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It’s Not Ours to Keep

It’s really not ours to keep to ourselves.

Take, for instance, your family history. It’s your story, for sure, but it’s not only your story. It really belongs to your entire family, both those now living as well as all your ancestors.

When I was a youngster, I remember my father telling me some of the stories of our family’s history, both on his side as well as my mother’s side. I also remember thinking that my dad had an impeccable memory. For example, I marveled that he could recall the entire name of an individual — first, middle, and last — who was a friend of his parents decades ago and had made only brief appearances in our family’s history. And even though my mother died early in our family’s life — I was just three years old — my dad could reconstruct much of the basics of her family’s history as well.

I do not have my father’s memory. So as a young adult I realized that I would never be able to tell our story to my own family unless it was recorded for posterity. And, record it, I actually did.

I got myself a small tape recorder with a built-in mike. Then, my dad and I would sit down in our living room. I’d ask leading questions, and he would punch the record button and start sharing stories. He started at the point when the first Decker of our line entered the U.S. in the early 1830s, traveling from a small town near Stuttgart in southern Germany to New York City, Philadelphia, central Pennsylvania, and up the Susquehanna River to the south side of the river’s West branch near Williamsport.

On other occasions, we’d jump in his car and take it for a spin around the winding roads of Lycoming County through beautiful valleys, rolling hills and mountains, and small towns and farms which are so much a part of north central Pennsylvania’s rural terrain. He’d sit in the right front passenger’s seat, recorder close to his mouth. At times, we would stop at “landmarks” — such as homes, farms, churches, and cemeteries — which had some relevance to our history.

Over a few years, my dad recorded the story not only once, but twice! This provided an historian’s delight —  two versions of the same story which helped to fill in gaps but also created dilemmas because of variances which would crop up.

I realize that this tape recording is quite a gift. Not only did my dad have a marvelous memory, but he also just enjoyed talking and telling stories. This was one of those milestone events between him and me.

But the story doesn’t end here. It wouldn’t make sense for me to keep this gift for myself, or let it collect dust on a shelf, or take it with me to my grave. So I sent copies to my brother. I’ll need to make copies for my kids. Maybe if my kids get married and have children of their own, they too will pass on their grandfather’s version of the Decker story. Obviously, for the story to stay alive, others will have to know it.

Of course, there is another possibility: there’s no guarantee that my kids will be interested in preserving the story, adding their own contributions to it, or passing it on.

Just as there’s no guarantee that we in the church will want to pass on our story of faith in Jesus Christ.

Transmitting Faith
Ancient Israel saw the need to transmit their story — the story of the God who created them and redeemed them from Pharoah’s prison. The heart of Israel’s response to God’s gifts of creation and redemption, according to Deuteronomy, was to love God with everything we are and have, and to absorb into our inmost being — our hearts — the commands and words God has given us (6: 4-6).

Then, Israel was told, pass it on, and start with the kids.

“Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (6: 7-9).

And when the parents passed it on, they let their children ask those myriad questions they may have about God and faith (Exodus 12:26, 13:14, and Deuteronomy 6:20). If, for example, they asked, “Why should we love God and do what God commands?” (paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:20), their parents would first point them to God’s redemption of the children of Israel from Egypt (6:21).

It’s significant that the telling of Israel’s redemption among Jewish families centers in the home around the dinner table. The seder (which means “order” or “arrangement”) takes place during the first night of Passover at a holiday meal usually held in the home. Young children ask questions to their elders, starting with the familiar “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

According to Wikipedia, “the words and rituals of the Seder are a primary vehicle for the transmission of the faith from parent to child.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder)

For Christians, the place of home and meal time remain significant settings for the transmission of our faith as well. From our Scriptures, remember Jesus’ celebration of his last Passover with his disciples (he gave us the words of institution, and washed the disciples’ feet). Recall, too, the resurrected Jesus spending time in the home of two men from Emmaus, breaking bread and “opening the scriptures” (Luke 24:32). Their hearts had burned in Jesus’ presence. “Then they told what had happened on the road,” Luke writes, “and how [Jesus] had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24: 35). Indeed, Christ is risen! Let everyone know.

The story of Jesus wasn’t their’s to keep to themselves. Nor is it ours to keep to ourselves. Like a hot potato, it inherently needs to be passed on. Meal time is one opportunity for this to happen. This will hardly be easy in our culture where meal time has become for many little more than a time for ingesting food and moving on to the next thing. But meal time still can offer a potential which few other social gatherings have: the fulfillment of several vital human needs at one time and place (satisfy hunger, place your lives in God’s hands through the table grace and prayer, find out what’s going on in others’ lives, practice table and other social etiquette, learn and practice the skills of food preparation).

In this issue, we look at youth and family ministry. Marilyn Sharpe introduces this form of parish education and discipleship which she believes is, in essence, all about “passing on the faith.” She writes, “Scripture, Luther, and current research point to a different way of doing church. They all point to the first marker of youth and family ministry: partnering home and congregation to pass on faith”. Paul Lutz provides a concrete example of how his New Jersey congregation is trying to enhance the partnership between home and congregation.

Then there’s Thomas Lyberg’s feature on podcasting and its use in the wider culture and Christian community. Don’t be surprised too if this becomes another vital tool for many to keep passing on the gospel story.

William A. Decker is editor of Lutheran Partners magazine, Chicago, Illinois.