My Daughters' Sermons:
Murphy - God Gives us Good Things
Matthew 7.9-11
April 15, 2007
Rev. Matthew M. Fry

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Grant unto us now, almighty God, the ability to go beyond our limits, so that we might experience you more fully, in this time and into our future. May this time of preaching and hearing the Word Proclaimed infect our lives, and alter our ways of seeing the world, and of being in it, so that we might live in your grace and love, and spread your mercy and care to the whole world. In the name of Jesus the Son we pray, Amen.

This is the second year in a row that I have attempted a series of sermons based on passages that have been brought to mind as Melissa and I have tried to as best we can, to raise our children. Sometimes I am with my children, with one of them or with both of them, and am overwhelmed with a sense of the sacred. And, since I am a pastor who has to preach regularly, I often am overcome with a reference to a Biblical passage upon which the life that is going sheds some light. So, these passages, this week, and week after next, were brought to mind as they have come up in my mind over the past year when I am with one of our girls. Last year, Kayla was first, so this year in all fairness, Murphy is first. Which means Kayla as second will be preached on my birthday, which is on a Sunday this year. I’ll try to make sure Murphy gets preached, if I am still doing this thing, in 2012. She will be 7 then, and Kayla will be 11, and they will probably be too embarrassed by such a series. But then again, isn’t that part of the point?

So, hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the Gospel of Matthew. Listen.

Matthew 7.9-11.
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

This passage was the impetus behind these sermons to begin with. The fact that God is our heavenly, eternal parent, and treats us in a manner similar to our treating our children, and God does it even better, well, that seemed like a good context from which to explore some passages. And, this is Jesus speaking, and if Jesus can relate God’s relationship with us to that of a parent, surely that opens the door for that analogy to be explored. And this is not only Jesus speaking, this is him preaching, in the Sermon on the Mount, the biggie, the quintessential sermon from Jesus.

“You are evil,” Jesus says. And it’s one of those objections like this, where the first reaction is immediately overcome with the reality that, while harsh, Jesus is right. We are tainted, sinful, and even evil, when we think right on it. And the problem is, it’s not totally removed from my parenting. When it comes right down to it, I think I am a decent enough parent, just like you all should, and hopefully do think about yourselves. But there are times when my patience runs thin, and I become short with them. Its like I can almost feel my blood boiling. Fortunately, my wife is smart enough to know when I need a time out, and sends me to my room before I really get short.

But immediately in these words of Jesus we are reminded of our fallibility, of our fallen-ness, of our imperfect nature. And it is out of that situation that Jesus makes the comparison. “Look,” Jesus says, “you aren’t perfect, and yet you give good things to your kids, right?” And we are supposed to answer in the affirmative. “God is perfect, right?” Again, we are supposed to answer in the affirmative. “So, won’t God give you better things than you even give your children?” That’s the conclusion.

And here’s the problem. God has given us good things, but what do you do with poisonous snakes. God made them, right? And what do you do with things like bears? God made them, but there had better be a measure of caution used to not get too close, and if you do, to know how to avoid too much contact.

God made other things, like alcohol. Does that mean we should all go out and get drunk? Front row especially, listen up. NO. God made black widows too, but that doesn’t mean you should go out and eat some.

Our morning routine is such that I generally wake Kayla up at 6.20 so that she can eat, get dressed, and get to the bus stop by 7.15 to catch the bus. When she is eating breakfast, so am I. Then I pack her lunch, take a shower, get dressed and she and I leave the house a little after 7.10. I walk back to the house and am usually in the car for the church by 7.30. So, I’m in the office for almost two hours when Melissa and Murphy get here. Murphy comes running down the hall to give me a hug, and then first thing she says after the hug is “Jay Bean.” Either that or “m n”, which is M & M. And she knows that for the price of a kiss, she can have either ONE Jay Bean or ONE m n. Now, she doesn’t really need an M & M, certainly not at 9.15 in the morning, but it makes her smile, and I can’t resist her smile, so I give her a piece of morning candy.

However, flawed as I am, I know that if she were left to her own devices, she would eat all the candy in my office in one morning. To wit, one day less than a month ago, I went downstairs after Murphy had gone down, but before her class had started. She was hanging out with a 5 year old in the Alphabet Pals, and apparently the teacher had stepped out for 2 seconds to get stuff ready for the day. I walked in to find Murphy on the floor, surrounded by what must have been 150 or so m n’s. She knew when the teacher stepped out, walked right over to the bag of M & M’s, and got herself what she deemed was a good ration of morning snacks. I walked over and picked them up, and proceeded to take them away. This is when I expected the tears, for as clever as she is, clever enough to watch the teacher leave and make a bee line for the goodies, she is also clever enough to know that this is the time to make a last ditch effort for the ill gotten booty with emotional manipulation. But when I took them away, and said, “Honey, you know better than this, you only get one,” all she did was look back at me and say, “Okay.” It was a nice surprise.

Sure, we could go down the path of, “all things in moderation” of which we Presbyterians are so fond. And there is lots of wisdom there. But I want us to focus on the fact that even though too much of some things are bad, God gives them to us anyway. Maybe like we do with our children, we let them have a little Easter Candy even though it is not good for them in any way. And we do this because it makes them happy, which in turn makes us happy. Maybe God gives us good gifts because they can make us happy. And when they do, I think God experiences a little happiness. Certainly it is understood that not all of creation is a gift good for consumption. Poisonous toads, good gift, not for consumption. There are gifts which are not to be consumed. And there are gifts which should be in moderation, such as alcohol, or Cadburry Eggs which will kill my plans to look good at the beach this summer.

That’s how much God loves us, and how much we matter to God, that God will go to such lengths to see that we can be happy. What a wonderful God we have who gives us good things. Amen.