A Question Of Discipline
Whalley Presbyterian Church
Emery Cawsey
May 4 2008
Hebrews 12: 4-11
Henry Blackaby, who many of you will know through the Experiencing God series, tells this
very sad story wherein he was transformed within his ministry.
The first funeral I ever conducted was for a beautiful three-year-old. She was the first
child born to a couple in our church, and the first grandchild in their extended family.
Unfortunately, she was spoiled. While visiting the little girl's home one day, I observed
that she loved to ignore her parents' instructions. When they told her to come, she went.
When they said, "sit down," she stood up. Her parents laughed, finding her behaviour
cute.
One day their front gate was inadvertently left open. The parents saw their child escaping
out of the yard and heading toward the road. To their horror, a car was racing down the
street. As she ran out between two parked cars, they both screamed at her to stop and
turn back. She paused for a second, looked back at her parents, then gleefully laughed as
she turned and ran directly into the path of the oncoming car. The parents rushed their
little girl to the hospital, but she died from her injuries.
Blackaby saw within that couple the reality of the parenting style largely promoted within our
culture since the rise of a man named Dr. Spock. A very favourable writer states in an article on
Wikipedia when analyzing the affect of the paediatrician that,
His ideas about childcare influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible
and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals, whereas the
previous conventional wisdom had been that child rearing should focus on building
discipline…
Dr. Spock saw the discipline of children on the whole in the negative for he believed that it
would take away from a child’s sense of individuality and self worth. In his words,
“Of course, you could create a harsh system of rewards and punishments…but what
would be the effect on the child's spirit, on his sense of self-worth, on his personal
happiness, or on his feelings toward others?”
I am sure that most of you have in some way encountered this kind of philosophy as it has
become commonly known today as child centered parenting. Much of our school system and
many programs directed to children hold to this philosophy as the right way to deal with young
people. I remember when I was doing a course based on the philosophy of education, there was a
biographical movie being promoted to students looking to show how this philosophy could work
itself out. The movie was set in a school that prided itself on having no rules save for the ones
that the students set for themselves. The video followed each student as they set their agenda for
the day. Some simply played with their friends others painted or did some other activity. They
were encouraged to look at academic pursuit but they were not forced to engage in study. When
conflict happened, the community was drawn together to ‘discuss’ the issues and try to come up
with some agreement of how to go forward. There was a lot of talk about the ‘self worth’ of the
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students and letting them find out who they are for themselves what they are about. Discipline
this philosophy claimed impeded the discovery of self and must be opposed at all costs.
I remember at the end of the film, many of the students (most in their early 20’s) celebrated this
philosophy and said they were determined to go forth and carry it out. For my part it looked like
organized chaos and I was one of the minority that wondered exactly how helpful this
philosophy would be for children in the real world. Granted I was more conservative than your
average university student (socialism is the accepted ideology of academia), and thus I even then
went against the grain. Having said this, I had spent summers working, doing everything from
roofing to grounds keeping and though I did not know much about life back then (not nearly as
much as I thought I did anyways), one thing I did know is people in the working world were not
at all concerned about you discovering who you were, nor were they overly concerned about
whether you expressed yourself creatively. In fact they seem quite ready to dish out ‘discipline’
if you did not complete your tasks in the appropriate allotted time, or if you did not listen to
them.
Apparently I am not the only one who has questioned this philosophy for there is a whole
movement within the secular world who is wondering if the generations raised under this
philosophy are not the most lost, self absorbed group that the western world has ever seen. Some
social commentators are noticing that the group reared under this child centered philosophy may
be the most narcissistic, undisciplined group that has headed into the working world affecting the
very economy itself. Well obviously I am not qualified to give an opinion on whether this is
correct, what I can say is that this philosophy, shown through the people holding it and the
children raised within it has radically affected the church in the west.
