CLAIMING OUR CHILDREN FOR GOD
Genesis 17:1-7, 9-12, 23; Joshua 24:1,2a, 14, 15; Colossians 2:9-12
Wangaratta, 24/4/16
One of the most moving of all of life’s experiences, is to hold a newborn baby; whether it’s a child or a grandchild, or somebody else’s child or grandchild. Loris and I had that experience again last week, when we held our newest grandson on the first day of his life on earth. That’s pretty special! Have I told you before we have a unique talent for producing cute grandchildren? I’m sure I have!
What will this child do in the life now stretching out before him? Will he become a philosopher, or a footballer? (At the moment, I’d probably try to steer him towards philosophy!) If it’s a little girl, will she become a philosopher, or footballer, or any one of a range of expanding opportunities opening up for all our young people these days?
How will they do at school? What special talents and abilities will they develop? What about their temperaments, and personalities? Who in their families do they look like? Who will they take after? Will they marry? Who will they marry? How will that all turn out? What kind of parents, grandparents, will they become, when it’s their turn to stand where we stand today? All that potential, in a tiny, seemingly helpless little body! We just know they’re going to grow up quickly, too quickly for many of us. How will they turn out? And what can we do to encourage them to achieve their potential?
For Christian parents, for Christians in a church community, there is one thing we want more than anything else; for our children, our grandchildren and the children around us. We want them to take their place in God’s kingdom. We want them to discover the joy we know, of living as a Christian. We want them to become effective followers of Jesus. Yes, we want them to do well at school, find a useful, fulfilling career with an adequate income. We want them to find love, and marriage, and families of their own, and in that order! But the most important thing, the one thing we pray for our young people, before we pray for all these other things, is that they will find their own faith in God, and that this will grow to be a mature, adult faith, as they grow in years and maturity.
I visited Ian Rendell, our oldest member, in hospital this week. Ian is 97, and his faith is still strong, and so is his mind. But he’s tired, and ready to leave this life and move on to the life God has for Ian with him. As we prayed together – at the top of my voice, because Ian is quite deaf – that’s an interesting exercise in a hospital ward – we prayed for Ian’s grandchildren. Ian’s one regret, as his life with us draws to a close, is that most of his grandchildren, as he puts it, are “not walking with the Lord.” How has he let them down? What more could he have done, to have influenced them in this most important of all life’s decisions?
It saddens me to see this godly man I love and admire, grieving for this, at this time in his life. As you pray for Ian, pray for his grandchildren too. I’m sure he’d like that.
How will I feel, when I find myself where Ian is now? I remembered again this week, words I read at college; I think the course was Youth Ministries. It was a misquote from the Bible: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world for God, but loses his own family?” It was a timely reminder.
If you’re a teenager this morning, struggling at home with some of the restrictions or directions your parents are insisting you comply with, understand this: the one thing they want most for you in life is that you establish your relationship with Jesus. Of course they want you to work hard at school, and behave yourself at home, and stay away from drugs, and leave sex until you’re married; but all these things, important as they are, are secondary. First up, get your relationship with God on a solid foundation, and these other things will fall into line. And your parents won’t nag you... as much!
Is that the world’s longest introduction? I want to talk about “Claiming Our Children for God” this morning, and I want to explore some of the background, or context, that gives Christian parents the right to do this. And I’ll try not to make this too theological and dry!
Firstly, let’s consider
- Christianity and Culture;
and the sometimes uneasy relationship between them. Our readings this morning span a great number of years, three different cultures, and two testaments, or
- Two Covenants.
God in his wisdom and mercy has chosen to relate to his people through covenants, or agreements. And so we have the Old Testament or covenant, and the new one Jesus instituted when he was with us. How well do we understand the relationship between these two covenants? How do we connect the old and new testaments? When we buy a new car, we usually trade or dispose of the old one. Is this how we treat the Old Testament, and the old covenant it describes?
The terms of this covenant show us we must not do this. And we find some challenges here. God said to Abram, as he changed his name to Abraham, “I have made you a father of many nations. (Isn’t that interesting?) ... I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”[1] It’s an everlasting covenant. The terms and blessings apply to Abraham’s descendants in many nations, right down to us today.
