With Our Ancestors - Sermon May 13, 2007

With our Ancestors
Rockland Dr. United Baptist Church
May 13, 2007

Godly mothers

Abraham Lincoln said, “No one is poor who had a godly mother.”

Many of us can think back and remember our mother’s faith in Jesus Christ with warm fondness. Whether we’ve always held on to our mother’s faith as our own or have drifted away for a while, we may be able to look at our mother as one of the unshaken women of the faith, a rock in the midst of our own life, always dependable in her dependence on God.

Some of us, of course, may not be able to clam to have a Christian mother, and yet on Mother’s Day we can stop to recognize just how valuable all mothers are. They are the ones who love us, shelter us, comfort us, guide us, teach us, and pray for us from the tender days of infancy on through adulthood.

I’d like to focus our attention, however, on Christian mothers in particular. Specifically, we’ll look at one man’s experience with a Christian mother and grandmother, Timothy the young friend of the apostle Paul. My prayer is that God our Father would fill our hearts with joyous thanksgiving for our mothers, while challenging us with the words we’ll be looking at in 2 Timothy 1:1-5. What challenge do Christian mothers lay before us? What does Christian motherhood tell us about God? How does an appreciation of motherhood help both mother and the rest of us grow in Christian discipleship? What does Christian motherhood tell us about spiritual parenthood and spiritual childhood? May God help us to grasp fully why we can truly say, “No man is poor who had a godly mother.”

The Blessing of Mothers
As Paul began his letter to Timothy, he did as usual and put in a note of thanksgiving to God for his companion and his situation. Timothy, the younger friend of Paul, was leading the church in Ephesus, and had been a close companion of Paul’s for years. Paul thinks with fondness of his friend, characterizing him as one with “sincere faith,” and remembering that Timothy’s mother Eunice and her grandmother Lois also had that same sincere faith living in them. What first lived in them now lives in Timothy.

The word translated “sincere” or “genuine” in this verse is anhypokritos, the opposite of the word we get our word “hypocrite” from. The word hypocrite in those days referred to actors, and meant that they were someone who played a part, who wore a mask in their play. The opposite, the word here translated as “sincere,” literally refers to someone who is unskilled at faking something, someone who is genuine, someone who doesn’t wear a mask, someone who isn’t play-acting.

So Timothy’s mother and grandmother had that kind of faith. They were real, showing their real colours. Their appearance of faith was a sign of the very real faith that characterized them. They were reliable examples to Timothy because their faith was true down to their core.

Do we simply play the spiritual guide sometimes? Paul says, “Thanks be to God for a sincere faith that runs right through Timothy’s family.”

Our children or students or people who look up to us can see right through us if we are not sincere. They see behind the mask. They see the person who is only playing the part. Timothy, Paul says, wouldn’t have been able to see past the mask of his mother and grandmother, since there was no mask. People under Timothy’s leadership in his church wouldn’t be able to see behind his mask, because there is no mask. Is that the kind of thing that characterizes our spiritual example?

We look at our children to see if we can see some of our own traits showing in them, and we’re thrilled when they do. But how much more valuable is it to see “sincere faith” as the trait we pass on to our children?

When Paul looked at Timothy, that was the trait that he saw as shared between mother and son.

Happy Parents’ Day
When Paul sat down with his secretary that day to write this letter, I think he was just overwhelmed with joyful, thankful thoughts about family. Maybe it was Parents’ Day in the Roman Empire, who knows? Anyway, it seems like every word he says has the words parent and child, mother and son, ancestors and grandparents attached to it. He doesn’t just think about Timothy’s mother and grandmother as he writes, but is reminded to think about his own ancestors, whose faithfulness as Jews would lay the foundation on which his acceptance of Jesus as Messiah would later build on.

The Challenge of Spiritual Parenthood
Paul spares no word of thanks to emphasize the importance of Timothy’s mother and grandmother in shaping him into the man of sincere faith and faithfulness that he is. But by these thoughts and throughout his letter, he also shows us something bigger than Mothers’ Day, more inclusive than our biological families alone would allow. Some Christians don’t have Christian parents. Timothy himself had a father who was not a believer, it would seem. What do those people do? And what about the responsibility of men? Is it only mothers who are the guides for their children?

Here we can look at Paul’s words to Timothy in verse 2. What does he call him there? “To Timothy, my beloved child.” In Philippians 2:22 Paul says, “Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.” “As a son with his father.” It’s a powerful comparison for the relationship between these two men in leadership of the Christian church. In the letter to Titus Paul likewise tells the older women how they ought to be teachers and examples to the younger women.

From all of these passages we see a powerful biblical principle at work.

The principle is this: We are not intended to go at this life alone, and in addition to the constant help of the Holy Spirit, we each ought to be able to look to someone as our spiritual parent, whether or not they are older than or led us to the Lord themselves. We should also be looking to someone else as our spiritual child, whom we can help guide through the maze of life in this world as a follower of Christ.

Checklist for being spiritual children:
As we look to those who are more mature or wise in the faith as our spiritual parents, are we imitating them as they imitate Christ (1 Cor. 11:1)? Are we listening to them as they offer wise counsel (Prov. 1:8)? In all things, are we making sure we are as willing spiritual children as Jesus was, who listened to, obeyed, and honoured his Father in his life on earth?

Checklist for being spiritual parents:
As we seek to lead others in the way of Jesus Christ, do we truly find ourselves caring for them, setting an example for them, teaching and guiding them in the ways of God (Deut. 6:4-7)? Are we again taking our lead from the Lord Jesus, who looked out over the city of Jerusalem and lamented, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matt. 23:37)?

Living it Out
Like a man who looks at the beauty of spring and sees only the hand of mother nature and not the finger of God, we are only going halfway if we celebrate Mothers’ Day without taking the challenge of spiritual parenthood upon ourselves. It’s true that “no one is poor who had a godly mother,” but today we mustn’t simply praise our mothers. God is asking us whether we are allowing him to both teach us and use us to teach others by being at all times both spiritual children and spiritual parents. Without having someone ahead blazing the trail and someone behind to lead along the way we set ourselves up to be stagnant, stuck on a road by ourselves, unsure of purpose and unwilling to use the resources God has given us in each other.