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As those of you who attended last week’s Wednesday Lenten services will remember, this year we are focusing on two of the Ten Commandments at each of our midweek services. Last week we covered the 1^st and 2^nd commandments, and today we move on to the 3^rd and 4^th.

In our way of numbering the commandments, covering the 3^rd and 4^th commandments together makes for what seems to be a rather odd pairing. Some of you may recall that the first three commandments primarily govern our relationship with God, and the last seven pertain to our dealings with our fellow human beings. This is generally how we divide the Decalogue into its two tables, often represented artistically on two stone tablets.

There is ample scriptural evidence, of course, for this division. Both Old Testament and New communicate the sense of these two tables; that the Ten Commandments can be summarized into two great commandments as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God; love your neighbor. Simple as that!

How we might wish that it was just that simple to carry out those commandments, or even to have an adequate understanding of their intent and our responsibilities under them! Alas; we cannot. Read and study and listen though we might, you and I still wrestle with determining who and what is our God and our neighbor, and what it is to properly love them.

Although this division of the commandments into two tables has existed for centuries, the break point between 3^rd and 4^th commandments isn’t quite so clear in practice. The observance of the Sabbath does focus primarily on the worship of God. Yet we know that worship is to be done in Christian communities, where a fellowship of believing neighbors gathers around Word and Sacrament to be uplifted and served by the Lord. Then, refreshed, we are to go forth and serve our neighbors both in and out of the Church.

Likewise, the 4^th commandment seems tailored to govern the activities that take place within families, organizations, communities, and nations. Honor, respect, and obedience are to be granted to those in authority over us in carrying out those activities.

Yet it is abundantly clear from the Scriptures that these leaders—beginning with the father and mother within the God-ordained family structure—have been granted their authority by the God who rules over all things. It is through His delegation of a small portion of His unlimited power that human activities function in good order.

So, while the boundary between the two tables of the Law is a convenient indicator that helps us understand their primary intent, it’s impossible to consider the 3^rd commandment without concern for the neighbor, or to understand the 4^th commandment without appreciating the role God has in its proper exercise.

We know that as Christians, Christ has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for us. Likewise, His words in the Scriptures indicate that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and that we are no longer bound to gather in worship on the last day of the week as were the Israelites of old.

Yet we are still called to worship and serve the Lord, and to observe a day as the Lord commanded. For the sake of good order in the Church, a day is still set aside in which Christians gather to praise and worship God, and to join in receiving His gifts for our salvation and our earthly strengthening. In our time, the day chosen is the first day of the week, in observance of the Lord’s resurrection.

There’s a practical as well as a spiritual dimension to having a Sabbath day, of course. Our heavenly Father knows our weakness and our frailty, and grants us this day of rest as a source of renewal of body and mind as well as spirit. What we often see, however, are people focusing on use of this day as nothing more than a way to recover, renew, and relax from worldly duties and struggles, with little regard for their desperate need for spiritual recovery or growth.

Certainly God doesn’t intend for our Sabbaths to be a joyless and burdensome time. On the other hand, it’s not His desire that we take this great gift and use it to reject His rightful expectation of honor and respect, either. Nor that we reject His even greater gifts: The restoring and saving Word and Sacrament He has given to His Church to convey to His people. In a sense, every day is one in which we ought to rejoice in our reception of these great blessings. However, it is our particular pleasure to be able to focus specifically on experiencing them together as His people, on the day appointed for our gathering and receiving them.

Like all things created by God, the Sabbath is His own holy gift, needing nothing from us to make it holy. Luther writes in the Large Catechism: “But God wants [the Sabbath] to be holy to you. So it becomes holy or unholy on your account, according [to whether] you spend the day doing holy or unholy things.”

We not only ought to seek to keep it holy, but also to let it become a holy blessing to us. We are to take the opportunity, as the Small Catechism teaches, to hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. That Word is, as Luther wrote, the only truly holy thing we acknowledge and have; it is the treasure that sanctifies all things.

The true value of the Sabbath is not the rest it provides, for many unbelievers, too, take time from their worldly work for the physical and mental break at least one day a week. The main thing is that, in addition to the right and true need for renewal in body and mind, we must have the Word of God conveyed to us in such a way that we are made holy, too. That comes from not just gladly hearing the Word, but gladly learning it also—from being exposed to it frequently enough that it becomes a part of who we are, and not something foreign and strange to us.

For, if we are not soaked deeply in the Word, if we have not yet mastered it and made it our own, we are continually at great risk of the devil’s efforts to lead us astray. Keeping the Sabbath, then, is the primary way of holding God’s Word in high esteem. When we do that, we are more attuned to hold His name in high esteem, too—which keeps the 2^nd Commandment. And in keeping His name hallowed, we likewise are more likely to keep Him foremost in our hearts and minds, fulfilling the 1^st Commandment to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.

