Rev. Dr. Eun Strawser—Year C Proper 22

Anthony: All right, let’s do this. Let’s dive into the lectionary text that we’ll be discussing for this month. Our first pericope is 2 Timothy 1:1–14. I’m going be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 22 in Ordinary Time, October 5.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 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. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 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. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8 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, 9 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, 10 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. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12 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. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

I’m curious, Eun, what role does family have in faith? Because Paul points out how Timothy’s grandmother and mother, were instrumental in his faith. And feel free to make this personal.

Eun: Oh man, even just from that reading, I need to go sit in a corner, have a good cry. It was so beautiful, Anthony. Oh, it feels so convicting, right? Hearing those words — such a personal letter from the Apostle Paul to someone, a young man that he’s invested so much of his life and work and leadership into.

So, it’s just beautiful that he talks about, what is your origin story, right? He’s trying to make it really clear to Timothy that one, that his life is not his own, that there is a whole line, a trainload of people who have come before him to get him to this point now.

So, I think family is probably a pivotal for two different reasons, especially as imitators of Jesus. I think one is, it really makes a note for us to have to remember, what are the previous sacrifices and sufferings that other people have put in to get us to our point now? I know from my own story I’m one of the first in my family line to become a Christian.

But when I go back — and as a young person, I resented the fact that I was one of the first Christians in my family and how can my parents do this? And yet when I sit down and ask them stories and stories about what happened in their own life, I just can’t help but see all of God’s hands caring for them, leading them to the point where they got to know Jesus, even though it was after me, but in the way that it cared for me.

One particular example is when I was in my mother’s womb, my parents are really impoverished. I was the last child of many numbers of children and my mom hadn’t told my father that she was pregnant. And she wanted to go and get a secret abortion. At that time in South Korea, it was very shameful, so, nobody talked about it.

And, lo and behold, she’s in the cover of night and a person happened to stop her and it happened to be the local village pastor. She wasn’t a Christian back then. It was the first time that she ever even entered the building of a church, and he asked her to come so he could pray for her.

And she was very, very nervous and he prayed that this child would, that God would use his child to help his name be known to her family. And this is my mother telling me as an adult and I just think that, oh, all this time God honored, not just me, and saved me and rescued me.

But he’s been holding my mom’s hand whether she knew him at the moment or not. He was holding my father’s hand, my grandparents and all of those things. So, I love that Paul reminds Timothy of his, both his mother and his grandmother’s faith, and how much he has gained honor and all the gifts that he has because of that.

I think the second point about family is I think that God really emphasizes the fact how we view family. If we don’t begin to, as Jesus-imitators, see family the way that God does, then we will probably contribute to a lot of bias, a lot of competition, a lot of us-versus-them mentality that honestly, that is overdone in the world today.

I think the kingdom of God is trying to offer that. If we begin to see family the way that God does, that there’s an open adoption constantly at the ready, God’s constantly welcoming a new family member, a new kid, a new brother, a sister into the fold, I think that we would think about our own families a little bit differently as well.

Anthony: Yeah, I was just sharing with a friend yesterday that thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the family resemblance in others. And once you see that family resemblance, it changes. It changes relationships, it changes the way that you interact with people on social media, right?

This is a brother, this is a sister, this is the beloved of God. How dare I not treat them with dignity and respect? And also, I thank God for the brothers and sisters in the faith that God has given us this family. And I just in this moment, Eun, I’m just so grateful for that village pastor and your mom’s receiving of that, willingness to go into an unknown territory so that God could minister to her. Praise God for that. We’re so glad you’re here.

What do you think it means to not be ashamed of our testimony of the Lord? It’s stated in verse 8, and I’m just thinking about the times in Scripture where it tells us that God is never going put us to shame. He’s never going leave us at the altar. So, what does it mean to flip that around and not be ashamed of our testimony?

Eun: Yeah, I think testimony is everything, especially in a culture now where storytelling and the narrative is king. I think whatever part of culture that best tells the best story about humanity, about what love is, about what, let’s say, leadership is, or what family is, I think that constantly tells the rest of the world, the rest of culture, how they’re supposed to behave and act and what kinds of decisions they’re supposed to make.

And so, testimony which is storytelling, which is storytelling that witnesses the faithfulness and love and kindness and mercy of God — that is king. If there’s anything that any of us as Jesus followers should be really honing in our gifts and strengths and work in, it’s really fine tuning and working on, what is the testimony? Would we be able to give it at a drop of a hat, right?

I know in our community being able to give our own testimony or a witness or storytelling, we always say it’s do you know your own story as part of God’s big story? That’s the equipping we do for all of our disciples. And it’s because we really want to prepare and equip all of the Jesus followers in our local community that their story is important, but also that their story is embedded within God’s beautiful story for us and for the world.

So, if our testimony is something that we’re afraid of sharing because we think we’re terrible storytellers or we’re not good communicators, what a loss of story, what a loss of narrative — that Christians should be able to be telling the best story, the best narrative about humanity to the world today.

Anthony: It reminds me of Maya Angelou’s quote that one of the great sadness in human existence is an untold story living inside you. That story needs to be told, and like you said, it’s embedded in God’s story. That’s why when I think of the grand narrative of holy scripture, like when we preach and proclaim the gospel how dare us make it boring, because it’s such a fascinating story, right? It is beautiful and it’s fascinating and it’s glorious and I know some of us are maybe not as charismatic as others, but it’s such a magnificent story. Let’s tell it well. Amen. Amen.

Eun: Yeah, and I think it’s also that it shouldn’t just be a small group of people who are professional storytellers who should be equipped to tell God’s story. The whole point is that the full gospel is meant to be shared by everybody, with everybody, right? I can’t do this by myself. I need to equip my local church to know God’s full story, that they practice articulating it, communicating it, not just training and equipping Jesus followers to be good hearers of God’s story. They should be excellent sharers of God’s story.

Anthony: Ooh, yes and amen. The priesthood of all believers, right?