Merredin Uniting Church

Isaiah 35:1-10

Matthew 11:2-11

We started the season of Advent by reminding ourselves that it is a season of preparation – specifically we found that it is “a waiting place” as we await the coming of the Messiah;

He who came that first Christmas,

He who comes to us now in our need,

and He who will come again to gather us unto Him.

Last week we saw that “everything is going to different ” because Jesus has come, is coming and will come into our lives.

Today, in our windup of this season, as we prepare to celebrate the season of the Christ we will see just how different life really can be, because Christ has entered in.

Isaiah paints a picture of a desert which blooms; of strength which comes to the weak and of courage which comes to the fearful.

In his vision of the Messianic Kingdom He says that the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap with joy and the mute tongue will shout for joy.

There will be streams in the desert and the burning sand will bubble with springs.

He describes the Highway of Holiness upon which the ransomed of the Lord will come with singing into Zion.

It is a dramatically changed landscape ….

It is a picture of restoration – of hope springing forth, right at the point of hopelessness.

Deserts harbour rivers,

Blind, deaf, lame and mute people have their senses restored.

A path going nowhere becomes a Highway to heaven.

It is a metamorphosis …

The dictionary describes metamorphosis as “a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism”.

Metamorphosis seldom comes without a struggle – when the Kingdom comes amongst us, it does not begin with the singing, or with gladness and joy.

It begins with sorrow and sighing … but once the Kingdom comes … when we enter Zion, according to the prophet, then everlasting joy will be upon our heads and the gladness and joy will overtake us …. and finally the sorrow and sighing will flee away.

We want to resist the struggle. We don’t want to repent, we are reluctant to confess our weakness and failure – but these things are necessary if we are to discover the fullness of the life in the Kingdom of God – where Christ reigns in our hearts

Let me tell you a story …

A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shrivelled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.

The promise of Advent – the coming of the Messiah – is about the complete change which Jesus brings into our life.

Deserts which bloom, blind people who see, lame people who walk, deaf people who hear and so on …

That’s the promise of Advent … but there is also the journey of Advent. And sometimes that can be quite painful.

Did you notice that John was in prison when he sent his disciples to Jesus with the question, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

He had previously known the answer to that question. Just last week we reflected on John’s comments about the Messiah and the baptism of Jesus – He had heard the voice from heaven – “This is my Son. in whom I am well pleased”, he had seen the Spirit descend upon the Lord.

But now he is suffering in jail and he needs reassurance – “Are you the One?”

This happens in the midst of our own struggles … we begin to question what we had previously held to be true and firm. Our faith does get shaken in the struggle, we do begin to wonder.

But this is the time to hold fast. Here is the push forward – like the butterfly. This is maturity, when we look beyond the present moment into the hope of God’s promise.

Jesus does not respond to John’s question with a simple “yes”. That would be grim comfort for a man in prison.

Instead our Lord points beyond the present, into the promise which is already being realised. He points to the restoration, the metamorphosis, the hope fulfilled.

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the outcast are invited in, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised and the poor are discovering good news – This is the promise of Kingdom come.

I believe that John would have been greatly comforted by Jesus’ response. He would have seen beyond the walls of the prison, beyond his imminent death, into the realised promise of God which had been revealed in Christ Jesus.

John was no weakling – no reed swayed by the wind. This was not a man who sought the comforts and graces of life – fine clothes and king’s palaces.

No, John was the messenger of the Kingdom. And he, perhaps more than we realise, knew about the struggle which was needed for this message to be realised. He knew that it required repentance; he knew that it required the chopping down of fruitless trees and the burning of chaff.

In a sense, John would have known in Jesus’ response that his own end had come. The message he had come to deliver was now realised – now he had nothing more to offer, he was chaff in the wind.

Has the Kingdom come upon you this Advent? Are you ready for the coming of the Lord?

Not just for another celebration of Christmas, with all its joyful singing and sharing … Are you ready for Christ to enter your heart and life? Are you ready for Jesus to return? Will he find you expectant and ready to burst forth from the cocoon?

Isaiah 11:1-10

Matthew 3:1-12

Advent is the season for the preparation of the coming of the Messiah – He came to us in the Incarnation: we celebrate Christmas;

He enters into our lives every day: we celebrate this in our baptism, at the Communion Table and in worship & prayer;

He will come again: we prepare ourselves in confession and repentance.

Because Jesus has entered into our lives we are changed, the world is changed … everything is different!

