Heavenly Host, Sept 28, 2014
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68 Sermon for Christian Ed Sunday.mp3
On a thematic Sunday like today when we celebrate what God is doing among us and through us in our school, it’s easy to have a look at all three of our readings. There’s a common theme running through all three, the easiest to see being children and, more specifically, the nurture of children in the faith. Jesus and Moses and Peter are all proclaiming the same truth, the kingdom of God includes children, even young infants. God acts to include us in his covenantal kingdom and He gives His grace not because we can understand it but because we need it.
The Gospel reading today clearly tells us that our Lord has a place in the kingdom for children, even infants. The blessings of the kingdom of His grace are for them too. I’m not in classrooms every day, my other duties keep me from that but my wife is and the other teachers too will sometimes share with me some of the things kids say in response to having heard the Word of God in religion class or chapel or in some other subject as it comes up, even science or social studies or literature. Some of the middle school children just finished reading C. S. Lewis’, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a story written by a leading Christian thinker of the last century. Lewis is clever to present significant Christian themes like the holiness of God. In a seen at Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s house, Lucy gets quite nervous about all this talk of a great Lion prowling around the kingdom and she asks, “Is Aslan safe?” And Mr. Beaver responds,
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
And let me just say, kids understand God in a different way than we do because their whole lives are dependent upon others providing for them for everything they need—food shelter, clothing—everything. Younger children even more so; they’re not even aware of just how much is provided for them. It’s when we get older that we realize all that we have doesn’t just appear. It’s a mistake to think that all we have comes purely through our own efforts. All we have is because God has given it to us. This is the same theme that connects us back to our Old Testament reading for today.
Israel needs to make sure that they pass down from one generation to the next the account of all that the Lord has done for them. Especially once they enter the Promised Land, the successive generations will only know that it was the Lord who provided so richly. So the Lord instructs them to teach diligently, to recount regularly the testimonies of the Lord.
“Teach these words that I command to your children, diligently.” Hebrew verbs can be fun and this one is. What we have in English as two words, diligently teach, the Hebrew wraps up all in one word. The idea is one of drill, recounting, or repetition. The classical idea that repetition is the mother of learning is not far off. But the Hebrew adds an idea of sharpening like you have to do to a blade over a whetstone. The blade doesn’t get sharp the first time over the stone. Moms and dads, Teachers, that’s why you have to repeat yourselves so much. I’m thinking of drilling multiplication tables, Shurley grammar jingles, and yes, you really to have to put your name on your paper, every time, by now you should know the drill. But what has been a constant in educational theory for millennia first came from the Lord as a command to Israel to drill their children in the Lord’s promises and the Lord’s commands. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Dt 6:4–5) “These words” you should drill into your children. And to this day, observant Jews repeat twice daily at evening and morning prayers, the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” From our heritage, Luther’s instruction in the catechism to recite the Ten Commandments every morning, is in keeping with this idea along with the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer at one’s morning prayers. I’ve been at the bedside of more than one elderly saint who had dementia so bad, they’d forgotten the names of family members but they had not forgotten the Lord’s Prayer and the song, “Jesus Loves Me.” It is true that what we learn first, we forget last.
Parents then and now are to teach God’s Word faithfully and repeatedly to their offspring so that God will continually dwell with His people. Daily living presents numerous opportunities to talk to our children about what God has done—even the most mundane events. As Christians, we should take every opportunity to discuss what God has done through Christ, no matter where we are or what we are doing.[1] The goal of all this repetition was for Israel to remember that it was the Lord who had provided such wonderful gifts when the entered the Promised Land. For us, the goal is similar, it is the Lord who provides us what we need to sustain this body and life. It is the Lord who has rescued us and brought us into His kingdom. A daily recounting makes sure that faith is caught as much as taught.
There are significant passages in Scripture that should be familiar to us and act like touchstones for us so that we don’t lose our way among lists of kings or genealogies. Peter’s Pentecost sermon should be one of those. In our second reading today, that begins, “Now when they hear this…” the “this” they heard was Peter’s Pentecost sermon in which He had proclaimed the truth about Jesus as God’s Messiah and Jesus’ identity as the Lord Himself. It was this Jesus, Peter said, that the crowd had crucified some 50 days earlier. This was the word that had cut them to the heart and worked remorse in them over their sin. And Peter proclaimed the Good News of God’s salvation, that baptism in the name of Jesus brought with it the gift of the Holy Spirit and that this gift was for them and for their children. For their children, that’s our common thread today. The Lord pours out the Holy Spirit on us and on our children when we hear His Word. The Lord is acting to call to Himself through the Holy Spirit. And we’ve arrived at the crux of the Gospel itself. Not only has God acted to rescue sinners from their sins by sending Jesus to the cross to die in their place and to give them His perfect righteousness, God doesn’t stop with just providing the means of salvation. A big part of the outpouring of grace of God is that He doesn’t stop and wait for us to get wise on our own. He actively calls and gathers to Himself those needing salvation and growth in holy living. He enlightens our minds and warms our heart by the preaching of His Word to encourage us not to get lost in the Scriptures among the kings’ lists but to hear again and again, repeatedly, every week, through diligent teaching and preaching, God loves us in Christ Jesus.
We did not dig the deep wells of salvation. We did not plant the great vineyard of Christ’s blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. We did not build the city of God, the great house He has invited into to dwell with Him forever. He did. And that’s the reason we drill it every week. It is the difference between a religion centered on our own abilities and a faith given by God. It is the difference between right teaching and false teaching. It is the difference between following the Lord God and following after other gods we make for ourselves. It is the difference between faith and unbelief.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. This Jesus who was crucified for us is Lord. Amen.
[1] Edward A. Engelbrecht, The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 288.
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