Is it possible for a parent to be too involved with their child’s school? Think about a parent who is always the first to volunteer when the school asks for volunteers. This parent is strongly involved with the PTA. This parent helps in the school office and in their child’s classroom. They make copies, organize projects, go on fieldtrips and are at the school every day. In fact, this parent is at their child’s school more than the child is. If they can’t find something to do in the school they go out on the school yard and clean up. They help with after school activities and do their planning and attend meetings related to the school in the evenings. Obviously, this parent loves the school and wants the best for their child.
Could this parent be missing something in life? Could there be any downside to other areas of life caused by doing all this good volunteer work at the school? I think we can all see how such busyness, even though it is doing good, could cause harm to other areas of life. This parent should probably make the choice to give up a little of the volunteering for the good of their family. In God’s Word before us today, we see two sisters. Martha is very busy serving the Lord. However, Jesus says to her, “Mary has chosen what is better.” Mary made a good choice. Before we can make a good choice in our lives we first look at God’s choice and then at our choice.
Good Choice.
In following the life of Hezekiah, good King of Judah, we have been bouncing between 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings. There’s a reason for that. The writer of Chronicles is looking at the religious history of God’s people and her kings. The writer of Kings is looking at the political history of the nations of Judah and Israel. To relate Hezekiah’s entire story, the Holy Spirit chose six events in his life and divided them equally, three events in Kings, three events in Chronicles. It’s as if Hezekiah’s life was equally divided by his church and his job.
In passing, this may give us cause to reflect, how big a role does my church play in my life? Is it insignificant, with me spending more time in the gym or therapy? Is it a significant part of my life, one of the central spots my life revolves around?
Anyway, because we have been following Hezekiah’s religious life as well as his political life, we come to 2 Chronicles 31 and it concerns Hezekiah’s work at funding his church, and the example he gave us for the funding of our church.
Give God Our Best
I’m almost there. Almost past the point where well-meaning friends back east can ask, “Isn’t it hard to raise kids in Las Vegas?” Just five more weeks and then my last one will be off to college, slipping the coils of the local scene.
I guess my friends imagine we don’t have parks and sports leagues here. All the kids can do to while away the hours is to loiter in the casinos and surreptitiously scrounge around the slot machines for spare change. All the kids have to look forward to is growing up to be adult entertainer dancers or croupiers. Honestly, that’s what some of them back east expect. Midwest winters are so hard, it must not only be the soil that freezes.
Invariably I tell them it is easier to raise great kids here than back in God’s country. “Never have the lines between virtue and vice been so starkly drawn.”
And that is true, except for the text before us today. In 2 Kings 18, the lines between virtue and vice are drawn as starkly as they can possibly be drawn.
What a Difference Faith Makes!
Luke 9.51-62 July 4, 2010
Independence Day! Today our nation celebrates its birthday. And we praise God for placing us in this great nation. In the United States of America, we have many freedoms not enjoyed by others in the world. These freedoms are guaranteed to us in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. And our Constitution sets up a system of government designed to protect our freedoms. It is a system of checks and balances.
The president nominates a Supreme Court justice but that person has to be approved by the Senate. Congress passes a law but it is not a law until the president signs it. However the president can’t veto everything because Congress can override his veto with enough votes. And the Supreme Court can send that new law back to the drawing board by finding it to be unconstitutional. Checks and balances keep each branch of government doing what it is supposed to do so we can all enjoy the freedoms given to us in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Winning the right to form our own government, writing the Constitution and preserving our freedoms to this day has not been easy. But it has been worth it.
In our text, two disciples step outside the box and attempt to exercise authority not given to them and are checked by Jesus. Some others who want to follow Jesus are reminded that it will not be easy. We too want to serve our Savior with our lives as Christians. Jesus keeps us balanced in our Christian life, reminding us of how he operates and warning us that it is not always easy to Follow Jesus’ Way.
The National Finals Rodeo was in town. A newspaper reporter was interviewing a bull rider about his event. A lot of the events were actually based on jobs a normal cowboy would do. Wrestle a steer to the ground to brand him. Rope a calf to lead it back to the herd. Break a mustang so it could be ridden. But bull riding? As she pried answers out of the cowboy, who was getting increasingly irritated with her trying to find deep meaning in everything, she asked him, “Why do you have to stay on the bull for eight seconds?”
“’Cause them's the rules, maam.”
With so much in life, “them's the rules.” There are the rules of physics, the rules of mechanical design—every automobile has to have four wheels for maximum stability and a minimum of friction. There are the rules of polite society as mothers daily try to civilize their children’s eating habits at the dining room table. There are the rules of God, too. And there, as we see in our text for today, God wants us to play it
By the Book
Every one of us is a leader. I know that by watching the students at our preschool and Kindergarten. They all thrill to be the line leader. They chafe at waiting their turn. We want to go first. You don’t see the high rollers and VIPs at the casinos waiting in their special lines before all the other people go through the buffet lines. We all identify with leaders so much that even computer games are starting to have story lines so people will play the game all the way through, pretending to be the leading man.
Today I am going to ask you all to be heroes, to be those leading men and women we watch and read about, those leaders we aspire to be.
Take the Lead in Worship, Too