October 17, 2010 - Honour thy Father and Mother

Rebecca thought it was especially apt on a personal level that today was the day we explored the fifth commandment - honour thy father and mother - it's her mother's birthday!
We found it very helpful that Andrew was careful to distinguish between honouring one's parents and, as an adult, obeying them. Sometimes it is a dishonour to someone to obey them blindly if we don't agree with them, and it is important, especially as people live longer and longer, to consider how parents and children can live together as adults.
The discussion of health care Andrew offered - universal health care being a necessary incident of honouring one's elders writ large - was especially salient for both of us - for Matt of course, as a physician and also for both of us having lived recently in the United States in the midst of health care debates. We have often wondered how people can think, claim, shout, that they are following in the ways of Christ and at the same time contend that they don't want their tax dollars to pay for health care for others.
This week, as Andrew mentioned, we are all no doubt riveted to the images of Chilean miners raised from the depths of 69 days in a dark mine shaft a kilometre below the ground. Two kinds of stories coming out of the coverage about this wonderful rescue are of particular relevance to today's sermon. First, the stories of faith and community coming from the miners - about how they stayed organized in a social structure despite harrowing conditions, and how they kept faith and hope. Second, analogies of their experience to birth and rebirth have been interesting. In this sense, the rescuers become the metaphorical parents and caregivers to the men, who gestate in the earth's womb and are reborn into the world. The singular devotion of Chilean authorities, and especially their President, to the rescue of these men, is a truly inspiring story and a telling allegory for how God is with us, how a community of human beings can care for one another and how we can honour each other.

Matt and Rebecca Bromwich