[AI translation] Without any further introduction, let me say at the outset that today I would like to talk about family worship, about praying and praying together as a family in the home, about its necessity and its benefits. You may remember that two weeks ago I told you that when I gather the children, your children, for Confirmation, some of them will see the Bible for the first time in their lives at their first Confirmation class. The frightening, tragic consequences of this sad fact will soon become increasingly clear in the life of the Church and of our society as a whole. I would like to relate the Word we are reading to the family circle as it was originally intended and to sum up the message of our text in this title: Bible in the Family!Of course, this is only an apt expression, and in no way refers to whether there is a Bible, a press product called the Holy Bible, in the home, nor even to whether one or other member of the family reads the Word from it from time to time, more or less regularly, according to the daily guideline. These are externalities, no matter how beautiful the ancient, leather-bound family Bible one keeps at home, and no matter how highly one treasures it. It is more than that. It is what our Word says: the lordship, the supreme authority of God speaking through the Bible. This commandment - 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength' - means, in the family context, that God, who reveals himself in Jesus Christ, should be the centre and the cohesive force of family life. And these further provisions. And thou shalt bind them upon thy hand, and they shall be for a forehead between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them on the doorposts of thy house, and on thy gates." (Deuteronomy 6:7-9) - in today's language, they mean that the family should mind the Lord's business, listen to His word, know His will, discuss all His dealings, so that the family is essentially the family of the Lord. It is a community of God's children, a small church, where the bond of belonging to the Lord in common faith is stronger than any blood bond between family members.
The Bible tells us that when two people marry, they form a household church, and the church, when it blesses that marriage, forms a household church. This is how our home becomes a home in the true sense of the word. Because a home is more than a dwelling, more than the four walls and the roof that protect us from the weather, more than the bed and the table, because it is possible to sleep in a hotel and to dine in a restaurant. Home is a place where people can love each other without any ulterior motives, without any interest, simply because they belong together, because they are God's gift to each other! Home is that little island in the world where you never long to leave, where you always return happy, where it is good to be! God's living presence gives us this atmosphere that makes our home a real home, a spiritual home! Home is a gift from God to those who love Him. Believe it to be true, it is truly as God's Word says: "Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and seek Him with all their heart." (Psalm 119:1-2)
This is not only true for our individual lives, but it is also the basis of happiness, true happiness, in family life: the living presence of God in His Word, that is, Jesus Christ in person, as the spiritual centre of family life! This is how it should be in every Christian family! And it is all the more necessary to insist on it because modern life is increasingly breaking up the family. Most of the father's life has moved from the family circle to the workplace, the factory or the office. His life and energy is divided between two different milieus, two different communities: his home and his workplace. In fact, it is for his family that he does the work, and it is this work that takes him away from his family. And what else does family mean to him? Because he has to give his best efforts elsewhere. By the time he gets home, he is tired, exhausted even! He wants peace of mind, not more problems. He needs to rest, because in the morning he'll be back at work!
The mother has to work to support the family. Her lifestyle is little different from her husband's, except that after her office or other bread-winning job, when she finally comes home tired, she has to do the housework. It's the same with children, if they go to school, that's why, if they're already working, that's why! School, factory, office, sport: all these things require a whole person, all these things involve the members of the family in a separate community, so much so that the family does not even go on holiday, on excursions or outings together, but in a different milieu, outside the family, at a company event or club! The sensation of 'coming home' is missing, the magic of home, a home where someone is waiting, welcoming and happy to see you. Home is slowly becoming a house where family members come to sleep and eat, or to listen to the radio and flip through the newspaper! They live in it, but they don't live in it! Whole generations are growing up without the vitality of a real home! And there's nothing in the world that can replace it! If a family has no spiritual centre, it will fall apart beyond repair, it will cease to be a family! If the family is not a small Christian congregation around Christ, then there is nothing to hold it together!
And it is not only in this modern world. It is the reality of sin, the nature of sin, that brings it about. Nowhere is the terrible reality of sin more evident than in the family. The case of Cain with Abel is a typical example. They really did not live in modern times, there is a huge difference between their way of life and ours. But there is no difference between us in that we were born with the same original sin as they were. And this sin, which is still a reality in us today, first of all in this world overwhelmed a family life: it gave birth to fratricide. On a human level, this is the essence of sin: isolation, alienation, estrangement from another human being, even if he or she is a sweet brother or sister. Here we see how mere blood ties between people are not enough to bind them together. Sin is stronger than that. It can loosen the bond between parents and children, brothers and sisters. It alienates husband from wife, fathers from sons. Tensions arise between those who were meant to be together. The latent tension escalates into painful, hurtful confrontation, bitterness, and eventually into hatred. What a fearsome power sin has: it can raise the brotherly fist of the Cain against the Abel against all reason; it can turn the place where something of the lost paradisiacal happiness of family life might still remain into hell!