In that document which we call “Merredin’s Creed” but which actually was formulated at a Parish Camp just before I arrived in the Parish we say:

“The thing about Jesus for us is:

We are totally different; it’s who we are now

He is our all, always with us every day

There is nothing else as good

He is our reason for living, our comfort, our peace

He gives our life purpose and hope

He has captured our hearts, we are held

God is a real person in our lives

This is true, with the answers to our questions

Our lives make sense

This is the only way we have spirit communion with God

Oversees our soul, gives us direction.”

Because of Jesus, the world can never ever be the same again.

In the beginning, Adam walked with God – they shared a sweet communion.

Then sin came …

WHY? Because man wanted to be equal with God; he wanted the wisdom to choose his own way – he chose the way of selfishness.

Adam was separated from God, and mankind, as a whole remained separated. Only a few who chose to submit themselves to the way of God were able to share this sweet communion with the Almighty: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and a few others.

But then came Jesus … and suddenly everything is different.

Isaiah, another of those who walked with God, gives us a few pictures:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; and from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

He us telling us that out of the barrenness will come forth new life. He goes on to speak of the Messiah …

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him

He will judge with righteousness

The poor and the needy will get justice

The wicked will  be destroyed

The prophet speaks of the radical change which will happen with the coming of the Lord. Then in verses 6-9 he tells us that this change will affect not only our relationship with God – in the case of both believer and non-believer, righteous and wicked – but it affects the whole of creation …

The wolf will live with the lamb

the leopard with the goat

the calf with the lion … and a little child will lead them

All the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

Because of Jesus everything is different …

Of course, not everyone believes that.

I didn’t for the first 27 years of my life.

We celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world at Christmas. Its a wonderful celebration – we share gifts and Christmas pudding; we put up trees and lights; we send cards to absent friends.

We might comment about the commercialisation of the Christmas Festival but the truth is that all the world stops still – even those who don’t believe. For a little while we forget our antagonisms and we have a taste of the peace and goodwill which marks the season – and the coming of the Messiah.

When I came to faith 34 years ago, it was like Christmas in July! My life changed dramatically, everything was different.

But how …

Well, there was the voice – I heard the Lord speak to me audibly. That was a pretty moving experience.

But more than that – there was the repentance.

John the Baptiser came, as one preparing the way of the Lord, and he called people to repentance.

And people came from far and wide – they left the cities and the highways to trek out into the desert.

They came because they needed a sea change.

Their lives were going nowhere … oh yes, they were busy with the things of life. They were working hard and making money but life still seemed empty – there was something missing.

Certainly that was my story.

John comes into each of our lives – perhaps he is there with you today – and he calls us into a new place.

Prepare the way of the Lord … make straight paths for Him.

He calls us to repentance.

You cannot claim the way of self righteousness and still be open to the coming of the Lord into your life. This is the “wall”,  the barrier which Adam erected between mankind and God.

Repentance means that we tear down that “wall” – it is no longer “I” that sits on the “throne” of my life.

Repentance is about submission to God – it is not about weakness but about recognising the One who is the Lord.

When Adam was banished from Eden it was so that he could not find his way back to the Tree of Life and thus live forever in his self-righteousness.

But notice what John the Baptiser says, “The axe is at the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

What is he saying?

First, he is speaking to the Pharisees – challenging their self-righteousness.

But, I believe, he is also speaking of a newness of life for those who choose to acknowledge Jesus in their life. There is only one tree which produces good fruit – and that is the Cross of Christ. All others are distractions and temptations which lead to the deception of self-righteousness.

John calls us to the baptism of repentance but tells us that another comes after him who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

It is the promise that Jesus will change our lives forever.

In my 34 years of walking with Christ, I have struggled much as  the axe came down on the trees of my self-righteousness. Oh yes, there are still many trees in the forest but I know that each day I can see a little clearer and a little further.

And when He comes again – perhaps just to meet me when I die, or perhaps when He comes in the flesh for all mankind, there will be no other trees in the forest – just one – the Cross on which my Saviour died to pay the price of my sin.

Everything is different because of Christ.

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist cry announces that the Lord is nigh; come then and hearken, for he brings glad tidings from the King of kings.

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36.44

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the start of the church year. This is the season when we begin the preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But it is not simply a preparation for Christmas – that is the celebration of only one way in which Jesus comes to us.

