2 Tim. 1: 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,2 To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
Why, the nerve! So where does this single, unmarried man without a natural family of his own, the Apostle Paul, get off calling Timothy’s his “beloved son” and himself Timothy’s father? When we first meet Timothy in the Bible, in Acts 16: 1, we read that he already had a natural father. Okay, so Timothy’s father was Greek, and not Jewish, nor a believer, like his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois. But even if his natural father was dead by the time he wrote these words, what right has Paul to call himself, in effect, Timothy’s father? Did he get his real Dad’s permission?
Then it occurs to me: I ask that question because I have grown up in a society which usually thinks of the family only in its smallest, most narrow terms: two biological parents and their biological children, the “nuclear family.” And my own circle of relatives is quite small and scattered. But when I was a school teacher at Red School House, the Native American-run school in Minnesota, I was exposed to a different sense of family. When I did my student teaching in a regular public school, I was Mr. Swora. Very formal. But at Red School House, I was “Uncle Matt.” There were other teachers, like “Uncle Chaz” and “Uncle Keith,” and “Auntie Gina,” and “Auntie Audrey” (Sorry, but that’s a part of the country where people pay attention to that pesky little letter –u- in the word “aunt;” and I have still a few relatives back East who wouldn’t want to be addressed in any way that makes them sound like bugs).
Calling teachers “auntie” and “uncle” reflected Ojibwe tribal custom, in which children grow up with lots of elders and relatives functioning as fathers or mothers. These Aunties and uncles are so important that the Ojibwe language even has different words for your Mom’s sister versus your Dad’s sister, or your Mom’s brother versus your Dad’s brother. Some of the things you were supposed to learn growing up, your aunties and uncles were supposed to teach, not your biological parents. They could also discipline, guide and counsel you, like your biological parents. You are also supposed to treat your aunties and uncles with the same respect you gave your Mom and Dad. So, all the responsibility of parenting did not fall on the biological parents alone. We say it’s an African proverb, but it’s true of most North American Native societies too: “It takes a village to raise a child.”
So, maybe it wasn’t so strange in Paul and Timothy’s society for Paul to call Timothy, “my beloved son,” nor for Timothy to consider Paul like a “dad.” Our limited sense of the nuclear family is probably what is most strange, worldwide. Paul was certainly Timothy’s dad in respect to the faith they shared, and the ministry. Paul enlisted Timothy, as a young convert, into the missionary team he led, and mentored him like a father. Timothy needed and got a spiritual Dad in the person of that single, unmarried man without a natural family of his own, the Apostle Paul.
In today’s Bible reading we see in the earliest church something like a village with lots of Dads and Moms and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters, and grandkids, for that matter. In fact, I would wager that if we looked into our own lives and histories, we would also find more than a few Dads and Moms and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters, and grandkids in the faith, and in our work and witness to the world. Today, during the ceremony of child dedication, we just promised to be honorary supplemental moms and dads and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins to Owen and Wyatt. We have just committed to being that village which will help raise Owen and Wyatt and everyone else and each other for growth in Christ. Because being Christian means being on a lifelong journey of growth toward looking and being like Christ, a journey in which we are both children and parents, aunties, uncles and nieces and nephews of each other.
For it’s not a question of IF a village will raise us, nor IF there will be other Dads and Moms and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters, and cousins and nieces and nephews ready and willing to raise us. It’s a question of WHO they will be and which village will raise us. As we watch the news from North Korea and see the parades of missiles and tanks and goose-stepping soldiers and the mass demonstrations in which people pump their fists and declare their willingness to kill and to die for their Beloved Leader, we get a glimpse of what kind of village there is seeking to raise people to be what kinds of children and adults. And it’s scary, alright.
But it’s always easier to see the idols, the evil and the craziness in other people and their villages, than it is to see the same things in our own. And if we could talk to moms and dads and children and their uncles and aunties in Pyongyang or Tehran or Havana, Cuba, we’d find that they are just as scared of us, and just as convinced that we are lockstep hostile and crazy as we fear that they are, and not entirely without some reasons in history. Nor let us forget that we too are struggling to grow in Christ, and raise children in the faith, in a culture which also can be as hostile as theirs appears to be. For in our own American village are also idols of the market, of the media, of military weapons, idols and religions of sports, entertainment, consumerism, hedonism, sex, materialism, militarism, pleasure and prosperity, each with their own uncles and aunties and brothers and sisters, often of dubious moral and spiritual value, ready and willing and trying for all their might to guide us. And they can enforce conformity, group-think, obedience and worship with just as much zeal and threat as they do in North Korea, only with more subtlety, with things like social media, rather than prison reeducation camps.
