Reflection by The Rev'd Dr Deborah Broome

No one gets in here without a grandmother 

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,  To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  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.

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day the deposit I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.                       (2 Timothy 1:1-14)

The writer – not actually Paul but someone writing a bit later on in his name – is encouraging Timothy in his ministry: be bold, rekindle your faith, since God has given us a spirit, not of cowardice, but of power and love and self-discipline.  There’s a lot of “it takes a village” moments here.  The writer looks back to the legacy of faith the past has given us, to the worship his ancestors offered as God’s people in previous times, and then to the way the faith was passed on to Timothy by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  Let’s face it: we wouldn’t actually know about Timothy if the women in his life hadn’t passed the faith on to him.

This is saying something profound about faith as a trans-generational family tradition: there’s an assumption in this that faith thrives within the family.  It’s like looking around at the other attenders at worship and thinking to ourselves, “no one gets in here without a grandmother.”  I’m reminded of how the Christian faith was kept alive in Soviet Russia by the grandmothers, quietly and consistently passing on prayers and the knowledge of church festivals to their grandchildren, so that when communism fell religion could blossom again.

I guess I’m not the only one that sees this as a huge challenge for us.  How are we doing at passing on faith to future generations?  If the average age at services where you are is anything like a lot of parishes the answer’s possibly “not that great.”  But if there’s one thing we can be sure about, it’s that there’s a lot of Anglican grandmothers out there.  So a shout-out to all the Loises and Eunices amongst us who are speaking of God and encouraging faith in younger people.  May they set us all an example to do more of this ourselves.  Who mentored us, and who are we mentoring?  Maybe each of us can connect with someone this week.  Rekindling faith and passing it on to future generations is part of living as people of faith.  How can we help each other to do this?