He also comes amongst us now, in the every day – most notably in Word and Sacrament, but also in His constant Presence with us, for before His ascension He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We know the Presence of Jesus when we pray, when we need comfort, when we cry out to Him.

But Jesus will also come amongst us again, in the flesh, to judge creation and to bring the time of peace and joy which Isaiah so eloquently presents to us today.

“In the last days,” He says, “the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

We are in the last days; the end is coming – we can be certain of that. But when will it be?

Its not for us to speculate on the time – even Jesus said that only the Father know the time and hour. But we can be prepared.

We have been affected by several tragic deaths in the Wheatbelt in the last few months. Lives suddenly ended on the highway of life. There have also been those who, having lived their lives, long and as well as they were able, passed on from this world into the next.

Last Sunday afternoon a little girl, fell off the tractor her grandfather was driving. Not even four years old, she died under the rear wheel of the machine. It is a family tragedy.

When each of these people were born and growing up, living their lives, they had no idea when that life would end. We do not know, and more than that, we are not going to know.

As Jesus said in our Gospel text, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

The desire to know the end is very much part of our society. People spend millions on psychics, tarot cards, fortune tellers and astrologists in order to get a glimpse into the future. I am not sure what the total spend is but a report in the London Telegraph this week (which, incidentally was covering the Eurozone financial crisis) said that Italians spend eight billion dollars a year on fortune telling.

If we know what the future holds, if we knew when the end would come, we would pretty much do what we like now, knowing that we could always do the rush at the end to get everything right at the last moment. We would know what to do with our savings, our possessions, our superannuation, our purchases …. Life would be a breeze.

The problem is that not one of us even knows if we will see today’s sunset.

In our gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is speaking of the ordinariness of His coming. People will be eating and drinking, getting married, working in the field and in the kitchen.

He came in an ordinary way when He was born in a stable in Bethlehem. He comes in an ordinary way into our lives every single day – perhaps that is why we often do not even comprehend His Presence.

And He will come in an ordinary way when He comes again – two men working in a field, one will be taken and the other left; two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will betaken and the other left.

And this tells us something about the way in which we should be prepared for the coming of Jesus – we should focus, not on the end times, but on the purpose which God has for us and the world right now.

Martin Luther said that if he knew that the world would end tomorrow he would still plant an apple tree today. Live your life as if it will never end, prepare your heart as if it will end in a few minutes.

If we knew when the end was near, the temptation would be to hole up in a bomb shelter and wait. We would create a fortress mentality, guarding ourselves against the enemy – the unbelievers, the homosexuals, the wicked, the drug addicts and alcoholics, the bikies … in fact, everyone who we do not agree with, because we are pretty sure that God doesn’t agree with them either.

Instead, however, God calls us to live in the midst of uncertainty. It is only in that uncertainty that we discover the certainty that Jesus Christ is in the midst of it with us.

When we stop trying to figure out “when”, we will have the energy to listen to “what” God is calling us to do today.

Advent preparation is about removing the “noise” from our lives so that we can see and hear the coming of Jesus amongst us today. Jesus spells this out very clearly in the next chapter of Matthew – the text we used last week.

In the Judgement scene of the condemned, they say to Jesus, “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”

Jesus often comes to us in the least of our brothers and sisters. In the form of those who we do not, in our assessment of ourselves, consider to be equal with us or deserving of God.

The danger is that we will miss His coming to us in the busy-ness of our religious preparing, or our self-righteous attitude.

If we ignore, or trample, our neighbours today we will not be ready to to welcome Jesus when He does come into the ordinariness of our lives today, or when He returns in all His glory.

We are to live in constant readiness – not in personal righteousness – but in attentiveness to the Holy Spirit who is always with us.

If this were your last day on earth, how would you spend it?

THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MOMENT…

If you aren’t spending it that way, why not?

As you know, I have been preparing and working out the plans for next year in our Parish. As I have been doing that I have become much aware of how much of what we are planning is about preparing to know Christ’s Presence with us now, and when He comes again.

Focussing on worship – do you realise how much of our worship is actually focussed on rehearsing our death? Each time we come together, we remind ourselves and encourage each other with the promise and hopes that carry us through the difficult time of death.

“This is a foretaste of the feast to come.”

“The Lord bless you and keep you.”

“The peace of the Lord be with you.”

And so much more!

Worship is not only about the adoration of God, it is also about community – these are the things of eternity.

We are also focussing on the Scriptures and Prayer. This is the communication of heaven. God speaks to us through His Word; we speak to Him through prayer. We need to know the language of heaven before we get there.

