Thursday, March 8, 2012

Keep Awake!

Mark 13:31-33 (ESV)
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. [32] "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. [33] Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.

Be on guard, keep awake. He means stay in the faith. Don’t put it off. Don’t treat it as if it were something you can perhaps pick up another day. But live in the faith. So often kids go off to college or wherever else and think that they can put off church. (today our church body seems to be indulging them with that idea shutting down as many campus ministries as we are…) They lay down to take a nap, and never wake up. It happens for other reasons too. There is oil enough for our lamps in the sacraments and God’s word, but we let that go. Perhaps, we think it is ok to shack up, we can return to church once he marries me. 20 years later your kids go off to college never having darkened a door of a church. Parents are a bit nuts, they let baseball become more important than church. Parents will wake up at 6:00 Am to make it to their son’s baseball game on Saturday. They won’t bother waking up at 8 Am to make it to church at 10 AM on Sunday morning. When this happens one has fallen asleep. The most important thing God has charged you with as parents, that is the thing you have shirked. And that is one sin, the iniquity of which one is lucky if it stops being visited on the third or fourth generation. And don’t blame the church either. If you don’t bring your kids, you are just giving everybody else the same excuse you have for not bringing your kids, that there are no kids. Bring your kids, maybe more will come. Maybe not. It is really beside the point. God doesn’t say bring your kids up in a church that has lots of kids, but: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [5] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. [6] And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. [7] You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. “ (Deut. 6:4-7 (ESV) Church attendance is one of those things that is central to the faith. It is there you find the oil, the forgiveness of sins, the gospel, the sacraments, that sustain your faith, and keep you awake for the vigil.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen, my brother...!

"Teach them to your children..."
that's some GOOD LAW, to lead
the little ones(and their parents)
to the truth of God, and to His
Gospel too! Can't live without one,
if you don't have the other!
Thanks for giving a "shout out" on
this text. (Deut. 6:4-12)
We should STIR UP some of these parents to bring their kids to hear the the Word. Keep on... !
Cordially~
Pastor Christopher Cole - LCMS

Bror Erickson said...

Thanks Christopher.