Sermon May 13, 2007 "Leaving a Legacy"

Soetgen van den Houte was about forty years of age when she was arrested, tried, and convicted for her Anabaptist faith in 1560. She was the mother of three children- David, Betgen, and Tanneken- and a widow whose husband had been martyred for his faith in 1551. She wrote a letter from a prison cell in Ghent, a testament of faith written for her children. Her testimony speaks with the intensity of a mother facing certain death for refusing to recant her most cherished beliefs, yet desiring to continue to care for her beloved children soon to be left with no earthly parents.

‘My dear children,’ she wrote, ‘since it pleases the Lord to take me out of this world, I will leave you with a memorial…I should like to write a jewel into your heart, if it were possible, which is the word of truth, in which I want to instruct you a little for the best with the Word of the Lord.’

What advice did she have for her children, to carry them through a dangerous world?

‘In the first place, I admonished you, my most beloved, always to allow yourself to be instructed by those who fear the Lord; then you will please God, and as long as you obey good guidance and instruction, and fear the Lord, he will be your Father and will not leave you orphans. For David said, ‘Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.’ Psalm 25:12 He also said, ‘But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ Ps 33:18,19; 34:7,9; 111:10 Your father confessed the truth concerning baptism and the incarnation, of Christ, in all that he was able to comprehend, and he valiantly testified to righteousness, giving his life for it, pointing out to you for an example, the same way which the prophets, the apostles and Christ Himself went. He had to go before through the conflict with much tribulation and suffering, and leave his children behind for Christ's sake; hence do likewise, for there is no other way.”

“Fear the Lord and be instructed by those who also fear the Lord, and you will not longer be orphans.” Both the fact that Soetgen has voluntarily put herself in a position to be arrested and executed as the only parent left and Soetgen’s confident advice to her children might be a bit surprising to us. It doesn’t sound quite right. But the theme of her letter;‘fearing the Lord,’ runs consistently through Anabaptist testimonies and writings, and points to a fundamental Biblical teaching.

God, the almighty creator of heaven, earth, and of all things on the earth, is a living God who promises salvation to those who repent, return to him and continue to obey him. He also has promised judgment and condemnation for those who persist in unbelief and self-willed disobedience. Humanity, following Adam and Eve, has chosen and continues to choose to disobey. But God in Christ has reconciled humanity and promised salvation to those who believe and continue to obey.

The ‘fear of God’ is the biblical door that stands at the beginning of the path back to God because it describes the necessary attitude and frame of mind needed to get reality back into proper focus.

What is the modern understanding of the word “fear”? What pops up in your head?

Fearing the Lord, Biblically understood, means recognizing God’s sovereign power and one’s own relatively piddly place in the greater scheme of things. It arises from an awareness of the actual human condition of sin and powerlessness, and expresses dependence on God’s grace and mercy. (admiration, astonishment, esteem, regard, respect, reverence, shock, terror, veneration, wonder, wonderment, worship)

(Biblically speaking, we are “like grass” “a vapor”; we are not the center of reality, yet God deeply loves us and our action in response to that love has the potential for a tremendous impact );

And so this witness of the mother, Soetgen to her kids is rooted in a reality that most of the world is in denial of, and her example is an important one;

What in the world could drive her to the point that she would do the “socially irresponsible” move of leaving her children orphaned by their actions? (trust that God is the center of reality, and so she is free to be fully faithful no matter what; and a church family that literally will raise her children when she is gone)

Now I’m not holding up this example of Soetgen because I think it’s a good thing for a parent to die and leave their children orphaned, because I think most of us in this room would want to both be faithful to God AND play a significant role in raising our children, but for Soetgen, this choice she made that ended in her death was a no-brainer.

(Danger of conversion; talk of ordination “within the hour” of a pastor’s “bearing the cross”?)

