Pentecost 2 A
Deuteronomy 11:18-21; 26-28
Underpinnings for the Church of God
06/02/02
I would guess that’s not a word that you use in your everyday vocabulary. More customary is the use of other words with similar meaning; words like “foundation” or “groundwork” or “building blocks.” Any of these words, especially “foundation”, can be used interchangeably for that word “underpinning”, but not exactly.
You see, properly speaking, an underpin is “a foundation introduced for additional support to what’s already there or when a previous support is about to be removed.” You might say it’s the stuff behind a foundation’s strength or a more basic source of support when something else is about to give way or be taken away. And that’s what Moses was trying to secure for God’s people.
A new era was about to begin in the life of God’s people, in a new environment; and with a major change. For 40 years the people of Israel had wandered in the desert as a closely knit community, moving from camp to camp. It was like a vast extended family and support system that was always available to admonish, to encourage, to guide and to build each other up in the way to go. That would suddenly change. The people would populate the lands they would be given and establish permanent residences situated in widely separated areas. So Moses set about the task of relaying the underpinnings of the community that would bind them with one another and most importantly to their saving God, even after this support was gone; the first being the family incubator.
This, of course, had always been in place, but it was going to be even more important now. The extended family of the worshiping community would be less present. It would still be there, but in a lesser role by necessity. More responsibility would fall to the parents in transmitting the faith to the next generation. And in many respects one can see this being repeated in the life of the church today.
Not too long ago, recent enough for some of you to remember; the church was the focal point of community activity. People gathered at church, not just for worship, but for social functions, picnics, celebrations and the like. It wasn’t unusual for people to make an entire day of it on Sunday, not just an hour. The congregation was essentially and sometimes quite literally an extended family as it was in the days of Moses.
To the grief of some this not nearly so much the case now, and in many ways I can sympathize with that. Yet in other ways I’m glad it’s not. The Church was very self-focused. It’s mission of making disciples was somewhat overlooked as we took care of our own. The fact that our people are less focused on “doing” church and more focused on being out in the world can be a good thing, except for the fact we’ve left out another underpinning of the people of God, an essential underpinning that can’t be forgotten – the Word.
As it was then, so it is now. As we are sent out into the world to fill the land God has given us with the message of His gracious love, best seen in Christ; the primary mission field and training ground is the Christian home. The Church can help. In fact that’s the proper role of pastors and teachers of the Word as God spoke through Paul in Ephesians 4. They are to “equip the saints for service and the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). It is to the families, and primarily to parents, though, that the words of our text today are spoken. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers.”
That’s more than bringing them to the church for instruction. That’s important. The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that “faith comes from hearing the message.” We gather on Sunday’s to be strengthened and built up by God’s Spirit in saving faith. But a Sunday School class or Sunday morning sermon can’t catch your son or daughter at every “teachable moment” when their heart and mind are open to hearing what God’s Word has to say about that specific circumstance. A class can’t be there when something happens that makes them think, as parents can.
Let’s also be clear that we’re not just picturing parents to be walking scripture machines, always ready to give some quick, easy answer, or lecture, for any and every circumstance. Sometimes a good lecture is needed, but in general we’re talking here about being “living presenters” of the word, all the time. That means actively looking for opportunities to talk, to reflect, to reinforce lessons learned at church in the heart and on the mind with living examples going on from day to day. “When you sit at home” watching TV for instance and something happens to reinforce the faith or to challenge it; don’t just sit there. Push the mute button and ask you son or daughter, “What did you think of that?” Or let’s take driving along the road somewhere. You here of something that happened at school today and you see an opportunity to bring God’s Word to bear, to think through what’s true or false. Make use of family times together just to gather around a brief devotional word and prayer. Ask questions. Provoke thinking. With sensitivity and great tact, stop to listen to them and lead them to discover where it is good to go. That’s the parent’s task.
Which may lead some of you to say, “Exactly, and that’s why we’re giving it all up to the professionals. It’s too overwhelming. Let the pastor and other teachers do it.” I know that’s how many of you feel, because you’ve told me. Just a few weeks ago in Sunday School we asked what the greatest needs and challenges of parents are today and the vast majority said, “learning how to pass on their values and faith to their children.”
That’s one of the primary reasons we’ve been doing Sunday School the way we have for the past year. Family Fun in the Son isn’t meant as a means to make Sunday School “fun” or more entertaining. We want it to be interesting, but the primary goal is learning, both on the children’s part and on the part of the family. It’s important for kids to learn. But it’s important for us as a congregation to let our parents know that they are supported and for parents to learn and to impart what they have learned to their kids.
