Proverbs 1:8; John 14: 1-7-  “A Mother’s Basic Task”

                As a preacher we have moved a few times in our lives, but not nearly as much as some minister’s families.  But one of the first tasks we had was to find a home, and then make sure the kids knew how that this was our home.  We’d get them to memorize the new address and the new phone number.   It is important to know not where the old home was, but where our real home is.   That is true for each one of us.  I think a mother’s primary task is to tell children where home is. 
                Jesus said that he goes to heaven to prepare a place for us.  That where he we may be also.  There’s plenty of room there.  You have to know the way home.   Mothers, do your children know the way home?   Have you told them where the real, permanent home is.                
                Now, some may have accused Jesus of being morbid.  In fact, his disciples did.   Peter said (right after Jesus commended him for calling him the “Christ the Son of the Living God”), may you never die, Lord.  Jesus called Peter “Satan” just for not wanting to think about his dying.  Peter wanted to just think about the moment. Peter enjoyed Jesus’ presence with him now, in this life.  But Jesus knew that was naïve. 
                Jesus liked this life.  He was a man who was at peace in this life- one of the only ones who ever was at total peace here.  He said He came to give us the abundant life and give it to the fullest.  Eternal life was a word that didn’t begin after you died, but it implied that eternal life begins as soon as you believe and recognize life as it should be.  But Jesus knew this life wouldn’t last forever- for any of us.  He also knew that the cross was before Him, but the cross was not the end.  This world was not his home.  He was just passing through- like going on a trip.  A nice trip.  There may be places we go that we enjoy, and we hate leaving, but it is not really our home.  Oftentimes we confuse not having to cook, clean, do the yardwork or answer the phone with paradise.  We are like a people who have confused our temporary shelter with our home.  But the Bible says its like comparing living in a tent to living in a mansion.  We can get used to a tent.  We can get comfortable here.  But tents are never permanent.  They start having problems eventually. 
                We spend a lot of effort and time in our society fooling ourselves that this life will go on forever.  It has especially gotten worse since we have extended the life expectancy.  The average person 100 years ago lived until they were 45, today it’s pushing 80.  Before the 1940s there was a very real danger every time a child was born.  Today there is still a danger, but it is really contained.  We’ve almost doubled the time we live here.  Most in our culture grow old.  We have been blessed. 
                We try to play down aging.  We use makeup, contacts or laser surgery, botox, wrinkle cream, yoga and exercise, dentures, hair color to keep aging away from us.  33% of Americans- that is 77 million do not have life insurance and one in four (25%= 57 million) do not think they need it.   I know there are people who have more money than the insurance companies- but that’s about 1% not 25%.  Actually life insurance is really death insurance.  But we don’t like the “D” word.   We change many words to avoid thinking of death.  So “cemetery” becomes “Memorial Park.” “undertakers” are now “funeral directors”; “death certificate” is now “vital information card”;   Woody Allen has the famous quote, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
                We used to teach our children to pray:  
“Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep. 
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
Millions were taught that prayer when they were little for about 400 years it was the primary bed-time prayer.  John Ortberg says that the reciting of this prayer has decreased a lot over the last fifty years. I was taught that prayer.  There was another verse on the original that was left out of my generation’s prayer:
“Our days begin with trouble here, our life is but a span,
And cruel death is always near, so frail a thing is man.”
                We want to surround our children with security and protect them not only from harm, but also from thinking any bad thoughts at all.   But we mothers and fathers are deceived if they really think they can shield their children from the hard things of life.  Ernest Becker wrote a book called “The Denial of Death” in which he said that we arrange our lives around ignoring, avoiding, repressing the most irrefutable fact in the world which is that we’re going to die.  The desire to deny death is the reason for our workaholism, and obsession with security. I would say that 9-11 heightened that obsession with security and focus on this life.  How many millions take off their shoes, open their bags, throw out their knives and shampoo in the name of security since 9-11.  The recent false-scare about swine flu can be added to other recent false scares like “the bird/avian flu”, “mad cow disease”.  Philip Yancey writes that our very response to the reality of death is a signal that we were created for something more.  The Bible says that God has put “eternity in our hearts.”  That is, deep down inside we know that this is not all there is.  This world is not as it should be.   There is something more.
                One of the primary tasks of parents is to make sure the kids are prepared for the long haul.  Parents sacrifice almost everything to give their children a college education.   They do this because they think this is one thing they can give their children for the long haul.  Giving them the opportunity to get a good job and possibly retire some day.  But we also need to see there is another gift we need to pass on to our children and perhaps our grandchildren and that is our faith.  There is only one thing that can conquer the grave and that is the one who gave us life itself.  We are to be priests to our children.  A priest stood between God and humans.  He prayed to God on behalf of the people, and told the people about God.  We are to pray for our children, and tell them about God. 
                My oldest daughter made a picture- I brought it today, It says, “Home is where your Mom is.”  That is partially true.  I know there have been many in our congregation whose mothers have died in the last few years, and many more have thought going into this Mother’s Day- how long will we have her around.  There is a more permanent home.   Good mothers tell their children where the real home is.   They don’t try to let them wander around and find it, they show them, and point them and draw maps for them to get there.  For Christians, home is where Jesus is.  He says, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you also may be.
                One of the great gifts you can give your children is perspective.  It is called wisdom.  Solomon was the wisest man in the world and he said, “vanity, vanity (or meaningless meaningless) all is vanity.”  Our pleasures end.  All the things we have earned end.  Our sports and movies and music gets old.  I was talking to a young person and they were saying, “that praise song is five years old- that is ancient.”  After a year now, the best music is mothballed.  There are so many songs now compared to thirty years ago, that we are getting numb to them.  All the trophies you have are going to be in an attic one day- and maybe eventually destroyed.  The greatest baseball players of a hundred years ago are not remembered.  Epictetus said, “This is our predicament.  Over and over again, we lose sight of what is important and what isn’t.”  A leader’s first task is to define reality.  Parent’s that is your task as well.  If you are shielding your children from facing the music, from paying the consequences of your bad behavior with your influence or your money, then you are not helping your children- you are doing them a disservice. 
                John Ortberg has a great book entitled, “When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box.”  He talks about his grandmother, and the impression she made on him that material things were not the most important thing.  She played monopoly a lot with him, and she would not get upset if she lost her hotels or property.  He said she had taught him how to play, and he became really good.  He financially destroyed her.  He had won, had proved his ability, his cleverness, his intelligence, his strength.  He was more ruthless than anyone else.  He had won.  He had taken her last dollar.  But then she said, “Now it all goes back in the box.”  All those hotels, all that property was gone- the game was over.  The temptation is to think the game will go on forever, but it does not.  But that is okay- this world is not our home.  We are strangers here, pilgrims here.  We are on vacation here.  I can remember when my kids would go to a party and not want to leave.  They’d say, “But I don’t want to go!”  I’ve seen some kids fall down on the floor and have to be carried out kicking and screaming.  But it wasn’t their home.  They had to be taught.  God is teaching us, and He wants us to teach our children, where the real home is.  Jesus is there- waiting.  It is better than anything here.  There are no more tears, mourning, or death.  God wipes our tears away, and there is peace fulfilled, joy immeasurable.  This tent is not our home, the mansion is.