Hi! Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenge. Today’s Tuesday; it’s the day we explore in the Bible the topic that we introduced yesterday. We’re in a series called, “Reset” right now, looking at how deciding to follow Jesus resets some really important areas of our lives. We’ve looked at several and this week we’re looking at how it resets our view of family.

So what is family for, if following Jesus comes first in someone’s life?

Does this mean not loving family at all?  No way.  Here’s how Pastor Tim Keller put it: “If we have made idols of work and family, we do not want to stop loving our work and family. Rather, we want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.”

One Christian author, Stanley Hauwerwas said: For Christians do not place their hope in their children, but rather their children are a sign of their hope . . . that God has not abandoned this world.”

We can see this in how the Bible set out the requirements for an overseer – a pastor or bishop.   They were written by a church leader named Paul, addressed to his protégé, Timothy.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (1 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)

You can see where leadership is supposed to be practiced: at home first, then in the Christian community.  This isn’t saying every leader needs to be married – Paul himself was not.  But if a leader is, they need to be leading at a Christian home already.  The most important line is, “if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”

A family is a miniature church of sorts.  Martin Luther said centuries ago ago: “A house is actually a school and a church, and the head of the household is a pastor in his house.”

Family is a place to learn essential skills for Christian living, learn to follow Jesus.  This is one reason among many churches baptize children.  We are celebrating that they are starting school, not graduating.  A Christian family commits to teaching the basics of following Jesus when their child is baptized.

Family becomes a training ground for the kingdom of God.  How does that look in pracitce?  Look at one example from ancient Israel that surely informed early Christians as well:

Deuteronomy 6: 4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Their faith was meant to be everywhere in family life, so children encountered it daily.

Question: How do this?  What skills do you think are essential for Christians, and learned in the family?

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - March 25, 2014

Tuesday - Study It - Reset Society

Reset

Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions. Maybe the idea of a fair and equitable society seems new to the world, but listen to these words from Paul, one of the first Christian leaders 2000 years ago. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:27-29 ESV) He names three big divisions in human society, that Paul says Christians will see differently: Race, Class, and Gender. First, he calls out race by saying there is neither Jew nor Greek when we live together in Christ. He said this in the context of a divided culture, with Jews trying to make their way through life as a people distinct from the many nations around them, all heavily influencd by Greek culture. He just uses “Greek” as shorthand for Gentiles, the non-Jews, whether they are Roman or Greek or otherwise. He calls out class, saying there is neither slave nor free. He was lived in a society that relied on slavery to function, so what he said was counter-cultural. Finally he calls out gender, saying there is neither male nor female. He said that in a culture where women were held in low regard, even despised. To all of these divisions, Paul says something groundbreaking, that they are all one in Christ Jesus. We miss how revolutionary this was. Paul is not saying that these divisions don’t exist, or that they are to be completely ignored. He knows there are races, classes and genders in our world. It’s impossible and impractical to ignore these distinctions, yet our culture sometimes reacts in bizarre ways when these divisions get out of hand. A young child’s swimming teacher was going to be away for a week, and the child asked who the new teacher would be. The parents said they didn’t know, and he asked if it would be the black swim teacher. This was an awkward moment because adults had never used that language around the child before, and were surprised the child spoke about skin colour. Adults also know it’s wrong to refer to someone by the colour of their skin if it’s in judgement, or as if one attribute somehow describes the whole person. But for a child, it was completely innocent, simply describing someone he saw. In a swimming pool you either describe a physical attribute, or a bathing suit, those are your choices. But because of that history of judgement and division, I think adults in our culture have reacted by pretending there are no differences in skin colour, gender, etc. when that is clearly not true. Along with one’s heritage come great cultural riches – music, festivals, clothing, ideas, etc. that we don’t want to lose. Is there an alternative to bigotry and reactionary colour blindness? Absolutely, and it’s the view of the one who created every human, male and female, everywhere in the world. Those who follow Jesus are all one in Christ Jesus, described as Abraham’s offspring, heirs according ot promise, regardless of those things that normally divide humans one from another. God’s promise to Abraham was that he would bless the world through him and his offspring. They aren’t barriers to followers of Jesus having fellowship with one another. We recognize each other as equals, family members and co-heirs. Unfortunately the Christian Church hasn’t got a great history of following through on this. Question: When have you seen ethnic, class or gender divisions among Christians?

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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