By their fruits we will know the false prophets from true, said Jesus. The same can be said for recognizing the true Moms and Dads and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters who will help us grow in Christ. We’ll know them by the fruits of their lives. Do they pray for us and our eternal well-being, like Paul did for Timothy according to verse 2, literally “day and night?” Do they bless us, like Paul blessed Timothy, in verse 1, saying, “Grace, mercy and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Do these other moms and dads and aunties and uncles and siblings in this village just plain love us, as Paul loved Timothy, longing even to see him again? Do they rejoice and delight in us, as Paul did over Timothy and his growth in goodness and godliness? Joy over Timothy is the whole tone and tenor of these seven verses we heard. So maybe the best thing you can give anyone else in this church this week, especially the younger ones, is a sincere smile with a bright gleam in the eye.
Do they have confidence in us to buoy us up in those times when we lose confidence in ourselves, as Paul did when he told Timothy, in verse 5, “that I am sure that the same faith that was in your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois, is in you as well?” Do they also encourage us whenever we feel discouraged, or challenge us whenever we get lazy, careless and under-function? Like Paul did for Timothy in verse 6, “I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands?” Do they love us enough to tell us the truth about ourselves, both good and bad? Have they loved us long enough to earn the right and the trust by which to do so? And finally, do they model the God-serving life, as Paul claimed he did, “serving God with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did?” Everything else we do for the youth and the children in this village of Christ will fall flat or even backfire if we’re not modeling what we’re teaching.
Can we be such fathers, mothers, uncle, aunties, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews in the faith to each other? And will we accept the guidance, the counsel, the care, the influence and the oversight of this village on our behalf? By “village” I mean the local congregation, of course. But I also mean the wider church, throughout time and throughout the world. Because we also have wise and wonderful Moms and Dads and aunties and uncles in the faith who lived and modeled the faith like parents for us long before we were born, like 50 years ago, or 500 years ago, or 1500 years ago. They’re part of our village, yet, too. So are fellow believers in other countries and cultures, whose perspective grants them to see what we so often overlook. We didn’t get here this morning without such members of our faith family, whether they were living or dead, here or abroad. It’s not by anyone’s personal smarts alone that we come to faith in Christ, nor is it by anyone’s personal wisdom, virtue, strength or will power alone that we live the Christian life. In the whole Christian village, it’s all hands on deck for anyone and everyone’s sake. And that’s what we just promised on behalf of Owen and Wyatt and their Mom and Dad, Eliza and Seth. That’s what we hope they grow up to be and do for us, too.
It’s also what came out in our recent youth ministry vision discernment process this summer. Thank you to all of you who responded, either in group meetings, or one on one, or online. We heard the call to teach and hold forth, unapologetically, the Bible and the Mennonite/Anabaptist perspective on it in our teaching and ministry. We also heard the call for us to be safe people with safe relationships among whom honest questions and honest inquiry about real life matters can take place, often at the learners’ initiative. I don’t see those two things—proclaiming the Word and working through questions honestly—as mutually exclusive nor contradictory. We also heard the call to take youth ministry and Christian Education out into our lives and homes and service projects, or retreats like the one last weekend, in addition to bringing people in to this facility for Christian Education. We heard as well what you offered by way of time, topics, teaching, skills, life lessons and more. We took down names and will call on you, if you said we could. And we heard from you the desire to be that village of moms and dads and aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters for our youth and for each other, across the generations and the lines of families.
Those responses affirmed much of what we’ve been doing already. Remember last year’s Christmas video by which Jana brought the generations together to act out and record the Nativity story? That was also a missional outreach, bringing in other people from beyond our official membership. We have already a mentoring program that pairs youth and older adults, and will encourage that to happen some more. Some of us here are teaching Sunday School classes, or have taught a topical series in our senior high classes. Those are just some of the strengths on which we can already build. Think also about the service and witness activities in which many of us are involved. How might we make of those inter-generational faith-growing, relationship-building opportunities for honorary aunties and uncles and nieces and nephews to do together?
Even when the world around us is marching to the beat of militaristic parades in Pyongyang or the Pentagon, or to the materialistic and hedonistic parades of Wall Street, Madison Avenue, MTV, and Hollywood, we are citizens of heaven, whose colonies exist here in the form of churches. Not church as a building, not church as a corporation, as necessary as those things might be, but church as a village, a village spanning the world and at least twenty centuries of time. In such a village, there are roles and responsibilities for all, to be each others’ moms and dads and aunties and uncles and siblings and cousins, and nieces and nephews in the faith, whether God has called us to marriage and biological families or not. Whatever our time or tribe, or tongue or nation, the Jesus village is a village whose mission is all about being in Christ, being like Christ, growing up in Christ, and sharing Christ, whatever our age might be.