Our Calling
Our Calling…
Passing on our faith to the next generation is one of our highest callings. This is made very clear in several psalms, including Psalms 102 and 145, and especially Psalm 78.
Unfortunately, as Christians we haven’t always done this well. Many children that grow up in our churches put their relationship with God on the back burner when they enter adulthood. We’ve experienced this in our congregation and it seems common throughout the Church.
If we wish to follow the call to pass along our faith, as mentioned in Psalm 78, we need to spend more of our time and effort doing exactly that.
2 I will give instruction
and explain the mystery
of what happened long ago.
3 These are things we learned
from our ancestors,
4 and we will tell them
to the next generation.
We won’t keep secret
the glorious deeds
and the mighty miracles
of the Lord.
5 God gave his Law
to Jacob’s descendants,
the people of Israel.
And he told our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so that each new generation
would know his Law
and tell it to the next.
7 Then they would trust God
and obey his teachings,
without forgetting anything
God had done.
8 They would be different
from their ancestors,
who were stubborn, rebellious,
and unfaithful to God.
Psalm 78:2-8
Psalm 78 urges us to be sure that we are passing down authentic faith, that which “these are things we learned from our ancestors” (v.3). I think Psalm 78 also implies that we are not to confuse our worship methods and preferences with the faith we are to pass down. We’re to “tell them to the next generation. We won’t keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the Lord.” (v.4). This doesn’t necessarily mean that we are here to pass along our ways of doing church but rather we are to make sure that the next generation hears of God’s wonders, in whatever way we can effectively do so, even as we remain faithful to the essence of our faith.
Here at St. Mark’s, we work together to find ways to reach the next generation with God’s message. It is our job to prepare the current generations to pass along their faith to the next generations yet to come. I’m sure like us, they will face challenges in the future as they work to continue to pass along their faith but I pray that we will always find new ways to tell the old, old story with vigor and genuineness.