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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Living for Christ in the Home |
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Ephesians
5:17-25, 6:1-4 Fourth
Sunday of Lent March
14, 2010 The
breakdown of the contemporary family is well documented and universally
acknowledged. It crosses all
religious, economic, political and national boundaries, with disastrous
consequences. In an attempt
to preserve and strengthen the family, well meaning Christians have
embraced the idea that the primary institution, in the plan of God, is the
family. Actually the Church is the primary institution in the plan of
God. The Church is the family
of God and the body of Christ. Christ died for the Church, and the new
life of the individual Christian is lived in the context of God's new
people, the Church. The home
life of a Christian family, then, is, or should be, the home life of the
Church. The home is the place where members of the Church live and work
together every day, and put their faith into action.
The Christian family, then, is a picture, or reflection of the
Church. In the plan of God,
the members of the family are, first of all, members of the Church in its
universal and local manifestations. The
members of Christ's Church bring all of life under His Lordship.
Everything in life is centered upon Christ.
Thus, they honour Christ in their homes, their work, their
entertainment, and in every facet and calling of life. The
ancient monasteries and convents caught something of the vision of God
here. They saw themselves
essentially as a church and all of life was intended to revolve around it.
Every task was performed for the glory of God and the good of the
church, whether leading prayers or feeding the animals, cooking the meals
or doing the dishes. The
ancient English village gives an even better picture of this vision.
The village was a community in which everyone considered himself or
herself a member of the Church. Thus,
the village was the church in action.
Life revolved around the Church.
Each day began in the Church with Morning Prayer.
Each day ended in the Church with Evening Prayer.
The pastor was the spiritual leader in the community.
He was charged with the task of teaching the Scriptures, preaching
the sermons, leading the worship, and all the other ministerial functions.
The magistrate was charged with the civil leadership of the
community. The blacksmith
shod the horses. The miller
ground the wheat, the tailor mended the clothes, and most people were
fairly self-sufficient, keeping their own sheep and cattle, and raising
their own crops for food. In
this plan, the Church was the community, and the community was the Church. The families were considered sub groups of the Church, where
the people lived and worked together.
They had charge of their children and were responsible for raising
them to love and honour God. Thus,
they had their children baptized, and brought them to Church, where they
were not segregated away from the parents to be entertained, but learned
to love and worship God from infancy. Thus,
the whole community saw itself as one united Church working together for
the glory of God. This idea
was extended throughout the nation, so the villages were united together
into the nation, and the whole nation was a Church. If
you look into the Bible, and substitute the word, "synagogue"
for "church," you will see that this view of life comes right
out of the Bible and is the Biblical ideal for a peaceful and happy
society. Unfortunately, we
are sinners, and do not always live up to the ideal. So, in the New
Testament there is a very distinct line drawn between the Church and the
world. The community is not
the Church. Instead, the
Church is the community of believers that is very distinct, and even
called out and apart from, the world. Back
to the family, a group of people living under the same roof but not
functioning together as a subset of the church is missing the mark.
And the further away from the plan of God our family life falls,
the more unhappy it becomes, while the more closely it approaches the
mark, the more happiness and real joy we find in our family relationships.
Men,
the spiritual and moral health of your family is your responsibility.
It is primarily your job to make it happen.
That is why the Bible tells wives to submit to their husbands (Eph.
5:22), and children to obey their parents (Eph. 6:1).
They are to follow your leadership in establishing the spiritual
and moral "climate" of your home.
But there's a catch, men, you can't make it happen by force.
You make it happen by leadership and by love.
You are to love your wife as Christ loves the Church (Eph. 5:25)
and to bring up the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
(Eph. 6:4). Nurturing is not accomplished by authoritarian dictatorship.
It is accomplished through loving guidance.
Again the example is Christ. As He gave His life for the Church,
you must give your life for your wife, and children.
Your lives, men, are to be living sacrifices in their service, and
to be a living sacrifice in their service is a major part of being a
living sacrifice in the service of God (Rom 12:1). Ladies,
the spiritual and moral health of your family is your responsibility.
You are not left out of the picture, nor are you relieved of
responsibility. You are your
husband's helpmeet, and the two of you are partners in this enormous task.
He cannot accomplish it, cannot have any hope of even the smallest
success in it without your input, your support, and your permission.
You are not a silent slave. You
are a working partner in the God-given task of establishing a Christian
home and ensuring that your home and family conforms to the will of God in
all things. Thus, you will
study and apply the Bible to your family life.
You will counsel, and give direction to you family, who will gladly
submit to you, and you will also gladly submit to them.
This, too, is part of being a living sacrifice to God. Children,
the spiritual and moral health of your family is your responsibility.
Children start as learners, whose primary task is obedience.
But as you grow you assume more personal responsibility for your
own faith, and for your own contributions to the spiritual climate of the
home. It is your job, as much as it is everyone else's job, to
contribute to the positive godliness of the home.
It is your job, as much as it is the job of every other member of
the family, to order your lives and conduct yourselves in ways that will
enable you to be ready for Prayers, ready for worship, and active
participants in the well ordering and smooth functioning of the family.
Again, this is part of what it means for you to be a living
sacrifice unto God. The
foundation of the home is mutual submission, and mutual submission begins
with submission to the will of God. But mutual submission also requires us
to submit to one another. That is why, in Ephesians 5, before he gets to
the particulars of the workings of the Christian family, the Apostle Paul
instructs us to be in mutual submission. If Christianity is going to work,
in the Church, in the home, or in any other place, we must be in a
constant state of submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God
(Eph. 5:21). This requires a constant and continuing effort.
It is to become the constant attitude of our lives. Let
us close with the prayer For a Blessing on the Families of the Land, found
on page 598 of the Prayer Book. "Almighty
God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary in families; We commend
to thy continual care the homes in which thy people dwell.
Put far from them, we beseech thee, every root of bitterness, the
desire of vain-glory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue,
knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant
affection those who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh; turn the
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the
fathers; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we be evermore
kindly affectioned with brotherly love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen."
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