Sledgehammer obvious
by Shane Altmann
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He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9).
Read 2 Timothy 1:5–10
It’s hard to be a Lutheran and not get excited by this passage from 2 Timothy. I mean, not ‘new footy season’ excited, but you know, kind of ‘cool day at church’ excited.
Following a meeting with some colleagues a few years ago, in which I felt the need to be rather direct, I reflected afterwards on how it went with another person who was also present.
‘Well, Shane,’ they said, ‘some people use the side of a plate to crack an egg, and others use the edge of a knife. You used a sledgehammer.’ I don’t know if he was being critical or amusing, but I thought it was great!
I can be subtle when needed. However, if you have been paying any attention to my reflections over the past days, you will have seen that my position is rather obvious. Sledgehammer obvious.
It’s always God’s work.
Here, in this verse from 2 Timothy, we get it again: ‘… not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.’ Sledgehammer obvious.
This beautiful extended reading for today speaks to intergenerational faith, passed down from grandparents and parents. It reminds us that God works through people, through relationships, through love, and it exhorts us to authentic Christian living. It calls us to understand and join in the suffering that comes with the Christian life, to understand the theology of the cross, that our God is hidden in ordinary stuff and is with us when we suffer, indeed that he suffers with us, fully human and fully divine. Still.
It cries out, ‘faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone’, and points us to our heavenly home, that great camping spot and feast in the sky, with Jesus in that blessed reunion.
What a passage!
And if it’s always God’s work, then maybe it’s not us cracking the egg.
God of Love, Lord of Life, thank you that you are active in the world, working with us and through us in our vocations as parents and friends, workers and leaders, servants and citizens. We thank you, Jesus, for the revelation in your word that, by your eternal grace, you reach down to us, you both build the bridge and walk over it, to us, and for us. Bless us as we go this day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Shane Altmann is the principal of Faith Lutheran College Redlands in Queensland and has served in education for more than 35 years. Married to Monica and father of two children, Harry and Zoe, Shane has learnt that he is largely helpless without the love and support of the people with whom he lives and works. A pilgrim of multiple Caminos de Santiago, a Penrith Panthers tragic and a restorer of old stuff, Shane loves a project and, when he is able, fills his days tinkering with something.
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