Life as gift, not right (Bluffton article):

Deuteronomy 4:9-14 “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children." You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^[a] Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (written on hearts). Impress them on your children. 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 houses and on your gates.” (Saturation Education)

The parent and the community of God’s people have the most direct impact through time spent and example of teaching the children of Israel what it meant to be a person, what they were created for, and the good life of faithfulness that God had called them to. You see, if you ground yourself in thinking and talking about God’s expectations when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up, and when you pass your gates and doorframes, you’ve got a pretty comprehensive system of education going on. We’re not talking about an hour or two on a Sunday here in a specific place. So instead of seeing one place and one time as sacred during the week, this approach makes the kitchen table, baseball games, phone conversations, driving, your bed, and the TV room sacred places.

Forceful message that God is concerned about ALL of our lives; that it is CRUCIAL for us to represent this new way of being as consistently as possible for the world to see what they’ve been created for.

So that should raise some questions for us today; for our mothers and fathers actively raising children, for our mentors here today who are not in the grind of child-rearing but still have an important role to play in educating members of their families and setting an example for others in our church family. “What is education for?” “What sort of knowledge would good education give?” “What are our goals in teaching children?”

These are relevant questions today because the role of the parent in modern society is rapidly changing. Without getting deep into the multiple reasons why this is so; several important things come into play here. Parents are working more hours in a day and over the course of a week than they ever have. While they are working, the state has their children in a school system where they are learning particular things, and quite often the kid gets home before the parents can, and so must stay at a babysitter’s or in front of a television. The parent gets home and they are often so tired and stressed out from trying to make ends meet for the family that they can’t offer much of themselves to their children; including deeper questions about what their kids have been exposed to in school, in relationships, and in life in general, and so they allow their kid to plop in front of a TV for hours on end or listen to their IPOD, and in doing so, allow the television, public school system, and music industry speak most consistently and loudly into their kids’ lives without considering that these places might have a different goal in mind for their childs’ lives than they do.

Social scientists have looked at this reality and said this; while parents in societies in the past were the primary educators of their children, that educating role in modern society has been passed off on the state (through the education system) and through various aspects of society (like television, movies, etc), which has effectively reduced the role of parents to simply providing for the emotional needs of their kids; keeping them happy.

We rarely consider these questions; especially the question of the goals of the education of our children. Every day, kids go to school, learn reading and mathematics, do some physical exercise, chat with friends, and go home. When we think “education” in America, we think “school.” and hardly anyone questions it. It is not, however, like that in other parts of the world.

Some nomadic peoples oppose education in the form of sending their children to town where they go to school and learn reading and mathematics. They oppose such form of education as being meaningless. Worse, they fear that sending their children to town exposes them to different cultures and that those cultures will destroy their traditional way of life. Their idea of good education is to pass on the herding skills and the traditional way of life. They regard this as “better” than sending them to school for meaningless lessons in reading and mathematics, together with the exposure to different cultures. (This is the sheltering way of education we talked about a couple weeks ago) Build in sensitivity to those like J. Chase and Mom working in public education)

On the other side of the equation, education has been used to impose specific beliefs on children. In Japan during the Second World War, children were given very lopsided knowledge and philosophy for the purpose of supporting the nation. Similar characteristics were evident in Nazi-era education. Such educational systems were very effective, but the tragic result is known to all. What was harmful in these situations was that the children were not the purpose of education but were used to achieve a specific purpose.

The question of education is one that John Chase and Rowena and Debbie Curry deal with on a daily basis, but it is one we should all engage in if we seek to learn and teach others.

The intent of education, Biblically understood, is not a way of controlling people for specific purposes. Rather, it should encourage children and adults’ natural inquisitiveness (doubts, questions, and passions) and equip them to face life with certain tools at their disposal.

How can we educate effectively, then, given the reality of what faces us?

(Find places to be with child in structured environments where you can speak into their lives (team sports, clubs like Boy and Girl Scouts, family nights, etc) More?

Importance of the role of parents in early education. The formation of a child’s characteristics starts at the point of birth, the role of parents as educators in the formative years is deeply important, and it is the role of the church to link up with parents to work together to educate children to face the world.

Importance of the home; it is intended to be the crucible that equips the child and the adult to face the world with integrity and intelligence;

In a race between education about truth and meaning and reality and disaster.

Psalm 34:1-15