Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements, Joys, & Concerns

FOR ST ANDREWS: Passing of the Peace

Gathering Song 

Call to Worship

Opening Prayer

Hymn

Confession

Declaration of Forgiveness

Gloria Patri (Glory to God)

Glory be to the Fatherand to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.As it was in the beginning,it is now and ever shall be,world without end.Amen, amen.

Trouble in the Text

The Brothers Grimm are haunting.

They didn’t actually write for children.

They wrote down many stories that had been part of the oral tradition for a while, some of which would have been told to children from time to time, but none of which were intended for them originally.

I don’t care to go into the gory details of the real Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, but let’s suffice it to say that the characters in the originals broke a whole lot of commandments and were cleaned up significantly before Disney put them up on the big screen.

Some of their most eerie stories are eerie because they are so painfully real.

I’d like to share one of those with you this morning.

One of their most eerie stories is eerie because it’s not actually a fairy tale.

The Old Man and His Grandson

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth.

His son and his son’s wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it.

And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of tears.

Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke.

The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed.

Then they brought him a wooden bowl for a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.

They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground.

’What are you doing there?’ asked the father.

’I am making a little trough,’ answered the child, ’for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.’

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry.

Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.

From http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-27.html

The brothers Grimm did not write for children.

This tale sums up the 5th commandment beautifully.

The only people who would have been reading the ten commandments when they were written were a few educated priests.

And the only people they would have been reading them to were adult men.

No women.

No children.

Women and children would have had to learn them from the male heads of household.

When I was young, I was taught that this commandment meant to always obey your parents.

Now, that’s not a terrible takeaway, kids.

But, the original meaning of the Hebrew word pronounced “Cahved” is not “obey”.

It means weighty or important.

What this commandment is telling the adult hearers is to treat their parents as valuable.

Remember their worth, their importance.

כָּבֵד

This is about caring for the vulnerable.

We have many more provisions for aging parents and grandparents these days than those who were listening to this scripture originally had.

And even now with laws and agencies created to care for people as they are less and less able to care for themselves, one of the most vulnerable populations in the world are the elderly.

Grace in the Text

So magnify this.

Think about how at-risk elderly people would have been in a world where women couldn’t own any property and were entirely at the mercy of their male relatives.

Think about how terrible this could be in a world that didn’t have laws protecting the aging from abuse and neglect.

Elderly folks, especially elderly widows (mothers) would have been at great risk for harm in that world.

So here is this commandment encouraging them to remember the importance of everyone - even the vulnerable elderly in their families.

That is a beautiful thing.

What a gracious and loving God to look out for everyone in such a way.

Trouble in the World

Grace in the World

Homework:

Musical Meditation

Homework:

The only people who would have been reading the ten commandments when they were written were a few educated priests.

And the only people they would have been reading them to were adult men.

No women.

No children.

Women and children would have had to learn them from the male heads of household.

Witnessing God’s Work

When I was young, I was taught that this commandment meant to always obey your parents.

Now, that’s not a terrible takeaway, kids.

But, the original meaning of the Hebrew word pronounced “Cahved” is not “obey”.

It means weighty or important.

What this commandment is telling the adult hearers is to treat their parents as valuable.

Remember their worth, their importance.

Prayer for Illumination (understanding)

We have many more provisions for aging parents and grandparents these days than those who were listening to this scripture originally had.

And even now with laws and agencies created to care for people as they are less and less able to care for themselves, one of the most vulnerable populations in the world are the elderly.

Scripture Readings

So magnify this.

Think about how at-risk elderly people would have been in a world where women couldn’t own any property and were entirely at the mercy of their male relatives.

Think about how terrible this could be in a world that didn’t have laws protecting the aging from abuse and neglect.

Elderly folks, especially elderly widows (mothers) would have been at great risk for harm in that world.

Message:

So here is this commandment encouraging them to remember the importance of everyone - even the vulnerable elderly in their families.

That is a beautiful thing.

What a gracious and loving God to look out for everyone in such a way.

Homework:

I love this because the first neighbors that God is concerned about us looking out for are the vulnerable ones - the ones that cannot look out for themselves like the grandfather in the Grimm Brothers story who gets put in the corner.

Hymn

And the first neighbors that God tells us to look after are our first neighbors.

Who are the people that first teach us about human interaction?

Our parents.

So God starts with the first neighbors we ever have: our family of origin.

If we can’t treat them with importance, who can we treat with importance?

Apostle’s Creed

The ripple effect of this commandment goes so much further than that, though.

Think about how the little grandson’s actions are mimicking his own parents’ actions.

The things we do and say and the way we treat others ripple down from generation to generation.

So this is far bigger than just caring for two people.

This is about modeling healthy community, it’s about caring for the vulnerable as a society.

The end of this commandment says that it matters so that things will go well for them in their new land.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.