Ten Lies That Shatter Lives: Authority Doesn't Count

Ten Lies That Shatter Lives:

Authority Doesn't Count

A Sermon On:

Exodus 20: 1-17

Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 104

PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO

Over the last few weeks we've been dealing with a topic that I've titled "Ten Lies That Shatter Lives". The basic idea is this - that not everything that people tell you will be helpful or of advantage to you, is. What is claimed to be helpful may actually be harmful. What they claim will build you up may actually tear you down. What they suggest to be a growing experience may actually be toxic to your future.

The Bible, God's clear and absolutely trustworthy guide for faith and life presents us with 10 basic truths for wholesome, healthy positive living as He designed it to be experienced. Each of these ten truths is presented in contrast to a basic temptation or lie which stares generation after generation of people in the face. Oh, the outer coating on these temptations may differ, the colour of the packaging may change, but deep inside they've stayed the same. 10 lies that can easily shatter lives. We've dealt with 4 of these life-shattering lies:

Chase whatever works for you. There are no absolutes in life.
You can put God in a box of your own design
Names you use about God and others don't matter
The best of your life is found in your work and leisure.

Today God through His holy Word exposes the fifth lie of our day:
Authority doesn't count.
I don't have to pay much attention to it.
I don't really have to respond to it.
I sure don't have to respect it.

And it's amazing how widespread that attitude has become:

Do what the teacher says?
I spit every time I mention the Prime Minister!
"Hey, I'm going to do what I want. They'll never catch me anyway."
My parents? I've got my own life to live. They're on their own.
Elders and deacons - ah, what do they know?

Here's the lie:
You are your own boss. You rule your own life. You may need to listen to the boss because he signs your paycheck. You may need to heed the police because they can slap cuffs on you. But no one stands over you permanently. They can't tell you what to do. Not really. If you don't want to, you don't have to.
Have you heard it before?

Know what we've become here in North America? Just a bunch of individuals who get together when it's convenient, but for the rest we're on our own.

You and I can write a contract - I'll buy, you'll provide, or vise versa. I'll talk, you listen. I serve, you pay.
I'll help IF you'll help me
It works for me to be you..... for now. If not - goodbye...

divorce, common-law, broken partnerships, law suits and the like.

-what matters are my rights, my freedom, my independence.

Into that kind of a world, difficult though these words may be for us to hear, come the ten commandments. Today, commandment #5 -
"Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

This doesn't mean that those who show honour will have a statistically longer lifespan. It means that for society as a whole, for families and clans, for groups and for cultures, life goes better, functions smoother, has more durability and resilience, flourishes more vigorously, when authority is both respected and handled correctly.
When it is abused, either tyrannically or by abdication, or when it is snubbed or ignored, society crumbles and life's wholesomeness and fullness in the beautiful way God intended it to be disappears.

Honour your father and mother -
The teaching guide of our church, the Heidelberg Catechism, reaches below the immediate meaning of the words and links commandment #5 to other Bible teachings on authority and connects them on a basic level:
What is God's will for us in the 5^th commandment?
That I honour, love, and be loyal to my father and mother and ALL those in authority over me.....
We've read the rest.

Starting at the very foundation of society, in the home, and extending from there outward to other elements of our social structure:
- to government, the judiciary, the education system, the workplace, the Church.

In each one of these spheres of society God has mandated certain people to be in responsible positions of authority.
Parents are called to bring up children in the fear of the Lord.
Governments are called to promote justice and restrain evil.
Teachers have the mandate of training the young.
Church Officebearers guide us into God's will for today and the future.

Honour them, says the bible.
The ancient bible word which we translate into english as "honour" was a word that literally means "heavy." That means they have clout, they are significant, they matter. They are not to be taken lightly or ignored. They deserve dignity and respect.
"Let those in authority over you be given the dignity and respect due to them" says the Bible. Give them weight in your life, take them and what they say and what they do very seriously -- Honour.

Honour your father and mother - begin there.
What sort of language do we use to speak about them?
Do we become impatient or embarrassed by them as they grow older?
Snearing jokes and resentful comments about the "old man", the "old lady" - that's not in the will of God.

Honour -
For children the shape of that honour changes over the years.
When we are young it means immediate obedience.
As we grow older and wiser we become more independent. But even then we are called to treat our parents as significant. They are never to be brushed off, pushed aside, treated as insignificant nobodies. What they say, and who they are matters. Always!

Same thing for other authority figures -
If you were to do a survey through the bible you'd find similar references to employers, government officials, church leaders and the like. Again and again the bible says, "Pay attention. These people are significant. What they say and do and are - that matters. God has placed them there as authority figures. Respect that. Treat them accordingly."

The ongoing challenge remains - how would you do that?
Can you see in your own mind ways in which you have violated the spirit of God's commandment this past week with some authority figure in your life -
- someone you have cut down or thumbed your nose at or blatantly disregarded?