The church, especially the mainline church, has been especially affected by this philosophy, and
as a result so the view of God has been radically changed by the ‘faithful’ within these
communities. The god (notice the small g) that is often worshipped now is one that is not
concerned about ‘morality’ or ‘discipline’ but is extremely concerned about a person’s feelings
of ‘self worth’ and ‘personal happiness’. Morality is now taboo, all that matters is that a person
finds himself or herself. When topics like ‘sin’ come up it is now seen as a matter of taste what
one would call moral indiscretions, the main thing that must not happen is that anyone judge or
put expectations on another person for if that were to happen then the person might not become
who they were made to be. This view of ‘god’ was well highlighted by Philip Yancey who told
this account of an encounter with just this type of disciple
Susan, a Christian and friend of Yancey confessed to him "that her husband did not
measure up and she was actively looking for other men to meet her needs for intimacy":
When Susan mentioned that she rose early each day to "spend an hour with the Father," I
(Yancey) asked, "In your meetings with the Father, do any moral issues come up that
might influence this pending decision about leaving your husband?" Susan bristled:
"That sounds like the response of a white Anglo-Saxon male. The Father and I are into
relationship, not morality. Relationship means being wholly supportive and standing
alongside me, not judging."
Well I certainly cannot say whether Yancey’s question was dictated by him being a white AngloSaxon male. What I can say is that a First century messianic or converted Jew writing the sermon
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called The Epistle To The Hebrews would certainly ask the same questions though most likely in
a much more forceful manner. I can say this with assuredness because this preacher has shown
that he would be absolutely horrified by much of the expressions of Christianity within the
mainline protestant churches in the west. The preacher for his part has no concept of such a trite
and weak god whose main goal is to simply make sure a person finds themselves or has personal
happiness. No the preacher has shown throughout the sermon that he holds to a God who is far
more concerned with salvation and the redemption of the people who have chosen to embrace his
sacrificial love.
We have seen throughout the sermon that the preacher wants to present a much deeper
perspective of god than Susan above held by the mere fact that he is dealing with a church that is
far from experiencing personal happiness let alone worrying about finding themselves. As you
are aware this sermon that we call The Epistle To The Hebrews was written to a first century
church in turmoil. You know by now that because of persecution from the larger community,
which has shown itself through public humiliation, loss of material possessions, and even some
of the faithful being incarcerated, many within the community are beginning to wonder if this
new faith that they had embraced was really worth following. Some, by the time of the writing of
this Sermon, it seems had abandoned the community and through that the faith so they might
return to their old religious practices (most likely through the temple cult), and thus achieve
relief from the tensions being applied by the larger community.
The preacher far from calling them to seek ‘personal happiness’ through the relief of suffering
that would come with denying their faith, has made it clear that this suffering is what is to be
expected when one follows such a God as was revealed through Jesus Christ. With this in mind
the preacher has gone forth with all of the rhetorical techniques available to him alongside a vast
knowledge of the LXX (Greek version of the Old Testament), to present just how awesome a
salvation that came through Jesus Christ, including his sacrificial death for the sins of those
following him. The preacher based on this has called the church to continue, whatever
circumstances, to walk in faith with this God following in the line of the great heroes of faith
who had gone before them (Hebrews 11), while taking Jesus as their role modelHebrews 12:2-3
2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of1 the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at
the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners,1 so that you
may not grow weary or lose heart.
In this morning’s reading, the preacher is going to ask the faithful of this little church to engage
in what is called a paradigm shift. In antiquity, both within pagan and within Jewish thinking it
was seen that personal experiences demonstrated whether you were favoured or cursed by God
or the gods as the case may be. The only difference between the pagans and the Jews lay in the
cause of the blessing of cursing. In the pagan worldview blessing and cursing was largely
determined by the whims of the gods at that time. In the Jewish mindset, blessing and cursing,
both of a corporate and of an individual nature were dependant on the observance of the Torah.
This would have been the general belief system that the converts would have come into the
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Christian faith within the first century. Certainly it would have been the mindset of those who
were involved in this particular suffering community.
