Presented to 614 Warehouse Mission, 30 April 2017, and Alberni Valley Ministries, 23 October 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay
This is the 2022 Alberni Valley version. To view the original 2017 Toronto version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2017/04/deuteronomy-61-12-childrens-songs.html
I understand that Terri,
Rena and Tim’s daughter, just got back from seeing Elton John; friends of mine saw
Gordon Lightfoot this weekend. My older daughters and I this summer went to see
a number of bands from the 70s and 80s playing in Seattle (which we had been
waiting to see since before Covid-19). It is a lot of fun.
The best part of going to see bands from yester-year play is the
memories attached to the old songs and the opportunity to share those and new
memories with my kids. We have seen a lot of shows together: Meat Loaf, Joan
Jett, Def Leppard, GNR, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and more. Alice Cooper by the
way is an outspoken Christian and the son of a preacher. I actually saw Alice
Cooper in concert when I was 17 years-old and then 30 years later, when we
lived in Toronto, I was able to see him with my then 16 and 15 year-old
daughters. This sort of thing is what our text today is about: sharing our
memories with our kids so they can experience all the joy we did and so we can
add even more to those memories together. This may even be exactly what is
happening in our text today, Moses is probably bringing the Deuteronomy
generation to hear the same Ten Commandments play at Mt Sinai that the Exodus
generation had heard with him, decades previous.[1]
In our Scriptures today Moses is talking to the children of the people
he received the 10 Commandments with. It is important that children are
reminded of, remember and participate in their parents’ experiences. 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 we fail to
remember what defines us as a people then we cease to be a nation;[3] and when
we fail to remember our salvation with our children, then future generations may
not experience that salvation anymore (Deuteronomy 8:19-20).[4] This may be
what is happening in Canada today. This is what Moses is driving home with this
next generation of Israelites. This is important. Don't just hope that our
children and children’s children will learn something from a teacher, preacher,
or priest. Don't just hope they'll learn life's lessons by accident. Sharing
our faith history is our responsibility. Our very survival depends on what we
remember from the past and how we carry that into the future.[5]
In our world today, songs are a great way to bring memories and
knowledge and experiences forward to a new generation. I am going to list some
songs and see if you can tell me who sang them for one generation or the next
[Answers in footnote below]:[6] (1) Cats in the Cradle (2) Signs (3) You're so
Vain (4) California Girls (5) Knocking on Heaven’s Door (6) Live and Let Die
(7) Landslide (8) Johnny B Goode
I remember turning on the radio a few
years ago 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 old folk songs. She really likes some of those old-fashioned
numbers and so as a result I was familiar with it. Well, I got in the car one
day, turned on the local radio station, and - I don’t know if anyone here is
familiar with Metallica, they are a near-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 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 own children then we are indeed passing that eternal
truth of salvation down from one generation to the next.
When we were in Toronto, our WT leader, Krys Val (Warehouse Mission
Band) would write new lyrics to popular tunes from the 60s, 70s and 80s - all
of us would then hear the gospel expressed in music that resonates in our
hearts and souls and memories and hopefully every time we hear that familiar,
sometimes timeless tune we can remember what the Lord has done for us, with us,
through us and in us.
This is what our Scripture today sees Moses doing with the Deuteronomy
generation.[7] God, through Moses, says of the lyrics of the 10 Commandments
(Deuteronomy 6:7-9):
Impress them on your
children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands
and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates.
Moses wants the people to remember even more than just the words to
these 10 Commands, of course. The Bible says God remembered Israel when they
were in slavery. Now, will they remember Him when they are free? God remembers
us when we are struggling. Do we remember Him when we are free? We may turn to
God when things are bad; do we turn away from Him when we feel free to live our
life for ourselves?[8] Do we remember what God has done for us as we are
delivered from our problems? Do we remember how God saved those alongside us?
Do we remember how God saved our family members before us? Do we remember how
God saved our fore-parents in this country?