The 4^th Commandment marks that shift in focus mentioned earlier: from those commandments of primary concern for our relationship to God to those which more directly govern our relationships with others. Specifically, the 4^th Commandment describes our relationship with our father and mother in the narrow sense, but viewing it with the lens of Scripture, it also includes all those into whom God has entrusted our care, growth, and safety.

With the parent-child relationship as our pivot point, we see parents not only as the representatives of God which He designates to guide and care for us. We also begin to see them as the point of departure for all human authority in workplace, school, government, and church. In all cases and at all levels, that human authority has its origins in the authority God has delegated to parents.

Luther describes the honor due parents and other authorities as being much greater and more difficult than love. Honor, he wrote, not only includes love but also requires the addition of such attributes as deference, humility, and modesty. Although it is difficult for us to comprehend sometimes as we see all the flaws and human failings in parents and all earthly authorities, it is essential that we recognize that hidden within their outward appearance is the majesty of God’s own heavenly power, given to them for our benefit.

It’s often said that one can choose one’s friends, but not one’s family. Nowhere is this more obvious than in our connection with parents. Even so, while we didn’t choose into which family we would be born, God did. For us to question His wisdom by denying the honor due to the parents He has given us is no small sin. By such questions, we put ourselves in judgment of the Lord.

Will our parents and other authorities fail often and badly at carrying out God’s will for our good? Will even their proper and godly actions at times irritate and anger us? Absolutely! Such is the sinful nature of parent and child alike. Yet such failures do not break our obligation to love and honor them, for they remain God’s servants for our good.

And we remain the servants of our parents and of the other authorities who act in their stead for as long as they are in place, for all of these are the agents of God. Obedience, respect, and service to these leaders are in accordance with the will of God. Performing the tasks they give us both willingly and well can therefore be understood to be doing the service of God, provided these tasks are in according with His will.

In extending the concept of godly parents over broader aspects of our lives, Luther considered that there were several sorts of “fathers” with whom we interact. First, there are our fathers by blood; that is, the actual leadership of parents in the family. Second, what Luther termed “fathers of households.” We would take these to be those who lead over organizations in which we carry out our livelihoods: In schools, companies, the community, and other organizations. Third, “fathers of nations” would include leaders of governmental agencies, exercising authority over the affairs of state.

And, lastly, “spiritual fathers,” those in the Church who watch over our souls and point the way to Christ, who is the head of all. Each of these is due an appropriate measure of love, respect, and obedience that grows from our desire as God’s children to honor God Himself.

While much is said about the duty of children—and all of us—to honor and respect our parents and other authorities, not much is mentioned within the Ten Commandments portion of the catechism regarding the other side of the coin; that is, the obligations of the authorities over those they lead. Nevertheless, Scripture and other Lutheran confessional writings make it clear that, when acting as God’s agents and messengers, parents and those whom God places in the parents’ roles are strictly accountable to Him. Foolishness or cruelty or other detrimental behavior violates God intentions for the care of that which is entrusted to us. It also does not show His love to our neighbor; even to the least of those whom Christ calls brothers and sisters.

A quote from the Large Catechism conveys the sense of what it means to exercise proper parental responsibility: “If we want qualified and capable men for both civil and spiritual leadership, we must spare no effort, time, and expense in teaching and educating our children to serve God and mankind. We must not think only of amassing money and property for them. God can provide for them and make them rich without our help, as indeed He does daily. But He has given and entrusted children to us with the command that we train and govern them according to His will; otherwise God would have no need of father and mother. Therefore let everybody know that it is his chief duty, on pain of losing divine grace, to bring up his children in the fear and knowledge of God, and if they are gifted to give them opportunity to learn and study so that they may be of service wherever they are needed.”

We understand—or at least we should—that we sorely fail to keep the Sabbath holy, to love and respect and honor our parents and other authorities, and to properly exercise leadership over others as God calls us to do. The fulfillment of the Law in these and all things has been accomplished by Jesus alone, keeping the commandments, submitting Himself to His earthly parents and to the will of His heavenly Father, and dying in our place to take the punishment for all our failures.

Thanks be to God for His commandments which show us our limitations; yet even greater thanks to Him for His limitless mercy in Christ Jesus. In Him, God gave us rescue from everlasting condemnation for just such weakness and rebellion. May He continue to draw us closer to Him in our understanding of that great love. May He guide and support us toward keeping His commands and sharing His Word, so that all the earth may know His Gospel and the saving grace it offers. For the sake of Jesus our Savior, and in His name we pray. Amen.