I am grateful to God--whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did--when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. --2 Timothy 1:3-7 (New Revised Standard Version)
To "stand on the shoulders" of the heroes and heroines--the spiritual giants--is a metaphor that speaks to my faith experience. In the text from Second Timothy, the author reminds his charge of the spiritual giants who reside in his family tree. Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice were faith-filled women. In a new generation, Timothy's "sincere faith" has been handed up to him as a gift. He is standing on the shoulders of his grandmother and his mother. In the words of the Preamble of the United Church of Christ's Constitution, Timothy is accepting "the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own."
Today, I remember my maternal grandmother, Ida Caroline (Oberg) Witte. Born in 1900, she was the eldest of the five children born to Henry and Sophie Oberg. My grandmother was the one who tutored me in the faith. She was diligent and dutiful, especially when I arrived at her house late on Friday afternoons, unprepared for Saturday morning's confirmation class. She took the Evangelical Catechism seriously, and expected that I would do the same. She was tough, asking those heavy, catechetical questions that I had never considered to be important in my eleven years of living. On Friday night, I rehearsed the answers and memorized the scriptures. And, miraculously, on Saturday morning, after hours of Grandma's tireless prompting, I would recite the answers for Rev. A. J. Schneider and my classmates. Grandma's faith became my own. Even though I have grown beyond my German Evangelical heritage, the faith that lives in me today is rooted in the memory of that family story. I am grateful to stand on my grandma's shoulders.
I also know that there is a quality that I have inherited from my grandmother from which I need to be set free. Grandma was a take-charge, hard-working woman. She was a martyr who accepted responsibility for some tasks that rightly belonged to others. She was often heard to say, "Unless I can't do it well enough for you, . . ." and then, she would proceed to take over and get the job done. Her work was always done well, but sometimes it really wasn't hers to do. Grandma was not one to delegate responsibility or let others "fail." In those declining years before her death in 1986, the effects of that take-charge style became evident. We were lost, adrift, dependent.
The gift of sabbatical time will soon end for me. As I prepare to return to my ministry as the Conference Minister of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ, I remember with gratitude the broad shoulders in the witness of Ida Caroline Witte, my Grandma. But, I also realize that I need to share responsibly with others, so that they will not--in the end--be dependent upon me, but that together we may be more connected to Christ and to one another.
God of all faithfulness and love, grant that I may find a healthy balance of engagement and disengagement in the service to which you summon me. May I grow deeper in that sincere faith that leads to "a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline." May my ministry be your ministry, enlivening and lifting one another up in love. Prepare my shoulders that others may stand on them. And, may I ever commit myself and those dear to me to your never-failing love, in this life and in the life that comes. Amen.
To "stand on the shoulders" of the heroes and heroines--the spiritual giants--is a metaphor that speaks to my faith experience. In the text from Second Timothy, the author reminds his charge of the spiritual giants who reside in his family tree. Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice were faith-filled women. In a new generation, Timothy's "sincere faith" has been handed up to him as a gift. He is standing on the shoulders of his grandmother and his mother. In the words of the Preamble of the United Church of Christ's Constitution, Timothy is accepting "the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own."
Today, I remember my maternal grandmother, Ida Caroline (Oberg) Witte. Born in 1900, she was the eldest of the five children born to Henry and Sophie Oberg. My grandmother was the one who tutored me in the faith. She was diligent and dutiful, especially when I arrived at her house late on Friday afternoons, unprepared for Saturday morning's confirmation class. She took the Evangelical Catechism seriously, and expected that I would do the same. She was tough, asking those heavy, catechetical questions that I had never considered to be important in my eleven years of living. On Friday night, I rehearsed the answers and memorized the scriptures. And, miraculously, on Saturday morning, after hours of Grandma's tireless prompting, I would recite the answers for Rev. A. J. Schneider and my classmates. Grandma's faith became my own. Even though I have grown beyond my German Evangelical heritage, the faith that lives in me today is rooted in the memory of that family story. I am grateful to stand on my grandma's shoulders.
I also know that there is a quality that I have inherited from my grandmother from which I need to be set free. Grandma was a take-charge, hard-working woman. She was a martyr who accepted responsibility for some tasks that rightly belonged to others. She was often heard to say, "Unless I can't do it well enough for you, . . ." and then, she would proceed to take over and get the job done. Her work was always done well, but sometimes it really wasn't hers to do. Grandma was not one to delegate responsibility or let others "fail." In those declining years before her death in 1986, the effects of that take-charge style became evident. We were lost, adrift, dependent.
The gift of sabbatical time will soon end for me. As I prepare to return to my ministry as the Conference Minister of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ, I remember with gratitude the broad shoulders in the witness of Ida Caroline Witte, my Grandma. But, I also realize that I need to share responsibly with others, so that they will not--in the end--be dependent upon me, but that together we may be more connected to Christ and to one another.
God of all faithfulness and love, grant that I may find a healthy balance of engagement and disengagement in the service to which you summon me. May I grow deeper in that sincere faith that leads to "a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline." May my ministry be your ministry, enlivening and lifting one another up in love. Prepare my shoulders that others may stand on them. And, may I ever commit myself and those dear to me to your never-failing love, in this life and in the life that comes. Amen.
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