Do we remember the
things that God did for the Israelites before he brought them out of Egypt? How
did God reveal himself to Pharaoh? Remember the Passover? Remember the plagues
(Exodus 7-12)? When Sarah-Grace was 12 years-old, we hit the road with an
excellent sermon she preached about the plagues.[9] Do we remember the plagues
God used to save the children of Israel? What were they? Snakes, blood, frogs,
gnats, flies, cows (dead livestock), boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of
the first born. God wants Israel to remember their salvation from, in and
through these plagues. God wants them to remember how they were saved as death
passed them over. And God wants us to remember also how generations and a
testament later, Jesus won the ultimate victory over death so that we all might
live. This is what Easter and Good Friday are all about.
We are just about to come into the Advent season. We have many
traditions around Advent: scripture readings, songs (Carols), candle lighting,
and more
When we invite our children and grandchildren to participate in Advent
services; when we bring friends and family to Christmas pageants, when we
invite people to a church service anytime of the year with us, we are carrying
on that salvation tradition and experience.
When we bring our children and grandchildren to church we remember and
experience corporate worship and salvation together as a family. When we read
our Bibles with our children and grandchildren and friends, we pass along the
stories of salvation from one generation to the next - we show them what is
important by what we do with each other; and as we read the Bible together, as
we each experience our glorious personal salvation we can see how that fits in
with salvation history and how we are included in the salvation of the whole
world.
When we say grace with future generations before dinner - whether at
home or in public - we are teaching others the importance of prayer. When we
say grace, when we pray in public, we may even be unknowingly encouraging even
strangers to be faithful. They might see us and then remember that indeed they
prayed with their parents as a kid and then head home and pass on that marker
and catalyst for that same salvation relationship with their own children; and
then they may experience that same access to all the power, mercy, grace and
glory of God.
So, as Hebrews 10:25 extols us, let us not stop meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Let us not stop singing our songs of salvation with new generations. Let us always read the stories of Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus Christ with our children, our children's children, our friends, and our family. This week, let us resolve to take the Good News of Salvation and share it with everyone we meet so that they and we may experience the fullness of God's love today and forever more.
Let us pray.
---
[1] Cf. Thompson, J. A., Deuteronomy: An
Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1974
(Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 5), S. 128
[2]Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Deuteronomy 8:
The Next Generation Thanks The Lord' (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, 09 October
2011). Available
on-line:http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/10/deuteronomy-8-next-generation-thanks.html
[3]Cf. Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's
Bible Commentary,
PradisCD-ROM:Amos/Introduction to Amos/Theological Values of Amos/The
doctrine of election in Amos, Book Version: 4.0.2; cf. also Willy Schottroff,
“To Perceive, To Know,” in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Volume 3
eds. Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers,
1997),516.
[4]Deuteronomy 8:19-20: “If you ever forget the
LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify
against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD
destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your
God.”
[5] Luciano C. Chianeque and Samuel Ngewa,
'6:10-25: The Importance of Remembering', Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi,
Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 222.
[6] Cats in the Cradle (Harry Chapin, Ugly Kid
Joe), Signs (Five Man Electrical Band), You're so Vain (Carlie Simon, Faster
Pussy Cat), California Girls (Beach Boys, David Lee Roth), Knocking on Heaven’s
Door (Bob Dylan, GNR), Live and Let Die (Paul McCarthy, GNR), Landslide
(Fleetwood Mac, Smashing Pumpkins), Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry, Elvis, Judas
Priest, AC DC, Motorhead, etc).
[7]Cf. Ronald E. Clements, The Book of
Deuteronomy, (NIB II: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1998), 355.
[8] Cf. Luciano C. Chianeque and Samuel Ngewa,
'6:10-25: The Importance of Remembering', Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi,
Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 222.
[9] Sarah-Grace Ramsay, Plague Pops – Salvation
only comes from God (Exodus 7-12). Presented to Maple Creek Corps of The
Salvation Army, 10 August, 2014 and Swift Current, 17 August 2014, available
online:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/08/plague-pops-salvation-only-comes-from.html
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