Yes: with the first sin, chaos, decomposition, the disintegration of what God has put together, has entered into the sphere of family life! This can be covered up by good manners or legitimized by social customs - but not by one thing: to eradicate it by human force! In every family life there is the disruptive power of sin, the effect of chaos, either latent or in volcanic eruptions, simply flowing from our sin-infested human nature, and not under the influence of our circumstances. At most, the circumstances of life only favour the sin within us! And here good advice, law, even the best intentions, are of no use! Oh, how often I have felt this helplessness, when someone was bitterly searching for a way out of the pain of a broken family life, or when desperate parents were helplessly wringing their hands over their children!
My brothers and sisters! There is only One in the world who can help, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, the only Saviour of broken homes, who condemns sin above all others, but who, with that infinite patience and love in Him, is always ready to wipe away confessed and repented sin, to redeem from the hell He hates! The heavenly power that came upon this world through the death and resurrection of Jesus not only restores individual human lives, but also the lives of broken families! I have seen more than once hopelessly sick family lives reborn and blossoming happily under the blessed hand of Jesus Christ! Look: John Arany takes a piece of worthless paper in his hand, writes a poem on it, and that piece of paper has a museum value that today can hardly be expressed in money - such is genius! A skilful cabinetmaker takes a piece of plank worth a few forints and turns it into a cabinet worth hundreds of forints - that's skill. Mihály Munkácsy takes a piece of cheap canvas and turns it into a painting worth thousands of forints - that's an artist. And God takes in his hands a family life that has become worthless, contaminated, spoiled, hellish, cleansed by the blood of Christ, wiped by His Holy Spirit, so that what was a curse becomes a blessing - such is the riches and power of His grace through Jesus Christ!
Do you feel how truly He alone, the living Jesus Christ, is the only true cohesive force in the family?! Gathered around Him, listening to His word, talking everything over with Him in prayer, the family suddenly begins to see the world, the joy, the pain, the tragedies of life, in a different way. Through Him, the family can be in touch with the source of light, life and strength! Oh, how poor a family is without Him, without shelter and refuge, without a resting place, without support, without hope, without a saviour: without God! But why are you without Him? Free with him! What He said, "Whoever comes to me, I will by no means cast out", applies to the whole family! So let us go to Him, parents and children, all the members of the family, by force, if necessary, take time to sit down and talk to Him, because in our Bible He speaks to us and in prayer we can speak to Him! It is a commandment from God and at the same time a gift to His people. And thou shalt exercise them in thy sons, and shalt speak them when thou sittest in thine house, or when thou goest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up..."
Heads of families who are here: we are primarily responsible for ensuring that every member of our family hears and knows the Word, that God's will is imprinted in our souls, that the Gospel of Christ becomes a living authority in our lives! The other day I witnessed a scene that we have all seen: a little schoolgirl leaving home, her mother calling out to her from the window: "Take a good look at the crossing! This is the natural mother's word of care for her child. And she is right, because there is so much traffic, cars are speeding, and dangers lurk for her child's life. You can't be careful enough to navigate the chaos with your skin intact.
Dear mothers and fathers! You yourselves and your children must not only cross busy asphalt roads, there are many other roads in life, and we must cross them again and again! You have to choose, decide: what is right, what is wrong, where to go, what to do, what not to do! And, most importantly, do we ourselves and our children want to set out on this journey with God or without God? Do we want to walk under Jesus' guidance or without, to find our way in the confusion? Do we leave the Bible closed or do we want to go on by the light of God's Word at every "crossing"? Do we truly believe what we read in Psalm 119: "Would that my ways were established to keep your statutes! Then would I not be ashamed if I heeded all thy commandments! ...How shall a young man keep his way pure, but by keeping Thy word?" (Psalm 119:5-6,9.)
Behold: in crossing the highways of the carriage we warn one another, and in crossing the roads of life we do not provide one another and ourselves with the warning, the leading, the strengthening word of God, we are content with rules of manners, with expertise, or with our own skill! Yet... no one can cross life well without Jesus Christ! Especially at that great and decisive crossing, death, you and your child are safe only with Him! Do you feel how indispensable the Bible is in your family?
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord! Therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these promises which I command you this day shall be in your heart. And thou shalt exercise thy sons in these things, and shalt speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, or when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them upon thy hand, and they shall be a forehead between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them on the doorposts of thy house, and on thy gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
It could change the face of an entire society if the Bible were brought into the family, into our families, in this way!
Amen
Date: 30 September 1956.