Presented to River Street Cafe, 21 April 2017
Read Deuteronomy 6:1-3
In our
scriptures today Moses is talking to the children of the people who received
the 10 Commandments. It is important that children are reminded of and remember
these experiences of and with their parents. It is important to remember what
the Lord has done. When we fail to remember our culture, we lose it; when we
fail to remember our past, we lose our future; when people fail to remember
what makes them a people, they find that they are not a people anymore; and when
a people fail to remember their salvation, then we will find that we are not
experiencing it anymore. This is what Moses is driving home with the next
generation of Israelites.
A
couple of weeks ago, I went to a Bon Jovi concert with my teenager daughters. Songs
are a great way to bring things forward from one generation to the next in our
world today. I remember turning on the radio a year or two ago now and... There
is this old Irish folk song – generations old – called 'Whiskey in the Jar'. I
don’t know if anyone here knows that song or not. Susan knows all kinds of
these old folk songs. She really likes some of them and so as a result I was
familiar with it. Well, I got in the car one day, turned on the radio and – I
don’t know if anyone here is familiar with Metallica, they are a contemporary
heavy metal band – I heard them doing a heavy metal rendition of this old Irish
folk song. I was sort of in shock. I was struck by it as I began to think of
all the remakes of songs that I have heard over the years. Many times the
remakes were my first exposure to the song and it got me thinking. When the
words of an old song are put to a new tune they become accessible to a new
generation. As we continue to sing these same songs in new ways, we remain
faithful to their intent, passing it onto our children and to our children’s
children.
This
is like our personal testimonies and conversations about the Lord. When we put
the gospel message of salvation into our own words, in our own tune and share
it with our children then we are indeed passing that eternal truth of salvation
down from one generation to the next.
Today,
that is what I would encourage each of us to do. Let us share the stories of
salvation that we know – be it those old Sunday school stories of Moses and the
Red Sea or Noah and the Flood or Adam and Eve.
Or the NT stories of Jesus and all that he has done for us – or even better our
own personal testimonies of all that Jesus has done and is doing for each of
us. As we share our stories, who knows, maybe our family and friends with avail
themselves of that glorious salvation that is available to each of us in the
midst of our very real struggles today.
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