Sunday, January 31, 2016

Honor Your Parents #5 in a series on the Ten Commandments


Exodus 20:1-17

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.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

"You shall not murder.

"You shall not commit adultery.

"You shall not steal.

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."





How many vows have you made in your life?

We don’t usually make that many vows in life – in fact, I bet you can count them on one hand.

How many of you are now, or have ever been married, raise your hand. THAT is a true pledge. Not a goal or an estimate. But it is a vow.  “I take you … for richer, or poorer, for better for worse, in sickness and in health throughout all of our days.”

How many people here have served in the military? Let's see your hands. At one point you stood before witnesses and make a vow – and oath – “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic … “

How many ordained elders or deacons are here -- either in the session or off session? You made certain vows to God and this church when you became an elder. You promised to "fulfill your office in obedience to Jesus Christ," and "to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church."

Oh – one more… how many Boy Scouts here today? 

On my honor I will do my best 
To do my duty to God and my country 
and to obey the Scout Law; 
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, 
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Girl Scouts have a similar oath.
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.


There really are not that many vows we make in life. Not that many true pledges. One of the vows that we carry around with us is one that we probably never make publicly in any sort of ceremony like a wedding, induction or ordination service. It is the vow that is expected of us in relation to our parents. It is the vow that is expressed for us in the Ten Commandments, "Honor your mother and father."

What does that mean?

How does one honor one's mother and father?

To be honest – I’m not sure. 

How do I preach about this text to a room full of people, all of whom having such different experiences with our parents. 

I mean – personally, I was very blessed.  I loved my Dad.  I grew up thinking he was the smartest man in the world.  I figured he could do anything.  He taught me how to fish.  How to start a fire with rocks.  If I developed an interest, he would take that interest so we could do things together. 

My Mom – always full of grace and love.  No matter how anxious I would become about school or the drama in my life, she was always so calm. 

They were always with me, they always had my back, they always loved me.

But my experiences are just one sort of experience.  We all have different stories about our parents.

My Dad very seldom spoke of his father.  I did not know until my father died that my grandfather was an alcoholic.  Which may explain why my father did not drink at all.

You may have been abandoned or abused. Maybe you were verbally assaulted, humiliated and frequently forced to run and hide in fear. When you think of your parents, you may recall a history of bitterness and grudges. In any case, when you hear the phrase "honor your parents," your stomach turns just thinking about honoring someone who has treated you with such contempt.
And most folks find themselves in the middle.  Mom and Dad were not perfect.  They loved us, and they failed us.  They sometimes did great things for us, and sometimes did awful things to us.

But here’s the thing.  As Christians, we are called to love everyone – it doesn’t matter if they deserve it or not.  We are even expected to love our enemy.

This commandment is given to us to honor our parents, and has no qualifications of what ifs – nothing about whether to honor the loving parent, and not the creepy parent.  It just tells us to honor our mother and father.

Years ago I saw an interview of a woman who had been abused by her father.  For years her father did unspeakable things to his child.  The child grew up and in an interview shared how one day she heard her mother coming down the hallway to her room.  Both the child and the father were in the child’s bedroom and as the mother’s footsteps were heard, the father immediately stopped his abuse. 

The child thought, “Finally.  Finally this is going to stop.  Mom is going to rescue me.”  The footsteps continued to the child’s bedroom door and then stopped.  And then slowly, the footsteps were heard moving away from the door.  And the abuse continued.

Years later the child, as a teenager, found herself walking down the hallway and hearing the sounds coming from her little sister’s bedroom, knew that the abuse was continuing, but now with the younger sister.

The teenaged sister, unlike her mother, opened the door and stopped what was happening, and called the police.
As an adult, this woman struggled with what it meant for her to honor her parents.  She said it meant that first, she was not going to allow her parents to continue the abuse, for the behavior of her father was a dishonor to God and should not be allowed to continue. 

This man eventually went to prison.  For her, to honor her father meant praying for him every day.  She kept that commitment day after day for decades.  What she found was that initially these prayers were filled with hate and anger.  Over the years, those feelings softened.  After twenty years she was still working on learning to forgive, and in her words she was not quite there, but she was getting there, and to honor her father with forgiveness was as much a part of her healing, than any benefit her father might feel.

To answer what it means to honor your mother and father is something I can not tell you how to do, because we come from such different experiences with our parents.  Some of us had loving and caring parents and some were scum of the earth and many of us had a little of both. 

