Stand on the Shoulders of Those Who Paved the Way for You. You Didn’t Do It Alone.

Today is my mother’s ninety-first birthday. It is also the beginning of a new academic year. At Convocation Chapel this morning, Multnomah University President Craig Williford drew our attention to the legacy of university professors and administrators of past centuries who suffered greatly for their pursuit of truth. We stand on their shoulders. My mother’s closing words to me in our phone call this morning in which I wished her birthday greetings was how she prays daily for wisdom, anointing and energy in my teaching. I stand on her shoulders, too.

My mother and my father, who passed away five years ago from cancer, were/are simple Christians who sacrificed greatly for their children. Even the doctoral robe I wore today at chapel was their gift to me. I have a debt of gratitude to pay to them. May I never take my mother or my father for granted, Lord. I stand on their shoulders. And just as I reside in my mother’s heart, may she ever reside in mine.

2 Timothy records the Apostle Paul providing Timothy with some of his final instructions. 2 Timothy 2:2 reads, “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (ESV). Compare this text with 2 Timothy 3:10-14 in which Paul speaks of his own faithfulness and reliability in passing along the faith to Timothy. Just as those who follow Timothy stand on his shoulders, so Timothy stands on Paul’s shoulders. We who embrace the Christian faith stand on their shoulders.

I am entrusted with passing on faith in Jesus of Nazareth to those I teach in various contexts, at home, at school, at church, and in multiple other settings. While I have to grade students at my university and seminary on various projects, I will also be graded, and not simply by my peers or classroom evaluations. I will be graded for how well I stood on the shoulders of university professors from across the world from centuries past, the apostolic community, and my parents.

While my mother is the most caring and forgiving person in the world, I don’t want to take her grace for granted. Rather, I want to take ever more seriously my debt to her from birth to the grave and beyond. May I stand on her shoulders and take her in my heart as I live, breathe and teach each day. After all, I first learned the faith from infancy from her and my father, just like Timothy did from his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 3:15; cf.2 Timothy 1:5).

Lord, may I not be guilty of relational amnesia. May I cherish the costly gift of personal sacrifice, including the daily sacrifice of prayer my mother (and my father) has offered up for my siblings, our families, and me. And may all of us, no matter who we are or where we come from, stand on the shoulders of those who have given their all for us rather than discount and discard them. It does not mean we can’t be original or take giant steps forward, but we can never claim we did it alone. No matter how creative or inspired we might be, the point is not to be head and shoulders above others. Rather, just as we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, we need to shoulder one another’s burdens for the sake of the greater good.