"Faith That Lives in You"
2 Timothy 1:1-7
Millie Snyder
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This morning in our 11 sanctuary service we host a commission from the Presbytery of Charlotte here to install Julie Hester as our Associate Pastor for Children and Their Families. We are so pleased to welcome Julie to our clergy staff (and we welcome the members of the commission in worship with us in the sanctuary today). Today is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our commitment to the ministry of children, the ministry with children, and the ministry for children.
Our New Testament scripture comes from the second letter to Timothy, the first chapter, verses one through seven.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
The Word of the Lord. (Thanks be to God.)
I am a Timothy Christian. By that, I mean that I was raised in a family of faith. I was raised participating in church life. I was raised in a family, though imperfect (and that’s a long piece for another day!), that gave me the gift of a faith that lives in me today.
I suspect that many of you are Timothy Christians. You are here because the seeds of faith were in your life at a very early age. You are here because there were role models in your life of what faithful living looked like: you watched someone else who was generous so you learned to give; you overheard someone else pray so you learned to pray; you served alongside someone else so you know that your life is intended to be a ministry.
Some of you aren’t Timothy Christians. Your faith journey is a different story. You came to a trust in God at a later point in your life. Or you are on a path of searching and seeking that brings you here on Sunday mornings a little uncertain and maybe even a little nervous. For those of us who have done this church thing our entire lives, we sometimes are oblivious to your fear and your nervousness and we might not realize you have questions about things we just take for granted. I apologize for that. We have to be reminded and I believe it’s possible for us to be gracious and welcoming.
In writing his letter to Timothy, Paul gives thanks for Timothy’s faith. Paul describes a faith that lived first in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and in Timothy’s mother Eunice and now, Paul is sure, lives in Timothy.
A faith that lives in you. Isn’t that our hope, our goal, for a children’s ministry? That we would somehow encourage and support a faith that lives within our children, a faith that is their own?
For those of you who are Timothy Christians, think about your childhood church experience. For those of you who were not raised going to church, indulge us in a moment or two of reminiscing. We went each week to Sunday School, often beginning with a gathering or assembly where we sang songs like This Little Light of Mine or Onward Christian Soldiers, and then we went off to our classes with our teachers. Some of us earned perfect attendance pins for coming to Sunday School. (Ok, if you are under the age of 40, yes that’s true – in your world it was probably stickers on a chart on the bulletin board.) We got worksheets and story hand-outs and we took them home to color during the long lazy hours of Sunday afternoon. We worshiped in a pew seated with our family, sometimes bored our of our minds, squirming under a mother’s embrace, drawing on a bulletin or passing notes back and forth with a friend. (yes, boys and girls, despite anything your parents have told you, they actually did those things too) We came back to church for Sunday night suppers or Wednesday night dinners. We sang in choirs and we played instruments. The pastor knew our name – he (and it was always a he) frightened us a little and once or twice a year he came over to visit at our house which made our mother very nervous as she fixed the iced tea. Every summer we went to Vacation Bible School where we ate butter cookies, drank Koolaid, and did great crafts that involved leather burning or decoupage (if you don’t know what that is, after church today, ask someone older than you; I’m convinced that Vacation Bible School went downhill when we stopped doing decoupage).
Just saying it all out loud makes it sound so so so long ago. Think how different it is today – children come to Sunday School when they are in town, when there’s no soccer or gymnastics meet, when they weren’t up too late the night before and need their sleep, when they are with Dad because ever since the divorce Mom comes to church somewhere else. The Sunday School teacher is here this week, but next week it’s someone else on the teaching team because this teacher is going away for her annual girls’ weekend in Asheville. Story hand-outs and coloring sheets don’t compete with the i-pad or the x-box for Sunday afternoon entertainment. The Sunday School model that the church adopted from the school system might not encourage an experiential inquisitive faith. Mom and Dad worry about their children’s safety in a way that our parents never did – safety from bullies, safety from predators, safety from dangers – real and imagined – from broken bones to broken hearts, from head injuries to bruised egos.
How do we give our children a faith that will live in them in today’s world? In this changed, and ever-changing world? Well, we might be tempted to answer “we call Julie Hester to be our associate pastor for children and their families and we make this her problem so we don’t have to think about it.” Sounds kinda good, doesn’t it? And I could finish now and sit down – let’s just install Julie as a pastor here and we’re done.
