Sunday Worship

Honor your father and your mother… (Deut. 6:10, Exodus 20:6)

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down (I John 5:3 NET)

Last week we discussed the idea of worship as “worth-ship” as we give honor to Christ. But is there any other honor that it is legitmate to give?

In the Protestant version* of The Ten Commandments, we speak of dividing the commands into two ‘tablets.’ The first four deal with our direct relationship with God, the next six deal with our relationship with our fellow humans.

Here’s a short version of the ten from the website Life, Hope and Truth:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

We honor God when we keep all ten, but the first also asks us to honor him exclusively, the third not to trivialize his name, the fourth to honor his day.

But what if we place the fifth one in the first tablet, and think in terms of honoring God when we honor our earthly parents? Or is there a concern here, that honoring our parents somehow takes away from the worth-ship due God; the honor due Christ?

A well known U.S. author who I follow on Twitter buried his father yesterday. To watch the love and care and honor he gave his dad in that final season of his dad’s life was a great example. In doing so he honored God, but don’t miss this: In doing so he did not take away one iota of the honor due to God.

However, make no mistake, it’s possible to do that.

But it’s also possible for the pendulum to swing too far the other way. The Pharisees created an interesting situation.

^{Mark 7:11} But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— ¹² then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.

At The Christian Courier, Wayne Jackson writes (click to read the full text from Mark and a fuller explanation)

Some of the Jews, however, had concocted a scheme to avoid parental responsibility. They would designate certain of their financial resources as “corban.” The Greek word korban is related to the term korbanas, signifying the “temple treasury.” In Jewish practice, therefore, the word “corban” had been coined as a sort of “vow” term. According to the prevailing tradition, one could designate his financial resources as “corban,” which, practically speaking, was a way of “tagging” them, suggesting, “this belongs to God,” and thus was not to be used for personal interests.

There is a passage in the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, that illustrates the fact that funds from the temple treasury were “corban,” hence could not be used for secular purposes, e.g., city improvements, as in the building of an aqueduct for water supply (Wars 2.9.4).

Thus, in the manner just described, the covetous, ungrateful Jews callously neglected parental responsibility by an appeal to this perverted human tradition. In so doing, they flouted the law of God.

So this again suggests a balance.

I had a friend who, when his mom was in her last days, worked a full day at the business he owned, and then drove for over two hours nightly to be with her. His dedication amazed me. When I asked him how he did it, he told me, “I’m honoring Dad by doting on Mom.’

That sums this up for me well. I would argue that fifth command fits well on either tablet. We honor God by honoring our parents. It doesn’t subtract anything from the debt of love we owe Christ provided we hold both loves in tension.

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*Catholic Bibles are the same on the texts, but the version in the Catechism is different. We discussed that in this 2015 article.