Sermon: “The Stable is Clean” by Ps Pamela on Sunday 16th April 2023. “All the nappies changed, all the meals I’ve prepared, all the clothes I’ve washed, all the toys I’ve picked up, the cost of having children was well worth it”
Sermon Transcript:
I enjoy being a nanna and I thoroughly enjoy being a pastor of a church full of children. I do, it couldn’t be any better for me because children are incredibly funny to watch, especially when they’re not your children and you’re not responsible for their discipline. My time with my grandchildren, and my time with my church, is full of windows which provide countless comedy sketches for me to view.
For example, a coupe of months ago when I was practicing in the music team before the service and, at the same time, experiencing a serious vestibular migraine (which is a migraine that manifests itself in dizziness) one of those windows suddenly appeared before me.
My daughter, Diana, who was rushing around getting the till ready for our church Café, was too busy to pay much attention to her youngest son, Jarvis. Harvey, the oldest, had run off with the older boys to play on his iPad, Evie the middle child, had run off to play dolls with her cousin, I think, and Jarvis was left hovering around a boringly busy mummy. That’s just what I was like to my children most of the time, boringly busy. And so, 3-year-old Jarvis decided it would be a wonderful idea to spin on the spot while the church band practiced their songs (he was kind of spinning to the music). As I sang, I watched my little Jarvis spin and spin and spin on the spot. He spun so much that he fell over from the dizziness of the spin and then…. He gets right up and starts spinning again. Now I’m watching this (as I sing in my dizzy migraine state) totally caught up with the fact that he was actually enjoying being dizzy. He kept getting up and spinning again with his mummy totally oblivious to what he was doing – she was just tapping away on that till. I was so fascinated by the fact that the dizzy condition that I had was perceived as a fun feeling by my grandson. Let me repeat that, the horrendously dizzy condition that I had was perceived as a fun feeling by my grandson. And just for a split second I felt a little blessed concerning my discomfort and I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, it can’t be that bad if he’s enjoying it so much, it made me laugh. Then the moment came to an abrupt ending when Jarvis finally fell backwards with an almighty ‘thud!’ on the wooden floor, his little legs threw up into the air as he fell, and busy mummy looks up from what she was doing to give her youngest an incredulous annoyed look as if to say, “What are you doing!?” Some of the well positioned café chairs and tables were kicked around by his performance (and you all know how much I hate church chairs being moved out of line) but it was truly worth the mess because it made a dizzy pastor laugh at her own weakness.
Some 30 years prior to this incident my own three children provided many comical windows for me to look through. Admittedly at the time I didn’t always find them funny, but I can certainly laugh now.
It was a hot day, early 1990’s, there wasn’t much for the kids to do, (no Netflix, no iPad) so I decided to put one to two centimetres of water in our roman bath. Which was a great big, rectangular, brown tiled, ugly bath that took way too much water. I plonked 3-, 4- and 5-year-old in the very shallow bath and told them to play nicely with all the cups and flannels floating around in the water. All three of them could swim (they learnt to swim as babies) not that the water was deep enough for swimming, but they were waterwise and I knew this would give me a little time to do some housework while I kept checking in on them. Anyway, the phone, that was attached to the wall next to the kitchen back then, rang and I picked up to find someone needing my advice over a pretty serious matter. So, I listened to the person talk at the same time as listening to my 3 children play in the shallow bath (or so I thought). After a minute or so, I could hear their voices become more and more happily excited (which concerned me greatly) because they’re still the same today, when they’re happily excited between themselves they’re up to no good. Life was/is like a party to my kids, and we all know parties can be very messy and very noisy. There’s a cost factor to hosting parties. My young children were like a constantly moving party causing havoc wherever they went. That’s a perfect description of my children – a constantly moving party causing havoc. You’ve heard of gremlins, well that was them. And this particular afternoon was no exception because, in unison with their party voices getting louder and louder, I could hear water being thrown across the bathroom floor, I didn’t feel like I could say anything to the person on the phone because they were in the middle of sharing some seriously, heavy stuff, it was like uninterruptable talk. And then I look up to see this little river flowing down the hallway running past my little galley kitchen, the water just kept flowing and flowing, and before I knew what was happening the naked body of my 5-year-old son comes sliding down that river on his bare bum. Closely followed by a laughing 4-year-old Alyce and 3-year-old Diana. I was horrified at the same time as being overwhelmingly angry.
My teeth began to gnash, as I silently waved my hands in the air motioning for them to stop what they were doing. Now Ryan looked up to see a very frantic angry mummy stuck to the wall, in the kitchen with a phone call. I could see that his little five-year-old brain was quickly weighing up the situation.
Mum is really mad right now, and she will punish us when she gets off that phone BUT, this water slide is way too much fun to stop what we’re doing and well worth the disciplinary consequences.
So, he and his little sisters continue the high intensity waterplay while their mad mummy motions boxing fists and karate kicks in the air towards them.
I felt sheer fury that day because it took me a long time to clean up the mess which even reached the loungeroom carpet. But throughout the years the now funny memory that window has afforded me has been priceless. When my children were in their late teens running the Cityview Church youth, I came to church one evening to find my son had taken the backyard fence down (between the carpark and the garden) to make way for a giant waterslide that travelled right across the back lawn of church. All the kids had a wonderful time that Friday evening despite the mess they made to the church property. This was evidence that my kids hadn’t changed one little bit.
Children are messy aren’t they?
