From Dreams to Reality

Ever found yourself lingering at that intersection, studying the directional signs and wondering if the road goes through? Perhaps no one pauses there longer than do parents . . . or at times wonders once they have traveled down the road for awhile, whether someone switched the directional signs.

Sometimes the stresses we live with can make the signs harder to notice, or if we do notice them, to follow them. It would be easier if all the directional signs agreed, but increasingly we are having to decide which signs we will pay more attention to than others. The world we live in is increasingly more complicated, which can make navigation quite challenging at times.

And so we have these words from Paul. Instructions to parents and children about how to navigate. Which roads to take. What landmarks to look for. But as complicated as life can get, amazingly, these old guidelines are still remarkably insightful and worth reflecting on.

Paul reminds us that reality is all about the Kingdom of God - not necessarily the various versions of other kingdoms that are being promoted and pursued all around us, but God's Kingdom, bases on the directional signs He gives to us, that are build on a very different set of principles than many of the other entities around us. When we listen carefully and not just read superficially, there is much here that is rich and helpful. Paul takes the complicated, and frankly flawed structure of the time, and injected the principles of the Kingdom into it, to humanize, or perhaps "gospelize" the structures that people were living their lives in. Authority structures were infused with grace. Children and Parents treating each other with mutual respect and integrity. Those who find themselves in places of greater and lesser power in society, learning to treat each other in ways that honor God and not reinforce the worst of what those structures can mean. Paul does not endorse the structures themselves (that is a different conversation), but rather admonishes us to be Christ-like whatever the structure is that we find ourselves in.

That's what Pastor Jon explores in the sermon this week. If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.

Ephesians 6

(NIV)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do,whether you are slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Questions for Reflection:

1. What does it look like . . . what does it take . . . for parents and children to actually live in mutual respect for each other? Where are the growing edges for you?

2. What does it look like for people who, for whatever reason, have more power than those who have less, to live in mutual respect for each other? Where are the growing edges for you?

3. What difference does it make that the model of Jesus in John 13 take priority over our more contemporary view of what power looks like when it is being lived out? Where are the growing edges for you?