Like I said earlier, this command is a real toughy today.
We're not good at respect, at showing honour, at submitting our lives to the authority of another person.
We want to fly on our own.
We want to extend our arms, and play our cards independently.
"Get out of my way!!" we say.
Right?

And we can try to find justification for that attitude by pointing to authority figures that abuse trust placed in them, be they presidents with young interns, or priests with boys, or fathers with daughters, or employers with staff.
See, we could say? That's what authority does.

And true enough. Abuse of authority, using the trust God has placed in you for your own gain and immediate titillation is a horrendous sin. God will call the perpetrators to account one day.
But that sin does not justify the opposite sin of dishonour.
Honour those in authority.

But Ken, you say. You don't know my position! You don't know my parents. The pain - you can't imagine!
And, you're right. I can't. I've not been there. I'm blessed with a supportive wife, been raised in a caring home. That stuff of abuse is out of my experience zone.
For you that struggle with trauma past or present, the crunch is real. You hear the word "honour" and all kinds of red lights start flashing because that's exactly what got thrown in your face in the midst of it all. "You've got to honour me, and I'll make you honour me. The Bible says you must."

I tell you - God weeps with you in the midst of your pain.
That's a perversion of His will, that kind of abuse. It's not what He meant. And it's not what He wants for you. You don't need to continue in it!

So what to do?
How do you handle the bruises, the dreams, the fear, the self-doubt?
Let me just say this, from having worked with lots and lots of people who have had to journey this road.
Don't stuff the pain away and pretend it didn't happen. Admit it. Cry it out. Get mad, sad, and all the rest about it.
Find yourself someone you trust, a Christian, with whom you can share some of this. Get support. Then get into a counselling situation where you can with courage come to face the fears, the coping techniques you've put in place; face the lies and hurts that have been foisted on you. Don't do that alone.

And, most of all, those of you for whom this authority thing is very painful,
let me direct you - let me direct all of us to the One with ultimate authority, complete power, yet one who never abuses it, never pushes it beyond where it ought be pushed, never betrays our trust, never degrades us, never cops out on promises made or commitments begun.
He is the One that the Bible describes as a "Father", a perfect heavenly Father. Unlike earthly parents -fathers..... or mothers -
He is a parent who lives and loves perfectly, in a way that we can always count on, reach to, and trust. He is the ultimate authority figure who reaches out to His children on earth to:

comfort and console
encourage and equip
guide and guard
hold and heal
inspire and instruct
listen and love
provide and protect

Under His care, in His time, with His gentle healing grace working in your life you can begin to overcome the wounds, and stretch beyond the scars and the pain that past authority abuses have caused.
And with the gentle direction of the Holy Spirit you can work on building your life, your patterns of behaviour and thinking and speaking in such a way that you don't perpetuate the abuse in dealing with those that will come to depend on you
AND
that you are even, by God's grace, brought to the point where you can begin to let go of your deep desire to get even with the one that hurt you, to give that one just a taste of what it was like....
beyond that
to the point of treating them with restraint and a measure of dignity - even when, perhaps, it seems for all the world as if they don't deserve a stitch of it;
when you can treat them as people that God originally intended to be in good, guiding authority over you - significant people to whom significance and care is accorded.

That's the challenge before each of us.
For those of you that are struggling with pain, it's something that will require special grace and healing and time.
For all of us, it'll mean - like I said at the beginning - the vision and energy and determination to swim upstream against the current of society that sweeps past us in anti-authority ways.

So, whoever you are, and whatever baggage and experiences you brought here this morning, let me end by encouraging you NOT to try and deal with this project on your own. Don't try to simply reach inside to find resources that will allow you to:

overcome past traumas
or deal with authorities in your life in a wholesome, respectful way
or be a careful, God-honouring authority figure yourself

You don't have to do it on own.
I'm not too terribly sure any one of us could or would want to do it alone.

Instead look to Christ, son of our Heavenly Father.
The Bible says this about Him:
"He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion...." (Phil 2 - "The Message")

Jesus has been on both sides of the equation - knowing what it is like to have responsibility and power; knowing what it is like to be under the authority of and accountable to another. He has been in the position of being taken advantage of, mistreated and abused in horrendous ways - see him hanging on the cross after the mock of a trial!
He knows the challenges and tensions of the whole authority thing, and so he is able to identify with us as we try to work our way through the questions. He endured the same sort of temptations we did.
Only difference being that where we fall short, he remained steadfast. Always true and right and pure. Which allowed him to overcome and to rise from the dead victorious and go to live in heaven with His Heavenly Father....
our heavenly Father.

That's where He is right now.
Watching us as we struggle with this honouring thing.
And praying for us - praying for God the Father to send strength and motivation and healing and courage through the Holy Spirit;
strength, motivation, healing and courage right into the very core of our being, into even the corners of our memories and feelings and desires that we thought were untouchable.

So that, within the bounds of authority, we may live with honour.