An audience of one
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Recently our family has really been getting into Roald Dahl. We’ve read through Fantastic Mr Fox, George’s Marvellous Medicine and we’ve just finished Matilda. As a child I loved the movie adaptation. Matilda is an exceptionally gifted and bright girl who is born into a family who either ignores her or treats her as an unbearable inconvenience. Her parents tell her she is a mistake. When it turns out she has taught herself to read at the age of 3, they scorn her interest in books and force her to sit down and watch the most inane TV. At one stage, when Matilda realises her Dad is not only mean, but a crook - selling dodgy used cars - she challenges him to which he says what becomes a catch phrase - ‘I’m big, you’re small, I’m good, you’re bad, I’m right, you’re wrong and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
It’s devestating isn’t it? And yet for so many people it’s true. If you’re big you can do what you like. If you’re strong, you call the shots. If you’re powerful, what you say goes, and there’s nothing that the little people can do about it.
As we’ve been working out way through Ephesians, we’ve seen how the gospel is good news for all types of people. It’s a message of dignity for those who have been patronised, inclusion for those who’ve been shut out.
And so we might expect that when Paul comes to apply the gospel to the most vulnerable - children and slaves, we might expect him to have something empowering to say.
But as we heard Ephesians 6 read out, I wonder how you felt.
Did it strike you as a bit of a let down? I mean, slaves obey your masters - is that it? Children obey your parents. That doesn’t exactly sound like a better story than - you’re on your own, this life is all there is, grab what you can.
Is Paul pro slavery? Does he agree with all those who’ve thrown their weight around, slave masters, bosses, CEOs, fathers?
And what might that say about God if he is?
What hope does the gospel of Jesus offer little people?
What hope does the gospel have for those of us who have someone in our lives - our boss, our parents, our teachers, our spouse, telling us ‘I’m big, you’re small, I’m good, you’re bad, I’m right, you’re wrong and there’s nothing you can do about it’?
Even if you’re small, you can delight the one who delights in you
Even if you’re small, you can delight the one who delights in you
State:
Even if you’re small, you can delight the one who delights in you
Show
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
Explain
There aren’t many creatures more vulnerable than children are there? Human babies aren’t really mean’t to be outside the womb until they’re 4 months old - it’s just that if they stayed in the womb any longer than 9 months, their gigantic heads mean they get stuck. We are so fragile. A foal can walk within a few minutes of birth, and can run within a few hours. Turtles are independent, swimming in the ocean, finding their own food within an hour of hatching. Many of us know teenagers who can’t fend for themselves!
We may think that children are pretty vulnerable creatures. But in the ancient world, they were one hand guesture from death. In a Roman family, all a Father had to do was tip his thumb up or down, and that would mean life or death for a child.
As we heard with husbands, Fathers were encouraged to rule their children as despots and to be on the lookout for any sign of disrespect and to punish it severely. Children were under the rule of their fathers until around 60, when the father would retire and authority would pass to the oldest Son.
If you were small in Jesus day, even now if you are small in many places in the world, you are completely at the mercy of anyone bigger than you.
And it seems like Paul just wants to keep it that way in verse 1. Obey your parents. Pretty conservative right. On the surface yes.
But so often in the bible, one or two words can change everything. And Paul adds three words to this well known commandment from the Jewish Torah, the law that change everything:
He says, obey your parents in the Lord.
Honour them. Listen to what they say. But not because they’re big, and right, good, and you aren’t. No. Do it because it’s a way for you to honour Jesus.
Again, if we skim this, because our culture is obsessed with personal autonomy, with the quesiton of who has power over me, all we will hear is the word ‘obey’. But if we look closely, and we finish the sentence, we see that this is a gospel moment. A moment where the new freedom and love of Jesus is breaking through the cracks of the old world of sin and death. The Spirit is at work in families.
We see that children, you are supposed to obey your parents, not because might makes right, but you have a Heavenly Father who undeniably loves you and knows you and cares for you. No matter what your earthly parents are like.
Because there’s no guarantee that you’ll get good ones. Paul can’t guarantee that. I can’t guarantee that. But the gospel says that even if you have a Dad like Matlida’s.
