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people talk today a lot about uh family
values and there are family values on
display in the Bible but they might not
be the ones that we're accustomed to We
tend to get sort of sentimental about
families the Bible has a lot to say
about families but man it's not
sentimental I'll give you a couple
examples from Jesus himself um a man
comes up to and says you know Lord I'll
follow you but first let me bury my
father well I mean in our time it's true
but even more so in Jesus time that was
the ultimate obligation I mean that of
course you know your father died of
course you'll be there at the funeral
what does Jesus say Let the dead bury
their dead it's extraordinary slap in
the face kind of line and indeed even
more so in his own time it would have
been seen just that way um or the people
that say uh oh Lord you know how bless
the womb that bore you and the breast
that that fed you no blessed rather are
those who hear the word of God and keep
it is that he doesn't um ascribe to a
Sentimental view of family at
all now what's going on well go back uh
even further in the Bible go back to the
story of Hannah and Samuel remember
Hannah is a woman who um cannot have a
child and it breaks her heart and so she
comes every year to the temple at Shiloh
she prays she begs God and finally her
prayer is heard and she gives birth to
uh Samuel and she's she gives him that
name because she said I I beg the Lord
you know for
you when the child is weaned we hear so
just when he's still a little guy you
know she brings him back to Shiloh and
she gives him over to Eli the priest to
be raised as a as a priest in the temple
she gave him back to God she prayed
desperately for this child and then she
receed the child gave him back to God
it's reminiscent of a story in the New
Testament we know well Jesus um slips
away from his family as they're heading
back from Jerusalem to Nazareth and um
he stays in the temple precincts with
the teachers and he debates with them
and questions them and so on in the
meantime his parents are frantically
searching for him three days imagine if
a a parent lost a child for 3 Days the
anxiety of that they finally find him in
the temple and Mary herself I mean says
didn't you know your father and I would
be searching for
you Jesus calmly turns to her and says
don't you know I must be about my
father's
business what you don't see here is an
ounce of
sentimentalism what you see is a clear
biblical sense that
children ultimately belong to God and
are there to serve the purposes of God
families exist and they're good of
course but their ultimate purpose is to
train and then liberate people for God's
service hard message yeah in those days
and in our time but the clear biblical
message now probably the most striking
example of this in the whole Bible is
that frightening and deeply disturbing
story from the book of Genesis about
Abraham and Isaac similar setup right
Abraham and his wife uh cannot have
children they're now well into old age
but God has promised through your son I
will raise up this great nation year in
year out he grows older and older um has
no son he prays he hopes he Longs and
finally this this impossible promise is
fulfilled and Sarah at the age of 99 the
Bible says has this child so here's the
child of Abraham's heart not only is he
connected to him as as his own son but
he sees him as the bearer of the promise
he's everything to
Abraham and then that that awful and I
mean awful in the literal sense it fills
us with awe that that puzzling strange
disturbing message from God Abraham take
your son Isaac whom you love I mean God
reminds him whom you love and I want you
to sacrifice him to me and you know if
you don't if you don't find that story
overwhelming you're not paying attention
you know and then Abraham marches
through those awful days to mount Mariah
knowing what he has to do with his son I
always think of of his son you know 12
years old or so and eagerly going with
his dad you know on this journey um and
then
desperately Abraham hears his son you
know say well there there's the Altar
and there's the fire but where's the
sacrifice God will provide Abraham says
you know and then we know at the last
minute as he raises the knife to kill
his own son the angel stays his hand you
know what is going on there in that
story is it just God playing games just
God being manipulative and and showing
his power because he can testing Abraham
in the most sort of arbitrary capricious
way no I would say no how should we read
that story I think we should read it as
a
particularly heightened literary and
Theological expression of what I've been
talking
about whom does Isaac belong to to
Abraham yes but not ultimately
ultimately Isaac belongs to God just as
Abraham's life belongs to God Abraham's
energies his talents everything belongs
to God and serves ultimately God's
purpose the problem problem is we start
saying that these things are
mine or at the limit my children are
mine they belong to me they're here to
serve my
purposes Hannah knew it as she
surrenders Samuel to God Mary knew it as
she surrenders Jesus to his mission
Abraham knows it even as it as it breaks
his heart he knows that my son belongs
to a higher
power and purpose now is this higher
power capricious arbitrary playing games
with us no don't read it that way God's
purposes are always an enlivening
purpose God's purposes are always better
than we can imagine for ourselves and
that's I think what's entailed in the
fact that he stops Abraham and he gives
Isaac back to him see the idea is we are
meant to turn everything we have finally
and ultimately over to God to sacrifice
it to him again don't read it as a pagan
sort of thing of the wicked God
demanding s it's placing Our lives our
talents all that we have including our
own families within this ultimate
framework of God and God's
purposes that's why a
family so important you know the
building block of society all that's
true the church reverences families yes
indeed but what's a family ultimately
John Paul 2 said a family is an ecclesi
Ola that's Latin for little church right
it's a little church it's a place where
people learn to discern and to accept
their mission from God so when a parent
looks at a child he or she shouldn't say
well I want that child above all to be
you know successful to be a big dealer
to make it into this University to those
are all fine all those things but what
the parent ought to say is that
ultimately what I want is for that child
to find his mission for that child to
find her purpose in God and I've got to
be willing to let go even of my
expectations even of my aspirations even
of my possessiveness I got to let go of
all that to allow this child to find his
or her path in the divine plan and I
think then we begin to see what Biblical
family values really
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are