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THE FIRST COMMANDMENT WITH A PROMISE: RECENT AMERICAN PREACHING ON “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2016
Abstract
Christian sermons characteristically result from the interaction of a biblical text and the social and cultural contexts in which the sermon is created and into which it is spoken. In this regard, biblical texts are understood not as containers of unchanging truth but as fields of meaning capable of yielding different insights in each new context, and sermons constitute oral performances of these insights. As a test case, American Christian sermons based upon the so-called fifth commandment (“Honor your father and your mother …”) were examined from two time periods: 1960–1980 and 2000–present. In the earlier period, a time of anxiety about changing norms of social authority, the sermons typically presented the fifth commandment as addressed to young children, calling them to obey their parents. In the later period, a time when the large baby boomer generation is increasingly assuming care for aging parents, the sermons typically presented the fifth commandment as addressed not to youth but rather to adults charged with the responsibility to care for the elderly. While understanding the fifth commandment as addressed to adult children is probably closer to the original meaning of the text, both audiences for the commandment (adult children and youthful children) are within the field of meaning of the text and, indeed, both understandings find expression elsewhere in scripture.
- Type
- SYMPOSIUM: GLOBAL LEGAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON ELDER CARE
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2016
References
1 All biblical citations are to the New Revised Standard Version translation, unless otherwise noted.
2 Not all lists of the commandments agree on the numbering. For example, “honor your father and your mother” is listed as the fourth commandment in Luther's Catechism and other listings. For the most part, the numbering depends upon whether “you shall not make for yourself an idol” is treated as the second—that is, a separate—commandment or as part of the first: “You shall have no other gods before me.” In this essay, I consider “honor your father and your mother” as the fifth commandment.
3 The representative sermons examined here are all sermons by Protestant clergy. The strong emphasis on preaching among Protestants makes their sermons more readily available in print, and also preaching on the Ten Commandments was not firmly established among Catholic homilists until very recently. Neither the Exodus nor the Deuteronomy versions of the Commandments were included in the Roman Lectionary until 1969. See “Missale Romanum (Liturgical Readings in the Roman Missal prior to the Second Vatican Council),” last modified January 2, 2009, http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Roman_Missal.htm.
4 Lischer, Richard, “The Interrupted Sermon,” Interpretation 50, no. 2 (1996): 170 Google Scholar.
5 Arthur C. Cochrane, Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 225. The full statement in the creed is as follows: “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed and is received by the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven: and that now the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; for even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God remains still true and good.”
6 David H. Kelsey, The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 188.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., 189.
9 Paul Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1976), 87–88.
10 Patrick D. Miller, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).
11 Ibid., 169–70.
12 Ibid., 170.
13 Ibid., 175.
14 Ibid., 176.
15 Kiddushin 31b, as cited in Gerald L. Bilstein, Honor Thy Father and Mother: Filial Responsibility in Jewish Law and Ethics, augmented edition (Brooklyn: KTAV Publishing House, 2006), 38.
16 The Exodus version is abbreviated: “that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12.
17 Miller, The Ten Commandments, 182.
18 Dennis Olson, Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses: A Theological Reading (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 78.
19 Martin Buber, Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1958), 132.
20 Miller, The Ten Commandments, 205–6.
21 The sermons studied were Terence J. Finlay, “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother … ” in The Ten Commandments (New York: Scribner's, 1961), 55–63; Arthur E. Graf, “Fourth Commandment,” in In No Other Name (Giddings: Faith Publications, 1970), 112–19; G. Eric Hagg, “The Ten Commandments,” in Sermons for Special Days (Rock Island: Augustana Press, 1962), 103–11; W. B. J. Martin, “Mother's Day: Taking Things for Granted,” in Sermons for Special Days (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975), 71–78; T. Cecil Myers, “Remember, Son, Parents Are People,” in Thunder on the Mountain (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1965), 79–93; Gilbert P. Reichert, “The Fifth Commandment,” in The Ten Commandments (New York: Vantage Press, 1962); and John Shelby Spong, “The Meaning of Parenthood,” in The Living Commandments (New York: Seabury Press, 1977), 58–68.
22 As a Lutheran, Graf followed Luther's lead in numbering the commandments. Therefore, he titles this sermon “Fourth Commandment.”
23 Ann Landers, “Ask Ann Landers,” Jefferson City Post-Tribune, July 1,1969, 6, as cited in Arthur E. Graf, No Other Name: The Passion and Commandments of Our Lord (Giddings: Faith Publications, 1970), 112.
24 Graf, No Other Name, 112.
25 Ibid., 113.
26 Ibid., 114.
27 Ibid., 115.
28 John Shelby Spong, The Living Commandments (New York: Seabury Press, 1977), 63.
29 Ibid.
30 Myers, “Remember, Son,” 88.
31 See Paul E. Brown, “The 5th Commandment,” http://www.pastorlife.com/members/sermon.asp?SERMON_ID=3644&fm=authorbio&authorid=3331, last accessed June 6, 2016; “FCCGE - Rev. Lillian Daniel's Sermon - The Fifth Commandment: Honor Thy Mother & Father - 10.07.12,” YouTube, posted by “1stCongregationalGE,” October 9, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-CgSF9czGE; “Ten Commandments #5 - Honor Your Father and Mother - Pastor Mark Driscoll FULL SERMON,” YouTube, posted by “Francesn Parker,” September 23, 2014, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RJCjdDsVbI; James Ellis, III, “Adults Honoring Their Parents,” Day 1 Ministry, June 3, 2013, http://day1.org/4990-adults_honoring_their_parents; William G. Enright, “Memory: The Fifth Commandment,” in Channel Markers: Wisdom from the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount (Louisville: Geneva Press, 2001), 27–34; Arley K. Fadness, “Ten Friends Drive Us to the Promise,” in Sermons on the First Readings, Series I, Cycle A, ed. John T. Bell et al. (Lima: CSS Publishing Company, 2004), 349–55; Mike Hamby, “Honor Your Father and Mother,” June 17, 2017, published as “A Father's Day Sermon on the Fifth Commandment,” Ministry-to-Children (blog), June 19, 2007, http://ministry-to-children.com/a-fathers-day-sermon-on-the-fifth-commandment; Timothy Peck, “Honor to Whom Honor Is Due (The Fifth Commandment),” Sermon Central, February 2000, http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/honor-to-whom-honor-is-due-the-fifth-commandment-timothy-peck-sermon-on-commandments-parents-32706.asp; Anthony Robinson, “Honor Your Father and Mother (A Reflection),” Day 1 Ministries, September 9, 2012, http://day1.org/4218-anthony_robinson_honor_your_father_and_mother; Jon M. Walton, “Honoring Mother and Father: A Mother's Day Sermon,” in Creative Styles of Preaching, ed. Mark B. Elliott (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 63–68.
32 William G. Enright, “Memory: The Fifth Commandment,” in Channel Markers, 27–28.
33 Ibid., 29.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., 30.
36 Hamby, “Honor Your Father and Mother.”
37 James Ellis, III, “Adults Honoring Their Parents.”
38 Peck, “Honor to Whom Honor Is Due.”