They wreck everything, they make things smell, they turn your life upside down. They don’t always do what you’re hoping they will do….
Whenever I get close to mentioning the mess the children make in Cityview Church to my dad, who has served in the ministry for many many years and been a victim to the mess children make (as all pastors are).
He always, always, always quotes the following scripture which we all (whether you’re a parent or not it doesn’t matter), we all as Christian brothers and sisters, who are in the family of God, need to learn today. Maybe we could learn it off by heart. It’s not difficult.
Proverbs 14:4, New Living Translation, Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.
Or here’s another translation of the same verse, New American Standard Bible “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean; But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.” What does this Proverb mean and how can it possibly be a spiritual lesson to us all?
Oxen were essential to farming in Bible times. For us in our comfortable, western, metro, 21st century living we are far removed from having any knowledge of how important the oxen were. After all, tractors (with people) replaced the horses (with people) which replaced the oxen (with people) which worked the farms years and years and years ago. The new technology that now goes into farming has even removed the people. I saw an ABC documentary, not too long ago, where the GPS correction technology (that’s via the satellites) enables the tractors to drive themselves on the farms. Pretty amazing stuff!! But in the Bible times, the farmers needed the oxen. Could I have that first picture please? Farmers used oxen for ploughing and hauling. If a farmer did not have an ox, he could not plough his fields and therefore he had no harvest.
It was the sheer strength of the ox that pulled the plough. A yoke of oxen could plough an acre a day, 22 meters by 201 meters, allowing for a rich, large crop. Without the ox, a farmer would have to use a stick or shovel to break up soil, or pull the plough himself, but in neither case could he come close to an acre a day, nor could he turn the soil as deeply and consistently as he could with the oxen.
The truth is without the ox, a farmer would break his back to get a very small crop.
Oxen were a necessity for a large harvest, for good revenue in the bible times.
But there is a trade-off. Could we have the next picture please?
Would all the children please stop what you’re doing and give a loud moo!!! Here are the brutal facts people: – taking care of the oxen was also a lot of backbreaking work! It was dirty and endless work of feeding, cleaning mangers and stalls, and yoking oxen together to plough (I find it hard enough putting a leash on my dog let alone yoking oxen – that’s heavy stuff, particularly if they’re agitated and moving around and they decide to kick you or gnarl you with their long horns). I would not begrudge a farmer to think and dream of how much easier his life would be without caring for the oxen every day.
Oxen consume a great deal of food, and they produce a considerable amount of waste (which stinks). Those who went on that last short term missions’ trip to India – can you remember the stench and flies of the oxen in the lounge room next to the dining room where we ate? It was awful, I did not feel like eating that day!!!
A manger—the oxen food trough—and the stable around the manger needs to be cleaned and stocked regularly. A farmer must continually, that is day after day after day put in unpleasant, menial work to keep the oxen fed and healthy. Even if you’re sick, even if you don’t feel like it, even if it’s your birthday the oxen must be fed, and the stable must be clean. But the reward for that work is something that only the strength of the oxen can provide: a plentiful harvest. Impressive revenue.
What is the point of this God given proverb? You may ask – What’s it all about? Delicate and dainty people who can’t stand the messiness of the workplace, and cheap people who won’t invest in productive animals, will have neat, clean, sterile, but poor lives. A house without children is easily kept neat, clean, and quiet. Children are expensive, smelly, troublesome, loud, exhausting, but well worth it, because wealth to support people in old age comes from the work of children when they are grown.
No children – no social security, a reality that the industrialized world is finally recognizing! CHILDREN ARE A COUNTRY’S GREATEST RESOURCE, and they are the greatest resource of any family.
But to deal with children, fathers and mothers must be okay with getting their hands dirty (literally) and ready to put up with a certain amount of chaos.
The truth is, A life accomplishing anything will include a lot of messiness, including untidy houses and barns. But a messy house shows that people live there, people to love and be loved, people made in God’s image. Fastidious standards of cleanliness and good order do not rule the wise; they do not use such standards as excuses for not being rich in good works, such as hospitality.
Nothing comes free of charge, not even the strength of the ox. Their price is the trouble and expense of constantly cleaning and refilling the troughs they eat from, as well as all the other work that they require. But that investment of labor, whether in oxen or children, brings the increase of food, happiness, and enjoyment. Only the foolish dispense with the ox.
The worst day of my life, which happened 11 years ago now, was also the best day of my life because my adult children and their partners (who are my children also) took the day off work to sit around me and care for me. I wanted for nothing that day because they were there for me and held me up.
All the nappies I’d changed, all the meals I’d prepared, all the clothes I’d washed, all the toys I’d picked up, all the hard discipline I’d given out at the smacking chair, all the broken windows, all the floors messed up, all the fingerprints on my beautiful clean windows… It was all a pleasure for the windows of joy they have constantly given me.
Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean; But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox. Parents, learn to laugh and enjoy every minute of every day because you’ve got your little calves on borrowed time.
Church, we have lots and lots of loud naughty, special calves/children. We all need to be patient and love on them so that when they’re old like me, they will look back on this time and remember that church was a wonderful place where they felt safe and loved by people filled with Jesus. There is a cost to having these calves but it’s worth every cent because this church will be here for Jesus tomorrow when I’m long gone.
Would Ben & Merinda with little Olivia, and Jordan & Jacqui with little Theodore please come forward now? I have been waiting a long time to finally bless these babies! Would the eldership and pastoral team come on up to pray as well?
