Abridged Worship – May 11, 2025

We have two dynamic passages today. The first is from Ephesians where the Apostle Paul teaches that children and slaves should obey the authorities in their lives: children their parents and slaves their masters.  

Now, I will note that Biblical slavery is different than the chattel slavery which is talked about in North American colonial history and slave trade. That is a wider discussion for another time, but I just want to make you aware so that we do not go into Paul comments through the lens of North American history.  

That aside, Paul is speaking about this obedience in relationship to our obedience of Christ. He calls us to serve and obey well, because it reflects our trust in God. If you think about what we learned this year at Good Friday, when we spoke of the mother of James and John wanting her sons to gain positions of authority in Christ’s kingdom, Jesus rebukes and explains that the Messiah had come not to be served but to serve. Since no student is greater than Jesus, we all as disciples, students of Jesus Christ, should serve too. Two of the main ways we can serve, without having to go looking for opportunities, are within our families and within our stations (or in more modern language: our education or careers).  

Paul tells us that every time we serve, we should be serving as Christ taught us to serve and how we saw Christ serve. When we do serve, when we do obey, it should be for the glory of God. We live and work for God first and in all we do.  

In a different context, Paul comments on this intentional service, and he reminds us so boldly what our hearts should be focused on. He says, so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God – even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 

Paul teaches us that his pleasing people, his hospitality, his service, is always ultimately for God’s glory and to bring people to salvation.  

I think this is an amazing thing to think about when you are required to do something you do not want to do. If you think about all the worldly masters you might have in a day, it can become very daunting.  

For me, my first master I must greet, is getting out of bed and going to the gym. If my mind is focused on myself, the comforts of easement, I never get out of that bed. But if I remember that I want my life and body to be a disciplined temple which is in service to the Lord, that I can sweat for the Lord, and make that sacrifice of easement and comfort for him, the next thing you know I’m on the treadmill chatting with the other gym rats.  

For you it might not be the gym, maybe it’s your job, maybe you have to work with people all day, and you are not a people person. Maybe you fall to the negative with is this and say to yourself, oh today is going to be hell, I know people are going to be difficult, people are going to complain, I just want to stay at home today.  Of course that will suck the life right out of you. But if you say, all the people I’m going to encounter today were known by God, loved by God before they were even sown into their mother’s womb, if you say to yourself, every person I encounter today bares the image of God, Jesus said I would encounter him when I served others. When you say each person, whether they are difficult or not, whether I like them or not, is an opportunity for me to be a welcoming, kind, healing force of the Gospel in their life. That changes your day.  

We truly need to put Christ as the central focus in all we do. Do it all, obey and serve, for the glory of God. Can we all agree to do that, to work on this? Yes? Good. 

Our second passage is where we encounter this command to honour our parents (in this debate between Jesus and the Pharisees). You see, in this passage we discover the Pharisees come to criticise Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating, claiming that this violated the “tradition of the elders”. Jesus counters by pointing out that these critics are more concerned with their religious traditions than the actual commands of God.  

One of the expectations for the Jews at the time was to financially support your parents when they could no longer support themselves, which was part of the understanding of honouring your mother and father. But some people didn’t want to care for their parents, so they found a loophole. A tradition called “Korban” (which is a gift dedicated to God) was being used for people to forgo the care for their parents (for whatever personal reason). They leaned on this tradition of gifting money to God, and claim this was valid because it was for God – so they did not need to care for their parents. These Pharisees were practicing and condoning the opposite of what Paul was talking about. The weren’t serving others for the glory of God. They were appealing to the glory of God to serve themselves. They were dishonoring their parents and calling it an act of devotion.  

Let’s play devil’s advocate for the Pharisees. Why do you think this desire to dishonour their parents came up in the first place? The simple answer is, not everyone gets perfect parents, not everyone gets perfect children. People can be very difficult and sometimes rifts happen, sometimes pain in our families is greater than comfort, and even though we are called to obey, serve, love, heal… we don’t want to for what might seems like the most justifiable reasons. So, God becomes their loophole to escape God’s command. This is what Jesus critiques.   

So how do we deal with this, how do we honor parents we would rather not honour? Well, this question leans on what Paul says, because we don’t always get the authority above us that we wish we had. We discover this reality, first with who raises us, our parents, and second in our stations in life, the masters of the work of our minds and hands. It is not going to be easy to serve, and love everyone. It’s going to hurt sometimes. But we cannot use God as an excuse not to.  

It like the story of the good Samaritan who helped the man who was robbed and left for dead. Before the good Samaritan, people walked by the dying man on the street, a Priest and Levite pass the man by, the religious people dishonor the beaten man’s life. Why? Most likely because he was unclean and they justified it to themselves that to honor God’s ceremonial law, they could disobey God’s moral commands to love their neighbour.  

Between Jesus and Paul we see this teaching that true servanthood is serving as Christ did, stepping down willing into the lowest position to serve those who might not even deserve it. That can be hard when it is our parents and we have a tough relationship, or if its our bosses, our masters of our trades. But we do it, not just to be pleasing to them, but for the ultimate purpose of bringing glory to God and displaying the fruit of salvation before them, that they too might come to know Jesus.   

One final thought, and I add this because this is a question I have always gotten when studying these passages from Jesus. What if you parent is really bad, like abusive bad, do you still honour them? The answer is yes, but.  

We have to remember when we serve others, even our enemies and those who hate us or persecute us, our primary master is always Christ, not them. We don’t serve them because they are honorable, we serve them because Christ is honorable. But this tells us something: ultimately our service to others has to be within the will of God. So, if our parents, our bosses, or even our government commands us to violate a moral command of Jesus, we have every right to say, “no”.  

For it serves no one, not your self, not others, for anyone to go against the will of God.  

But, just because you might have to deny your parents’ command, doesn’t mean you don’t honour them. You can honour them with forgiveness (conviction, grace, and mercy goes along way), you can honour them by seeking help for them, and if they are really lost, abusive, or self destructive you can honour them by seeking both justice and mercy for them for their actions (that could be legal, medical, social support, or prosecution), in hopes ultimately that they can in their conviction find humility, clarity, and come to know the Lord.  Remember we are called to love our enemies, even if our enemies are in our own homes.  

So let’s boil this all down. 

We are all called to put Christ as the central focus in our lives. Jesus Christ willingly stepped down from eternity, learned obedience to His father, and served humanity to show the ultimate will of the Father’s love of creation. This is the life we are to embrace ourselves. Because this is the life which will help us to bring people to the Father, to honor the Father’s desire to see his Kingdom grow. God is the mothering hen whos wing will shelter us when we seek refuge.   

So on this Mother’s Day, let us honour our parents, as we ultimately honour our God. Let us learn not to use God to serve ourselves, but seek to use our lives, our work, our labour to serve God. Let us make Christ the focus of our hearts, his ministry and wisdom the guiding post for our lives, day to day. May all that we do become a testimony of our faith.  

Let us pray…

Father In Heaven, You birthed the reality of parenthood, You guide us by Your law, word, and merciful presence. We thank You, and we seek to know Your ways, that we may be honourable parents to those who come next, and give thanks and appreciation for those who came before. Amen

Homework: