What a joy-filled
worship service today
as we witnessed Kyle commit himself to the Lord, followed by Kyle and Cara
bringing their son Jake to receive the sacrament of baptism! They chose this
passage from Deuteronomy 6 as a passage to guide them in raising Jake to love
the Lord. In the chapters before our passage this morning, Moses reminds Israel
of what God has done for them in the past; freeing them from slavery to the
Egyptians in order to be the people of his inheritance. Moses reminds them to remember
the covenant God made with them at Sinai; this is all about their relationship
with God. Moses warns them against idolatry, God’s a jealous God, not willing
to share his people with any other gods.
Moses teaches Israel
how to know God, he
calls the people to ask themselves “Who is God?” In chapter 4, Moses then describes
how God created us and chose Israel as his people. He uses the idea of
inheritance, family imagery, here. “Ask now about the
former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on
the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great
as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any
other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and
lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another
nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord
your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these
things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no
other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he
showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.
Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he
brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out
before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their
land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today. Acknowledge and
take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth
below. There is no other.”
In chapter 5, Moses reminds the people of the 10
Commandments as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. They were given to
shape Israel, and us, into God’s image, into his people so that we can reveal
God to the nations around us, the God whom we worship and follow. They were
called to keep God’s commands so that it may go well for them, as the commands were
given to shape their character, which then shapes in positive ways how they are
to live with each other in ways that glorify God and who God is. Loving God and
knowing God’s love for us shapes our lives in powerful ways, filling us with
confidence as we journey through the ups and downs of life.
“Love the Lord your God;” this is how Jesus summarizes the
first half of the 10 Commandments. This is the first and primary commandment
given to Israel and to the followers of God and Jesus. This is the central
aspect of our faith. Love comes before obedience; love is the reason for
obedience. Jesus even tells his disciples, “If you
love me, you will keep my commands.” This love is rooted in who we are,
we are to love with everything that we are, heart and soul, and with all our
strength, this is what is to shape our hearts, shape our character. This is the
depth of love that the world is looking for, this is the whole idea behind the
modern desire for “soulmates,” that no one can live up to, except for God.
We’re only able to love God this deeply because of his love for us. This is why
we’ve been given the Bible. It reveals to us the depth, the width, the height,
and the constancy of God’s love for us. We see Jesus’ love for us set as the
Biblical standard for love in 1 John 3:16
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and
sisters.”
Moses goes on to say, “These
commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on
your children.” We’re called to impress God’s commands on our children’s
hearts; Moses recognizes that they need to be impressed on our own hearts first.
In the Bible, the "heart"
represents who you are, your will and your character. Making an impression on,
transforming our hearts biblically, takes both God's grace and our
participation. It begins by immersing ourselves in Scripture and God’s
commandments so that they become a natural part of who we are, shaping our
character, thoughts, and life. We can’t impress these things on our children if
they aren’t deeply impressed on our own hearts first.
This passage is about
modelling our faith,
showing our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews how God is present in
many ways and every place, showing them that our entire world belongs to God,
and that God is part of every aspect of our lives. This is where Moses goes
next, “talk about them when you sit at home and
when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them
as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the
doorframes of your house and on your gates.” This is what we call hands
on parenting, shaping their faith by talking about God and his expectations for
us as we do the ordinary everyday things of life. It looks like showing how our
faith impacts our entire day; whether we’re at home or on the road, from the
start of the day until the end of the day, before we go to sleep and when we
wake up, while we work in the fields or the kitchen. No matter where we are or
what we’re doing, we’re called to teach and show our children what it looks
like to be a child of God, what it looks like to follow Jesus.
The biblical scholar Robert
Jamieson shows how Moses
turns to practices
from the Egyptians to help the people remind themselves regularly of God’s call
on their lives. Egyptians would wear jewels and ornamental trinkets on their
foreheads and arms, decorated with certain words and sentences, as amulets to
protect them from danger. Moses replaces this superstitious practice by
substituting sentences of the law.
Moses calls them to write the commandments on their doorframes and gates,
taking a practice from the ancient Egyptians who had doorframes and
gates decorated with sentences to bring good luck, and this is still the case,
for in Egypt and other Muslim countries still today, the front doors of houses,
like in Cairo, for instance, are painted red, white, and green, having
sentences from the Koran, as “God is the Creator,” “God is one, and Mohammed is
his prophet” written on them, Moses turns this ancient custom to a better use and
orders that, instead they should write the words of God, so the people will be
regularly reminded of God’s laws. This is something similar to what Christians
do today when we wear crosses or place the symbol of a fish on our cars, it
shows people that we follow Jesus.
Raising your children
to know the love of God,
to know the expectations of God for our lives, raising them in the church
family, has blessings and benefits that give our children tools to make their
way through life in strong healthy ways. A 1999 article in USA Today, Religion's
Health Effects Should make Doubting Parishioners Reconsider Leaving, quotes
a Harvard study on the value of a faith upbringing. The Harvard study showed
that children who were raised in a religious or spiritual environment were better
protected from the “big three” dangers of adolescence: depression, drugs, and
risky sexual behaviours. They also found that those who attended religious
services regularly were subsequently 12% less likely to suffer from high
levels of depression, they experienced greater happiness, they had a sense of
purpose in life, did more volunteering, and more easily forgave others.
There’s something healthy
and wonderful about obeying
God’s call to raise our families in a supportive church family. Our children
learn so much watching the adults around them live, worship, work, and support
each other that creates emotional, spiritual, and even physical health. Living
in an extended family environment sharing the same beliefs and values provides
a sense of stability and a foundation under them when times of pressure come
when they enter that turbulent time of adolescence. Seeing the adults in their
community working hard to live righteously, seeking to create a supportive
community where people are supported, encouraged and built up, where grace and
love are extended to everyone, where it’s safe to ask hard questions and know
that you’ll be respected. Seeing adults showing awe and reverence to someone
much greater than themselves in Jesus, taking time to reflect and seek
understanding, encourages our children and youth to seek Jesus too. It’s easy
to see how this kind of a community would be useful to adolescents testing
their own boundaries and facing peer pressure.
As we’re called to love
God, Jesus calls us to love each other,
John 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Kyle and Cara, Bethel Church commits ourselves to helping you raise Jake to
know and love God, to help you to help Jake grow in his faith, in Jesus’ love,
and to encourage you and continue to build you up in the Lord.
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