Passing On the Baton

“Listen, my people, to my teaching, and pay attention to what I say. I am going to use wise sayings and explain mysteries from the past, things we have heard and known, things that our ancestors told us. We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about the LORD’S power and his great deeds, and the wonderful things he has done.” Psalm 78:1-4

The words of the Bible were not originally written, but handed down verbally, with written accounts following anywhere from fifty to several hundred years after the actual events had taken place. The oldest parts of the Bible (parts of Exodus and Deuteronomy) are thought to date back to the 13th century BCE – that’s more than three thousand years ago! Even the most recent writings of the New Testament have now been read and shared and taught for over 1900 years.
The modern Church that we are a part of is often described to be “in crisis”. I wonder what the earliest members of the Chrisitan church – few in number, relying on charity to live and spread the Word, persecuted and often imprisoned or killed – would make of our concerns?
The Bible itself is the most published book in the world, with over 5 billion copies sold, and translated into over three thousand different languages. Its teachings have comforted and inspired countless generations.
How do we pass the baton on? How do we keep the Word of the Lord at the bedrock of our communities and pass on this Holy Wisdom to the next generation? Simply this: teach by example.
Christian mission is not waiting for the Lord to do it for you, it is getting out there and showing the world what it means to be a Christian. With over 280,000 members in the Church of Scotland, and an estimated 2.6 billion Christians around the world, the Church is still a force to be reckoned with; a success story the early disciples would be amazed by!
An inspirational text is my own favourite ‘call to arms’, and I share it with you here, in the hope that you, too, will find the strength to “tell the next generation” of the love of God and His need for YOUR work in His name.

“Christ has no body on earth now but yours,
No hands but yours, No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless mankind now.”  St. Therese of Lisieux