“I [Paul] am
grateful to God – whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did –
when I remember you [Timothy] constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so
that I may be filled with joy. I 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. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the
gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did
not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and
of self-discipline.”
--
2 Timothy 1:3-7
Two
unusual boxes arrived in the mail at my house this week, one from my uncle and
one from ancestry.com. Ancestry.com sent
a DNA kit so I can find out a little more about my biological background. It arrived in the mail yesterday, and I have
yet to open it, but as I understand it I will swab my cheek with a Q-tip, send
it in, and they’ll send me a report telling me how much German, Irish, Italian,
Scandinavian, Asian, African etc. I have in my DNA. Who knows, I may be related to Ole and Lena
after all…
The box
from my uncle contained this old German coin:
He found it while going through a closet, and apparently
my grandparents picked it up at some point.
It is dated 1661, and has a picture of Martin Luther on one side, and a
German city on the back. There is a poem
that reads: Gottes Wort und
Luthers Lehr vergehen nun und nimmermehr “God’s word and Luther’s
teaching never dies.”
When
Paul wrote to Timothy, trying to comfort him from some disappointment, he first
reminds him of who he is. He is a man of
“sincere faith,” something not easy to come by in this world. He is also part of a heritage, the receiver
of a treasure that has been passed from one generation to another. First his grandmother, then his mother, now
Timothy himself carries this faith in his heart and his life. Now is the time, Paul tells him, to rekindle
that gift. Now is the time to take it
out of the box and turn it on. Now is
the time, not to be timid and hide your faith, but to stand up in courage and
love and be who God made you to be.
Like
Timothy, you were made to bear a special gift to the world. You have a heritage, a spiritual family, and
a purpose in life to share the love which has been passed on to you. But just what is your spiritual DNA? How has this gift been put into your hands? Who is in your faith family tree that makes
you the recipient of so much blessing and so much responsibility?
In
Timothy’s case, Paul points to his immediate family members. Perhaps you too had a mom or dad, grandma or
grandpa who took you to Sunday school, taught you the catechism, or simply was
a good model of Christ’s forgiveness and love for all. Maybe you had certain individuals who
encouraged you in faith, who loved you in special ways that echoed the
unconditional love Jesus gave on the cross.
Perhaps you knew special people who told you that you too were special,
or who lifted you up in prayer. Any of
these would be powerful faith-boosters that might set you on the road to follow
Jesus.
But
beyond the family that you know and the friends that made evident contributions
to your understanding of God’s love and Christ’s ways, there is a greater
lineage and ancestry that influences your spiritual DNA. You are connected to a wider family of faith
– fellow followers of Christ who do God’s work with their hands and hearts,
serving in churches, senior facilities, hospitals, seminaries, synods,
missions, and a host of social welfare ministries worldwide. Wherever you go in this world, you may run
into fellow Lutherans who will recognize the common spiritual DNA that connects
you to them.
That DNA
goes back to Martin Luther, and the ministry he did back in the 1500’s to set
the church straight from the wrong turns it had taken which led it away from
the way of Jesus. But Luther was not the
only reformer, or the only spiritual leader who called the church back to
faithfulness. In fact all the great saints and teachers of the church have had
a hand in keeping Christianity on course and keeping our focus on Christ. From St. Augustine to Martin Luther King Jr.,
there is a long lineage of incredible people whose lives were on fire for
spreading the good news of Christ, serving those in need, and unleashing the
healing and liberation of God in the world.
They too, are part of your spiritual DNA.
What’s
more, we confess in the Apostle’s Creed, our most basic summary of Christian
beliefs, that we believe in the “holy catholic church…” That word “catholic” means that we believe
the church of Jesus Christ is not represented by a denomination or officially
recognized group. Jesus’ church – THE Church (with a capital “c”) – is a catholic (meaning universal) Church. Not
simply a Roman Catholic church with a pope, or an ELCA with a bishop, but
nothing less than all Christians scooped up together into the arms of our
Savior has the right to be called the true Church of Jesus Christ. Anyone whose faith grows out from what that
man did, anyone who sees his blood as precious, who knows his body was given
for our own – anyone who looks back to the events of the original Good Friday
and Easter and sees them as the turning point of all history – they too are in
our DNA. The history of all Christian
faiths, and truly, of all Christians, is also our history.
We could
go back and point out that our heritage as Christians has deep DNA roots in the
faith of Israel, in the stories, wisdom, and Torah of the Old Testament and the
faith of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But the Bible, that most remarkable and
uniquely insightful of all books, does not stop there. It takes us back to the beginnings, to the
primal origin of all humans. Biblical
faith calls us to recognize that God’s law is written on every human heart, that
every human is God’s child made by God’s hand and given God’s most fundamental
blessings. Our spiritual chromosomes
bear witness to that most basic truth: we are all members of the human family,
formed from the dust of the earth, enlivened by the breath of God’s Spirit,
broken by sin but alive in the shadow of the cross of Christ.
The DNA in
our cells carries the signs of the great diversity of influences in our genetic
makeup. But it also expresses the unique
character traits we exhibit as individuals.
Even twins (or triplets) can look and act very differently, and can live
out the gifts and blessings of God individually in ways that only they
can. As you come to discover who you are
in Christ and the great riches that are yours in knowing his grace and love,
you know even more if you know what’s in your spiritual DNA. We share this community, this earth, this
universe with others who may not know or see the gift that God has placed in
their hands. This month we’ll see it all
unfold in worship: the Son sent by God to redeem the world carries God’s deep
forgiveness and love to the very end – and that end becomes the new beginning…
for me, for you, and for every fellow child of God through all time and all the
world.
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