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SERMON
My father has saved letters that he exchanged when he was in his twenties and thirties with both of his grandmothers, who were in Nebraska. One of the grandmothers was very political, and her letters were filled with tirades against the Democrats and hypotheses about the future in America. The other grandmother was very funny and gave great commentary on daily events. Both sets of letters give insight into the worldview of a different generation. I enjoyed a line from my great-grandmother, Ida Cook, the funny one…
“Well, Jim, it’s 97 today and no Rain. So maybe the world is coming to an end. Lois thinks so, I’m sure, she’s so religious, she makes me sick. I’m glad your Dad and Mom go square dancing, fancy Lois doing that. Your Dad is as good as your Aunt Lois any old day.”
Ida had thoughts about religion, golfers, dentists, dating, and much more. These letters are treasures from one generation to the next. Today, we read another such letter sent from the older generation to the younger. Paul is writing to Timothy. They have something of a mentor/mentee or father/son relationship. Paul, in his letter, writes to Timothy from his prison cell, recounting their last tearful parting. Paul writes giving advice, giving thanks, and giving encouragement to Timothy, all in a very impassioned way.
At this time, Christianity had grown enough to become a threat to the Roman establishment. Consequently, Paul, as a figurehead of the movement, was in jail, yet again. Paul writes to Timothy with deep love and passion, but also a real sense of fear. Not necessarily fear for himself, but fear for the movement. Paul knows the growth of Christianity depends on people like Timothy passing the faith along to the next generation. And Paul is wholly committed to spreading the message of Jesus Christ, but he is behind bars; the only thing for him to do, besides sing and pray and try to convert the jailers, which he does, is to write letters, encouraging others to carry on the work in the local churches. These letters are treasures for us still today, as we strive to be faithful in carrying on the faith.
Recently, the Fuller Youth Institute published a report providing insights into the faith of Gen Alpha. Generation Alpha is the young people born in 2010 or later, noted for being the first generation to come of age in our post-pandemic world. Fuller interviewed 3,000 teenagers, along with youth workers, teachers, and parents. The findings about their lived experiences and perspectives are fascinating. One interesting finding was that while research has said for years that family is a top influence on kids’ and teens’ faith, now Gen Alpha is saying it too. Family is defined broadly in the study, but what is clear is that family is where Gen Alpha puts its trust. In the United States, the recent decade has been marked by high political polarization and a general decline in overall trust. Therefore, young people, even older teenagers, say they trust their family and that family is the greatest influence on them.
Family was the top answer to these questions:
Who do you trust most to talk to when figuring something out about yourself? Family.
Whom most helps you feel like or remember that you belong? Family.
Who do you trust most to talk about your future dreams and goals? Family.
Then, when asked: Who or what has influenced your spiritual beliefs the most? 65% said parents. 28% said grandparents.
Faith is something that is passed from one generation to the next. And what the study tells us is that we cannot assume to leave the work of transferring the faith to others, not to the church, or the pastors, or the internet. If we want the next generation to learn the faith, we must take seriously the fact that most of that formation happens in our closest circles.
My father has a very dry sense of humor, and when someone honks at him in the car, he says, “Nice horn!” So, what do I say when someone honks at me? “Nice horn!” And what do my children say when someone honks at us in the car? “Nice horn!” Of course they do. We inherit weird things from our parents and grandparents. And we inherit wonderful things from our parents and grandparents. On this Sunday, when the church is asked to honor older adults, it is good for us to remember how we have been formed and also our responsibility to contribute to the formation of others.
Paul reminds Timothy to remember the faith of his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois, as he hopes Timothy himself will remain strong in the faith. The generational ties of faith are important and formative. Krista Tippett's signature opening question for her guests on her On Being podcast is always: "How would you describe the religious or spiritual background of your childhood?” It is a question that quickly moves guests beyond the casual chit chat into stories of formation and faith. It encourages the guests to tell their story.
If Timothy were on the podcast, he would tell his story of growing up in a home with two strong women of faith, his mother and his grandmother, and the ways they modeled faithfulness for him. That would lead Timothy to talk about how he came to meet a man named Paul, who mentored him to grow in his faith in Jesus and to become a leader in the local church. Then Timothy would talk about his fears for Paul, who was in prison, and his concerns about the future of the church, and the pressure he felt to keep the faith alive.
Paul knew what Timothy must be feeling when he wrote this letter to him. To try and lift him up, Paul appealed to the character given to Timothy by God, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” And then, Paul did not want Timothy to be paralyzed by the pressure and the weight of responsibility; he appealed to the images of the saints in Timothy’s life who fought the good fight and kept the faith – his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. The memory of these two women was supposed to embolden and strengthen Timothy. Gen Alpha seems to be doing what Paul recommends, leaning on family to guide, instruct, and inspire.
But what about the other generations – do we still rely on the older adults in our lives, do we welcome their wisdom, do we seek their counsel, do we appreciate the ways they lived out their lives of faith, even though times were different? My version of Timothy’s Grandma Lois was my Grandma Patricia, who was about as devoted as they come. She went to mass daily and would sit on her stationary exercise bike at home and pray her rosary for people who needed prayers. “I prayed a rosary for you,” was something she would say to us, and then we had the fun challenge of wondering why exactly we were the focus of her prayer that day. The faith she transferred to her children and grandchildren was not necessarily through an effusive personal testimony but through a lived example of discipline and devotion. Even as a child, it was evident to me that my Grandma Pat trusted in Jesus.
For Timothy, it was evident that Lois and Eunice trusted in Jesus. Sometimes these role models are the lights we need to keep us walking by faith. This is not nostalgia – it is a connection to the foundation laid for us by Jesus, passed to the disciples, inherited by the apostles, given to the evangelists, the reformers, the elders, the deacons, the Sunday school teachers, the committee members, the treasures, the ushers, the men and women who from generation to generation kept the faith alive. That is what we are remembering – not just our history but our foundation. Christian faith is held in trust, as part of a sacred family tradition. Our faith is both deeply personal and uniquely communal. Even if our own childhood homes did not practice the faith, we still have a lineage through people who did, like Lois, Eunice, Paul, and Timothy, who are in the extended family.
The Psalmist writes, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” Part of the work of the followers of Jesus is to tell the stories of faith, teach the next generation, and pass on the blessings. Paul reminds us that we cannot be idle about this, or embarrassed about this, or blasé about the work of providing witness to others. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
When we read Paul’s letter to Timothy, we hear the urgency in his writing; he wants Timothy to know that it matters deeply if this faith passes to the next generation. This urgency comes from a deep conviction that Jesus changed Paul’s life. Paul came to believe, late in his life, that Jesus loved him, and that love was the thing he urgently wanted to share.
‘Sharing love with urgency’ has a nice ring to it. It is the work we have been called to do.
“One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts.” And so, we will.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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