The Connection between Head and Heart: Living Deuteronomy
Romans 12:1-2; Colossians 2:6-8; Deuteronomy 6:1-25
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
February 5, 2012
Series: Christ in the Home
I have recently enjoyed playing chess on my computer. In fact, when I run into writer’s block as I am preparing a sermon, I will often play a game of chess to clear the mind and give ideas an opportunity to percolate. I often find that after a game, my mind is better prepared to fit the ideas swimming around in my head into a structure that helps illuminate the text and bring clarity to the Bible’s message. The game primes the pump, so-to-speak; it gets the juices flowing so that I am able to think through a passage.
The funny thing is I really stink at chess. I mean, I am reasonably able to map out a strategy for myself – which piece to move when – but when that strategy meets up with the strategy of my opponent, I often fail to see what’s going on. I have no understanding, no anticipation of how my opponent’s move is going to work out – how my moves are shaped or changed by the moves of my opponent. A good chess player is able to see, at least, three to four moves ahead – to conceive in her mind what the board is going to look like after the next three or four moves. A good chess player builds one move upon another, no piece is wasted – every move he makes develops his overall strategy.
Have you ever seen a stone mason at work? I had the privilege of working on a job site where a master mason was building a stone chimney for an upscale home. He was an old black gentleman applying an old world craft. He didn’t have any power tools, just a trough, a wheel barrow, his hammers and chisels. His apprentice gathered the stones for the master craftsman then stood by to assist.
The stones for the fireplace were scattered across the floor, sort of haphazardly but with none resting on the other. The old guy would sit on an over-turned 5 gallon bucket, smoking a cigarette and slowly moving his gaze from one stone to the next. After a time, he would get up, take his tools in hand and carefully shape the stone he had been eyeing and then check to see he had shaped it correctly. If all checked out, he’d trough it into place and then resumed his perch on the bucket.
He’d fit each unique stone into place, always with the end product in view – careful to consider what configuration of the stones at his disposal would lead to the most stable and most beautiful chimney. A good chess player manages the game in the same way a stonemason builds, carefully fitting one stone at time with the end result fully in view. He is never in a hurry, never tyrannized by the immediate, but always operates from the “big picture.”
You may not have realized it yet, but that is what we have been doing in this series on Christ in the Home. Like the stonemason, we are carefully fitting together the building blocks of a family altar. Like the chess player, no move toward the end goal has been wasted – though it may have seemed at times like we lingered too long in one area. Today, we begin to lay the capstones of the altar – the top slab on which we will offer our praises to God. Today we will begin to see the bigger picture.
So we can see it more clearly, I want to spend just a moment looking at what we already have built. We began by talking about the necessity of giving our children a firm foundation because the prevailing culture is locked in relativism – in the belief that there is no absolute truth; that truth is determined by the interpretation of the one receiving it. In fact, some of the statistics I quoted in support of this were downright frightening; even among Christian youth, only one in ten believes in an absolute moral standard. The problem, we discovered, is that our way of seeing and acting in the world is being shaped more by the surrounding culture than by the Scriptures.
We were then introduced to the concept of a worldview – a set of beliefs one holds to be true that s/he uses to put things into context and make sense of our world. And we talked about a set of questions every worldview must answer in order to be valid. The first question is “Where did we come from and why are we here?” The second question a worldview must answer is “What is real and how do we know?” The third question a worldview must answer is “How should we then live?”
As we explored these questions we considered them from both the perspective of the culture around us – from a position of relativism – and from a Christian, Biblical position. And what we found is that of the two, only the Christian, Biblical position answered the questions adequately – that all reality, all truth, and all knowledge are rooted in the person and character of God. And since the foundation of our worldview is unmovable, is eternal, is unchanging then we are able to know who we are in relation to God and how to live because he has revealed himself and his will for us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ and in his Word, the Bible.
Now the question is why does all this matter? Well, a worldview serves a much deeper role in our lives than just a perspective; it’s more than just lenses or a filter through which we see the world – it’s more than just mental filing system to help us categorize what our senses perceive. It is, at heart, a belief; and one can become what one believes. Essential to understanding the importance of our worldview is that it directly impacts our identity – who we are at our core. The worldview one accepts is what will ultimately define and identify that person. It is not possible for one to operate outside of their worldview. The importance of understanding this concept of worldview is to emphasize that behavior, choices, and actions will all come from our worldview. Our worldview informs our values, which informs our choices, which informs our actions and feelings.
So if our worldview is rooted in the person and character of God – what does that look like and how is it applied? One source I read outlined a Christian worldview this way, “The Christian worldview is a comprehensive understanding of reality based on the teachings in the Christian scriptures. In particular, the Christian worldview hangs on four strategic events: (1) Creation; (2) Fall; (3) Incarnation; and (4) Restoration. Together these events explain the Christian philosophy of history and offer a blueprint for living.” While this gives us fodder for understanding what the shape of a Christian worldview looks like we still need to know how it is applied.
In Romans 12:1-2, we find the Biblical command and framework for constructing and living out a Christian, Biblical worldview.
"I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable (act of) worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
A few things to consider about this passage.
First notice that language here is one of command (this means it is not optional for the Christian). We are to respond to God’s mercy with faithful obedience. The shape of that obedience is to cease and desist in thinking and responding like the rest of the world (the kingdom of the devil) and to begin thinking and responding according to the pattern expressed in the life of Christ (the Kingdom of God).