Jesus himself clarifies this for us. “Don’t think I’ve come to abolish the law, or the prophets,” he said, “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”[2] Here is the relationship between the two covenants; the new one doesn’t abolish or replace the old; it fulfils it. The old, everlasting covenant – given to Abraham, confirmed through Moses, affirmed by Joshua and the prophets – was fulfilled, completed by Jesus. The old covenant prepares the way and informs the new covenant; which brings the old one to completion.
We note that the old covenant identifies our right to claim our children for God. The promise of blessing was made to Abraham and his descendants. He was commanded by God to circumcise every male in his current household; and at eight days of age, every male born thereafter. Those little eight day old boys may not have seen circumcision as a blessing at the time! But it was! God included children in the blessings of his covenant; he commanded parents to claim their children for him.
Back to Christianity and culture; and the relationship between them. And it’s been
- A Controversial Relationship.
When God called Abraham, he sent him out from his homeland to begin a new life and a new nation with a new culture, in the Promised Land. Years later, when Joshua led the people back into the Promised Land after generations in practical exile, God told his people to drive the current tenants out of the land. Their culture and their gods were incompatible with the values and beliefs of God’s people, and a danger to them. Joshua drew a line in the sand for his people that day as our reading describes. Who would the people choose to follow and serve? Well, that was up to them. But Joshua made that decision on behalf of his family and his household. Joshua claimed his household for God.
Christianity came to our world through the Jewish nation and culture; and Jesus confronted aspects of their culture that had deviated from God’s instructions. In Acts we see Christianity spread to other nations with different cultures.
In our times, Christianity has been taken to many nations, in response to Jesus’ Great Commission. An earlier missionary movement has been criticised for insisting that converts embrace a western style culture along with their new-found faith. Today, missionaries seek to express our faith in ways that are culturally appropriate. This must have its difficulties. Some aspects of a local culture will always be incompatible with our faith. What about
- Faith and Our Culture Today?
Our times and culture are so different from when God first established his covenant with Abraham, from when Joshua claimed his household for God, from when Jesus gave us a new covenant, established by his death and resurrection. How well are we able to express the timeless, unchanging terms of the covenants through our twenty-first century Aussie culture? Are some things incompatible? Too right they are! How do we navigate our way to a culturally appropriate expression of our faith today?
Well we learn from the non-negotiables of the covenants and the way these have been handled in other cultures. This touches our topic this morning. Our modern western mindset prizes individuality, free choice and personal responsibility. Nothing inconsistent with our Christian faith there. But they are not the whole picture. There is a corporate aspect to our faith whose strength and benefits I suspect we often miss.
In New Testament thought, and middle eastern and other cultures, family, and extended family are given a prominence often missing in our cultures today. In fear and trembling, the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas the way of salvation. We know their response: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Then we read that the jailer and all his family were baptised, immediately.[3] Families, as a unit, are important in God’s economy.
Paul backs this up with teaching. Referring to marriage between a Christian and an unbeliever, he writes to those in Corinth: “The unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband, otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”[4]
We struggle to fit passages like this into our cultural understanding of our faith, and we won’t build our doctrine solely on these things. But neither can we ignore the strength and value of family, as God ordained it. We have every right to claim our children for God.
In stressing this right, in urging us all to confidently claim our children for God, let me also emphasise the importance of
- Faith and Obedience.
A covenant is an agreement between two people or parties. Each has a part to play, and as promises made are kept, the benefits of the covenant are realised. Marriage is a covenant. The benefits come only as each person in the marriage delivers what they’ve promised.
Along with the benefits God promises us through his covenants are the signs or symbols he has attached to these covenants. Let’s consider briefly the importance of
- Signs and Sacrament.
I wonder what God was thinking! If it didn’t sound borderline blasphemous, I’d be tempted to say the sign God attached to the old covenant was pretty weird! Why circumcision – especially when approximately 50% of the community were either spared, or missed out on this initiation rite? When we consider baptism, the new covenant equivalent of circumcision, the symbolism seems to make more sense. Water can represent washing, a burying of the old life, God’s Holy Spirit poured out. Perhaps the shedding of blood is significant in circumcision.
