A rose by any other name...

Recently one of my sisters said, in a public forum, that she was not raised in a Christian home. When I read it I had to pause and read it again. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. Anyone who has read my blog or my old blog long enough knows how I feel about my Dad (who was the main parent to raise us). But after several days of meditating on her words I realized a fundamental difference between her way of thinking and mine, between her faith and mine, and it made the Gospel wash over me anew.

My sister has a good 8 years on me. My parents divorced when she was old enough to remember and even old enough to have it rock her young child life. The circumstances were steeped in sin on both sides, even for years before the divorce, as is usually the case. My father continued to attend worship weekly and take us children along, as did my mother though at a different church, and we never missed a Sunday unless we were very ill. 

My father was a sinful man through and through. He committed many very hurtful sins while professing to be a Christian and taking his children proudly to church. He lived in sin and made decisions to further sin while still attending worship weekly. He probably could have and should have been excommunicated. Though I firmly believe if he had been brought up on charges so to speak by the church that he would have repented. 

But world, here loud and clear, I WAS raised in a Christian home. Every single day of my life. I was raised in a Christian home because Jesus is my salvation and He is stronger than sin and His grace is sufficient. His Word is living and active and His Holy Spirit all consuming. When my parents faithfully brought me to the font of Holy Baptism I was in-dwelt, forgiven, and set free. And for every single day of my childhood my father prayed with me at bed time, meal times, and saw to it that I was in church.  

A Christian home is NOT where everyone is happy and sinless. It is not where parents do not make big mistakes that can hurt many people even their children. A Christian home is where sinners continuously drag themselves to church where the Holy Spirit, given mercifully to us sinners in God's Word, Baptism, and God's Holy Body and Blood, wages war with our sinful natures to bring us to repentance and urge us further and further into good works. 

My dad did not live like a Christian on the outside for many years. But thanks be to God salvation is not dependent on our works or ability to withstand temptation. My sister's church would say becoming a Christian changes you and makes you live differently. I say becoming a Christian saves you and redeems you and wages a life-long war to drag you kicking and screaming to repentance. 

My salvation and status of being raised in a Christian home is not dependent on my Dad's ability, or lack thereof, to withstand temptations to fall into sin and even get stuck in sin. It is not dependent on whether I was given enough money to buy school clothes. It is not dependent on whether I liked my step moms. It is not dependent on whether my Dad made it to important days, was there to do homework with me, or whether we all walked around our house cheerfully serving one another and being trained in character development. It is not dependent on how much time we spent together, on how much TV we watched, or on how much we were...or weren't...together.

It depends only on Jesus. And I was fed Jesus, as were each of my siblings, in every way that God gives Himself to us, all thanks to my Dad, Step Mom, and Mom. Were we hurt by many of their sins and choices, yes. But my desire to forgive them and not see their sin as a way to judge them is evidence that faith is not a product of works. I was raised in a Christian home and I am so comforted, as I struggle to bring up my own children, that even amidst trial and tribulation, Jesus, in His Word and Sacraments, is sufficient.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
O blessed heavenly chorus!

Lord, save us by Your grace,

That we, like saints before us,

May see you face to face.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!