The preacher, having called for the church to look to or in other words follow a God who for the
sake of the joy set before Him endured suffering shown in carrying the cross and all that goes
with that, now invites the faithful to fit their experiences within a new paradigm. First, the
preacher notes that unlike in the case of their role model Jesus, martyrdom had not yet occurred
in that faith community. The preacher is able to highlight this when he says in verse 4 Hebrews
12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Yet, the preacher goes on to say, even though you have not had to face this kind of persecution,
you have, through what could only be considered far less a level of persecution forgotten the
exhortation found through the scriptures (LXX) that addresses you as children. Here the preacher
goes to the proverb of which we read a part today that states,
Hebrews 12:5-6
5"My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished
by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts."
The preacher by going back to this particular text can show that the concept that personal
circumstances reveal whether God’s blessing or curse is upon one is more than suspect. In fact
the preacher can note through this text and others within the Old Testament that bear witness to
the same general concept, that perhaps the negative circumstances shows that the living God
actually cares enough for them to allow them to go through personal trauma for the sake of
transformation and salvation. In fact, the preacher notes, the living God does not simply promise
for ‘good things’ to happen but rather promises to be a good Father who will allow situations to
occur that will form his children through to eternal life. The preacher has already noted in the
sermon that the ultimate Son of God was so treated by the Father when he stated,
Hebrews 5:7-8
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus1 offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,
to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent
submission.
8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
With this in mind the preacher can now ask, should those who are to look to this living God as
the example for their journeys as the children of God not expect that their experience would be
similar?
The answer the preacher would expect by now in the sermon by the faithful is “of course we
should expect a similar experience”. Thus the preacher can now lay forth his main imperative,
that being to endure the trials for the sake of discipline or for the sake of being formed into a
disciple of God and not of this world, for the reality is God is treating you (the community) as
children, children dearly loved. The preacher building on this states a universal truth about the
special relationship between a child and their parent. He states that in this world as it is a good
parent disciplines their children, in fact everyone, pointing to the experience of those within this
church goes on to note that most of them had parents who disciplined them and they respected
them for it. Well how much more with this in mind should we (the community), subject
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ourselves and respect discipline from the good Father of ‘spirits’ through whom we will
ultimately live by following His ways.
On the other side of the ledger the preacher notes that it is illegitimate children who are not
disciplined because they are not cared for. Thankfully the preacher can note, the ones in this
community, though the world around them considers them cursed because of what they are
enduring, are truly the ultimately blessed ones because they through their experiences are being
shown to be children of the living God who wants to free them of the trappings of the world that
will one day for each of them pass away. It is not hard to see how brilliant the preacher is, for he
has totally changed in this section the paradigm for the faithful. Now rather than seeing their
negative circumstances as evidence of a lack of God’s love they can now see their negative
circumstances through the lens of a God who because of love has to allow His children to go
through these things to grow. On the other hand, now rather than seeing the good things
happening to those who are oppressing them and thinking perhaps this reveals the blessing of
god upon them, they might now see it as an example of these peoples not being true children of
God and thus ones who are the illegitimate ones no matter what their experiences might be.
Finally the preacher ends by noting that the discipline has a purpose. He states that though our
human parents discipline for a short time, for what they think is best for us (obviously he is
highlighting the ‘ideal’ parent), the living God has a larger perspective than just this world, thus
he ‘disciplines’ us (all children) for the purpose of good not simply so that we face suffering and
pain but with the hope that we as his children might ‘share’ in his holiness. A powerful statement
is being made through the preacher here that sadly seems to be lost to many Christians let alone
preachers. The living God in allowing things to happen in people’s lives is not simply doing to
for the sake of retributive punishment but rather for the purpose that they might one day share in
his holiness for eternity.
Thus the preacher can now say that of course the community’s experiences seem painful at that
time for it is discipline and with this in mind what discipline does not seem painful rather than
pleasant at the time? Having said this, discipline has the purpose of bearing later fruit, a peaceful
fruit of righteousness, of being set right with the living God, by those who are being trained up in
it. Thus the preacher can say, don’t be doubting your standing with God because you are not
becoming ‘healthy’, ‘wealthy’ and ‘wise’ in the here and now, for in reality because you are not
‘prospering’ in this world may be the very sign that the living God values you as a child, and is
forming you to have the peaceful fruit of righteousness that will lead to eternal life.