Do you see the grace here? Do you see the way the gospel gives power and freedom to those who have none? Do you see the way the gospel can raise up little people, no matter where they are and no matter if they are stuck under people who treat them with contempt.
But the gospel has ower, a power to undermine the powerful and bring down the despots - including domestic despots. It says to children, the most vulnerable in all societies - obey your parents - as a way of serving Jesus.
It says, even if you’re small, you can delight the one who delights in you.
Illustration???
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I realise for some of us, remembering our childhood brings up feelings of deep hurt.
Some of us had Fathers who were despots up there with Idi Amin, or the Kim dynasty. As children, some of us may have heard the constant refrain, you are not worthy, you are not right, you are not loved.
Some of us bristle when we hear the word ‘obey’. We bristle because we were told to obey not the nurturing instruction of a loving parent, but the whims of a selfish one.
If that’s you, the gospel calls you to see the great love your heavenly Father has for you. The love that the Lord Jesus has for you. The love that led him to treat your needs as more important than his own, the love that led him to make himself small, weak, vulnerable, so that you could be embraced by the endless, constant love of the Father.
Transition
The gospel lifts up the little people. But it also has something to say to the big people as well.
If you’re big, you can show little people what love looks like
If you’re big, you can show little people what love looks like
State
The gospel gives parents a pattern
show
And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
One of the surprising joys of parenthood has been getting to know other Dads. And in fact, a few of the Dads I’ve met at 5 year old birthday parties or standing on the sidelines at peewees soccer have formed a band. We get together every month or so to play music that was cool when we were young and is now hopelessly out of date. And when we get together, we inevitably talk about parenting, how our kids are going. I’m really touched by the love my bandmates have for their kids. The way they are involved with them.
But I know, there’s also incredible pressure on parents these days. There’s so many different schools of thought. There’s attachment parenting, snowplough parenting, helicopter parenting, there’s tiger mum’s and tiger dads, there’s free range parenting. How on earth are parents supposed to know what to do? Some parents throw their hands up and just go with their gut. Others throw their hands up and go ‘old school’.
Is there a ‘gospel’ way to parent? Well, kinda.
It’s there in the second half of the verse 4.
Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Your job, as a parent is to educate your children in Christ because you are not master of the house, he is.
The gospel has Fathers in Paul’s day, both parents in our day, it has those with power over their children, say how can I demonstrate Christ to you?
This is the most important thing parents can teach their children. How we parent is personal, we all have our own style. But however we do it, it must be shaped by Jesus.
He came to reveal the love of the Father, so those of us who are parents are also to reveal the love of the Father to our kids.
So much of this is about behaviour and attitude. Yes, there’s content to be learned. Of course children need to have the gospel explained to them, they’ll need someone to read the bible with them and teach them how to pray and how to give and what to do at church. But they also need an example of what a follower of Jesus looks like.
And that’s where all of us, whether we have kids living with us or not, have a part to play.
Illustration
In the book Growing Young, the authors surveyed thousands of churches from all different denominations in all sorts of places and they said no matter where they looked, one of the most important factors in determining if a child brought up as a Christian remained a Christian in adulthood was if they had meaningful relationships with Christian adults who weren’t their parents. Did they see multiple examples of what it means to follow Jesus? Did they see that it’s not just their weirdo parents who love Jesus, other grown ups who seem to have some wisdom about life, they also follow Jesus? Did anyone from their church family invest in their growth?
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Like everything in the Christian life, growing our children as disciples is a team effort. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a church to raise a Christian.
Parents need help.
That’s why, when we baptise a child as we will in a few weeks, it is not a private thing. We don’t hold a separate service and have a nice little ceremony for the immediate family. Because baptism is not a private affair. It’s where we welcome a child into the people of God. And at the baptism service, we - all of us, promise to support the parents and godparents in the work of bringing the child up to know and love Jesus. If you’ve been to a baptism service, chances are you promised that.
So can I encourage you, get to know our families, including the kids. Introduce yourself. Pray for them. Get to know them.
For those of us who are parents, we are called let our parenting be shaped first and foremost by the Spirit. When our children look at us, do they see us using our strength for others? Do they see us modelling self-sacrifice? Do they see us trying to imitate Jesus’ humility?
