COMMENTARY: Letting children fly: guarding the `good treasure’

c. 1998 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a pastor, writer and software developer living in Winston-Salem, N.C.) UNDATED _ My 17-year-old son and a friend bounce in and out of the house. They are enjoying the goofy and exuberant joys of friendship. Their focus today is the new sound box my son put in […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a pastor, writer and software developer living in Winston-Salem, N.C.)

UNDATED _ My 17-year-old son and a friend bounce in and out of the house. They are enjoying the goofy and exuberant joys of friendship.


Their focus today is the new sound box my son put in his car. It is three feet long and contains two 8-inch speakers whose purpose isn’t to produce the bass melody but to transmit sound waves that rattle the glass.”Awesome!”says his friend. They pile into the tiny car and crank up the beat. My son smiles broadly and waves a jaunty goodbye.

I love watching my boy and his friends. They’re great kids. They’re testimony to our wisdom in staying put even after I left the job that brought me here and started a new career path. We stayed so our boys would have the foundation and stability to fly with the eagles.

They are flying now, and I thank God daily for them.

Long ago the apostle Paul told Timothy to”guard the good treasure”entrusted to him. Paul meant the gospel, that”sound teaching”which his protege received from him and now was called to share with others.

Over the years, believers have taken that charge seriously, but in vastly different ways. The first apostles stood up in dangerous places and proclaimed a message they knew would get them killed. Some fought hard within the emerging church to preserve orthodoxy, to make sure that even the smallest comma was exactly right (as they variously understood right) and defended from change.

Some believers concluded that guarding the treasure meant protecting it from public view, setting it in a language few could understand and in places no outsider could enter. They burned at the stake those who dared translate Scripture into the common tongue.

In these latter years, the battles continue. Don’t let women get near the treasure, some say, because they’ll change it. Don’t trust that translation of Scripture, because it’s too”liberal”or too”fundamentalist.”Don’t question doctrine, or else the whole house will collapse.

Don’t rethink a parable, or hear fresh insight from old words. Don’t change the wording of prayers, because we had it exactly the way God wants it. Don’t sing new songs. Don’t try new forms of ministry. Don’t let outsiders in, but force them to sign our covenant first. Don’t let children speak freely.

Don’t change anything, not even the paint. Don’t take risks. Don’t fail. Don’t fly.

When children are raised that way, they become timid and rigid. They trust neither stranger nor self. To them the world seems hostile. They, in turn, become angry. In groups they become aggressive. In their fear of flight, they clip the wings of their spouses and children.


I believe that guarding the treasure of children is grounded in freedom. A child must be raised to take wing, to be who God desires them to be, not my image, but God’s. In my view, a fearful, rigid and tethered child isn’t what God wants.

Neither is a fearful, rigid and tethered faith community. If the Gospel cannot stand freedom, what worth is it? If the Gospel isn’t deep enough to be spoken in many languages, even weird ones, how much nourishment can it provide? If beloved doctrines can’t be questioned, what truth did they ever convey?

The gospel isn’t fragile; it won’t break. Letting women speak it won’t threaten the Christian enterprise. Letting strangers hear it and respond to it in new ways won’t damage God.

By what process of self-protection did we decide some views are”too liberal”or”too fundamentalist”? Some ideas won’t endure because they are shallow, but we’ll never hear anything fresh from God unless we are willing to give even the most shallow idea a chance to be heard.

After all, the scandal of Jesus was that he said and did new things. His enemy wasn’t erroneous doctrine. His enemy was that mindset which says, I have heard all I want to hear, I have found place and power in that narrow word, if anything fresh occurs it will threaten my place and power, therefore I must destroy the unorthodox and silence the unfamiliar.

That isn’t guarding God’s treasure. That is protecting oneself.

DEA END EHRICH

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!