Whenever one speaks of ‘discipline’ in any age especially in the area of parental discipline one
absolutely needs to be extremely sensitive. Having been a child protection worker I am well
aware that abuse is a very real reality for many people. I realize that under the guise of
‘discipline’, many parents have demonstrated through their own desire for power and control
alongside an amazing lack of ingenuity to change the behaviour of children to harm children
through force or emotional manipulation. The fruit of this so called discipline on a child is well
stated by N.T. Wright,
What happens when a child grows up knowing only that authority belongs to the person
who can hit the hardest and hurt the most? Such children may very well translate that
into their own lives by becoming determined to be the toughest kid in the gang, the one
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who can get power by being the most violent. Or it may come out in other ways, as people
try to bribe or cheat to get around the law of the jungle.1
Yes I have intimately observed the fruit of abusive parenting throughout my career and thus I,
perhaps more than many, understand the deep seeded emotional reaction that people have when
they hear a term like ‘discipline’ come up.
I equally understand why some people reacting to abuse come to the conclusion that ‘discipline’
is wrong and embrace a view like Dr. Spock lays forth. Having said this, even those people who
hold this philosophy must on some level realize that the reaction causes an equal problem. There
can be no doubt that the children without some form of parental discipline are bound to face
huge problems when they encounter the ‘real’ world as I said above. Again N.T. Wright,
Spoiled children on the one hand, and ignored children on the other, are a menace and a
nuisance to everyone else, and are unlike to grow up as happy, well-rounded characters,
able to sustain a normal adult life.2
Today’s reaction to discipline, alongside a culture that worships self (seen in parents ordering
their lives in ways that give them the least cause of conflict so they can go pursue their own
desires), has lead to a style of parenting that George Barna in his book, Revolutionary Parenting
calls parenting by default. In this style one parents their child through,
the path of least resistance. This approach is influenced by cultural norms and traditions.
The objective is to keep everyone as happy as possible so the parents can still enjoy the
other prioritized aspects of their lives.
A second style that Barna has also observed within our culture that has long ago lost God is
what he calls trial and error parenting. This style,
is based on the notion that every parent is an amateur at raising children. There are no
absolute guidelines to follow, so the best that parents can do is experiment, observe
outcomes, and improve upon their successes and failures. In this incremental approach,
the goals of parenting are to continually perform better than most other parents.
In the end Barna notes that both of these parenting styles are based ultimately on the same
philosophical foundation, that being that parents should not define what a child does or what he
or she believes rather should just try and help them achieve self realization and personal
happiness. In Barna’s words,
"Parenting by default and trial-and-error are both approaches that enable parents to
raise their children without the effort of defining their life,"
Barna is not surprised that these two styles are predominant, as he understands that we live in an
very a-theological world wherein the worship of self has been raised over any idea of a
transcendent God acting for the good of humanity within creation. The philosophy of self
realization and personal happiness is inundated within every element of our culture including our
entertainment industry.
An example of this could be found in the popular film Dead Poets Society. The movie, which I
have mentioned before, is based on the liberal enlightenment dream. It stars Robin Williams as a
rogue English professor who is teaching within the confines of an extremely strict private
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2
Wright, N.T. Hebrews For Everyone p. 151
Ibid 152
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finishing school for boys. The movie is based on the English teacher fighting the authorities of
the school so as to free the minds of the children so that they might be able to ‘find themselves’
and through that engage in personal happiness. The movie going public loved the movie based
on this theme, and the sense that it celebrated a non-conformist view of engaging with authority
figures, and tradition (something Liberal enlightenment philosophy and politics loves to
celebrate). Ironically the popularity of the movie lay in the fact that it conformed to the very
fabric of our society and the way that we think young people should be taught, the way of Dr.
Spock.
