{"id":4502,"date":"2022-11-06T18:07:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T18:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/06\/passing-faith-down-generations-based-on-psalm\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T18:07:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T18:07:55","slug":"passing-faith-down-generations-based-on-psalm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/06\/passing-faith-down-generations-based-on-psalm\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPassing Faith Down Generations\u201d\tbased on Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 and Ephesians 1:11-23"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

\u201cOne
\ngeneration shall laud your works to another and shall declare your
\nmighty acts.\u201d \u00a0So says the Psalm, so say our lives. \u00a0When I have
\nhad the opportunity to ask people about their lives of faith, they
\nare NEVER solo journeys. \u00a0Many stories talk about a parent or
\ngrandparent who was a faithful person, and brought a young child
\nalong to church. \u00a0Many others talk about a loving person found in
\nadulthood, and inviting them along. \u00a0Every person I’ve talked to
\nshares about experiences of love and affirmation in the church they
\nfound, and the people they looked up to, and the joy they found among
\nthe saints. \u00a0People don’t come to church JUST because they love God.
\nLoving God happens everywhere. \u00a0People are part of the Body of Christ
\nbecause other people in the Body of Christ have shown them the love
\nof God and how it can transform a life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cOne
\ngeneration shall laud your works to another and shall declare your
\nmighty acts.\u201d \u00a0When you think about those people in your life, the
\nones who taught you not only that God is good but also that the
\ncommunity of faith is able to teach you about love and good living,
\njoy and the delight of service \u2013 HOW did they teach you? \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Around
\nhere, I think, the teaching is often indirect. \u00a0Or perhaps I should
\nsay embodied. \u00a0It sounds more like, \u201cI love sharing love this way,
\nwanna come\u201d then \u201clet me tell you the story of how God has acted
\nin my life.\u201d \u00a0Inviting people along is GREAT. \u00a0Also, I often think
\nwe probably should share those stories of God-moments too though. \u00a0I
\nthink we have them, but God-stories are pretty tender, and not always
\nterribly coherent, and don’t always translate well to words, and more
\noften than not they’re a little weird. \u00a0Because God doesn’t tend to
\nadhere to cultural norms of acceptable behavior. \u00a0And we don’t always
\nwant to trust just anyone with experiences like that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(It
\nstarts to become clear how it is that so many Bible stories are
\nwritten in metaphor, because experiences of God just don’t
\ncommunicate well any other way.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But
\nI wonder if some of the saints we remember today DID trust us with
\ntheir stories. \u00a0Maybe those stories are worth passing down. \u00a0And I
\nwonder what would happen if we shared with each other our stories. \u00a0I
\nsuspect we’d be doing even a little better with the description \u201cOne
\ngeneration shall laud your works to another and shall declare your
\nmighty acts.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now
\nthat I’ve made you squirm a bit \u2013 reminding you to share your
\nstories of God-moments and also passing on the ones you’ve heard, I’m
\ngoing to go to Ephesians are look at the other way of doing it. \u00a0The
\none we are better at around here, which is also the way faith has
\nbeen transferred around here most often. \u00a0As he often does, Paul
\nwrites to the Ephesians and starts by thanking them for their faith.
\nThe starts of his letters are always filled with gratitude, this one
\nis quite lovely, \u201c I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and
\nyour love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease
\nto give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our
\nfaith in God, our following of Jesus, is expressed in how we share
\nour love with others. \u00a0Paul is happy to hear they are filled with
\nlove, and says that means he can see their faith.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There
\nis some nuance here that I struggle with a little. \u00a0Paul says he
\nhears of their love \u201ctowards all the saints\u201d and there is no
\nquestion in the context of Ephesians that \u201call the saints\u201d means
\nthe believers of Jesus. \u00a0That is, the early church. \u00a0That is, NOT
\neveryone. \u00a0Just the insiders.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In
\nfirst century context, this makes sense. \u00a0The church was small, weak,
\nand under attack. \u00a0Supporting each other had to come first to
\nsurvive, and fairly radical sharing of resources within the followers
\nof Christ was normal. \u00a0The church modeled the kindom of God, but on a
\nsmall scale. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The
\nchurch was not yet \u00a0a part of the power structure of society, nor the
\nstatus quo. \u00a0There weren’t clergy, and they didn’t have special
\nprivileges or tax benefits. \u00a0No one had a non-profit designation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So,
\nI guess it makes sense that the love was first for the followers of
\nChrist. \u00a0It is also true that many, many, MANY of the followers of
\nChrist were the people struggling most in the world. \u00a0So by offering
\ncare to insiders, God’s vulnerable were being cared for. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I
\nstruggle to bring this into the 21st<\/sup> century because it is
\nsuch a deep both\/and, and it requires nuance and care. \u00a0I think we
\nstill need to share love with each other, and I am willing to say we
\nhave to do that FIRST. \u00a0Because unless we ground each other in God’s
\nlove, we stand on shaky ground. \u00a0Because unless we ground each other
\nin God’s love, we miss out on the shared gifts of the whole. \u00a0Because
\nunless we ground each other in \u00a0love, we aren’t sharing God.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AND,
\nat exactly the same time, the love has to extend beyond \u201cthe
\ncommunion of saints\u201d beyond the walls of the church, beyond the
\nfaith community. \u00a0Because NOW we are a known part of society, now we
\nhave members with power and authority in the world, now we have
\nprivilege and respect, and we need to use it to care for God’s
\nbeloveds, especially those who are vulnerable. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’ve
\nbeen oddly excited about the new program structure we’re putting into
\nplace in January, because it actually does this. \u00a0In addition to the
\nWorship Committee \u2013 which aims to help people connect with God in
\ncommunity, and the Intersectional Justice committee \u2013 which aims to
\nhelp people advocate for the vulnerable and understand the ways the
\nworld works so better advocacy can happen \u2013 we’re adding TWO new
\ncommittees that I think balance them out. \u00a0Spiritual Formation aims
\nto help people connect with the Divine as individuals. And Nurturing
\nRelationships aims to help people connect with each other. \u00a0That is,
\nto increase the love between the saints. AND to help us experience
\nGod and tell those stories. \u00a0It is almost as if it is both parts of
\nthe scriptures we’re playing with today.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We
\nare trusted with the stories of the Saints who came before us, to
\nhold in our hearts, and to share when we can. \u00a0We are trusted with
\nthe faith of the Saints who came before us, to pass it on to the next
\ngenerations. \u00a0We are trusted with the love of the Saints who came
\nbefore us, to share it in the church and in the \u00a0world. \u00a0We are
\ntrusted with the resources of the Saints who came before us, to
\ncombine with our own resources to use them to build the kindom of
\nGod.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What
\nlegacies we have from those who came before us. \u00a0May God help us to
\npass along what we hold to those who will come after us. \u00a0Amen <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

November 6, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne generation shall laud your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.\u201d \u00a0So says the Psalm, so say … Continue reading \u201cPassing Faith Down Generations\u201d\tbased on Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 and Ephesians 1:11-23<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,28,39,33,1377,1265,1545,1543,1544,56,57],"class_list":["post-4502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-all-saints-sunday","tag-first-umc-schenectady","tag-passing-down-the-faith","tag-paul","tag-psalms","tag-schenectady","tag-sorry-about-the-umc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}