Texts: Deuteronomy 8:7 – 18 and 2 Timothy 1:1 – 18

Timothy came from a family of faith-filled women. Paul draws on that to inspire him to continue in the faith and to rekindle the gift of God that is within him. He wants Timothy to lean on his ancestors and move toward his future.

The writer of Deuteronomy is saying something similar to the people of God. “Remember the Lord your God, for it is God who gives you power to get wealth, so that God may confirm the covenant that was sworn to your ancestors, as God is doing today.”

We are here, in this building, because many years ago a group of people decided they wanted to worship God together. They put together their resources and started a community of faith. The building they built has gone through changes. The founders of this church have long gone to be in the Roll Call of the Saints. And the world is a very different place from the world that they knew.

Farther back than the founders of the church that worshiped in this building are the ancestors of faith to whom God has sworn the covenant. We are here today because of God’s covenant to us from long ago. In the Old Testament we are told over and over “I will be your God and you will be my people.” It is God’s faithfulness to us that keeps us in this covenant. In the books of the Old Testament we read things like,

Deuteronomy 5:29 “If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever!”

Nehemiah 1:9 “If you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.”

In the New Testament we read, in the Gospel of John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments

From the Old Testament, Jeremiah 31:31 – 33 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Then in the New Testament, Hebrews 10:15 – 17 from which we read last week, “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

What we learn about our future from looking at our past is that God wants to be in relationship with us. God keeps trying, at every turn, to find a way to bring us back or keep us close. The Old Testament speaks of a new covenant where the laws of God will be written on our hearts. The New Testament declares this covenant to be in effect. God’s desire is our heart-led relationship, not our deed-based relationship. Last week we talked about our hearts being supple so that we would not be broken-hearted but rather our hearts could be broken open. Our hearts are to be supple not only to the harassed and the helpless, but also to the very spirit of God. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit which softens our hearts, helping us to receive the laws that God would write there. And it must be the Holy Spirit, lest we take credit for the relationship that we have with God through Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:1 – 11 “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses' face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!”

It is the Holy Spirit that wrote on the hearts of those who came before us and it is the Holy Spirit who writes on our hearts today. But let’s take it a step farther. It is the Holy Spirit who will be writing on the hearts of our children and grandchildren. We look at our past and honor those who have gone before us, those who laid the firm foundation of this church. We know that we are standing on the shoulders of these people of God and are building on their firm foundation. But we must also look at the future and realize that someday we will be the ancestors that this church looks back on. How we live today, how we are ministers to this community today, and how we love God today will impact the future of this church. Someday in the future this community of faith may read the same scriptures that we are reading. They may be looking back as we are today. And they will be in part looking back at us. We are building the future for that community. Just like we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before they will stand on our shoulders.

When Paul wrote to Timothy encouraging him to “rekindle the gift of God that” was in him, he did so only after reminding him of the faith of his “grandmother Lois and (his) mother Eunice.” The scripture in Deuteronomy says that the people are being brought into an amazing land. Their future is one of lavish resources. This promised land that they are being brought into will confirm the covenant that God made with their ancestors. They are the bridge between the ancestors and their future. We are the bridge between our ancestors and our grandchildren.

For those of you who have no children and think you might be off the hook, let me remind you that I have no biological children either. Even so, the future is very precious to me. The generations that follow us in this place will be our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of faith. They are counting on us to consider how we live and how we glorify God as a church.

This church has a future. I believe it is one of lavish resources. When we gather together, let us remember those who gathered before us, those who put their heart and spirit into making this community a reality. And let us give thanks to God for writing not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God on the tablets of their human hearts. And then let us look to the future and thank God for the promise that the ministry of justification abounds in permanent glory for those who come after us.

Finally, let us look at who we are today. We are the bridge between the past and the future. We are those whose hearts are written on by the Spirit of God. We are ministers of grace and glory to each other and to our community. We are the fulfillment of the promise to our ancestors and the building blocks on which our children and grandchildren will build.

Because of the faith of those who came before us I remind you as Paul did to Timothy to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” We can lean on the foundation of our ancestors while moving toward our future. What we share with them is the law that is written on our hearts. Regardless of the shape of our ministry, how it changes or unfolds, the promise of the Spirit of God remains the same. God will be our God and we will be God’s people.