First Things First
Matthew 10:24-39
Introduction:
When I was a teenager growing up in Atlanta, I was not very focused. My father used to compare me with a goose: "You are just like a goose; you wake up in a new world every morning.- I frittered away my time doing things that
really didn't matter, steering clear, of course, of chores and homework and other important things. My folks were always on my case with the admonition: "First things first, son!"
When I went away to college my English teacher and faculty advisor talked about the same problem students have with the several courses we were required to take at the same time. He compared it with cooking breakfast. Anyone can boil water, or fry an egg, or cook bacon (even without it shrinking up to nothing), or prepare grits (although I now know that is a southern art to make it without lumps), or make toast in the toaster. The trick is to prepare all these things so that they are ready and hot, at just the right moment for the eating.
Our text for today from Matthew's gospel says essentially the same truth as my parents and my teacher: Put first things first!
Dr. James Wharton, who served as a pastor in Texas, taught preaching at
Perkins School of Theology and is now retired and lives in Black Mountain (near
Montreat), sums it up in a sentence:
"The crucial question is whether or how ordinary people like us may live on the side of God’s intended rule in a world that remains in deadly opposition to it."1
Matthew quotes Jesus in this way:
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me."2
1
James A. Wharton, Liturgical Homiletics, 1990, pp. 1-22
Matthew 10:37-38Hate your parents? Despise your children - turn away from family? No, no, no! But First things first! The hard saying is this: God in Jesus Christ is more important than our most beloved family. And Lord, how I love my family – but first things first.
It is most important, particularly on Father’s day, during this weekend in which Yvonne and I celebrate our Forty-sixth wedding anniversary that Scripture affirms the Ten Commandments to: "Honor father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."3 And need we be reminded of the ancient and oft quoted proverb from Scripture? "Train children in the right way and when old they will not stray."4 But first things first. God comes first -- before father and mother, before son or daughter. Take up your cross and follow me, admonished Jesus.
The scripture teaches: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."5 Someone contemplating this notion about a God who demands supreme loyalty commented: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
Odd."6
The world does not take kindly to putting God first, and that makes those who do, ODD! I suspect many more folk in our culture would take to Christianity if we weren’t called upon to be different. Most folks want to fit in and be accepted, be well adjusted and that often means going along with the crowd - blending in with
the wall paper. People who step forward, furthermore, and declare their opposition to things the way they are, are often considered troublemakers. People who promote change are often spoken of in polite circles as troublemakers. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a troublemaker. Father Caesar Romero was a troublemaker. Nelson Mandela - a troublemaker. Mother Teresa - a troublemaker. And not only famous people, but ordinary people like you and who think things should be different in our community are often called troublemakers. Most folks think opposition to a so-called normal way of life" is - destructive. Opposition is designed not to destroy but to transform. And in our Christian way of doing things, putting God first changes everything.
3
Exodus 20:12 NRSV4
Proverbs 22:6 NRSV5
John 8:32 RSV6
quotation: source unknownBut I hear you protesting: "We are just ordinary people, preacher; we are not crusaders;" and that is precisely the point; we are ordinary Christians. However ordinary, we are all special in God’s eyes -- even the hairs on our head are numbered. And we ordinary folk must put God first in our lives. First things first.
Tom Boyd, longtime professor of religion at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, tells the story of a rather eccentric and flamboyant elder in a church he served in Tennessee. She impressed him with her intense commitment to the faith. Tom describes her and the situation:
"She did not have a pietistic bone in her body, but her devotion was nonetheless clear and articulate. One evening at a dinner party in her home we were animatedly discussing some theological idea. In the midst of the give and take her teenage daughter, probably frustrated with all of the high-blown discussion of religion, asked, "Mother, you talk about all the time. Why are you so religious?"
This query brought a loud hush to the dining table. Her mother paused dramatically, pushed her chair back from the table, stood up and responded, "Every morning before you are awake, I rise and walk into the living room. I lift my arms and ask: ‘Who’s in charge here?' The answer always comes back: 'Not you!' That’s why I am religious. Because I am not in charge!"
Tom concludes (as I do):
"Religious life begins with the realization that we are not in charge, and from there we can proceed to align ourselves to the One who is in charge. Jesus is declaring to the disciples: Go into the world knowing who is in charge and what it will mean to act upon that knowledge!"7
Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends –
FIRST THINGS FIRST!
7
Tom Boyd, Liturgical Homiletics, June, 1993,"Preaching the Lesson" pp. 33-34.A sermon preached Dr. E. Thomas Miller at Gerogetown Presbyterian Church on June 19, 2005.