“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” 2 Timothy 1:5
In his book, “To Heal a Fractured World,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks of the importance of people called lamed-vovniks (“the thirty-six”). Lamed-vovniks refer to a Jewish tradition that the world exists on the merits of thirty-six hidden righteous people. These are ordinary folk, “people like the local woodcutter or horse-driver, the illiterate, the poor, those who sit at the back of the synagogue.” According to this tradition, these people do not even know that they are number among the thirty-six—they simply live good and righteous lives.
Sacks confesses that the lamed-vovniks he has come across in his work as the Chief Rabbi of London have provided him a greater education than any ethics text could. His conclusion is that “We need not only textbooks but textpeople,” living exemplars who teach us by their lives what honesty, decency, and integrity look like.
I’m not here to argue that the world is sustained by the lamed-vovniks, though there is something beautiful in the simple elegance of this tradition. But I believe that Jonathan Sacks is onto something vital when he says that we can best learn ethics and morality not from textbooks but from textpeople. It’s why Paul will exhort in his letters, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” In 2 Timothy 1, Paul commends Timothy’s sincere faith which first was embodied in his grandma Lois and his mom Eunice. I’m not discrediting the power of good writing; but seeing courage or integrity in action is far more compelling than reading a treatise on it.
The writings of the New Testament are populated with a wide-ranging cast of major and minor characters who serve as exemplars (and occasionally warnings) for how to live faithfully as followers of Jesus. For the next month and a half, we’ll be meeting a smattering of some of the lesser known characters whose lives were impacted and changed by Jesus the Messiah in a sermon series titled “New Testament Cameos.” It’s my prayer that these individuals can become for us textpeople, whose lives inspire our ongoing transformation to more fully reflect the image of our Lord.
Recent Comments