Unleash New Leaders: Generations
“But now listen, Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what the Lord says― he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel.”
— Isaiah 44:1-5
For my final sermon to the Church at large, I bring a book: Make Way for Ducklings, a classic children’s book by Robert McCloskey. You may know the classic tale that begins, “Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were looking for a place to live…” They search all over Boston before finding a kind police officer named Michael, who feeds them nuts. Eventually, they settle just west of East Boston, making their home in the Public Garden beside Boston Common. To me, the most memorable illustration in the book is the scene where Mrs. Mallard, with her ducklings in tow, tries to cross a busy street. Cars screech to a halt, horns begin honking, and Mama Mallard cries, “Qua-a-ack!” Then, as the story says: “Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!” went Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack, just as loud as their little quackers could quack.”
The image sticks. A couple weeks ago I was driving to the office on County Road 1―actually thinking about this Isaiah text―going by a little marshy pond on the right and a lake on the left. And then right in front of my car, a momma duck led her whole platoon. By the time I saw them, there was no time to brake! Now, momma duck and first little ducky or two were already safely to the center line, but the rest were doomed! To swerve would only kill different ducklings, or myself. But then! In a nanosecond, without pause or self-regard, Mrs. Mallard swooped back behind the last duckling and in a flash willed them to safety!
The scene played out for me a hint of the design, determination, and dream for the next generation as we hear from Isaiah. Something was stamped in Mama Mallard’s being. Was it brute instinct, maternal wiring, or love? Or we can call it “the Creator’s design of generations.”
God’s Design: Generations are God’s Design of All that is Living
Read again verses 1-2:
“Whom I have chosen… he who made you,” intentional fashioning.
“Who formed you in the womb,” intimate, aware, purposeful.
“Who will help you,” imperfect tense implies frequent ongoing, perpetual care.
LIFE! The making of life; life born from life: It’s all God’s miraculous and very deliberate design for all of life and the Church! “Go make disciples!” is the echo of “Be fruitful and multiply!” Disciples make disciples; leaders make leaders; congregations make congregations, who are then unleashed to birth new generations! The Bible is less an assembly manual on how to construct a disciple than it is a photo album of a family with kids.
God’s way and heart of making disciples and unleashing new leaders is seen simply and profoundly when Paul, a single, middle-aged, itinerant apostle, repeatedly says to Timothy, “Timothy, my true son in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2); “Timothy, my son” (1:18); “Timothy, my dear son” (2 Tim 1:2); “You then, my son” (2 Tim 2:2). Paul says the same to Titus “Titus, my true son in our common faith” (Titus 1:4). And who knows how many others Paul said this to outside of Scripture?
These are not just terms of endearment. They express the foundation of God’s generational creation of life, and unleashing of leaders in the Church! Every life God conceives of and summons goes all the way to the womb (v. 2). God says of Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jer 1:5). Long before murderous Saul became missionary Paul, “God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace” (Gal 1:15).
God’s Determination: Unleashing New Leaders is all God’s Doing
Such freedom in verse 3! God does all this; we can never do it! Parents and grandparents, do you ever look at your children and grandchildren and it just hits you that there is something of you in them? And, they will pass forward YOU, and your parents and grandparents, to the next generation, and the next!
It’s the same in the spiritual disciple-making realm. Paul says of Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives also in you” (2 Tim 1:5).
In verse 3 we find the Hebrew word zera (seed). In both Old and New Testaments, this points decidedly to Messiah Jesus, the seed in whom all life and vigor and youthfulness is stored, never depleted, and who is given to the world. He is the source of all life formed, born, revived, or resurrected. Yours to believe and receive.
From Genesis 3:15, where the Seed of Eve triumphs over that of Satan, to the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, who “though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring” (53:10), to Paul in Galatians 3, making it clear that it is only by the singular Seed of Christ Jesus that any of us are born and counted in God’s chosen family. In Hebrews 2:10-11, we have the beatific picture and promise that, “in bringing many sons and daughters to glory… both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”
Our Dream: Generations in Christ
I don’t know that Mama Mallard dreamed, but she sure valued the future of her kids as more precious than her own safety, or even her life. There is a tenuous question that faces every living being, including you, me, and the CLB: Is the Dream simply of my self-preservation? Or is the Dream of the next generation “springing up like grass” (v. 4)? They are our spiritual children, adopted children, mentored children, as well as those born into our homes. Zeh, the Hebrew word, comes rapid fire three times in verse 5. It just means “one” or “this.” Here translated: “Some will say,” “others will call,” “still others will write.” Zeh, zeh, zeh! Other translations read, “This one,” “that one,” “another one.”
There’s one in Sendai. That one in Malta, Montana. Another one in Bokoro, New Prague, Red Deer, your church, your home. There’s your spiritually wandering biological child come home. Oh people, if a duck could care so much! Dream a dream with me of the next Generation…
During our engagement and premarital counseling, Bee and I asked ourselves the question: How would we know? How could we tell later in life that our marriage had stayed “fresh and green, still bearing fruit in old age” (Ps. 92:14, our wedding verse)? We concluded that we longed for this one sign: if we lived to see our children’s faith lead others to faith. And that dream came from these verses in Isaiah, which we claimed 37 years ago.
Early on, when the kids were small, we distilled this to a little family creed: OOTM. It simply means: “Only One Thing Matters.” Bee and I would tell our kids and pray over them, again and again, “OOTM.” We resolved they wouldn’t miss knowing our Dream. Of course, we wanted them to be healthy, marry wisely, shine, achieve, have kids, lots of kids. But we’d trade it all for ONE THING. For the Dream. God’s Dream. The generational Dream of Isaiah 44:5. We’d trade everything for them being in Christ.
CLB, what a humble privilege for Bee and me to serve and share life as CLB president and first lady these past dozen years. I want to leave you three things: a pair of four-letter words, and two four-letter acronyms.
First acronym: LTWS (Let The Word Speak)! Scripture is true in whole and part, and authoritative. But it also lives―it has God’s breath in it―his Spirit works through it. LTWS! Everywhere! It is the substance and source for anything of worth. The ONLY thing that works repentance and gives faith. It convicts, slays, resurrects, and gives life. Let The Word Speak, Church.
A pair of four-letter words: HAVE KIDS. Have kids at every stage and season. Biological kids, spiritual kids, mentored kids, adopted kids. Leaders-unleashing-leader kids. As God allows you in your circumstance: HAVE KIDS.
Second acronym: OOTM (Only One Thing Matters). I have no other Dream for you, CLB. This one, that one, another one saying, “I belong to the Lord,” “I am called by his name,” “He is written on her hand.” OOTM my friends.
Rev. Paul Larson has served as the President of Church of the Lutheran Brethren in Fergus Falls, MN, since 2014, completing his time in June. This was his final sermon as President of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.