(Our family once flew into Paris from New York. It was a long flight that began in Los Angeles and we had planned to spend a few days resting up and seeing the sights before going on to Johannesburg. The problem was that the travel agent had messed up our hotel booking and it was the Mayday weekend and all of France had descended on the capital. There  was literally “no room at the inn”. And we couldn’t speak the language. We could speak English, Afrikaans and a bit of Zulu but those were all irrelevant to a Frenchman. Its going to be like that for us in heaven, unless we learn the language of heaven now through the Scriptures and prayer.)

And we are wanting to be more involved in outreach and mission – to be able to give water and blankets and Christ’s love to the least of these.

We are heightening our awareness of Christ’s coming. We are, as Paul says in our text from Romans, “recognising that the night is almost over and the day is nearly here.”

We are “understanding the present time, waking from our slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Yes, we are living in uncertainty, but that uncertainty is about things that really do not matter. Our certainty is built on the One who is with us and who will continue to be with us always.

Advent is about refocussing and regrouping. It is a time to take stock of our lives for living it well in the midst of uncertainty.

Christ came as a baby and we celebrate. Christ will come again, of that we are assured. Christ comes in our midst today, right where we are living at the moment.

And so we begin Advent – “preparing for the revelation of Jesus in the joy and sorrow, the laughter and the tears, the comedy and the tragedies of our daily lives here and now.” (Edward Peterman)

Text: Exodus 20:1-17 (Thou shalt not murder)

The first murder on planet earth was when Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy and the anger which comes with it.

Today we look at the 6th Commandment – You shall not murder. This commandment may not be the most frequently violated of all the commands, but when this one is disobeyed, more is broken than the law. From the beginning, human life has been sacred to God because we are made in His image.

God values the lifeHe gave us, but from the beginning human beings have sold it at a bargain price. Besides Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, Genesis records many other acts of violence. And the Bible records hundreds of murders. And they didn’t stop with Revelation. History records millions. We are a murderous people.

There is however more to the sixth commandment than a way of measuring how far the human race has fallen from the ideal. None of us is guilty of murder. Probably none of us has even been tempted by it. But that doesn’t mean we can breeze through this commandment as if it has nothing to say to us. As with all of these commandments from God, there is more than first meets the eye.

First I want to look at several things that are not prohibited by this commandment.

First of all, it is significant that the commandment God gave was not “Thou shalt not kill” but rather “Thou shalt not commit murder.”
The Hebrew word that is used here is very specific and refers to murder.
It’s obvious that God didn’t intend to prohibit all life-taking, because the penalty for murder under the law of Moses was death. So if this commandment meant that you could never take a person’s life, then you couldn’t have someone punished for murder. There is a definite distinction made in the Bible between killing which is lawful and killing which is unlawful. Lets look at some of these…

Justifiable homicide
The law of Moses said there were certain times when a person was justified in killing another person. Suppose, for example, someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night. You wake up and discover him, there is a struggle and the thief is killed. According to the law of Moses, that type of killing didn’t fall under the sixth commandment.
We read in Exodus 22:2 “If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed.”

War
The Bible is clear also that the same God who told the Hebrews not to murder often sent them into war and told them to kill. And nowhere in Scripture New Testament or Old, are soldiers told to give up their military careers in order to be faithful to God. I would assume, then, that there are at least occasions when a person would be justified in taking a life in times of war.

Capital punishment
The Old Testament not only permitted but required the death penalty for certain crimes.
This is the only law which is repeated in each and every one of the first five books of the Bible. God commanded the death penalty be given for murder, rape, kidnapping, and several other crimes.

When we look to the New Testament, when Jesus was on trial before Pilate, He never challenged the state’s right to execute criminals. Rather, Jesus acknowledged that right and told Pilate that his authority came from God (John 19:10).
In Romans 13:4, Paul makes it clear that the authority of the government to punish wrongdoers comes from God. “For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”

Well, enough of what the sixth commandment does NOT say. Let’s talk about what it does say and, more importantly, why it says it.
God says, “You shall not murder.” What is the message or the principle that God is trying to get across to us in this commandment?
Basically, God is saying that human life is precious, it is sacred, and we ought to have the utmost respect for all human life.

First, because we are made in the image of God.
In every other act of creation, God said, “Let there be,” and it was so. “Let there be light.” “Let there be plants.” Let there be birds and fish.” God spoke and creation occurred.

