There are not a lot of places where as many generations of people interact
as happens at church. Here we have children, youth, parents, grandparents,
great-grandparents, and sometimes even great-great grandparents. It is a
wonderful gift! Church is a place where each kid has lots of grandparents, and
each older adult, lots of grandchildren. It is a place where the knowledge and
love of God are taught by those with lots of life experience to those who are
still wide-eyed and excited by ants crawling on the sidewalk and the shape of
snowflakes. It is a place where the joy of life is taught to us by children who
remind us of all the goodness that God has created and how often we take the
wonders of the world for granted.
And all of this is quite intentional.
The passage in Genesis is a powerful moment in God’s relationship with
humanity. Here we have the creation of a covenant, “Walk with me. I will bless
you and you will be the ancestors of many nations.” Right away, the blessing is
not just for them as individuals, but it is meant to be a multigenerational
blessing. It is a blessing for Abrahm and Sarai, but also for their kids, their
grandkids, their great-grandkids, down through the generations to us.
It is a reminder that our work has never just been about me or even my
generation. It has always included the future and those who will come after us.
That God has in mind our spiritual heirs, even as God had us in mind in the
days of Abrahm.
This type of generational blessing and covenant will be repeated at other times in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 29:29
Moses tells the people, “The secret
things belong to the Lord our God. The revealed things belong to us and to
our children forever: to keep all the words of this covenant.” David will
hear God tell him that one of his descendants will reign in Israel forever.
These types of promises from God remind us that God remains faithful throughout
time, not just yesterday, and not just today, but that God will also remain
faithful in the future.
In today’s passage, as signs of that blessing God changes Abrahm’s and
Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah. Remember, these are not young people
receiving a new name, but older adults. Imagine at 99 taking a new name,
realizing that God is doing something so new in your life even in your old age,
that you feel like a new person, a different person. I must admit, that it hard
for me to imagine. I can’t think of what it would take for me in my life to
change my name. I wouldn’t be Rob anymore but Robraham or something like that. As
though part of me, the essential me is still the same, and yet there is also
something in my identity that is wholly new and changed because of the promises
yet to come. Again, God seems to be saying this isn’t about who you have been
or even who you are right now, but more it is about what is yet to be. That the
days ahead are going to be different than the days that are behind.
So how do we deal with that sense of the future practically? How do we
react to God’s promises about future generations while we are living in the
here and now? Are we all supposed to change our names?
I think we do it by being that intergenerational church. One of the
favorite phrases in the bible is the command to take care of the widows and the
orphans. In many ways that command reminds us to look for the suffering across
the generations and be a blessing. We could say, that we are responsible in
passing down the faith to the next generation, and we must also responsible for
honoring the generations before us. The vulnerable in each generation should be
the objects of our blessing.
But often in our world, that doesn’t happen, because as George Orwell says:
“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went
before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” True? We think that
way.
There is a video by AARP which challenges us to rethink that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYdNjrUs4NM
The advantage of the church is that we are a place with multiple
generations and if we do our work right young adults will learn from older
adults; older adults will learn from younger adults. Rather than being a
conflict between generations or a generation gap, church can be the place where
God is working on blessing us across all generations.
So for example, Christine Ross points out the following ways that
intergenerational life in the church is beneficial.
“Children need interaction with adults who can be trusted role models as
well as with adults who will both teach children about the faith and live out
their faith among children. As teenagers disengage from parents in preparation
for adulthood, they need non-familial role models to show them the variety of
ways that Christian adults live out their faith. Young adults need older
mentors, older Christian friends who will walk with them as they move into
adulthood and whose enthusiasm for life can be shared as they begin mentoring
younger persons. Middle adults need to teach, and older adults need to share
life experiences with younger generations.”[1]
“Intergenerational Ministry helps bridge the “generation gap.”
Bronfenbrenner asserted that a society in which the generations do not relate
to one another will experience social discord and eventually its demise. He
also wrote that parents need to be supported in raising children, and that
children and youth need opportunities to serve the community.”[2]
I think Christine Ross is pretty wise.
So here is the challenge for each of us as individuals today. What are you doing to fulfill the intergenerational promises of God?
Are you teaching the children (maybe not in Sunday School) but are you
being a role model for them and talking with the after worship? Are you caring
for the frail and shut in? Maybe not by being nurses or caregivers, but are you
calling them, encouraging them, asking if they are okay? Are you praying for
the children of today, not that they would be more like your generation was,
but that they would be more like citizens of the Kingdom of heaven? Are you
praying for the great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers that they would not
be left behind by uncaring families?
In other words: Our God is the God of our ancestors, and of those of whom
we will be the ancestors (whether literally or spiritually), so what is our
role in honoring those who have come before us (like Abraham and Sarah), and
also in preparing a world which blesses those who come after us? What are you
doing to be a part of it?
[1]
Being An Intergenerational Congregation, Christine Ross, http://www.cune.edu/resources/docs/Issues/fall2007/5article3.pdf
[2] Being
An Intergenerational Congregation, Christine Ross, http://www.cune.edu/resources/docs/Issues/fall2007/5article3.pdf
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