Calvin Synod Herald, 1985 (85. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1985-04-01 / 2. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 5 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA í Scripture reading: Ephesians 5:21-28 and 6:1—4. Text: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;" (Matthew 10:37). Introduction: 1 am sure that each church member expects to hear a “good sermon” when he or she goes to church. But which sermon is good? Is your pastor’s preaching acceptable if he speaks like Jesus did? Probably you will say; yes. But be careful! Do you know what the disciples had to say when they heard their Master? “Many of His disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ ” (John 6:60). Please welcome this message not as your pastor’s instruction for the faithfuls but as God’s teaching for all of us including the clergy. Although it looks so simple yet family life is more complex than you imagine.- It seems that even Jesus had a second opinion about family life. On one hand our Lord emphasized very much the strong ties among the members of the family; • “For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and mother,,’ and, ‘ He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.'” (Matthew 15:4). • Or see that loving, forgiving, generous, and reconciling father as portrayed in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11— 31). But sometimes Jesus spoke in such a way as though He did not favor strong family; • “Another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ ” (Matthew 8:21—22.) • “And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29) Please read also; Matthew 12:46—50 and our text.- Statistics show that our family life is in crisis; consider the divorce rate, the battered wives, the abused children, the runaway teenagers, and the neglected parents. The direction our society follows does not help a bit because it can be characterized as permissive, pleasure-centered, and individual-oriented.- We have to admit that whatever takes place in your family is your private business and nobody can interfere as long as no law is broken, however, we cannot deny it either that if your “cup overflows” in any direction it definitely influences our church and its services. Not to criticize others but to help ourselves let us see what bothers us.- When we dare to deal with the most painful and sensitive wounds of our family life we shall be reminded of what our Lord said when an adulteress had been brought to Him to be condemned: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7) How many of us have already made this statement; I never thought this can happen to us?- The powder keg can explode and the roof cave in on three levels; 1. when the child/ren get into trouble (drug, car wreck, runaway, etc.) 2. when the parents fail (alcohol, unfaithfulness, divorce, etc.) Brief meditation 3. when the grandparent(s) is the source of the problem (who will take care of him/ her or both of them, was the will he or she made fair to each child, etc.) — At this point will our text become crystal clear; Christ does not want to loosen the tie between parents and children, He does not want to alienate the beloved ones from one another, but when the family problems are used as an excuse to turn away from God, quit the church, give up Christian principles then the actions of the broken-hearted person speak so obviously; “I love Christ less than before because now I have neither the time nor the enthusiasm and nor the energy to practice my faith. Conclusion: So many of our widely discussed problems would diminish (such as divorce, abortion, suicide, juvenile delinquency...) if our love toward each other would be based on the love of the Lord. The road of backsliding may begin in this way; I love my family members more than Christ and it may end with this statement; I cannot care less what the Bible says and Christ teaches, I just have had it, please leave me alone! How can I show tenderness, have faith, be gentle when I am abused? Within this context it is definitely true; the family altar alters the family. Food Crisis Appeal Exceeded NEW YORK — More than $7.5 million — one million dollars over the goal — has been collected in Church World Service’s Global Food Crisis Special Appeal, marking the fulfillment of the largest single appeal both in size and scope in the agency’s 39-year history. The appeal — for $6.5 million — was launched in August 1983 in the face of a steadily worsening world food crisis. By Aug. 31, 1984, more than $4 million in cash and commodities had been received, said CWS’s interim executive director, J. Richard Butler, announcing the appeal’s fulfillment. While an exact tally of receipts in the last four months of 1984 has not yet been completed, “Church World Service received almost $3.5 million is cash alone” just for Ethiopia within that period, he said. “As the response to Ethiopian needs is included within the Global Food Crisis, the original goal of the August 5, 1983, appeal, has been met and surpassed,” Butler said. Church World Service, relief and development arm of the National Council of Churches, issued the appeal for cash and donated goods to assist its overseas church partners in overcoming food shortages in severely affected areas of the world, to supplement the efforts U.S. communities are making against hunger at home, and to educate people in the U.S. about the ■gravity and causes of the crisis. A worldwide string of major natural disasters — floods, droughts, earthquakes — has brought to a crisis point the food shortages in developing countries already struggling — because of the worldwide economic crisis and, in many cases, civil warfare — to feed adequately their populations. Out of 40 centuries reported to have abnormal food shortages, 30 are in Africa, said Stanley Mitton, CWS director for foreign emergency response. Butler said the world’s continuing food crisis, “with particular cruel impact on Africa, challenges Church World Service as an agency devoted to development as well as relief.” He said the appeal was intended ‘to address not only the immediate need of food shortages but the underlying causes of the problem,” and spoke of CWS’s struggle to deal “with the competing claims on resources of relief needs and development needs.” Sought in the appeal was $5 million in support of overseas programming and U.S. education and advocacy (this latter an amount up to 2 percent); $500,000 in cash for U.S. local hunger programs, representing up to 25 percent of funds raised by Church World Service/CROP in community hunger appeals, and a $1 million minimum value of U.S. government commodities for overseas programming. Global Food Crisis Special Appeal receipts have gone to relief and development projects around the world, primarily in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. Projects in those areas include both short-term emergency response and longer-term development assistance.