But however you discover how to fulfill this commandment, there are some things that are universal in how we might honor our parents:

1.  Love them.
As Christians we are to love others.  No exceptions.  Even our enemies.  I know, it’s not easy - this is one of the great challenges for us as Christians.  We’ve got some terrible people in this world. 
If you had great parents, you are blessed, and you can honor your parents by loving them.  If your parents were not so great, you can be a blessing, but honoring them with your love.
In the New Testament book, I John, chapter 4 (verse 20), we are told, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates … is a liar. For whoever does not love someone, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
So – no matter what kind of family you have, and no matter what age you are – you can honor your parents by loving them.
2.  Forgive them.
Every Sunday we pray the Lord’s Prayer as part of our worship service.  In that prayer we ask that God would forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  Forgive us, as we forgive others.  It is another basic principle by which we relate to ALL people, especially our parents.
In the most extreme cases, forgiveness might take a long, long time, and perhaps will always be somewhat incomplete and imperfect.  For those in healthy families, forgiveness might be easy. 

But we find our freedom and our own health by learning to forgive and let go.

The writer of the New Testament book of Ephesians wrote, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  He was not specifically talking about parents, but rather about all of our relationships.  However, learning to forgive is a way of honoring parents.
3.  Pray for them.  The earliest prayer that we learned as children was probably something like, “God bless mommy and daddy…” and then a list of other brothers, sisters, pets and friends.

You can pray for your parents no matter how young you are, and no matter how old you are.
What a great way to honor your parents - to pray for them? 
4.  To see that the needs of the parents are provided for.
There comes a time when the parent no longer provides for the child, but rather the child becomes responsible for the adult. 

There is a sense in which that was the original meaning of this commandment in the time of Moses.  There were no pensions, no retirement communities, no Social Security – the children had to care for elderly parents in real and dynamic ways. 

We are blessed in this country that we have so many programs and resources for the elderly.  Yes, we could do better, but what we do have is a blessing.

Still, the needs of the elderly parent sometimes require an adult child to be an advocate with the doctor, or at the hospital.  It might mean providing Mom or Dad with some financial guidance to avoid a scam.   

Paul said in the New Testament book of Philippians, (Philippians 2:4) “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Certainly this would be true in terms of looking out for the interest of our parents. 

 

So – this business of honoring your parents.  You have to figure a lot of that out yourself, because everyone’s family is so different.

 


But no matter what the state of your family background,  you must find a way to honor your mother and father, and at the very least, all of us can love them, forgive them, pray for them, and provide for them.


Copyright 2016. 
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved

Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to the author.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Day of Rest - #4 in a series on the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1-17

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.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

"You shall not murder.

"You shall not commit adultery.

"You shall not steal.

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."




Do you know that there is one thing in particular that can drive people nuts?

There is one thing in particular that can drive the most sane person insane.

There is one thing in particular that makes people nervous, anxious and uncomfortable.

And I’ll tell you what it is.

It’s…







       silence.




       Waiting.

       Nothingness.

       Being still.

       We don't like to be still and do nothing.

       It's bad enough when we know that we will have to wait, and we are prepared with "things to do."  A book we read while waiting in the doctor’s office.  Papers to work on while waiting for our plane to land at the airport.  CD music piped into our ears while we wait for the teacher to finish the class.

       But to wait with nothing to do, almost drives us to insanity. 

       It is guilt that makes us feel uncomfortable.  Somewhere we have learned that we need to be busy.  If we are living the full life, that must mean that we are busy.  If we are living a productive life, that must mean that we are busy.  If we are serving the Lord, then we must be busy.

       And if we are not busy, then we must not be serving the Lord.  And we must not be very productive.  And there must be something wrong with me.

       Most of us feel like we need to be active every minute of the day.

       A generation or two ago, the life of the family was going to be revolutionized by the automatic washing machine. Up until then, washing the family's laundry literally took an entire day. People referred to one day of their weekly routine as wash day.

       Then technology came through with the washing machine, and you could throw the clothing into a machine, and then leave it and go do something else. What a time saver.

       So what happened? Did we get more time to relax? No, we filled our time with other duties.

       The computer was the same way. It enables us to do more our work in a lot less time. But do we get off work early? No. We simply do more work.

       There is something within us that compels us to fill up every moment of our time.

       Even if we are not talking about work, our families are stretched to the limit with activities as we go from ballet classes to soccer to outings at the beach to concerts to this and to that.

       It is as if we are afraid of what might happen if we would just be still for a moment.

       The Old Testament book of Psalms says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  (Ps 46:10)

       Be still, and know that I am God.

       Be still.







       In the New Testament, there is a wonderful story about Jesus visiting the home of his friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Jesus comes to their home. Mary is content to be still and silent, and to be with the Lord. Martha can't do that. She has to be busy. In the words of the New Testament, she becomes "distracted and upset at many things."

       And so it is with us.

       Jesus is in the midst of our life. 

       But we become distracted and upset at many things.

       Our world is so busy, our lives are so full. Wouldn't it be nice if we could slow down just a bit, and be still, and simply experience the presence of God in our lives.

       There was a time when people had a time to be still.  To be quiet.  To rest.  To pause.

       It was called Sunday.

       Or more appropriately – the Sabbath Day.

