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In today’s post-modern society, we have become a nation in which the clarity between right and wrong is no longer clear. In order to be politically correct, we are encouraged to live in the grey area of what used to be clear lines of morality. Unfortunately, this foggy path has produced a society that no longer supports the very core values that made this nation great. The values of God, country and family have sadly become backburner issues or even worse – non issues. In their place our society now values Self, Environmental Issues, and Alternative Lifestyles. By doing this we have changed the moral values of this nation whether we want to admit it or not.
For example, the family values of yesterday are no longer the family values of today. While we applaud the current decline in divorce rates, we may be surprised that it is affected by the 50% drop in marriage rates since 1970. In an article by Sharon Jayson in the newspaper USA Today, Jayson writes the following:
“Cohabitation is here to stay," says David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociology professor and report co-author. "I don't think it's good news, especially for children," he says. "As society shifts from marriage to cohabitation — which is what's happening — you have an increase in family instability."
Cohabiting couples have twice the breakup rate of married couples, the report's authors say. And in the USA, 40% bring kids into these often-shaky live-in relationships.
This is the legacy of the shift in moral values in this country that encourages people to live their lives as they please as long as they do not cause harm to others. Yet, as we just heard, the children of this generation are being harmed and no one seems to care or so it seems. Those who dare to speak out on these matters are immediately labeled as radical fundamentalists or just plain backwards in their way of thinking. This I believe to be most unfortunate; because by keeping quiet, the Church, especially, has lost its moral voice on this matter and many others.
So today, instead of standing up here and sharing with you my own core of values, I believe that it is my duty as your priest to share with you God’s values. Please turn to page 675 in your pew Bibles. We will be looking at the scripture in chapter 55 of The Book of Isaiah, verses 6-9.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
What a concept! God does not want us to follow our own desires of the flesh that lead to sin and death, but has commanded us to follow His desires for us. How do we learn about God’s desires for our lives? Well, to begin with we start with God’s manual, known to us as the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible teaches us about humans’ continual failures ending in spiritual and physical destruction when they have chosen to follow their own code of ethics in place of God’s.
In today’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah we heard these words about the Lord God’s wrath towards those who turn away from Him: “For the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to pay back his anger in fury, and his rebuke in flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord execute judgment, and by his sword, on all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many.” In other words, God’s wrath will be poured out on those who make themselves enemies of God by disobeying His Word.
In the Holy Scriptures, we have been given the keys to life. These keys open the way for us to live in the will of God while on earth and then eternally with Him after our mortal bodies have died. Out of God’s love for us, He has intervened into the human path of destruction to show us a better way.
First, God brought humanity the Ten Commandments; then because humans failed at keeping these, God gave us His Son, Jesus the Christ. Through Christ Jesus, we have been given access to the Father and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This new Way is our Gift of Salvation in which we can live life abundantly both here and forever simply by following God’s core values for us.
As followers of the Way, St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians instructs us to, “not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right…”
‘Doing what is right’ in accordance to God’s values is what is meant by St. Paul. Some believe that when Jesus came then the Law was just abolished. This however is contrary to the teachings of Christ Himself who said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” These are the core values that the Lord would have us to live. However, because the keeping of the Jewish law, especially on those of cleanliness and circumcision, was so difficult for the Gentile converts, the Church Council in Jerusalem came up with a less burdensome way for the new believers to keep the Law. In Acts we read, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.” The Church also holds up the Ten Commandments that we call the Decalogue that we are still to obey.
As for today’s priorities in our society, they are upside down in placement. Instead of placing Self first, Jesus tells us to love others as ourselves. Others come before self! We are to love others as much as we love and care for ourselves. Environmental issues are important, but we are told by God in His Word that the earth is the Lord’s. It is not ours folks. It belongs to God Almighty! We are merely His stewards or managers and as such we will be held accountable.
As for Alternative Lifestyles, according to God’s moral code for humanity, which is found in the Bible, alternative lifestyles are unacceptable. God ordained marriage in the beginning. We read about it in the Book of Genesis with Adam and Eve. When Jesus was here on earth, He upheld marriage by honoring a wedding feast with His first miracle. Then the Church Council of Jerusalem, as I read to you, clearly stated that fornication, which is sexual relations outside of marriage, are not acceptable.
These are God’s core values. The Lord has given them to us, not to test us, to see which ones we are going to pass and which ones we are going to fail. No, it is God’s desire for us to do what is right for our own protection. For you see God loves us and all of this has been done, because of His love for us. We have the choice of choosing life or death. Life comes from following the Lord’s way, while eternal death is the outcome for choosing to follow our human desires in choosing to disobey the Lord. May I suggest that we choose like Joshua, the courageous leader of the Israelites, who told the Israelites, “but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
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