This is the fourth in a series of columns about family faith
practices. The first was about table
graces, the second about daily devotions, and the third about weekly worship.
Last September our parish
participated in the “God’s Work; Our Hands” day of service for the first time
with many other Lutheran congregations. We
helped clean up around Karlstad
including varnishing outdoor city benches and cleaning up around the moose in Moose
Park
One of the family faith practices
I would commend to you is the practice of helping others together as a
family. Whether it is in a formal
nation-wide program like “God’s Work; Our Hands” or it is simply doing something
for a neighbor without any fanfare or organization, one of the things we can
teach the next generation is the value of helping others by doing something
together as a family. There are always
people in need around us if we will but open our eyes and see. So many times we are segregated by age. It is good to see several generations working
together, passing on the values of faith and service from one generation to
another.
In Matthew 25 Jesus gives us a
picture of the Great Judgment scene. As
the people are all gathered before him, he commends the people at his right
hand by saying, “I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was poorly clad and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited, and I was in
prison and you came to me. I was a
stranger and you welcomed me” The people
respond, “when was that?” And Jesus says
to them, “as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” Service to others is to be a hallmark of the
Christian believer and one of the “good works” that the believer does in
response to the love and mercy of God in saving that believer by grace through
faith. Salvation is the gift of
God. Doing good for others is our gift
to our neighbor and ultimately to God.
In Luke 3 there is the story of
the ministry of John the Baptist. As
people came to him repenting of their sins and seeking baptism, they asked him
“what should we do?” To the multitude he
said, “if you have two coats share with him who has none, and likewise with
your food.” People can learn to do good
for others by reading stories in the Bible and listening to preaching based on
the Bible, but they also learn by doing when they work together with others in
the family.
This coming month our youth are
taking the lead in participating in another service project. “Feed My Starving Children” is an
organization out of Minneapolis
that has grown greatly in the last 20 years in feeding the hungry in many parts
of the world. Once a year they come to Grand
Forks for a weekend in which people of all ages can
get together to help pack food packets to be delivered to many places in the
world. Several of our neighboring
congregations have participated before, and now on April 11 our parish will
too. Teams of 7 are set up to produce
each packet of food, and there is a job suitable for any age. Church youth groups sign up for a work shift,
as do Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops from the area, and sometimes, according
to the literature, some families come just as a family, working together on a
simple service project. This is an
inspiring thought: Mom and Dad and the kids working together to feed the
hungry.
Many service organizations across
the land are reporting a decrease in the number of volunteers. In the good old days (the 1950s, right?)
there were many age and gender specific service organizations flourishing. Maybe it is time for people to mix it up and
get the young and old working together to be of help to those in need. Maybe families should try to do something
together as a family for the neighbor next door or for the neighbor across the
world. No one is too young to help
someone else, and no one is ever too old to be of service.
So the fourth family faith
practice I would commend to you is working together to be of service to the
neighbor in need.