Pentecost 18                        2Tim. 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10                            10/3/04

                                         "Parents: Who Needs Them?!"

Parents, chances are pretty good that if you haven’t heard that comment that forms my sermon title, "Parents’ What Good Are They?!", or some variation of it, you will hear it before your children become adults. Since today we are starting up our Parent Fellowship again, I thought my sermon time would be a good opportunity to answer this comment. It will hopefully give you a spiritual resource that you can use when you hear that complaint.

For those who are not parents or for those whose children are grown, this message is for you too, because as members of the family of God, we all share in the responsibility of parenting the children of our congregation.

Of course, anyone can make a list of why parents are necessary. I suspect even the frustrated child who makes that comment could in a calmer moment make such a list. God gave us parents to protect, nurture, guide and love children.

There is nothing so helpless, so vulnerable and so precious as a little baby. The other day I got to hold and feed Vicki Muckinhaupt’s grandson, Turner. He’s only ten weeks old and perfectly illustrates the gift and responsibility of having a baby. He can’t even hold his head up yet and is totally dependent on those who care for him for all his needs, but his parents and grandparents don’t mind caring for him, in part, because he *is* so vulnerable.

Even when children grow a bit older, like my dear ones who come for a hug during Sunday school or join Chanda or me for the children’s sermon, even they still obviously need parents or parent substitutes. They may be able to feed and dress themselves. They might even in a dire situation be able to find food and protect themselves to some extent, but they still need guidance to grow into happy healthy adults.

And even teenagers and yes, even adults who can financially support themselves (and perhaps a family of their own), can make decisions (um, most of the time) that are in their own best interests, will need parent love as long as they can get it.

But, there is something parents are meant to give their children that is in the end more important than anything than any of these other kinds of care. This is an inheritance that parents are meant to pass down from generation to generation until the end of time. Parents are most needed to do what Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, did for him. They passed on to him the faith they had been given by God. That simple statement, "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," says so little, but also says so much.

We don’t know how Lois and Eunice passed on the faith to Timothy - especially a faith so developed that he became an early church leader. The only other reference to these women is in Acts where we are told that Eunice is a Jewish believer and his father is a Greek. We don’t know how they passed on their faith to Timothy, or what obstacles they may have faced especially with what we presume was a non-believing father and in a culture not very friendly to Christianity.

We can guess at some things. Since women are only rarely named in Scripture, their naming indicates that they were impressive and dedicated Christian women.

We can be almost certain that practicing and teaching their Christian faith would have been contrary to their culture. Lystra, where they lived, was in a Roman colony in what today is Turkey. Paul cured a man there and the people insisted on calling him a god, so Lois and Eunice lived in the midst of idol worshipers. It would be important to be connected to fellow Jews in order to maintain their traditions and keep ungodly beliefs from corrupting their faith, but as Christians in a town where Jews had persecuted Paul, they would be cut off from their own ethnic group.

Therefore, we can I think, safely assume that it took courage, deep faith and love for these women to pass on the faith to Timothy. It would also have taken intentionality and determination to do so. Thus, they are remembered by Paul as exemplars of the faith. They can serve as examples to us today too.

In some ways, things are not so different today and the need for parents (and grandparents) who intentionally pass on the faith is just as necessary.

Just like the people of the 1^st Century, we live in dangerous times. While we may not be ruled by a foreign power, we seem to have less and less control over our lives. Corporations and government make decisions without regard to our will all too frequently. We are surrounded by worshipers of pagan gods and seem to constantly hear their worship going on all around us. These gods are not represented by idols of stone or metal. They are represented by TV actors who perform ungodly rituals every night of the week on shows like Fear Factor, Survivor, MTV programs and even sports shows. Our lives are also awash with the worship of other gods as well - the gods of consumerism, hedonism, and a bunch of other "ism’s".

To stand up and say, "I follow Jesus Christ and worship the true God alone, so I won’t allow my child to take part in activities that interfere with church, I won’t buy every item that my children have been convinced by advertising and the culture is a necessity and I won’t let anything be more important than bringing my child up in the faith takes courage. It takes dedication to make time in busy schedules to teach the faith at home, which is the most important place for that teaching to take place, by the way. This kind of parenting isn’t limited to parents either. Just last week I heard that Wylda conducts a mini-Bible lesson in her home for the children of her family.

And this all important aspect of parenting doesn’t end with resisting the lure of our culture or being intentional in teaching the faith at home. Faith filled parenting includes all that we do as families - both with the children present and otherwise. Faith filled parenting includes setting an example for our children by bringing them to church regularly, by making prayer and Bible reading a part of our daily family routine and by living lives of service to God and His people. To follow the example of Lois and Eunice also involves those parts of our lives that we might not otherwise consider religious. Our children watch us all the time and our actions do speak much louder than words. Making decisions about every aspect of our lives that are guided by what we believe God wants, forgiving those who wrong us and asking forgiveness even of our children when we do wrong, caring for the environment, loving even those who are difficult to love, and being honest about our own st ruggles with sin, faith and God, teach our children lessons that they will take with them wherever they go.

"Parents: Who needs them?" Their children need them and the world needs them. How parents pass on the faith can ultimately effect what happens in England, Iraq, China, Sudan, Columbia and, who knows, maybe someday, even a distant planet. In times gone by people might be born, live and die without ever leaving their birthplace, perhaps without even having contact with anyone outside their community. Today though, thanks to computers and other communications media, even now our children may have contact with children in other cultures; and they certainly will have those contacts as they grow older. What we, who touch the hearts and minds of children, teach them could change the world for good or ill someday. That is an awesome responsibility, but it is also a divine privilege because God has given us these children to raise in faith so that they can become His disciples. God has honored us with this trust and will help us carry it out. "Parents: who needs them?" God n eeds them.

Now, to acknowledge this awesome role we play in God’s plan and to recommit ourselves to being those needed parents, please hold your child lovingly and look in his/her eyes (or if you don’t have a child handy see a child you know in your imagination), and repeat after me:

You are a treasured gift of God to me.

You were given to me to protect, nurture,

guide and love.

You most need a parent though who will pass on to you,

faith in a loving God.

In gratitude for this gift of you,

I pledge to care for you,

and help you grow in faith,

by being a good example for you,

in word and action.

I ask God to help me keep this promise and to forgive me when I fail.