“Timothy’s Grandmother”

Thursday June 24, 2010

Psalm 103

Some of you may have noticed that there is a rather large meeting happening in downtown Toronto this weekend.  Even as we gather here today, the G8 leaders are gathering in Huntsville, and will soon be making their way south for the G20 meetings.

At the heart of these meetings, in many ways, are questions about influence.  Prime ministers and presidents, kings and leaders, powerful economic advisors and political bureaucrats will be gathering together to seek to influence the economic life and the financial systems of our world.  And, at the same time, the streets around us will be filled with others seeking to exert other forms of influence – in both peaceful and in confrontational ways.  The displeasure of the demonstrators about the ways that power and influence are being used by those who are considered to be the world’s rulers have resulted in their desire to seek to influence the world in other directions.  The question of influence, and the ways that influence and power are distributed and exercised will be played out both within the meeting halls and on the streets of this city.

At the heart of many of those meetings and demonstrations will be the question of who, in this world, has power and influence?  How do they use that power and influence? And how can those who do not have power seek to influence the powerful if they do not feel that they are using their power in appropriate, ethical and just ways?

The challenges of power and influence are questions that are not limited to the leaders of our world, or to those who demonstrate and protest against them.  To the contrary, and whether we realize it or not, every single one of us has the power to exert influence in the lives of others.  We may never be the leader of a nation; we may never join a street demonstration or a protest; but we have influence.   How do we use it?  

For the past few weeks – since Pentecost, when we entered into this long season of the church year that is sometimes known as “ordinary time” – we have been focusing our attention on individuals, in the New Testament, whose lives and who experiences seem quite ordinary, quite normal – yet whose lives, upon deeper reflection, offer wonderful opportunities for insights into the nature and call of the Christian life.

We have read the story of Philemon and Onesimus, and reflected on how the apostle Paul was encouraging the slave master, Onesimus, to embrace his former slave, Philemon, as a brother in Christ.  We have read the story of Dorcas, who is the only woman called a disciple and who was raised to life so that she could continue her compassionate work on behalf of the poor widows and the vulnerable of her time.  We have read the story of Lydia, who is the first recorded convert on the continent of Europe, and whose life and world were changed by a seemingly chance encounter with Paul on one of his missionary journeys.  We have read the story of Barnabas, a man known not only for his courageous declaration of the Gospel, but also for his goodness, for his encouragement, for his willingness to stand with the outcasts, the excluded and those who had made mistakes.

Today, we finish our reflections on these various individuals as we turn our attention to a woman who is mentioned very briefly, and yet whose life and experience is similar to that of many of ours.

In his second letter to his young protégé and companion Timothy, who accompanied him on many of his missionary journeys and voyages, Paul wrote, “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.”

A faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois.

We know virtually nothing about Timothy’s grandmother Lois or his mother Eunice, since this is the only reference, in all of Scripture, to these women.  They did not seem to play a central or pivotal role in the unfolding story of the Bible; they did not preach to great crowds or convert thousands; they did not perform great miracles or supernatural signs and wonders.  No one would have suggested that Lois and Eunice were significant, powerful, influential characters on the world stage – were they alive today, Lois and Eunice would not have been consulted by the leaders of the G20 for their perspectives on the world.  To the contrary, they were very ordinary people – much like any one of us.

And yet, in and through all of the varied experiences of life, they were known for the faith that they had, and for the example and the faith that they had instilled in Timothy.  Paul himself was not only commending their faith, but the example that they had offered to the young Timothy – an example that had a transforming effect on the young man, and had helped to prepare the young Timothy for his role as one of Paul’s most trusted and effective helpers in those early missionary ventures.  

And, two thousand years later, their influence on the life of a young man who had a profound effect on the Church is still remembered and celebrated.  The Roman Empire of the time has come and gone; the important, influential, powerful leaders and bureaucrats of the time are almost completely unknown and forgotten; but Lois and Eunice are still held up as women whose influence served as a transforming example in the life of the young man named Timothy.

When we consider Paul’s words to Timothy about the influence that his mother and grandmother played in the young man’s life, it is interesting for us to ponder who, in our lives, have exerted the greatest amounts of influence.  Very few of us, if asked to name the people who have influenced our lives, would name a prime minister, a president or some internationally lauded economic advisor or political bureaucrat.  Instead, we would think of people who are much closer to us – family members, parents, grandparents, co-workers, friends.  The people who change and affect our lives the most are not those who are forced to cower behind high security fences – they are those with whom we share the joys and sorrows of each day.   They are people like Lois and Eunice.

And what is true of those who have influenced us is equally true of those who we have the opportunity to influence.  It may be in the life of a co-worker or a friend; it may be in the life of a family member, a child or a grandchild.  The fact that we have the opportunity to have an influence on others is indisputable; the question is how we will use that influence. 

So will we encourage faith, and hope and love in the lives of others – or will we fail in that calling?  Will we live in such a way that someone might write of us, as Paul wrote to Timothy, “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”?

As we watch the events of this weekend, let us remember that this world is more transformed by the exercise of influence than it is by the exercise of power.  May we, as a result, both embrace and use the influence that the Spirit of Christ inspires within us to allow faith to be encouraged, to allow hope to be realized, to allow God’s love to be made real in the lives of those that we interact with each and every day. 

May it be our prayer that the faith that lives in us might have a transforming effect in the life of some young person, some child, some grandchild, some co-worker, some friend, some young “Timothy” that God has places in our lives.

Amen.