Reflection after visiting with the Grandparents

Today I drove over to Shinglehouse to visit with both my Grandpa and Grandma Howard and Grandpa and Grandma Stanley before I leave for Kentucky. I was prepared for the standard questions and dialogue and some new topics, as my Grandpa Howard was just diagnosed with in-operable lung cancer (so please be praying), but there is one profound thing that I came away with after it was all said and done.

I realized that, although I have studied theology and would consider myself educated in the things of God (or at least what humanity says about God), nothing...absolutely nothing can compare with a life of pursuing God and enjoying intimacy with him.

So often I think that I can learn so much by just having coffee with a wonderful exegete, or theologian, and while that may be true, I can learn just as much if not more by spending a day conversing with saints of the church who have spent their entire lives pursuing God. There is so much peace and love that exudes from my grandparents, they know and have tasted suffering yet remain faithful knowing that God is in sovereign and in control (sorry my openness friends, but Open Theism doesn't cut it here). I admire their steadfastness to pray, even when things don't always go well. These are the saints of the church, and I bless the name of God for the gift of godly grandparents.

This is what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he or she described the "great cloud of witnesses" yes the cloud extends to the early church and to the Israelite fathers and mothers but we must not forget that there is a generation that is still with us that can teach us so much about life and about godliness.

I know that this seems obvious... because to a certain degree it is. In fact I've even spoken to an elderly group about this passage in Hebrews and said something similar to the above paragraph, but so often I forget it. So often I think that I can only learn from books and professors... no true spiritual formation comes from intergenerational community, it comes from living with those who have gone before us and have seen the mighty works of the Lord. They can recount his deeds to us and speak to us from experience. We as a generation must not forget them.

It seems that these thoughts go well with my previous post, we cannot do theology outside of the community of faith. On top of that, we cannot do theology outside of intergenerational community. We must be in constant dialogue with the people of God, the people of all ages that life in the faith. I know this talk of dialogue and community sounds a little like arch-heretic Doug Pagit, but it is essential. Although we can't let community and dialogue trump scripture in our development of theology, we do have to let it have a formational voice. I guess what I'm proposing is more or less the Wesleyan quadrilateral with emphasis on scripture and tradition, so I should probably shut up, because I'm pretty sure that Wesley developed a pretty sweet thing and I agree with it a lot.

So with that said, my rant has ended and my thoughts shared about how a day with my grandparents reminds me of the essential nature of community in the body. I feel blessed to still have them and learn from them everytime I talk to them. The very words they speak in peace when you know they are going through inner pain and anguish are a lesson in themselves. I feel I have so much to learn, I only hope that when I go to seminary I can get plugged into a great intergenerational church that will form me in some shadow of the way my grandparents have helped form me.

Blessings to you all!