Stanley Hauerwas in his fantastic paper, Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined
Community, highlighted this truth well when he stated,
This movie (Dead Poets Society) seems to be a wonderful testimony to the independence
of spirit that democracies putatively want to encourage. Yet I can think of no more
conformist message in liberal societies than the idea that students should learn to think
for themselves. What must be said is that most students in our society do not have minds
well enough trained to think. A central pedagogical task is to tell students that their
problem is that they do not have minds worth making up. That is why training is so
important, because training involves the formation of the self through submission to
authority that will provide people with the virtues necessary to make reasoned judgment.
It is actually a radical idea in our culture to say that children or students for that matter do not
have in the words of Hauerwas, minds worth making up, for underneath that assumption lies a
belief that there is a proper way to think, a proper way to be human, and our culture being it
reacts against ideas of one way to be human or a proper way to think finds this ideology
offensive. Sadly many who call themselves Christians have embraced the culture and have in
that reaction not only dismissed the idea that children should be trained up in the ways of God
but have decidedly moved against a view of a God who has a larger purpose for them as people
thus has as his agenda moving in people’s lives in ways that transform them into disciples as we
saw so clearly from Susan in the beginning.
As a preacher, I recognize that this section of Hebrews goes against the cultural norm. I
recognize that to be faithful in preaching this section one has to stand up and say the truth that
God moving in one’s life is not simply about self actualization and personal happiness, and I
realize that because of this I will be dismissed by many. This is a risk I have to take mind you for
I think the warped view of God has done untold damage to many who would want to follow him,
let alone western society on a whole. We have so lost a picture of God who cares enough for us
as to discipline us out of things that will bring death to us that many of us are blindly walking
straight to our demise. If I can use the analogy of Dr. Blackaby in the beginning, much of the
Christian culture longs for a ‘Father’ who just laughs as their mischievous ways not dealing with
them in any way that exceeds a bemused hands off parent whose main concern is that everyone
has a good time by the end of the day, that we have learned not to take his voice seriously. We
simply do not take seriously that we have a Father who actually loves us enough to seriously call
us into new ways of being human, ways that bring life and thus we smilingly run away when he
calls us forth. When we do this, the preacher argues, when we turn from this God who loves us
enough to discipline us, we are just as likely to run out into the metaphorical street of this world
and be killed by the things that can bring death to us.
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With this in mind, I think that if one thinks about it soberly, the Christian message that we have a
God who cares enough for us that he draws us and disciplines us so that we might follow in his
way can be seen as not only a good thing, but dare I say something to worship him for. Let me
say it a different way, if there is a God like Jesus, a God who has encountered all of what we
have, a God who has suffered within this world, who has faced every temptation we have, and
knows our pain and struggles, and knows the way to life. And if this God is one who is not the
abuse parent but the one who cares for each of his children and truly is ultimately sovereign, the
one who will bring in his kingdom, including the ultimate redemption of his children in a
kingdom wherein forgiveness and redemption reigns. Then perhaps the events that seem negative
to us at this time from his perspective might be the very things we need most.
For example, let me tell you about a story of a man I knew who lost his fortune and his business.
Now, under the view that god is out to make sure one is simply self actualized, and encounters
personal happiness, it would seem that this man was cursed by this god! Now in the church this
man went to at the time that was the general viewpoint that I mentioned and thus his personal
experience of many within that community was one of judgment. Oh no one came out and
overtly stated this, but the looks from those around him were clear enough, not to mention the
fact that he was socially maligned after this event. One person who had enough gumption came
forward to this man and stated that if he had prayed enough and had enough faith then perhaps
these negative events were to occur. Yes Job’s friends are always with us. The man became very
broken by these events and ultimately questioned the love of God and whether he had been
abandoned! As a result the man left the church going forth quite lost.
