Word Five: Heritage
A Sermon on The Fifth Command, Luke
2:41-52 and John 19:26-27
For the Twelfth Sunday Following
Pentecost (10 Words Series)
Sept 8, 2019
For the Beloveds of First Austin: a
baptist community of faith
Incarnate and Resurrected God, we
ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and
breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your
presence here in this space and in these words, God. For if we are present to
you, then nothing else will matter, but if we are not present to you, then
nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the
Comforter. Amen.
One of the mysteries of our current
world for me is why we so often turn to the Bible for family values. It’s like
turning to HBO’s Succession for parenting lessons, or The Real
Housewives of (fill in the Blank) for marriage wisdom – it might be real in
that (and only in that) it might be real cautionary.
And please know, that does not mean
I don’t think there aren’t any guiding principles in our text for marriage and
family and love; I just think it involves a lot more digging and context and
application that we often see in quote-unquote “biblical family values.” Once
again, the Bible might be difficult for those of us who find ourselves in the
moderate and progressive camps, but it is still our guiding book.
The Bible is probably the best
midrash and explanation of the brilliant line that opens Anna Karenina: “All
happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” There
is a lot of dysfunction in biblical families. Which I personally love because
it tells us the virtues, and the guiding word we find within it can be applied
to the mess of real life.
For instance, this morning ask
yourself this: would you have wanted Jesus as your child?
And not just because of the birth
narrative, which obviously is enough to make most of us throw in the towel.
Birthing and having kids are tough enough without having to explain that this
is the very child of God. And then Scripture goes radio silent about Jesus as a
child…
… Until he is 12, and we have this
little episode where Jesus and his parents are traveling to the temple to
observe a holy day. It’s a very important event and tells us a great deal about
Jesus’ upbringing – that his parents went out of their way to raise him in
Judaism because there is no obligation to take him to the temple until he is
older. This is intentional parenting and making sure Jesus knows the story he
was born into, or maybe the story he birthed.
So, they go to temple, and then they
travel home. It’s about a 2-day trip, and halfway through the trip home they
realize that Jesus is not with them. Now, before you judge Mary and Joseph,
they would have been traveling with a large group of people and were probably
giving Jesus some freedom. “Tomorrow morning, we leave at 7:00 am” – and they
assume Jesus is with them and the large group. After all, the perfect son of
God would never not obey them, right?
But Jesus decides not to travel with
them; he stays in Jerusalem. It’s like an early version of Home Alone.
He stays in Jerusalem and he hangs out with the priest. Once Mary and Joseph
finally find him and ask him what in the world he is doing, he responds in the
most smart and sassy response: “Didn't you know I would be here?” Followed by
what I assume was the smile Kevin made throughout the Home Alone series
– you know the grin. You might have thought it cute; his parents did not.
I can imagine the pillow talk they
had the next few nights: Jesus just blatantly disobeying us? What do we do
with that? How do you punish God incarnate? It’s the conversation we need
to be having this morning: What good is a God who breaks God’s own rules? And
how often do we have to ask this question?
Because for many of us, this fifth
word “honor you parents,” has been translated as “obey your parents.” And then
it was weaponized: obey your parents because God said so. We were all taught
that Scripture but weren’t taught the one about Jesus disobeying his parents;
at least, it was not taught in that angle.
And just to go ahead and clear this
up, this command is not about obedience. First, these guidelines are given to
primarily adult men – an odd group to remind to obey your parents. Second (and
most important), never does Scripture tell us to simply obey our parents. Never
does Scripture teach us blind obedience of any sort and sadly, this is very
important to state and to state real clear, because too many people in our
world have been abused by parents and folks of power under the premise of
obedience and the name of God. And I want you to know, that is not right. And
if that is something you know something about, come talk to me and we will find
you a way out because that is not what God wants for you.
The fifth Word is not “obey: honor
your father and mother.”
Let’s keep going with the story of
Jesus. Eventually, this little temple run-around story becomes a blessed thing
of the past, and really in the scheme of things and in the world of today with
social media and texting and Juuls, running away to the temple is a pretty good
adolescent rebellion.
