One day we went for a drive up in the Hills. Not far up the road was a sign warning that we were entering a total fire-ban area. Yet the heat that constitutes such a hazard is the very reason why people continue to build and live in the Hills among the trees. Then we began to see the evidence of fires - a governor's residence, burnt out in the fifties, magnificent stone houses of the wealthy burnt out in the more recent fires with their roofless shells stark against the sky, the kiosk on Mt. Lofty gone with nothing left except the steel floor joists...
A few had been restored. One, we noticed, is now an expensive restaurant. We suspected that its owners, if they survived, could no longer face the prospect of living in such a beautiful area with such a deadly threat.
More recently the media has brought us graphic news of the disastrous bushfires in New South Wales. It is no longer in the forefront of our minds, but I suspect that there are some of us who are in touch with families who continue to face the memory and consequences of that devastation.
Of course, bushfire, a real danger in some parts of Australia, is not the only or most serious threat we face in our land. Nor am I thinking of the massive flooding of recent times. Homes are under threat from within.
In 1975 the Family Law Bill was passed. One of its main provisions was to take the concept of blame out of divorce proceedings, thereby simplifying what had to happen to terminate the marriage. There only needed to be twelve months' separation to prove irreparable breakdown. In the twelve months following the passage of this new law, the divorce rate shot up to around 60%, then settled down to around 40%. The temporary nature of relationships has now become part of our lifestyle. Why even get married? The tax form only needs to know who your current partner is!
The support of this new lifestyle is costing the community dearly. How dearly is difficult to tell, since one is not supposed to question the rightness and necessity of all that is going on.
Yet it has added considerably to our social welfare bill, to our unemployment problem, to the demand on counselling services, to domestic and social violence... And when it has led to violence, we have entered an ugly vicious circle that has the potential to destroy the whole of our society.
What has gone wrong? Is there a right way? Is there a way back? Some psychologists in USA have been saying that it is impossible for two people to remain happily together for a lifetime - we should all expect to have had two or three partners before we are through - and it has been proposed that people should draw up a contract before being married to establish beforehand how it will all be divided up when the break comes!
There is a God, and there is a divine purpose in life and history.
God is love, and he has been reaching out in love to the human race since the dawn of history and to each one of us since we were born. Supremely God expressed his love in redemption - there was no other way divine love could reach a wayward people who were destining themselves for the separation of hell.
So - at God's right time, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who lived among us and died on the cross for us.
There is good news - "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life" (John 3.16).
It is popular to belittle Christian faith at the present time. But it is the truth about the meaning of life and the only means by which we can be released into a whole new life for here and now and for eternity.
It is faith worth having! Did you notice what Paul says to young Timothy? "Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Tim. 1.12).
Notice v.5 - "I am reminded the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also."
There is a rot in our society, because of a breakdown of families in their role of nurturing people, of caring for people, of believing in God together and of passing that faith on.
Each generation has to come to faith. It has been rightly said that "God has no grandchildren"! But we have had too few Christian families - families in which faith has become more than just an individual and private matter, families which are more than just a collection of individuals who may happen to be Christians and go to church in the same car but never pray daily together over their family life and the needs of others about them, families in which the faith worth having is passed on!
As Paul thanks God for young Timothy and constantly remembers him in prayer, he knows that Timothy has had the benefit of such a family. "I am reminded the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also."
Timothy had to believe for himself. Their faith was not a substitute for his. But it was so natural that such strong believing women should have a grandson and son who also believed.
As a Parish we have been focussing on families. I mentioned last week that a friend had questioned whether the Church should be giving much attention to the International Year of the Family when some of the secular emphasis has been so contrary to our Christian convictions. Yet that is the very reason why we must have that focus! The wall plaque that says, "Christ is the Head of this house, the unseen Guest at every meal, the silent Listener to every conversation" - that sentiment has to be translated into the realities of family life. It is a critical need! For we live in a changing world - a world in which homes are under threat from within, a world already being engulfed in the consequences of its own unbelief.
The questions for us all - but especially for the parents and grandparents among us - are "Do we have that sincere faith that Paul writes about - the faith worth having?" and "Are we passing it on - by life and example, by prayer and word of encouragement?" It is a faith worth passing on!
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