This is the fourth podcast/sermon in a series on the Ten Commandments. Today we are looking at the 4th Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. They say that this is the hardest commandment for children, while the hardest one for parents is the 5th: Thou shalt not kill! Kidding aside, I think we make a mistake if we reduce this commandment to telling children to be “good little boys and girls.” The fourth commandment puts human relationships at the center of our faith and practice. How we treat one another matters. Whether we honor one another matters. And it starts with the most intimate and fundamental of all relationships: daughters and fathers, mothers and sons. 

Let’s look at what the Small Catechism says about the fourth commandment, and specifically consider the vocation or “office” of parenting. And then we’ll look at how this commandment plays out in the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus, a story recorded in  the gospel of Mark 9:2-8. You know that I will some leave you with some takeaways, and there is a FAITH5 handout as well as Small Catechism resources available at our website, www.faithshelton.org. I’ll start with the reading of the gospel of Mark, chapter 9.

Mark 9:2-8

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

Fourth Commandment

Honor your father and your mother.

What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them.