Jesus begins his ministry and it
turns out he was right about belonging to the temple. Mary and Joseph are
raising other kids. Jesus’s ministry begins to take a turn and he begins to say
things that upset folks. Mary hears about this; it does not surprise her (read
her song – she knew Jesus was going to stir up trouble which is why she changes
heaven’s radio station every time Mary Did You Know plays during the
Christmas season; she knew and she wrote a much better song).
But she is still a mother, and as a
mother, she wants to protect her child and the things he is saying are going to
get him in trouble. So, off she goes to get him and bring him home. Jesus is
teaching and someone tells him his mother is outside. So, off he goes to hug
her, welcome her to his teaching and tell her he loves her, right? To honor
her, right? Nope. Jesus’ reply: “Who are my mother and brothers?”
The same Jesus who, when calling
disciples, once says ‘don’t worry about burying your parents; there is a more
important calling.’
The question again: What good is a
God who breaks God’s own rules? Because that does not sound like honor to me.
Which means somethings is off, and according to the way I typically translate
Scripture, it’s probably our poor interpretation and not Scripture itself that
is off.
I have to be honest; this was one of
the 10 that made me most anxious. There were two I approached with a bit of
fear. Because I have been blessed with wonderful parents, who provided for me
and gave me safety and security and they were – they are – just
wonderful. However, I feel guilty saying that because I have sat in my office
way too many times and heard some horrendous stories of families and abuse and
neglect and homes that were not worthy of the children who lived within. There
are a lot of people who deserve better parents these days.
So, the thought of teaching to honor
that terrified me. So, here is the good news: that is not what this fifth word
is about at all. The word honor is key here; honor does not mean blind
obedience, nor does it mean blind allegiance. Honor literally means to
make heavy; as in, to make weighty; to pay attention and give proper worth to
that which is worthy of attention and worth.
This fifth command is about knowing
our place in a story that is so much bigger than any one of us. It’s about
caring for those who have carried the story to this point and being aware that
there are many more who will continue the story after us. It’s about knowing
our place in a really big story in which we play a very small but important
role. It’s a command to keep us from thinking this is all about us. It’s a call
to community, and not individuality.
Part of being in community,
according to this word, is honoring those who came before you and made the
world whole and made you yourself whole. It’s a call for all of us to remember
that there are generations and generations who got us to where we are today and
who we are today. And let me say that there is a lot of talk today about the
brokenness of the world and what is so wrong (and trust me, there is a lot
wrong); But sometimes I fear we do that talk without acknowledging that there
was a lot right that previous generations did for us to get us where we are.
And that phrase, “there is a lot of
talk about the brokenness,” that, too fits into this command. Because today
there is a lot of talk. Gun violence erupts once again, and we talk. We get
another report that we are killing our world, and we talk about it. Racism once
again is front page, and we talk about it. Genderism, sexism, classicism, ableism… we talk about it. Prevalent abuse in family… and we talk about it.
I see a lot of talking and not a lot
of doing. I myself am guilty of a lot of talking and not a lot of doing.
This command reminds us that talk is
cheap. We play a very small but important role in the big story, and it is not
our lines that define us in the play, but our actions. This command reminds us
not only to honor that which came before us, but to honor that which is coming
after us.
It’s one of the lessons we can learn
from Native Americans, who approached every decision they made with this lens:
no decision should be made without considering its effects on the seventh
generation.
The fifth word reminds us that our
role involves care and gratitude; gratitude for that which has come before and
care for that which comes after. It’s the line I often use to close a letter,
words that come from Dag Hammarskjöld: “For all that has been, thanks. For all
that will be, yes.”
It’s a call to be aware of the past
and to be aware of our responsibility to the future. Which is how the story
continues. The story – which is the very kingdom of God – hinges on this
tension: aware of the past and responsible to the future, gratitude and care.
This is how we belong together.
It’s Jesus on the cross: the very
story of God reaching the climax, and Jesus looking down at his mother and his
disciple saying, “you belong together; take care of one another as you carry
this story forward.” That’s honor. That is our calling.
The fifth words: Care and gratitude…
To honor what came before and to care about what comes after, which sounds to
me a lot like a variation of the Golden Rule.
Amen and Amen.
*artwork: Loving Family, painting by Leon Zernitsky, leonzernitsky.com
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