Now through the same story take a look at how perhaps the preacher might encourage the man to
look at his story. Perhaps God had a greater purpose, an eternal purpose that he was working
through those events to achieve. Perhaps there was something there for that man and for that
community he worshipped in to learn. As it turned out the man later came forth and claimed
there was something to learn from his experience. It seems that he worshipped the material
world, that he had one foot in the world and one in the church. In fact he would have proclaimed
that though he worshipped Jesus with his lips his heart was far from him. Through losing his
business and losing his wealth the great god of mammon that he did not even realize he was
worshipping was knocked off his shelf by the living God. Though it was incredibly painful at the
time, that man would tell you to this day it was the greatest thing that ultimately happened in his
life.
Through those events, he reconnected in a marriage that had long lost its intimacy. He was able
to connect with his children for the first time and before it was too late. He was able to discover,
he said for the first time, the God who carries his cross, and calls his disciples to carry their
cross, and the God who embraces the weak and broken. Through this event he said he was set
free, free of the need for personal accolades, and he was able to find a community that embraced
him for who he was, a broken child of God, without judgment rather than for what he had
achieved in this age. He went forth from that experience to live his life with a very different
purpose. Rather than living for himself, he learned through that event to live for the beautiful
family that the Lord had given him, for a church that was there to build him up and for the
broken and downcast. Last time I heard he was doing a business quite different from the one he
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lost. I am pretty sure he is not as wealthy as he used to be, at least not in terms of this world’s
material gain, but he has found a peace that has transformed his life, and he lives for a different
hope, a hope for the future, a hope that exceeds the temporal world.
The preacher of this sermon would certainly celebrate the second translation of the negative
events in that person’s life. The question for us is what do we believe deep within our beings.
Before you ask yourself this let me ask you a serious question. Each of us here have had negative
events happen in our lives, some caused because of our personal iniquity, some caused by
another person, and some simply because we live in a broken world. Honestly, through all of
that, can you see how at times these moments though they seemed Hebrews 12:11 painful rather
than pleasant at the time they turned out to be, later it turned out to yield in the words of the
preacher “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” later on? With this in mind can you see now how
those experiences, though it seemed that God had abandoned you was actually times wherein
God was actually actively working in your life.
I can say that this has been most certainly the case in my life and from many of the people I have
chatted with, this has been their experience also. I want to lay forth a challenge for you. I don’t
know what you are experiencing right now in your personal life. Let me challenge you though
that whatever your experience is, to look for God, the living God through it. I, and frankly no one
here can tell you exactly why, from God’s perspective you are going through what you are.
Having said this I can, by faith, proclaim to you that the God you worship is a God of love, the
kind of love wherein he will bring discipline so that you might live! I can promise you that he
cares more for you than even your parents did and that he promises that he will be with you
through everything. With this in mind whatever you are going through, let me invite you to in
your heart bless God for he is faithful and he will lead you to good in the end. Don’t spurn God
when you are in the dark but rather celebrate the truth that he cares enough for you to transform
you into the person you were made to be. Take serious the proverb highlighted by the preacher to
the Hebrews,
Hebrews 12:5-6
5 "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished
by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts."
If you do take this seriously then you will continue in the journey of the God who knows more
than you, who knows what you need, not what you want, and will lead you to life, eternal life, a
life earned for you through his sacrificial death on the cross.
I am sure that discipline will continue to be spurned by our culture both inside and outside of the
church, for our culture worships self aggrandizement and personal pleasure. Having said this
there is a great gift we in the church can embrace. The gift of the truth that there is a living God,
he has shown us how to be human and through this that discipline, good and loving discipline is
a good thing, a divine thing, for our children and each of us. If we believe this, we will be
individuals who embrace not only parenting and an education that cares enough for our children
so as to lay boundaries for their edification but also will be a community that will celebrate the
God who loves us enough to transform us, to take our lives and mold us not to the image we
want to be made into for our self gratification but the mold of his Son who revealed us what it
means to be truly human and who showed us the way to true life. If we do this we will not only
be individuals who engage in blessings, forgiveness and love but we will be a community who
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will embrace each other whatever we are going through and we will journey together through the
good and the bad for we will know that we have a God who loves us enough to get us to his goal
for us, life, eternal life. Amen.
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