Oct 17, 2010 ... “REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE”. The Rev. Stephen Smith-Cobbs. Trinity
Presbyterian Church, Herndon, Virginia. 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5. October 17 ...
“REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE” The Rev. Stephen Smith-Cobbs Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon, Virginia 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 October 17, 2010 This week we were all blessed to watch a miracle take place right before our eyes as the 33 minors who spent 69 days trapped underground in a Chilean mine were rescued with each of them alive and in relatively good health. But what was more miraculous was what happed while they remained trapped, especially those first 17 days when no one above ground knew they were still alive and all the miners had were rations. Those who then stepped up into leadership, the foreman and a few others, were each one Christians whose lives were shaped by the Bible and prayer. So it was that that community of trapped miners was itself shaped by scripture and prayer. One miner, Jose Henriquez, became known as “The Pastor, and led them in daily Bible studies. Thirty-three New Testaments and two complete Bibles were lowered down to the men soon after contact was made and food and water were made available. Later, T-shirts made their way down that had “Thank you, Lord” written on the front and a quote from Psalms 95:4 on the back: “In His hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him,” shirts many of the miners wore as they came up. Before they made their way up the 2,300 feet to the surface, Jose implored his fellow minors and their rescuers to remember what they had learned about faith and about themselves through this ordeal. “Don’t forget who you are,” he said. That is what, in so many words, Paul is saying to young Timothy in our lesson from 2 Timothy – “Don’t forget who you are,” or to put it more positively, “Remember who you are.” Paul says, “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it … and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” This is also what we say today, in so many words, to our 3rd graders as we present Bibles to them on this Bible Sunday – “Remember who you are.” It is sometimes difficult these days, amid the conflicting claims and confusion of names, to remember who we are. We are forever answering to some false name, forever misunderstanding who we are and the story by which we are formed. It is easy to forget. I have sympathy for these 3rd graders and other children and youth today. “Who am I?” is a pressing question for all of them – particularly for teenagers. The search for self, the quest for one’s identity consumes much of our teenage years. And there are so many causes, groups, and philosophies which are willing and ready to tell us who we are. Or at least who they think we are. Who am I? – “You are mostly a sexual being,” the movies, television, videos, and songs tell you. “You are lusting and being lusted after. Your body is your most important possession: nurture it, love it display it, show it off. You are a craving, satisfaction seeking sexual object and pursuer, getting ready for a lifetime of affairs, rendezvous, and romance.”
Who am I? – “You are mostly a maker and spender of money, capitalist, doer, producer, consumer, coveter, obtainer of HD widescreen plasma televisions, laptops, I pads, smart phones, and cars,” the advertisers and marketers tell us. Who am I? – “You are the self-centered, autonomous, self-made, independent being,” this modern, secular world tells us. “Nobody will look out for you but you. You are the most important project in your life. There are no values save the ones you create. No meaning save the ones you choose. Look out for number one, satisfy, soothe, and care for your own personal little ‘me.’” And the answers go on and on. We all know them and sometimes we have bought into them. And the multiplicity of answers only serves to confirm the warning Paul gives to Timothy: “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears (what a marvelous image, “itching ears!”), will accumulate for themselves teachers of their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. Today our “itching ears” should be burning when we read that, for Paul here is nothing less than prophetic. The truth these days though, is that that identity question, “Who am I?” is not only a question for our children and youth anymore. I’ve heard young adults, middle-aged adults, and seniors all ask, “Who am I?” as they negotiate transitions in their lives with deaths and divorces, changes in careers and vocations. Developmental psychologists now say that this is a continuous, never ending life-long process of identity; the “Who am I?” is being asked all the way from womb to the tomb, through all the passages of life. To the “Who am I?” question, the scriptures of the Old and New Testament have a twopart message: God made you and Jesus saves you. And the over-arching message of the Bible is that you belong to God. Paul then provides a scriptural charge, telling Timothy and the rest of us to “remember who you are.” So the Bible says to us all, “God made you … Jesus saves you … You belong to God … Remember who you are.” Through the Bible we come to know the salvation history of God, of being part of the ongoing story of God’s love. What the Bible tells us is that we do not “discover” our identity as a member of the church nor do we “earn” our place in the family of God. We are given our identity and our place as a gift from God. So it was for Timothy, who learned of Christ through “the sacred writings” and through the faith of his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, and the congregation, the family of faith in which he was raised. And so shall it be for those 3rd graders receiving their Bibles today. How uncaring of secular society to tell its young, in effect, “We have no values, nothing to pass on to you, no claim upon your life, no name. You go out and find your own identity.” No wonder so many get lost along the way. So the church anxiously awaits the growing child’s decision as to whether he or she will accept the faith or not, as though the church has nothing to offer the child besides a new gym or pizza or perhaps a ski trip.
We can do better than that. We must do better than that. To do otherwise is to fail to fulfill the promises we make each time we baptize someone, a solemn promise, we call it, to ensure that person will grow “in the knowledge and love of Christ.” This is why I am so glad to serve a church were we make it our habit to offer our children a Bible. And then later we offer them the opportunity to live out the gospel that Bible proclaims in mission. For it is in the living out of the gospel what we confirm what the scriptures proclaim – “God made us … Jesus saves us … We Belong to God.” The Bible is a road map of faith, paved with grace from creation to redemption. In scripture, on almost every page, you find a story of God-with-us from Genesis to Revelation, a story that still makes sense of life. This is why we give a Bible to each 3rd grader. It’s why we take the time during Sunday School classes, Vacation Bible Camp, in our Preschool, in Disciple Bible Study and Christ Care small groups, in training for Stephen Ministers, in the meetings of our Deacons and Elders, in the meetings of Presbyterian Women and Presbyterian Men, in our Youth Fellowships, with our Parents of Young Children class and our Older Adults lunch, and especially in worship, we always read and listen to Scripture. It’s God’s story, the story of God’s love for us. The Bible is given to us, as Paul tells Timothy, for our salvation, to save us from ourselves, to give us what we need to survive in a world that does not always worship the true and living God. Jesus loves us, this we know, for the Bible tells us so. God made us. Jesus saves us. We belong to God. Let us remember who – and whose – we are. Let us pray. Lord, help us to live in your word. Enable us to read your word and to put the word into effect in our lives, to embody the word of Scripture in our thought and action. This we pray in the name of Him who is the Living Word, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