       I remember as a child growing up that there was nothing open on Sundays.

       Do you remember that time?

       The grocery store was not open.

       There were no community sporting events for youth.

       Even the pharmacy was closed.  If you really needed some medicine, you had to know the pharmacist’s home telephone number and meet that person at the drug store.

       Today, the only place that is closed on Sunday is Chick Fil A.

       A few years ago I had the opportunity to meet the founder of Chick Fil A at the company’s national headquarters, which is located on the fringe of Atlanta, Georgia.  The founder is a man named Truett Cathy.  He is a fascinating person.  He collects cars and in the lobby of the Chick Fil A headquarters is one of the Batmobiles from one of the Batman movies.  Anyone who has his own Batmobile is alright in my book.

       He is also a Sunday School teacher, and has taught class for over 50 years.  His faith permeates his business.  On the front of the corporate headquarters is an engraving in stone – it is the company’s official mission statement, declaring that Chick Fil A exists “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick Fil A.”
      
       The Chick Fil A stores are always closed on Sundays in obedience to the Ten Commandments.

       Truett Cathey once said, “Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business.  If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we would need to be in some other line of work.

       We live in a society that has lost touch with that sense of the Sabbath.  There was a time when all of society took a Saturday off.  As Christianity grew, the Sabbath became observed on Sunday.

       It never really worked for all of society to take a day off on the same day, at the same time. 

       Even decades ago, when all of the grocery stores were closed on Sundays, and all of the drug stores and shopping centers were closed on Sundays, you still had hospitals open, and fire departments operating.

       Come to think of it, how many churches ever closed on Sunday?

       But we live in a society that desperately needs to take some form of day off.

       A day of rest.

       Sunday?  Saturday?  Whatever the day, every seven days, there needs to be a day for you to rest.  To pause.  To reflect.

       It was a century or more ago that in the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Natives of the area were hired to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For some strange reason they just sat and rested. When asked about the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.

       There are times when our lives move so fast, that we need to slow down and let our souls catch up with us -- not literally, but figuratively.

       “Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh is a day of rest.  On that day, you shall not do any work.”

What is it that God is giving us here?  A day of rest.  A day to relax.  A day off. 
       
God made the universe in six days, and He rested on the seventh.  Throughout Scripture, we are called to pattern our conduct after God's and thus we are to do our work during a certain period, then rest.
  
In the Ancient Near East, no other society had a day off.  This was a radical concept.  They would work six days, then on the seventh, they would work some more.  And unfortunately, that is the pattern that many of us have.  We don't take any time to rest.  But it is God's desire for us to work, and at certain intervals, to rest.
  
Let's not get bogged down in what constitutes work and what doesn't.  For one person who works at a desk throughout the week, rest might be found on the tennis courts in a time of physical exertion.  On the other hand, a person who works at physical labor throughout the week, rest is found on the sofa or in an easy chair. 
  
This may be the most personal of all the Commandments.  How we interpret what is rest and what is work comes down to the individual life style.  There must be a cycle of work and rest, but we have to be careful.  If we become too legalistic, the Sabbath becomes a burden.  But if we allow ourselves to do anything and everything, then the Sabbath becomes like any other day.  Each of us, however, has some form of middle ground in which we find that cycle of work and rest.
  

God gives us a gift in the Sabbath.  Let's enjoy the gift.

Copyright 2016. 
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved

Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to the author.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Name of God - #3 in a Series on the Ten Commandments



Exodus 20:1-7
1          And God spoke all these words:
2          "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3          "You shall have no other gods before me.
4          "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5          You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6          but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7          "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
(NIV)


I have a friend in the ministry who was traveling on a jet, going from one city to another.  He was seated next to two businessmen who were engaged in a spirited, profanity-laced conversation.

My friend says, "I had finally had it when they began running the Lord's name into the gutter. I raised myself up from my seat and turned around so that I was looking down on them from my perch."

Rob said to the men, "Are either of you in the ministry?"

The fellow in the aisle seat scoffed, "What would ever make you think that?"

Rob answered, "Well, I am in the ministry. And I am amazed at your communication skills in expressing theological concepts.”

The business men looked at him with a blank stare and finally one of them asked, “What theological concepts?”

Rob answered, “You just said God, damn, hell, and Jesus Christ in one sentence. I can't get all those theological concepts into a single sermon!"
          
You shall not use the name of the Lord in vain – that commandment often makes us think of profanity, and how we use the name of God in front of a profane word.


          My father was most skilled at using those colorful metaphors.  He managed some textile mills in the South and I think he managed the workers with the stern look in his eyes and the cuss words he would yell out.

          But using the name of God in vain is not limited to profanity, but anytime we use the name of God as an expression, we use the Lord’s name in vain.

