The fifteenth sunday after pentecost
Shepherd
of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
Deuteronomy 4:1,2,6-9
Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to
teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession
of the land the Lord, the
God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do
not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the
commands of the Lord your God that I give you.6 Observe
them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the
nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great
nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What
other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to
have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before
you today? 9 Only be careful,
and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes
have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to
your children and to their children after them. (NIV)
It’s no secret how casinos
make so much money: they simply offer games in which the odds are heavily in
their favor. Yet even though the
average person walking into a casino is much more likely to walk out with less
money than when he walked in, people – lots of people – still go, don’t they? Most rational thinking goes out the
window as the gambler entertains the possibility of what could be. So a person hoping to make money in a
casino tries to turn things in his favor by playing the odds against the
casino. Maybe he plays poker
because he reasons that he doesn’t compete against the house, but against other
players, so if he is more skilled than they are in the game, his chances of
winning are better. Or he counts
cards in blackjack to improve his odds.
Or he reasons that certain bets at the craps table give him the best
chance at walking out of the casino with money.
Now all of these strategies
may prove true. Certain games and
certain strategies may present a person with a little bit better odds. However, the odds still remain in the
casino’s favor, don’t they?
There’s always a chance being taken; always a risk. It isn’t a matter of finding a game
where the odds are actually in your favor – no casino would sensibly offer such
a game. No, the odds are in their favor
so that you’re the one taking the risk.
As much as a person thinks he’s increasing his chances at winning, the
reality is that all he’s doing is decreasing his chances of losing as much. So how much sense does it really make for a person to
think he’s going to win at gambling?
Any way you look at it, it is always a risk to gamble.
Yet we do it as parents,
don’t we? We knowingly gamble with
our children’s spiritual welfare.
We know that the best chance our children have at winning spiritually is
through a steady diet of the Word.
That’s not up for debate or negotiation. So why do we take a chance, why do we take such risks by
being OK with the Word having a limited place in our children’s lives? No, there is no page in Scripture that
demands that an education in a Christian elementary or high school, or daily
devotions, or weekly worship, or personal Bible study are all necessary for
heaven. But with the odds so
stacked so heavily against us and in Satan’s favor, why would we not do
everything possible to level the playing field, or to give our children an
advantage? Why would we not devour
every opportunity possible for ourselves and for our children? Why would we be willing to take such a
big gamble?
No, there’s no guarantee that
a person can’t fall away; that’s always a possibility. Yet, does that make it reasonable to
conclude that because there’s no such guarantee, that we don’t want to give our
children the best shot they can possibly have by being in and remaining in the
Lord? Of course not. The patient who’s just been diagnosed
with cancer is provided with a number of options for treatment, even though his
doctor says there is not guarantee that any of them will work. Will that patient say no thanks to
surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or any other possible treatment simply on the
basis that there’s no guarantee that they’ll work? Of course not!
Most people wouldn’t think twice about trying every single possible
treatment available, if there’s a chance it might help.
Well guess what? There’s more than a chance that things
like Sunday school and the Sacrament, Bible study and CLHS, MLS, or LPS will
prove beneficial, because the Word is always beneficial. We’re not ashamed of it, for as Paul
said, “it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe”
(Romans 1:16). Increasing your odds at gambling might
work. Cancer treatment can work. But God’s Word always works.
Parents, in order to pass it
on, that Word must first do its work on you. One of the most often overlooked needs that you have in
parenting your children is your own spiritual health. It starts with you.
If we are going to be committed to Passing it on as Parents in order to fortify our families, then it must start
with mom and dad. Parents, listen
carefully: you cannot fill your child’s cup from an empty pitcher. Your pitcher must first be filled and
remain filled constantly in order for you to be able to pour out anything of
substance to your children.
Skim briefly through the
words from Deuteronomy once again and note the number of ways that parents can
fill up their pitchers: “Hear…
Follow… Do not add… do not subtract… keep… Observe…be careful… watch.” “Hear” God’s Word, not the way we have the game or talk show on in the
back ground when trying to multi-task, but hear it the way you hear the
exciting news from your out-of-breath ecstatic child who cannot wait to share
something big with mom or dad.