We should also note that becoming a sacrifice is an all or nothing proposition. You cannot offer your leg on the altar and not give your hand also. The transformation that we are to undergo is holistic – every aspect of our life is impacted; is to be transformed. The offering of our bodies as living sacrifices begins with the renewing of our minds; a transformation in the way we think and view the world. This transformation accompanies the transformation of the heart spoken of in other parts of Scripture (Matthew 12:34, Ezekiel 36:26, et al.)
So our offering – the transformation by the renewing of our minds – is our reasonable act of worship. Since we are commanded to be transformed as our reasonable act of worship, we should understand what it means to worship Biblically.
Typically, when we think of worship our minds go immediately to our gatherings here on Sunday mornings, singing hymns, offering prayers, and giving thanks. Collectively, we refer to these things as worship. But the Bible – particularly the New Testament – has a very different view of worship. There are nine words in the Greek that are translated – depending upon their context – as worship. They vary as to their root meaning – fear, to bow down, to carry out a religious ritual, among others – but there is often some element of service or serving implied. In other words, worship is more than something that happens on Sunday mornings.
When Paul spoke of worship, he spoke of it as a life “worthy of the Gospel” – a life that reflected the grace of God in Christ in every moment of every day. In the Reformed tradition we have a saying, “All of life is worship.” By that we mean that worship is a lifestyle, a worldview that recognizes the Lordship of Christ in every area of life: from the way we conduct business to how we recreate, from sex to the way we raise our families, from how we form our political leanings to how we form our friendships. All of it is meant to be a reflection of Jesus Christ. We are to image God in all of our relationships, in all our activities, in all stages of life. We are to live lives that reflect God’s glory and bring him praise. So worship, in the Biblical sense, is the practical outworking of our worldview.
Okay, all that considered, how is it applied? Well, if Romans 12:1-2 provide the command and framework for our worldview, Colossians 2:6-8 provides the content within the frame.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
In other words, the content – the way we apply and live out our worldview is discipleship. Ray VanderLaan in the Leader’s Guide for “That the World May Know: Faith Lessons from the Early Church” defines a disciple (talmidim) as those “…passionately devoted [to the rabbi]. They watched and noted everything he said and did so that they could do the same. As the rabbi lived and interpreted the Torah, his disciples sought to imitate him. Their overriding passion was to be like him.”
This is the framework of discipleship that Paul and the other apostles understood that life in Christ should be shaped by. This means that discipleship is more than learning the teachings of the rabbi – it means observing the rabbi’s life so thoroughly that the disciple begins to act and respond like the teacher. In other words, he becomes the mirror image of the master.
What, then, is the call of the disciple of Christ? He lays it out for us in Matthew 28:16-19 – to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching to obey all that Christ commanded. In other words, intrinsic (fundamental, built-in, basic) to our worship is discipleship.
Now before we take this next step, let’s review where we are. Everyone has a worldview; Christians are commanded to have a distinctly Christian worldview that is expressed through worship. Worship is worldview transformed into action – in the case of the Christian, that action takes the shape of discipleship – the fundamental expression of worship.
Since we have demonstrated all this from the Scriptures, it is now a question of faithfulness and obedience. And since we want to be both faithful and obedient to the God who made us and redeemed us the question now becomes where is this discipleship primarily to take place and how do we carry it out?
Now, our first – almost knee-jerk reaction – is in the church, of course! That’s what we gather for – the equipping of the saints. While it is true that the church has its role to play in the discipleship of the covenant community, there is a more basic communal unit that is to be the hotbed of discipleship in the Christian community. We read Deuteronomy 6 earlier, so I won’t take the time to do it now, but I want to offer some remarks about what we find in that passage.
In Deuteronomy 6:1-3 – we are commanded to actively shape the faith life of (to disciple) our children. From the very beginning, God’s expectation is that the discipleship of covenant children will be centered in the home. The purpose of spiritual formation is so that each generation will learn to fear the Lord – to properly worship him. A well-formed spirituality expressed in obedience leads to blessing.
In Deuteronomy 6:4-5 gives us the substance of discipleship: to promote love for God expressed in single-minded obedience. Faith formation is about more than simply transmitting the content of faith – it is about leading the disciple to love God with our whole being. To make God our ultimate priority around which our life is oriented.
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 provides the command to disciple our children and the method we are to use in forming the faith in them. Here we see explicitly that the primary means of faith formation is to happen in the home, in the family. God’s design for the Christian family is that it be the vehicle through which our children are brought to faith. Evangelism begins at home.
The method we are to use is to inundate the lives of our children with the Word of God. We are to shape our lives around God’s Word, using every opportunity to transmit the substance of our faith. We are to create an environment where our faith can be “caught” by our children as much as it is taught.
Finally, Deuteronomy 6:20-25 the importance of testimony and connecting our children to the story is expressed. Remember who Moses was talking to – a generation that by and large had not experienced the slavery in Egypt. Yet when they told the story, it was always to be in the first person. This encourages us to presume the faith of our children until such a time as they renounce because we are taught here to teach them to understand the story of redemption in personal terms – “God did this for me.”
Okay, we have laid the final stone – the altar stands ready for use. We’ve seen the importance of worldview; not only for engaging the world as soldiers in the ranks of our Lord Christ’s Kingdom, but we have also seen that we are to be diligent stewards of the treasure committed to us – the Gospel. We are to impress it upon our children – to disciple them through teaching, mentoring, testimony and example.
All that remains is to understand how we use this family altar – that’s what we will do next week as we conclude this series. May God grant us understanding as we seek his wisdom in this.
http://www.theologicalstudies.org/christian_worldvidew.html
VanderLaan, Ray That the World May Know; Faith Lessons on the Early Church Leaders Guide; Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids; 2000 p.22.