          In the old movie, “Oh God,” with John Denver and George Burns, God comes to earth as a human being in the form of an old man, George Burns.  He has come to communicate his message through John Denver, and at one point Denver’s character becomes very frustrated and utters, “Oh God.”

          To which George Burns says, “Yes, what do you want.”

          “Oh nothing,” says Denver.  “’Oh God’ is just an expression.”

          “That’s why I’m here,” says God or George Burns.  “I want people to know that I’m more than just an expression. I’m something more.



          And using God’s name as a cuss word, or as a meaningless expression, is not the only way to use the Lord’s name in vain.

          Have you ever thought about how prayer might be a form of using the name of the Lord’s name in vain?

          Have you ever prayed a prayer you did not mean, or voice a prayer that meant nothing to you.

          One year, when I was in High School, my father decided that I needed to spend the summer being tutored in Math. He decided, without any input from me, that everyday, I was to go to Mrs. Frank's house to study math.

          I tried to talk my father out of it, and after exhausting my better arguments, I pleaded with my father, "Please, don't send me to Mrs. Frank.  She's got to be the oldest lady in town. What will I do if she drops dead of a heart attack?"  (That had never happened to one of my teachers, but I always felt that I had the potential for causing one to drop dead of frustration.)

          "Don't worry," my father said. "You want be so lucky."

          "But why Mrs. Frank," I asked. "What does she know about math? She's the Latin teacher."

          "Oh I'm not talking about that Mrs. Frank," my father said. "I'm talking about her mother."

          So there I was, spending my summer with the mother of the oldest woman in town.

          Everyday, I tried to make conversation in an effort to change the subject away from math. This was a ploy that usually did not succeed, until one day when our tutoring session was changed from the afternoon to a morning session.  Right in the middle of listening Mrs. Frank explain how to approach a problem, I heard the 10:30 mill whistle.

          Now understand, we were living in a small town, and the mill whistle could be heard all over town, and it regulated life. 

          8 am – time for the first shift to go to work, time for me to go to school.

          4 pm – time for the second shift to go to work, time for me to give up on homework.

          Midnight – time for the third shift, time for me to go to sleep.

          But there was also a 10:30 whistle, and I could never understand why that whistle blew – nothing happened at 10:30 am.  Why blow the whistle?

          "Hey, Mrs. Frank,” I said, seeing my opportunity to change the subject away from math.  “Have you ever wondered why the mill whistle blows at 10:30?"
    
"I know why," she said.

"You do? Tell me," I asked.

"It is a call for prayer."

"Prayer?" I was mystified. "What are you supposed to pray for? Quittin' time?"

          "No," she said, "it is a call for the workers in the mill to pause for just a moment, and for the community to stop and to pray for peace and an end to the war."

          "That's wonderful," I said, with all sincerity, thinking of the daily television news stories about the horrors of the then current war in South East Asia.  "I think we all need to pray for the end of the Vietnam War."

          "Oh no," Mrs. Frank said. "Not the Vietnam War. World War II."

          "World War II! That ended ages ago!  Hasn't anybody ever told the man who blows the whistle that it ended?"

          "Of course he knows," said Mrs. Frank. "I guess somebody told him to start it, nobody told him to stop, and somewhere along the way, he's forgotten what it means."

          I wonder sometimes – is that the way a lot of people pray?

          It’s empty and meaningless.  It’s a ritual that doesn’t have any substance.

          The Lord’s Prayer can be full of meaning and purpose – or we can say it from memory, without meaning.

          Have you ever thought about the phrase, “God bless America?” 
         
          Rob Bell is a pastor in the Midwest who always feels uneasy when he sees that bumper sticker.  He says he always has a feeling that the bumper sticker should instead read, “God HAS blessed America.”  Because God already has blessed us so much.

          But there is another thing about that phrase. 

          It can be said full of meaning – as prayer that God would bless us.  Or it could be said as empty political ploy that means absolutely nothing.

          And that is what is central to this commandment.  When we use God’s name, do we say it with meaning, or not.  When we do things in God’s name, does it have meaning or not.  When we call upon the Lord in prayer, does it have meaning or not?


The name of God is holy because it represents God Himself and it reflects the character of God.

To treat the name of God disrespectfully is to treat God disrespectfully.

          To treat the name of God flippantly or lightly is to treat God flippantly or lightly.

To say or use the name of the Lord without sincerity is to treat God Himself insincerely.

          But to treat the name of God reverently is to treat God with reverence. God is not a common, everyday household item for which we care little and which we can take for granted.  God is holy.

          God is not a useless thought or an empty phrase uttered without meaning or purpose. God is holy.

          God is not the 10:30 whistle, which is outdated and for which nobody shows any interest. God is holy.

          The way we treat the name of God reflects the way we relate to God. To treat the name of God as holy is to treat God Himself as holy.

And now unto God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory, today and forever, Amen.
Copyright 2016. 
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved

Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to the author.