But the creation of human life was different. God said, “Let us make man…” God didn’t just speak us into existence as he did everything else. No, he made us. We are the closest thing in all creation to God. We are the only part of creation made in the image of God.

I like the words of T. S. Eliot who said, “…There’s something in us, in all of us which isn’t just heredity, but something unique. Something we have been from eternity. Something… straight from God.”

Second, human life is valuable because of the price that was paid
I once visited a member of a congregation and found that he collected comics. What’s a comic worth? Well, I’m sure if you added up the material cost, it might be around a dollar. But if you’ve got a rare comic that everybody wants to buy, it might be worth several hundred dollars. You determine the value of something by what someone is willing to pay.
That concept is important, because it tells us exactly what a human life is worth. And God considered our lives so valuable that He was prepared to give the live of His earthborn Son so that we could live in eternity.

The sixth commandment is about more than just murder. Which is a shame because I was beginning to feel pretty self-righteous because I’ve never murdered anybody. Ultimately the sixth commandment has to do with the respect I have for people and the value I place on their lives.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ’You shall not murder,’ and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ’Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ’You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:21-23)

I think what Jesus is saying is that when we get this angry with someone then deep down inside we’re thinking that this person doesn’t deserve to be alive. In that instant of anger, we’re saying, “I don’t want to have anything to do with this person….as far as I’m concerned my life would be better if his life would end.” And perhaps we have been at that point more often than we’d like to admit. If we’re not careful, we can live our lives motivated by anger and hatred.
But I would suggest that the principle of the sixth commandment even goes beyond that. It is a call to respect people and care about them.
That means that if we want to see the true value of human beings, we need to see them from God’s perspective. Because the only way to truly cherish the lives of other people is to see each and every person the way God sees them: made in his image, and worth more than the life of his only Son.

Let me give you an example of how we might do this – you might remember the story of Terry Schaivo. This is a quote from Wikipedia..

Theresa Marie Schindler “Terri” Schiavo was an American woman who suffered brain damage and became dependent on a feeding tube. She collapsed in her home on February 25, 1990, and experienced respiratory and cardiac arrest, resulting in extensive brain damage, a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 15 years of institutionalization. In 1998, Michael Schiavo, her husband and guardian, petitioned the Pinellas County Circuit Court to remove her feeding tube. Robert and Mary Schindler, her parents, opposed this, arguing she was conscious. The court, after 7 years of deliberation  determined that Schiavo would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures. She died at a Pinellas Park hospice on March 31, 2005, at the age of 41. Some have since maintained that her death constituted judicial murder.
It seems to me that not only physicians but the rest of us are smart enough to know the difference between protecting, enhancing, and empowering a human life with reasonable hope of recovery and merely prolonging the process of dying. Skill and technology that help our recoveries are admirable and ethical; the same skill and technology used to prolong our dying are unnecessary and ill-advised.
Maybe a key issue here is our common insensitivity which fails to see that what is best possible treatment for a person lacking higher brain function is not always the most treatment possible. The idea that an emotional observer’s faint hope of another’s recovery is better than peer-reviewed medical judgment under extensive court scrutiny over several years is simply irresponsible.

Death is sometimes an ally instead of an enemy. Perhaps death itself needs to be reconsidered by all of us. It is not an absolute evil. It is sometimes an instrumental good for those without reasonable hope of recovery. Sometimes the real evil lies in forcing someone to endure existence that is no longer really life.

However at the root of the Sixth Commandment is God’s concern for how we treat each other.
And any time we violate the dignity of a human being we are treating that person with contempt
Any time we permit our anger to seethe and boil without resolution, we devalue not on the relationship we share with that person, but also that person’s life.
Any time we dismiss someone out of prejudice, dislike or disrespect, we fall under the condemnation of the sixth commandment.

To Jesus, every human being is a brother and sister. And because we are members of the same family, the human race, we have a responsibility to each other. In Genesis, with the memory of his brother’s blood still fresh in his mind, God confronted Cain. “Where is your brother?”

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked. God said to him, “The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground.”

Yes, Cain, you are your brother’s keeper. And so are all of us.

The challenge of the sixth commandment is not simply to avoid the taking of human life, but to value the life that God gave … to treat it with dignity and the deepest respect.

Exodus 20:1-17

One day a rabbi was seated next to an atheist on an airplane. I know sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.… but it’s a good story.