The problem is that’s not the answer. That never worked, it won’t work today. Faith is caught, not taught. Faith is as relational as it is educational. Faith comes from belonging together in community and experiencing a Body of Christ not just one member of it. In order to give our children a faith that will live in them, we have to share our faith with them. Parents, grandparents, family friends, teachers, members of the church, smiling people whose names we don’t know but they always sit on the same row we do, the person who hands us a cup of lemonade or the person who puts the food on our plate at Wednesday dinner or the person who sees us climbing where it isn’t safe to climb and runs over to tell us to get down. Giving children a faith that will live in them is our calling – all of us. Every time there’s a baptism, we hear parents answer these questions:
Do you accept the responsibility to live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ before your child?
Do you promise to bring your child up in the Christian faith by
- Learning the Scriptures
- Involving your family in the whole life of the church
- Worshipping God together
- And serving in the world in God’s name?
Notice what the baptismal vows say. Live as a disciple before your child. Be a role model in faith – you are one, whether you choose or not – your child’s primary understanding of being a disciple will begin by watching you. Bring your child up in faith – learning Scripture, being involved in church life, worshipping together, and serving in ministry. There’s nothing in there about having a seminary degree, or knowing where to find the book of Zechariah, or being able to explain the doctrine of eschatology or even knowing what that word is.
Every time there’s a baptism, the congregation is asked Do we, as members of the church universal, in the presence of God and one another, promise to partner with these parents as together we guide and nurture these children by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know and follow Christ and to be a faithful disciple as they grow into their ministry?
Notice what the vow is - partner with parents, support them, encourage them to be their children’s primary faith sharers. One of the ways we do that is by calling Julie Hester, by taking this ministry so seriously that we have a clergy position for children’s ministry to equip parents and support family life in the real 21st century world. Your gifts make that possible. Another way we do that is by having a top-notch Weekday School with half-day and full day programs that show our love for children and our support of parents.
We’re not excused from responsibility; our vow calls us into relationships with children to share our own faith and to encourage theirs. Some of those relationships are ministry – as Wee Worship leaders, as Sunday School teachers, as a Mission Kids disciple. But even those of us who aren’t called to a formal ministry with children take the baptismal vow. We share our faith with children when we pass the peace to a child in worship, when we smile at a child who is clinging to Mom’s leg in the hallway, when we take a deep breath and let it go when a child is squirming and fussing in worship.
We want our children, and by ‘our’ I mean all of our children as a church family, to have a faith that lives in them. Not a faith that they put on like itchy clothes on a special occasion. Not a faith that they wear to play pretend, like a Captain America costume or a fairytale princess dress. We want our children to have a faith that lives in them. Not a faith that is a list of right and wrong things to do, a moralistic faith designed to keep them out of trouble and out of jail. Not a faith that is a list of religious behaviors, a pietistic faith with a checklist of things that God likes us to do.
A faith that lives in them. A faith in a gracious God who will always, always, always welcome them no matter what mistake they have made, no matter what sin they have committed. A faith in a mighty God who will stand by them no matter what overwhelming problem they face. A faith in a compassionate God who will go with them into the hospital for surgery, or the funeral home for visitation, or the school for a tough test. A faith in a saving God who brings good news to bad places, who brings life where there is death, who offers endless second chances and new opportunities. A faith in a God who invites us, just as we are, to follow Jesus Christ as disciples.
Isn’t that the faith you want for yourself? Isn’t that the kind of church you want Myers Park Presbyterian Church to be? A gracious, steadfast, compassionate, saving community that loves our children and encourages them in faith??
As I read this week, I read the writing of pastor Horace Bushnell, writing in 1861, and he thought that the children of Christian parents should be immersed in a Christian environment at home and at church. Immersed in a life of faith – not just occasional things at church – but immersed in faith everywhere.
Sometimes when I pray and I have no words to say and I need God BAD, I imagine myself swimming underwater. I’m not a strong swimmer but I can imagine it. And God is the water – I am surrounded by God, held up by God, moved forward by God. It is a visual prayer that assures me that I am not alone. I find peace and comfort and courage and strength in the God in whom I live and move and have my being.
That’s the faith I want for you. That’s the faith I want for my children, and for our children, and for all children. That they are immersed in God wherever they go. Not putting your toes in; or wading in for an hour a week; but a life of faith immersed in the presence of God – a faith that lives in me, and in you, and in each child.
Thanks be to God for giving us the gift of faith – whatever faith we have – seeking, searching, learning, growing, living faith. Thanks be to God for calling us to share that faith with one another in community. (Thanks be to God for Julie Hester who has responded to God’s call in her life and will serve with us now to encourage us in ministry.) May God bless Julie and her ministry; may God bless our ministry as we share our faith with children. Amen.
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