Baptism is a sign; it’s also a sacrament. We must not miss the significance of this. When we baptise someone, or participate in the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim God’s love for his people, seen most clearly in Jesus’ sacrificial death on our behalf.
There is mystery, as well as symbolism, in the sacraments. Why does God love us, the way he does, undeserving sinners that we are? I don’t know why; I only know he does. How will God respond to the step of faith and obedience we take, when we participate in the sacraments? Again, I don’t know. He is God after all; he can respond to our expressions of faith and obedience any way he chooses! Many will testify to having been touched by God in a special way at these times. A sacrament, as well as being a symbol of God’s grace and mercy, is also a means by which God extends his grace to us, perhaps in ways we’ve not previously experienced.
We are God’s covenant people, recipients of his blessing. And we are active participants in the covenants he establishes with us. Faith and obedience are
- Our Part in the Covenant.
Our passage in Genesis clearly identifies this two party participation in the covenants. In verse 3 God begins to describe his part with the words, “As for me...” And he lists for Abraham all the good things he promises to do.
In verse 9, God says to Abraham, “As for you...” It couldn’t be clearer. Put bluntly, God’s blessings are not unconditional! No covenant is all one-sided. Both husband and wife make promises when they marry. A one-sided marriage is doomed, if not to complete failure, then to falling way short of all marriage is intended to be.
It’s the same in our covenant with God. Only we know God will be absolutely faithful to the commitment he has made with us. That puts the ball well and truly in our court.
God said to Abraham, “You must keep my covenant.” Faith and obedience. And God starts the specifics of this with: “Every male among you shall be circumcised.” Claim your children for God. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these.[5] This is more than just a good idea. Part of our part in God’s covenant with us, is to claim our children for him.
We do this practically, when we bring our children to God, in dedication or baptism; but that’s just a start. We claim them for God when we pray for them; and I hope we do that regularly. We claim them for God when we structure our own lives and lifestyles in ways that model the realities and the blessings of the Christian life before them. We bring them to church, regularly; so they learn the value and importance of community. As a church, we structure our programs, and we conduct ourselves in ways that invite our young people to take their rightful places among us. Faith and obedience are ways of
- Making Our Baptism Meaningful.
In our reading from Colossians Paul refers to “a circumcision not performed by human hands.” And in Acts we read of the controversy as Christian believers wrestled with what place, if any, circumcision now held under the new covenant. Elsewhere, Paul makes it clear that physical circumcision, or baptism as the symbol of the new covenant, on its own is meaningless. Baptism, of itself, does not, cannot save us.
In the one sentence, Paul refers to us being “circumcised by Christ” and “buried with him in baptism;” going on to speak of being “raised with him through faith in the working of God.”[6] This morning Graham and Joey have expressed their faith and obedience, by claiming Reuben for God through baptism. They’ve expressed a commitment to playing their part in the covenant God establishes with them and their family, and their church family. As he grows in this nurturing environment, Reuben will have the opportunity to develop and express his own faith, and own the commitment Graham & Joey have made on his behalf. It is a precious thing to claim our children for God.
I don’t want to ignore this morning the reality, the pain of those who have claimed for God children who now seem to have turned their backs on him. I can only imagine the heartache this causes. I don’t pretend to fully understand our rights as Christian parents to claim for God adult children who have chosen the life of the prodigal. I don’t pretend to fully understand the power of prayer, either. But I believe these two to be an effective combination.
Let me encourage those of you in this situation not to give up. God’s love for you as his child extends to your children, wherever they are. As we invite you to come for prayer at the end of each service, this morning I want to invite those who would like to, to come as we sing, or after we sing, and we’ll pray with you for that child who is on your heart this morning.
1
[1] From Genesis 17:5, 7
[2] Matthew 5:17
[3] Acts 16:31, 33
[4] 1 Corinthians 7:14
[5] Mark 10:14
[6] Colossians 2:12