R.E.A.C.H.

"PASSING ON THE LEGACY"

A Sunday School teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill." Good answer.

Most people will agree that education is important and that religious education is equally important. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, "To train a man in mind and not in morals is to train a menace to society."

Moses was 120 years old and had led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. The generation that had left Egypt was now dead and a new generation was preparing to enter into the land God had promised them. Moses, because of his disobedience at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20) was not permitted to enter into the promised land with the people. This was his final opportunity to address them. What was on the heart and mind of this great man of God? Moses teaches godliness. He encourages Israel to remember the Laws and decrees of the Lord; not only remember them, but live them out and pass on the heritage of faith to their children.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all you 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." (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statues and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son…" (Deuteronomy 6:20-21)

And the father was to explain to his son all that God had done in brining the people out of Egypt, the land of slavery, to Mount Sinai and then to the promised land. The parents were to be prepared to share with their children the promises and the faithfulness of their God.

One of the goals we have this year is to not only train the children of our congregation in basics of our faith as Lutheran Christians, but also to help parents be prepared to share their heritage of faith with their children. This fall we will be hosting opportunities for parents to come together to learn or hone their skills in carrying out their responsibility to pass on the faith to the next generation. Moses took this seriously, for as he prepared to depart from the Israelites, he said:
"Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word of you, but your very life…"

Pastor David P. Loeschen

September 2010