New Life, or Human Formulae?
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies…
Heritage hung in the sticky June air in ways that even a 19-year-old could not fail to notice. My grandparents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and Eshlemans from far and wide under it by descending on the Pennsylvania countryside in which they were wed. Our orchestrated activities apart from those specifically related to the anniversary added to the atmosphere, or attempted to. Aunts and uncles showed a passel of grandchildren historical markers which indicated our forebears had come to this area in faith three centuries before. A history major at heart having just changed my major in that direction, I remember being at least a little appreciative. My younger cousins, however, buzzed about mostly indifferent, and this annoyed my uncle. How can they not, he expressed with at least a little pique, appreciate this?
God's grace may be as evident in my cousins' relative indifference as in mine and my uncle's appreciation to the genetic lines which faith can follow. As Paul is laying out an opening assault on distractions to vibrant, humble, appreciative faith in Timothy's flock at Ephesus in his letter to the young pastor, we see that too much of a backward, man-centered look on faith's origins is a serious concern. Other doctrines are dangerous, and Paul insists that they and their professors be confronted preemptively. Fables are distracting, and Paul bucks up the maturing leader Timothy to refocus those in his charge on the Truth of Christ. Even true, seemingly edifying stories of family heritage, Paul continues in warning, can keep people in the here and now from relying completely upon Christ.
Looking backward is not forbidden. Paul and the Holy Spirit draw many examples in the epistles from the family heritage the Jews celebrate collectively. Even within the individual relationship, we are considering with Timothy, Paul rejoices that Timothy's mother and grandmother raised him in the face. As soon as we celebrate human heritage a little too long, however, faith, the sovereignty of God, and the mystery of election are undermined. As soon as we are "in" in the Christian community, our narrative obsessive brains begin to reconstruct the story of how we arrived. The Scriptural idea that God reached through time and space and chose THAT one instead of this one, Jacob instead of Esau though the two had the same environment and genealogy, is that scandalous. As soon and we count ourselves safe from Hell, we readily generate human explanations for why this came to pass. Coming to faith becomes a demographic inevitability, or something to be inherited along with eyecolor or the family silver.
Even if we escape the slippage from gratitude for evidence of real faith in our families into a pride of place which renders Christ's initiative irrelevant, we can focus too much on a kind of genealogy of those God used to bring us to faith. They learn from this teacher who, going back, learn from this teacher, who learned from this one. Our tradition, inviolate, can readily, defensively, become more important than the entirely undeserved grace and mercy of God in our here and now. Blessedly, the Scripture draws us back from such a precipice, and we don't have to go back more than a few verses to remember rightly. In place of a formula, a creed, a human tradition, a genetic inevitability, Paul has already called Timothy his son in the faith. Catch that. Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews by his genes, circumcised on the eighth day according to his heritage, claims as his son in the real, eternal sense a halfbreed in Timothy who was not circumcised until Paul performed the ritual well into Timothy's manhood.
By grace, the Lord can keep us from our tendency to chart and predict His progress, and then take credit for it. He can show Himself so alive, so present, so still active in Creation and regeneration that the miracle of human birth, and likewise the miracle of relatively uncorrupted institutional Christianity is overshadowed. Caught aware, we cannot help but encourage one another with these things. Did You see what He did TODAY? Did You see how He grafted in a new brother or sister who had nothing in common with my family traditions, not one factor alike other than the new life within us which is now spilling over?
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies…
Heritage hung in the sticky June air in ways that even a 19-year-old could not fail to notice. My grandparents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and Eshlemans from far and wide under it by descending on the Pennsylvania countryside in which they were wed. Our orchestrated activities apart from those specifically related to the anniversary added to the atmosphere, or attempted to. Aunts and uncles showed a passel of grandchildren historical markers which indicated our forebears had come to this area in faith three centuries before. A history major at heart having just changed my major in that direction, I remember being at least a little appreciative. My younger cousins, however, buzzed about mostly indifferent, and this annoyed my uncle. How can they not, he expressed with at least a little pique, appreciate this?
God's grace may be as evident in my cousins' relative indifference as in mine and my uncle's appreciation to the genetic lines which faith can follow. As Paul is laying out an opening assault on distractions to vibrant, humble, appreciative faith in Timothy's flock at Ephesus in his letter to the young pastor, we see that too much of a backward, man-centered look on faith's origins is a serious concern. Other doctrines are dangerous, and Paul insists that they and their professors be confronted preemptively. Fables are distracting, and Paul bucks up the maturing leader Timothy to refocus those in his charge on the Truth of Christ. Even true, seemingly edifying stories of family heritage, Paul continues in warning, can keep people in the here and now from relying completely upon Christ.
Looking backward is not forbidden. Paul and the Holy Spirit draw many examples in the epistles from the family heritage the Jews celebrate collectively. Even within the individual relationship, we are considering with Timothy, Paul rejoices that Timothy's mother and grandmother raised him in the face. As soon as we celebrate human heritage a little too long, however, faith, the sovereignty of God, and the mystery of election are undermined. As soon as we are "in" in the Christian community, our narrative obsessive brains begin to reconstruct the story of how we arrived. The Scriptural idea that God reached through time and space and chose THAT one instead of this one, Jacob instead of Esau though the two had the same environment and genealogy, is that scandalous. As soon and we count ourselves safe from Hell, we readily generate human explanations for why this came to pass. Coming to faith becomes a demographic inevitability, or something to be inherited along with eyecolor or the family silver.
Even if we escape the slippage from gratitude for evidence of real faith in our families into a pride of place which renders Christ's initiative irrelevant, we can focus too much on a kind of genealogy of those God used to bring us to faith. They learn from this teacher who, going back, learn from this teacher, who learned from this one. Our tradition, inviolate, can readily, defensively, become more important than the entirely undeserved grace and mercy of God in our here and now. Blessedly, the Scripture draws us back from such a precipice, and we don't have to go back more than a few verses to remember rightly. In place of a formula, a creed, a human tradition, a genetic inevitability, Paul has already called Timothy his son in the faith. Catch that. Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews by his genes, circumcised on the eighth day according to his heritage, claims as his son in the real, eternal sense a halfbreed in Timothy who was not circumcised until Paul performed the ritual well into Timothy's manhood.
By grace, the Lord can keep us from our tendency to chart and predict His progress, and then take credit for it. He can show Himself so alive, so present, so still active in Creation and regeneration that the miracle of human birth, and likewise the miracle of relatively uncorrupted institutional Christianity is overshadowed. Caught aware, we cannot help but encourage one another with these things. Did You see what He did TODAY? Did You see how He grafted in a new brother or sister who had nothing in common with my family traditions, not one factor alike other than the new life within us which is now spilling over?
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