Brent Kuhlman

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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost / Proper 7                                                                                     

20 June 2010                                   

Ephesians 6:1-4

Why does the Fourth Commandment begin with the word “honor?” Why honor Mom?  Why honor Dad? 

Because God uses Mom and Dad to give you life.  God created you.  And He used Mom and Dad to bring you into the world. 

In addition, God takes care of you through Mom and Dad.  The cheeseburgers, scrambled eggs, Ipods, cell phones, school cars, Levis, Nikes, and money for camps and college don’t just fall from the sky.  God provides for you through Mom and Dad.  Parents are the Lord’s instruments.  His hands.  His mouth.  For their children.  The Lord hides behind Mom and Dad.  They are His masks.

So children are to ”honor” and “obey” their parents in the Lord.  That is to say “honor” and “obey” them as you would honor and obey the Lord Himself who died for you. 

Died for you are.  All of you.  And Christ’s love and forgiveness EW to reign in your families.  And so kids, “obey” your parents just as you obey the Lord Jesus.  If you don’t, you’re not disobeying just Mom and Dad, you’re disobeying the Lord too who works through them for your benefit.  This is “right.”  I.E. it is God pleasing. 

Disobedience destroys.  Some of you have experienced the disastrous consequences of rebellion in the family by a son or daughter.  Perhaps you were the son or the daughter whose naughtiness harmed the family.  Disobedience to parental authority is selfish.  It is idolatry.  Imagine if Jesus would have disobeyed His Father?  You wouldn’t have a Savior.  And God would be your enemy. 

Instead, Jesus, the Son of God, willingly does the job His Father gave Him.  He offers His perfect life and His holy Body into death – death on the cross – for you and for your salvation.  He trusts His Father.  Even when it doesn’t look good.  When it looks very bad. 

Remember the immense suffering at Gethsemane?  Remember His lament on the cross?  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”  Even then – yes even in the total abandonment of damnation for our sin – for the world’s sin -- that He bears -- His Father is still His God.  “My God, my God,” Jesus prays.  No wonder He even prays for His enemies in this most amazing way:  “Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they’re doing.”  And then this remarkable prayer of total faith in the midst of horrific death that His Father will raise Him from the grave:  “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”    

Now that’s a Savior.  And unlike the Gerasenes we want Jesus to stick around.  To lord His reign of forgiveness over all of us.  Especially over our families.  Especially in our relationship with our fathers.  We are given to “honor” our father. 

As we honor our father as we honor the Lord, generally speaking, things will go well.  That’s the promise attached to the commandment.  “That it may go well with you,” the text says.  When the died for, believing, and baptized children of God “honor” and “obey” their parents according to the Fourth Commandment, the Lord adds a promise.  “You enjoy good days, happiness, and prosperity.”  Enjoying a “long life” means not only to grow old but also to have everything that pertains to long life – health, wife, children, a God pleasing job, peace, good government, etc.  With these gifts the Lord makes life bearable and enjoyable.  What an incentive then to “honor” and “obey” our father.

Then the text goes on to speak to fathers specifically.  Are you listening fathers? St. Paul writes: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children.”  The older translation is:  “do not provoke your children to wrath.” 

Dad, you are to expect honor and obedience.  But you are not to use your position of father to bully or bash your children.  To endlessly punish or berate.

Dad, Jesus who died for you and your family, has good use for you.  You are to live for your children.  For their needs.  Not for yours.  Dad, you are to die to your selfish desires.  Your incessant navel gazing.  You are to look outside yourself.  To your children.  To take care of them.

And part of that care is this:  “Bring your children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”  Spiritual care.  It’s the eternal life or death issue here.  I fear that too many children will come up to their fathers on Judgment Day and say:  “Why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?  Why did you never take me to church?  Why did you insist on everything else in the world, but never Jesus?”    

Dad, bring your children to church.  Not just when it’s convenient or fits into your schedule just a few times a year.  “Bring your children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”    

After all, we are not Gerasenes who beg Jesus to leave them.  To have nothing to do with them.  We are not Universalists.  Everyone does not automatically go to heaven when they die whether they believe in Jesus or not. 

Jesus, His death, His resurrection, His Name, His Body and Blood with the promise of forgiveness are everything.  For where Jesus is applying His Good Friday forgiveness there is life and salvation for you.  So we beg Him to stay with us.  And we diligently follow Him.  And Him alone.    

Fathers, teach your kids to pray the Lord’s Prayer.  To pray in such a way is the way of faith, dependence, trust.  Teach them to confess the Apostles’ Creed.  Then they will know who the true God is.  That He is Triune:  three persons yet one God.  Who created us to redeem and sanctify us.  Make sure they are baptized and instructed according to the Lord’s mandate in Matthew 28.  Extol the Lord’s Supper and what Jesus gives sinners there by receiving it yourself.  By making every effort to commune and rely on Jesus’ most holy salvific Body and Blood. 

Fathers, spiritual discipline is very important.  You are to discipline your children.  Absolutely.  And that’s the discipline of repentance and faith.  To confess sin daily and to believe or trust in Jesus who alone is the Savior.  That’s a disciple.  A disciple is a beggar.  A disciple relies on Jesus for everything.    

Fathers, let your children see such discipline in your life as well.  And that’s saying and showing that you are nothing.  But Jesus is everything to you.  That you trust in Him.  And that He is your Savior.

Happy Father’s Day.

In the Name of Jesus.