Text: Hebrews 10:19-25
Charles Lowery tells of a pastor who received a call from a woman on a Tuesday who asked if he could marry her and her fiancé that Friday.
The pastor declined saying he didn’t like “spur-of-the-moment weddings” because he preferred to do some premarital counseling.
The woman said, “That’s okay, I can find someone else to do the ceremony. And, by the way, I disagree with you about spur-of-the-moment weddings. Some of my best marriages have been spur-of-the-moment.”
I appreciate that pastor because he was taking a stand for the importance of the family. The church has always felt that way about marriage and the family. It has tried to be both supportive and protective. Think back to high school for a moment. Do you remember Friar Lawrence? He’s the priest who helped Romeo and Juliet. While his motives for helping them may have been mixed and he may have contributed to the tragedy that end’s the play, his helping the young couple has historic precedent. Generally speaking, the medieval church did not favor forced marriages; the church favored situations where the couple actually wanted to get married. The church believed it would lead to a more stable marriage.
The church has long been the friend of marriage.
The church recognizes that the Christian family often becomes the place where children meet Christ and see Christian ideals expressed in daily living.
This is consistent with the Scripture. In fact, the Biblical materials envision a partnership between the church and the family. It is a partnership of mutual support.
The writer of Hebrews gives us some insights into keeping that partnership healthy.
I
A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP OF CHURCH AND FAMILY
CAN INSTILL ASSURANCE IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
(19-22)
The believer’s assurance of God’s acceptance is an important theme to the writer of Hebrews. Some of the readers seem to have believed that Christ’s sacrifice was not sufficient for their salvation. The writer strove to correct that notion.
In the church the way of gracious access through Jesus Christ is declared in the pulpit, in the hymns, and through the instruction given to young and old alike. The promise of a special relationship with God is at the heart of what the church has to say about the work of Christ. The cross is at the center of that teaching.
If the church declares the possibility of this relationship with God, the reality of that relationship is demonstrated in the family. As parents live out their faith before their children, allowing their children to see them pray, see them live with Christian joy and peace in the face of life’s challenges, the truth of the church’s message is confirmed.
II
A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP OF CHURCH AND FAMILY
CAN PROVIDE A WELL-FOUNDED HOPE.
(23)
We want our children to have a firm foundation for their faith. We do not want them to simply parrot our convictions, we want those convictions to be their own.
The church offers the family an understanding of God’s purpose in and for the world. More than any other generation our children are exposed to the explosive events of the larger world. Famines, wars, plagues, and natural disasters are brought into our family rooms every night through the television.
When our children come to us with their fears, their concerns about the future we can point to the hope we have in Christ, a hope which transcends circumstances, a hope which affirms that in his own time God will bring about his complete will in the world.
III
A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP OF CHURCH AND FAMILY
CAN INSPIRE LIVES OF USEFULNESS.
(24)
When left to themselves, families can become self-centered. The family’s goals and desires become its highest priority.
The church teaches family members to look beyond themselves. Each church is to be a gathering of encouragers, where each believer encourages the others to live out Christ’s love in a cold world. Within the family, as children watch their parents give money to the church, money which could be used to buy more CDs, a faster computer, a larger car, or fund a grander vacation, they learn that sacrifice is a mark of real love.
IV
A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP OF CHURCH AND FAMILY
CAN OPEN THE WAY TO A LIFE-CHANGING FELLOWSHIP.
(24)
The writer of Hebrews was concerned because Christians were leaving the church. The church historian Adolf Harnack believes there were several reasons. Some had apparently come to believe Christ was no different than any other god, so there was no reason to become part of a group which worshipped him exclusively. Some were simply too lazy to sustain a relationship with the church. Some embraced an attitude which said they didn’t need the spiritual aid the church offered. Some were afraid of being identified as Christians in a hostile society.
The image of individuals and families leaving those early churches looks somehow familiar. We know people who have left the church for the same reasons. They fail to see their loss and their peril.
They not only lose the blessings of a healthy relationship with the church, they also imperil their spiritual health.
Then, too, they lose touch with a community that wants them to grow as individuals. A few years ago, following an election, a woman said to me, “I voted for So and So because Dad has always voted for that party’s candidate. I wanted to vote for the other guy but I couldn’t go against Dad.” When it’s at its best, the church helps mothers and fathers learn that there is a time when their children must be considered as adults, with their own minds.
Of course, when families abandon the church, the church loses something as well. It loses the potential each family member brings to the church.
When that partnership is maintained there is mutual benefit. Consider these specific ways the family and the church are blessed when both work together.
The church can provide a safe harbor from the raging storms of life.
The church can provide the keys for establishing lasting relationships.
The church can help us find direction in a world of moral confusion.
The church can be a neutral ground in times of family stress and conflict.
The informal witness of the family provides an essential support for the formal witness of the church.
The family provides the ‘raw materials’ out of which Christian leaders are built.
The church can be the place where our children hear the clearest statement of the Gospel.
The author of this tribute to the partnership of the church and the family is unknown. It could have been written by millions of men or women. And, although it was written more than half-a-century ago, it still is a beautiful portrait of that partnership.
Before I was born my church gave to my parents ideals of life and love that made my home a place of strength and beauty.
My church enriched my childhood with the romance of Bible and the lessons of life that were woven into the texture of my soul. Sometimes I seem to have forgotten and then, when else I might surrender to foolish and futile ideals of life, the truths my church taught become radiant, insistent, and inescapable.
In the stress and storm of adolescence my church heard the surge of my soul and she guided my footsteps by lifting my eyes toward the stars.
When first my heart knew the strange awakenings of love my church taught me to chasten and spiritualize my affections; she sanctified my marriage and blessed my home.
When my heart was seamed with sorrow, and I thought the sun could never shine again, my church drew me to the Friend of all the weary and whispered to me the hope of another morning, eternal and tearless.
Now have come the children dearer to me than life itself and my church is helping me to train them for all joyous and clean and Christly living.
My church calls me to her heart. She asks my service and my loyalty. She has a right to ask it! I will help her to do for others what she had done for me. In this place in which I live, I will help her keep aflame and aloft the torch of a living faith.
CONCLUSION
On this day when we think about family, I hope we all realize how important a healthy partnership of church and family is.
We are thankful for those couples who have refused to let the busyness of life diminish the place of the church in their lives, even when children arrive on the scene. Those families will be blessed
We are thankful for the mothers who have brought their children to church while the husband and father remained at home. That mother and those children will be blessed.
We’re thankful for that single parent who faithfully brings his or her children to church. That parent and those children will be blessed.
We’re thankful for those grandparents who are willing to embrace the responsibility which ought to belong to another to make sure their grandchildren are touched by the church’s ministry. That grandparent and those grandchildren will be blessed.
We’re thankful for the fathers and mothers who labor together in creating a partnership of family and church. That husband and wife will see their family blessed.
We are surely thankful to Jesus Christ who blesses all those who yearn to keep the partnership of church and family healthy.