Every few minutes one of the rabbi’s children or grandchildren would come to his seat to see if he needed anything – food, drink, something to read. They’d just come and check on him. The atheist commented, “The respect your children and grandchildren show you is wonderful. Mine don’t show me that respect. ”

“Think about it,” the rabbi said. “To my children and grandchildren I am one step closer to the God who created the Hebrews, the God who spoke to us at Sinai. To yours, you are merely one step closer to the apes.”

That story, in a not-so-subtle way, communicates an important message. Being the people of God has a profound impact on how we treat other people, especially the ones closest to us. It stands in stark contrast to the bumper sticker that says, “Be nice to your children; they’ll choose your Old Age Home ” Or the one that reads, “Honor your father and mother; they haven’t made their will yet. ”

The fifth commandment is unique for several reasons. It is one of only two positively stated commands. Last week we talked about the other, Remember the Sabbath day.

It is the only command that comes with a promise, that you may live a long and happy life.

And it stands in an important location in the list. The fifth commandment is a transitional command.

The first four addressed how human beings are to relate to God. The last six address how human beings are to relate to each other. Just as the first command is foundational for the other nine, so the fifth command serves as a basis for the last six. Its placement in the list suggests that the home is the primary source of values, ethics and morality. Just as a failure to honor God with exclusive allegiance keeps us from obeying the other commands, so a failure to honor our parents results in an inability to honor any other human being. In other words, if we don’t show respect and love to our families, we will struggle to show honor and compassion to our friends, neighbors and strangers.
There were three reasons that this command was needed.

1) Remember that the ones who were addressed by God through Moses were just released from 400 years of slavery.
They had lived in a culture that devalued age, as you got older it was harder to work and if you could not work, you were worthless. We do the same thing today. It’s called early retirement.

2) They lacked the social structure that would provide for people in need.
That’s why there are so many commands about how they were to provide for the poor and even for strangers who were living in their land. There were no retirement plans or pension funds; so older people had to rely on their children when they could no longer care for themselves. But God knows that we are inherently selfish, that’s why the New Testament is filled with Commands to Love one another, Care for one another, Give preference to one another, look out for the good for one another.

3) It is the first command with a promise.
God says that those of us who will honor our parents will have long life and health. Now I don’t believe that there is some king of mystic magical connection between long life and loving mom and dad. I have known scoundrels who have lived long lives and know people who loved their family dearly die at a young age.
But that’s not the promise. Guess where children learn to honor their parents? From their parents. If an adult doesn’t honor his parents then he is teaching his children not to honor him.

One of Grimm’s fairy tales is about a little boy who lived with his father, his mother, and his elderly grandfather. The grandfather was feeble and his hands shook. When he ate, the silverware rattled against the plate, and he often missed his mouth. Then the food would dribble onto the tablecloth. This upset the young mother, because she didn’t want to have to deal with the extra mess and hassle of taking care of the old man. But he had nowhere else to live.

So the young parents decided to move him away from the table, into a corner, where he could sit on a stool and eat from a bowl. The young mother said, “From now on, you eat over there.” And so he did, always looking at the table and wanting to be with his family but having to sit alone in the corner.

One day his hands trembled more than usual; he dropped his bowl and broke it. The young father yelled, “If you’re going to eat like a pig, you’re going to eat out of a pig’s trough!” So they made the old man a wooden trough, put his meals in it, and told him to eat out of it. And he did.

Not long after that, the couple came upon their four-year-old son playing out in the yard with some scraps of wood. His father asked him what he was doing. The little boy looked up, smiled, and said, “I’m making a trough, to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big.” The next day the old man was back at the table eating with the family from a plate, and no one ever scolded him or mistreated him again.

If we are going to truly honor our parents, there are three things we must do.
Respect Them
Paul said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother.” (Ephesians 6:1-2a).
Children are to obey their parents. But honor or respect is more important than mere obedience. It’s possible to obey without showing respect. You can do as you’re told and still be rebellious at heart.

It’s like the little boy who was standing in the back seat of the car, riding down the road with his parents. His parents told him to sit down and put on his seat-belt because they were concerned about his safety. His father told him once, then twice, then a third time. His mother looked back and asked him to sit down. He defiantly said, “No, I will not sit down!” His father told him if he didn’t sit down he would give him the spanking of his life. So the boy sat down. But then he said, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside.”

There’s obedience, but there’s no respect.