“Follow” God’s laws and decrees, not the way you casually follow a
blogger or the occasional Tweet from someone, but the way you follow a guiding
light in otherwise pitch black darkness, not stepping to one side or the other,
but with supreme focus. “Do not
add/subtract” from God’s commands, for he wants to be sure your pitcher is
filled up with the content of his Word, not the concoction of your own thoughts
or opinions. “Be careful” with God’s
Word, not ever overestimating that your pitcher is filled to the brim, when in
reality it may be running on empty.
Did you catch what God
promised to his chosen people if they showed such regard for his Word? He said, “Follow them so that you
may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God
of your fathers is giving you” (v.1). Is that to say that if
the Israelites had not obeyed, that God would never have given them the
promised land? In a sense, yes. Remember that God had established his
two-way covenant with his special people.
So long as they remained faithful to God and his commands, God would
remain faithful to them and bless them.
For even though God did deliver them into the promised land, we
ultimately know from history what resulted when they blatantly disregarded his
will for them: they were ripped out of the promised land and taken away into
captivity. In addition, if they
had kept God’s commands faithfully, they never would have intermarried and
given into idolatry after being influenced by the surrounding nations. So God held out the promise of richly
blessed lives in the promised land if they had kept his Word close to their
hearts.
God promises his blessings to
those who today keep his Word close to their hearts. Those blessings stem from
the forgiveness won for us by Jesus.
Failing our children and broken promises; destructive addictions and
deceptive lies; greed, lust, and all the other sins that fill us with guilt and
regret – they all meet their match at the cross, where they’ve all been paid
for in full. Lives close to God’s
Word are close to his forgiveness, and the blessing of peace naturally
follows. Lives close to God’s Word
are filled with love from God and love for God. Lives close to God’s Word are close to God, and a personal
relationship with God through Christ means incomparable blessings that just
can’t be discovered apart from him.
The added benefit in this
order of things is that as they see God’s blessings in their lives that flow
from hearing, following, keeping, observing, etc. God’s Word, then parents will
be all the more likely to want to pass those blessings on to the next
generation, which is exactly what we’re called to do. About all the things that God had done for his people in the
past, Moses encouraged parents, “Teach them to your children and to their
children after them” (v.9b). Remind children of how God graciously
established the people of Israel through Abraham and the patriarchs. Tell them of how God blessed both his
own people and other nations through Joseph’s leadership in Egypt. Don’t let them forget how bad things
had gotten in Egypt, and that the LORD God had delivered them from it all and
ushered his people into the promised land.
Parents, God’s exhortation to
you is no different today. Teach
your children what he’s done. Yes,
that includes Old Testament history as well as new. It includes the stories of patience and compassion that
characterize God’s treatment of his people throughout history. But it also includes what God has done
for us personally through Jesus Christ.
In fact, more than anything else, the message of Jesus is what we are to
pass on as parents. We teach our
children about his suffering and about his cross. We teach our children about the Resurrection and Jesus’ rule
in heaven for our good. We teach
about how Jesus connected our children to all of that through their
baptism. We teach our children to
look forward to and to yearn for the Lord’s Supper. We teach our children that all the Christian’s life is one
of willing and compassionate service for others. We teach our children that in Christ, life cannot be better.
We teach them by living
it. Let them see it. We teach them by letting them see how
important these things are to us as we take seriously Jesus’ invitation to
worship him every week. We teach
them by letting them see mom and dad reading the Bible and praying. We teach them by letting them see
examples of selfless service in their parents. We teach them by living it.
And we teach them by telling
it. Let them hear it. We teach them by letting them hear from
our lips of God’s grace and forgiveness for them. We teach them by letting them hear us confess our wrongs to
others and pronounce forgiveness when wronged ourselves. We teach them by letting them hear our
ongoing encouragement for them always to keep their faith at the forefront of
lives responsibilities. We teach them by letting them hear of Jesus’ love for
them and his promise of eternal life for all who are faithful to the point of
death. We teach them by telling
it.
If we are to fortify our
families by passing it on as parents, then this is not the place to
gamble. Your child’s eternity is
absolutely not worth the risk.
Fill your own heart and soul with Jesus and his life and death for you, then
you’ll have something to teach your children. Then you’ll have exactly what you need to pass it on as
parents: Jesus. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and
the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the
Christian it makes.” (Luther)
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