As for you, 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.
So, as we’ve entered the official stewardship season of the church, I’ve been thinking a lot about stewardship of late. In life of course stewardship is not consigned to one time of the year, since stewardship is about how we live our lives, our entire lives, all the time. But, because it is difficult for human beings to focus on big topics like stewardship all the time, the church in its wisdom, focuses on this theme during the fall of every year.
So, stewardship is on my mind. And it struck me, as I read our reading from Timothy for today, that we focus a lot on our stewardship of money, material possessions, time, talent, and relationships, but we don’t talk very much about our stewardship of our faith. And yet, our faith also is a gift from God. We are spiritual beings because God made us so. And we are sitting here today in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, following the path of Christ, because God gave us people in our lives who shared their faith with us, people who cared for us, loved us, and showed us Christ’s love.
We often treat our faith as something that belongs only to us and is therefore a private affair. But we weren’t born with a knowledge of Jesus. We weren’t born connected to a faith community. Someone, and probably several someones, along our way nurtured our faith, encouraged our faith, taught us what it meant to be a follower of Christ. And with every gift comes a responsibility. Because a person or people gave us our faith, we have the responsibility to nurture the faith of others through our words and actions. So, I found myself, as I was pondering what I might preach today, thinking about that phrase from Timothy “As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. . .” Knowing from whom you learned it. . . I found myself thinking about all those people from whom I received my faith.
Well, there is of course my mother. She has never been one to talk with me about faith, but she brought me to church, she encouraged me to be involved in the community that we belonged to. Without her, Christianity would be unknown to me. Then there is my paternal grandmother, who was of a different brand of Christianity than I, she was Roman Catholic, but whose love and gentleness showed me Christ’s love and gentleness.
But there are so many people from outside of my family who gave me my faith as well—
· Mrs. Nelson who led our acolyte ministry and was always kind no matter how many mistakes we made. She taught me about this great Episcopal tradition and she taught me about patience and love.
· Mr. Eccher—who led our youth group and put up with a lot of silliness from the 12-18 year olds he led. He taught me about commitment and the joy of following Christ.
· Or my geology professor in college who was willing outside of class to share how he reconciled science and his Christian faith. I will never forget his words—“The more I studied science and learned about the amazingness of our world, the more I believed in God. God simply has to exist.” From him I learned that faith and intellect are not mutually exclusive.
From him I learned that God gave us a brain and expected us to use it in all areas of our lives, including our religious lives.
· Or the retired couple, Ben and Betty James, from the church in my college town who took this homesick bedraggled 18 year old into their family and are probably the primary reason I made it through my freshman year of college. They taught me about compassion and love.
· Then there is the rector of my church in college, Mark Scheneman. He is the reason I am a priest. I was a very shy and reserved young woman, and yet he saw something in me that I did not see in myself and he asked me outright one day if I had ever considered becoming a priest. He taught me courage and perseverance.
· Or one of my history professors in college who, upon discovering that I was in the ordination process, began encouraging me to engage in as many public speaking activities as I could, so that I could move beyond my shyness and reserve and be ready for this call to public ministry that God had given to me. He too taught me about courage and perserverance.
· Or I could talk about every one of the congregations I have served, in which I was charged with encouraging the faith of others, but from whom I also learned so much and grew in faith.
· There was the 103 year old woman in my first church who could neither see nor hear, but who was full of light because she knew that God still had work for her—she prayed for 100’s of people throughout each and every day. She taught me about courage, faithfulness and prayer.
· Or the man in my congregation in Delaware, who in the midst of a terrible moment during a youth mission trip that I was leading, in which my rector and a man of color got into a public and angry dispute about an issue of race in front of everyone, knelt at the feet of the man of color and begged his forgiveness for all the pain that the world had inflicted upon him simply because of the color of his skin. I learned about humility, about reconciliation, about love.
· Or I could tell you about the man in my previous congregation in Connecticut who had a deal with me that I would call him any time there was someone in need for whom I didn’t have the resources to help. I would call him and he would quietly pay for whatever was needed. I can’t tell you his name, because he doesn’t want anyone to know. He taught me about generosity, humility and love.
Or I could tell you about St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Newcastle Maine. This is the fifth church I have served as an ordained person, and of all five is the most engaged spiritually and intellectually of all the five. I am finding my faith energized and renewed in a way that I did not expect and didn’t even know I needed. I have been and continue to be truly blessed. And therefore, it is my responsibility to care for and use that which has been given to me. I must pass this faith on. I must be Christ to others as others have been Christ for me.
I am wondering, who has given you your faith? From where did your faith come? What are you doing to care for your faith? How are you nurturing your own faith and helping it to grow? And finally how are you passing this faith on? How are you being Christ in the world and with the people you meet? “As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” Amen.