We tend to honor people whom we think deserve it or earn it – we honor great athletes with awards, we honor successful politicians with positions of authority, we honor successful people with plaques. But God says that we are to honor our parents not just because of what they have done, but simply because of who they are. This may be a hard pill for us to swallow, but God didn’t say to honor your parents if they’re honorable. Nowhere does God say that respect must be earned before you have to give it. God simply calls us to honor our parents simply because they are our parents. Nowhere in this commandment does it tell us that we are to honor them because they are great parents, or even good parents. We are to honor them because of the position they hold in relation to our lives.

Value Their Advice
Another way we honor our parents is by valuing their advice. Proverbs 13:1 says, “A wise son heeds his father’s instruction…” That’s not always an easy thing to do because most of us have gone through a stage where we didn’t think their parents know much of anything at all.

I was like most teenagers; I believed that my parents were stupid. But I’ve learned something over the years. Just because I had more education than my parents it didn’t mean that I was smarter. There are some things that nobody learns except by living, having experience, failing at some things and bouncing back.

Let Them Know You Appreciate Their Efforts
There are some things that are just proper and right. One of those things is showing honor to the man and woman responsible for bringing you into this world, feeding you, taking you to the dentist, sitting up with you when you were sick, and doing the million and one other things that go with being a parent. So God says, “Honor your parents.” It’s the right thing to do. Even after children have grown up and have families of their own, they still have a responsibility to honor their parents.

There is a popular trend today in psychology to blame all of a person’s problems on the mistakes of his or her parents. “You can’t help the way you are,” the thinking goes. “It’s not your fault. Your parents messed you up. You’re the victim.”
The Bible doesn’t say that parents are perfect nor does it say that our honoring of our parents must be based on how much we approve of the job they did with us. In this commandment God is saying that we should make our parents feel treasured simply because they have done so very much for us.

They bought and cleaned our clothes. They made sure we got all the necessary shots and check-ups. They gave us a home and food. They provided us with transport and counseled us when we had a problem.

At birth we are solely dependent upon adults for nurture. The moment we came into this world our parents kept us warm and fed us and protected us and many years passed until we were old enough to care for ourselves – so of course we should be grateful! Think of the financial burden that parents bear. Its huge! Somewhere I read that it can cost up to one million rand to raise child today.

I heard about a boy who was talking to a friend at school. He said, “I’m really worried, my dad works hard to provide for the needs of our home. Mom washes the clothes, prepares the meals, and keeps the house clean.” His friend said, “Well, what in the world are you worried about?” The boy replied, “I’m afraid they might try and ESCAPE!”

We owe our parents a huge debt of gratitude. They deserve our honor for the simple reason that they have done so much for us!

I have no doubt at all that what has helped me more than anything else to honor my parents’ efforts is being a parent myself. This is the hardest job I’ve ever had. It’s difficult and it’s costly, not just in terms of finances, but of time, energy, and emotions.

If we can honor our parents for nothing else, we can honor them because they took on a difficult job. I encourage you to let your parents know that you appreciate what they’ve done for you.

I want you to see that this command of honoring your father and mother is so special that it has a promise attached to it. What is that promise? “…That your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

Paul quotes this command and he says, in Ephesians 6, that this “is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”

How we treat our parents not only impacts them, it also impacts us. There is a blessing or a curse for us based on our treatment of our parents. To honor or fail to honor our parents is a choice that takes us down one of two roads. The choice is ours.

It is important for us to honor our parents and the time to do it is now. The day will come when we will be unable to show them the honor that we would like to give.

Some of you don’t have your parents with you any longer. I hope you don’t have to look back and say with regret, “You know, I never told my father how much I loved him. And as many times as I was in her house, ate her delicious cooking, and received her unfailing love, I never told my mother how much I loved her.”

If you still have your parents but have been reluctant, embarrassed or simply thoughtless about giving them explicit statements and expressions of your love, don’t make the mistake so many others have lived to regret. Spend time with them. Drop them a note or call just to let them know you are thinking of them.

One last word — a challenge, really — to those of us who are parents: be honorable. Even though our honor isn’t based on our worthiness, we still need to live a life that makes it easy for our children to honor us.

We are to be teachers of what is good and right. We’re to teach our children the values that build character and the God that defines those values. And we’re to model for our children God’s values and his integrity and unconditional love. If we take our role as God’s authority in the home seriously, we have reason to hope that when our children leave home they will always choose to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God.

The principle at the heart of this fifth commandment is this: make family a priority.