Parents, you can’t pass on what you don’t know. In order to transmit the truth of God’s Word, you have to possess that truth yourselves. In order to train a child in godliness and wisdom, you have to be godly and wise yourselves. It has to be real for you if it’s ever to be real for them. I think that’s what Paul is partially talking about in Ephesians 6 when he says, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; but instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” And there’s nothing more exasperating than parents and other adults telling their children about the importance of the Word with their mouths and conveying it’s not so important with their lives.
Parents, be in the word yourselves. You others, support these parents by being in the word too. And share it with these, our youth; because it’s important. It’s more than just rules and laws to live by. It’s a roadmap to a joy-filled life.
It’s strength. This task we’ve been talking about is an awesome responsibility. Are we up to it? By no means. I’m not up to it as a pastor either. But by God’s grace, we are what God has given us to be and He has promised through the pen of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” None of us are adequate of ourselves to the task of teaching and instructing our children in God’s Word. But grace and power of Christ and His Spirit, available in the Word, is sufficient to make us adequate for the task. As Paul was given to say elsewhere, “I’m not ashamed of the Gospel, because it’s the power of God unto salvation.” It’s God’s power to call us to faith, to redirect our lives, to mold, and to shape and to fashion us into His gospel-sharing people. The word is strength as well as a guide.
To walk in it means blessing. That’s not so much a reward as just a stated truth. God gives us His Word to guide us to those things wherein we’ll find joy, and when we stray we can expect less than pleasant results. You know this. You reap what you sow. Spend your days holding grudges, living with a bitter heart; and you will be known as a harsh, vindictive, ornery human being. On the other hand if you decide to forgive as God has forgiven you, your mind will be relieved and your relationships will prosper. Spend your days in hyper-criticism and gossip and no one will trust you. Despise authority at work and get fired. To walk in the Word is to be blessed. To stray from the Word is to be curse. It’s a powerful guide, but then again maybe you’re thinking to yourself in the hearing of this Word tonight/today that you’ve already failed at this or maybe you’re failing in it right now. It’s only right to stop and recognize it today. We all have.
But that’s only part of the word. Its greatest blessing is found in its message of gracious love, the final underpinning that Moses didn’t want God’s people to forget.
The thought comes easy. “I must have done something right to deserve all of this.” But that’s the voice of the false prophets in the Gospel lesson today. The truth that Moses would have the people never forget is that this blessing was never deserved; not even the offer let alone the actual giving. Nevertheless God shows that He intended all along to give it. He chose to give it, not because of any quality in them, but on the basis of his gracious love. They knew it. They had seen it in action. It was the same gracious love that he had shown in the past when he called them out of Egypt, restored them as His people when they sinned at Sinai, healed them at when they looked in repentance to the serpent cross.
And it’s the same gracious love that has brought him to do even more today. Out of that gracious love He takes the sin that would rightly curse us today, even those of neglecting our callings to our families; to the cross with His Son and holds out a Promised Land in Heaven. By His Son He would make us righteous to live in His sight and He would work by His Spirit to place a right spirit within us even now; not by virtue of anything we have done, but solely out of His gracious love poured out on us in the waters of Holy Baptism, delivered every time we partake of His Supper and relived every time we use our ears to hear His Living Word.
Do you remember back to the days of your youth when you weren’t so sure you wanted to take a bath or shower. Some of you had to be drag to the tub. But then came a time in your life when you decided taking a shower was a good thing! Some here, wouldn’t even dream of going a whole day much less two without one.
That’s the way it is with the hearing of God’s word. Many are so immature in the Faith that they aren’t so sure they want to come to church very often. They aren’t so sure they need to receive Communion. They really aren’t so sure they want to have family devotions or discuss matters of faith in their homes or pay that close attention to the very one who can strengthen and clarify and guide and correct and lead and most importantly cleanse of every sin.
Oh how I pray that not be the case with you here today. That was Moses prayer too. Oh that starting today we the people of God would remember the value of family grounded in the Lord and not just vaguely attached; that we as families would immerse ourselves in the things of God instead of merely dabbling in them; that we would believe with all our hearts and souls and minds that there is blessing for us and ours when we are underpinned as families, bound together in God’s Word, and upheld by God’s love in Jesus Christ. For with Him there is forgiveness, apart from him only sin and damnation. With Him there is peace of mind, apart from him despair. With Him there is a joy that last, apart from Him only joy that comes and goes. With Him there is strength to do all things, apart from Him only strength that comes and goes. With Him there is truth that is sound and absolute, apart from Him the rules of life are ever changing for the worse. Apart from Him only darkness and death, with Him and His Word there is light and life.
