismissing the example of those who declared “I am who I am because of God.”
Do you find Jesus’ and Paul’s declarations frightening? Why?