Likewise, what would they say is most important to us? What would they say we most want them to know? If we asked them, what do my parents think will make me happy, wise, and set me up for life, what would they say?
Parents, bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Show them Jesus.
Transition
There’s fairly practical reasons why parents have responsibility for their kids. And we might think, ok leaving aside the bad parents. I can see why the bible calls for kids to obey and parents to teach them what it means to follow Jesus.
But what’s going on with verse 5? Sure ancient slavery was not racial like the North Atlantic slave trade, and some slaves were educated and relatively wealthy. But none of that changes the fact that we’re talking about one person owning another, with complete rights over them.
Like fathers over children, masters had absolute rights over slaves, including life and death. Slaves existed for the pleasure of their masters and this very often included their sexual pleasure. Can’t we just condemn it?
Here too, Paul did not have the power to end slavery. He couldn’t go to the fair work tribunal or his local union. Slavery was legal. Slavery was built into the fabric of Roman society. Every single thing that we now use machines to do, in Roman society, it was done by a slave. No one imagined ending slavery in the Roman empire.
Nevertheless, Paul does something that ends up devastating the whole institution. He brings the gospel to bear on it.
No matter who you are, play to an audience of one and you’ll be free
No matter who you are, play to an audience of one and you’ll be free
State
The gospel says you are a new creation, created in love by a Father who delights in you. So no matter w ho you are, play to an audience of one and you’ll be free.
Show
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.
Notice again what’s going on. Who is being addressed? Not masters, but slaves. Again he treats them as real human beings. More than that, he elevates them. He says, because of the gospel, the work a slave does for their earthly master is really a way to serve Jesus. Not because Jesus is a slave master but because Jesus is the Lord who is really a servant himself who is perfectly just in paying his workers. Paul says, the work you do, no matter if it’s building roads, waiting tables, teaching students, counting beans, it has eternal significance if it’s done for God. It matters. God notices.
Paul has no power to break the physical chains of thousands throughout the world. But the gospel has power to lift all who are under the boot.
The gospel says, no matter who you were, you are a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared in advance for you to do.
If you play to an audience of one, you’ll be free. No matter what you are doing, if you do it as a way to serve God, you’ll never have your wages stolen. No matter if your boss is the salt of the earth, or has all the integrity of Alan Bond, if you choose to work for the one who is so generous he gave up his Son for you, you’ll never miss out.
But even more radically, because there is just one saviour, one faith, one Lord Jesus, no matter if you are the lowest slave or the most high flying CEO, you are on equal footing:
And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.
Masters, don’t just be nice to your slaves, serve them. Do the same for them. Serve them enthusiastically. Not just while they’re watching but doing it because you are also a slave of Christ, just as they are.
This is mutual submission between master and slave!
This is pouring gospel acid over the whole rotten institution.
Illustration: make this shorter
Over the centuries the church began to let this sink in. The gospel acid did its work in the 4th century as Gregory of Nyssa argued for the complete abolition of slavery. The gospel acid did its work as Churches in his province and others around the empire spent huge sums of money trying to free as many slaves as they could. The gospel acid did its work as countless black Christians to assert their high position before Jesus against the constant refrain of their masters.
And the gospel acid later inspired people like William Wilberforce who spent his life fighting for abolition in the British Empire and Abraham Lincoln who pushed for it in the United States. It inspired Evangelical Christians in the 19th century to argue for better working conditions in factories, and to outlaw child labour. It inspired Martin Luther King Jr to peacefully work against segregation.
It inspired Indigenous and non-indigenous Christians in Australia to call out slavery here.
Apply
If we have people telling us ‘I’m big, you’re small, I’m good, you’re bad, I’m right, you’re wrong and there’s nothing you can do about it’, in one sense they may be right. But we know a God who, as Mary said, brings down the proud and exalts the lowly. Who pays attention to the small. Who sees the little people, and lifts them up. And he will not let our hope, our loyalty to him, our work for him go unpaid.
And if we any power, if we are responsible for anyone, we are to realise that we’re just servants of a master who doesn’t care about titles or positions. He cares that we use our power to demonstrate his love. He cares that we bring the gospel to bear on our power - whether we’re parents, managers, wardens, and citizens.