Hello, My Name Is True Son.

"Timothy, my true son in the faith." (see First Timothy 1:2)

In the opening salutation of his letter, the apostle Paul encourages Timothy with a significant name tag: "True son".

In this past Sunday's sermon, Rev. Ronald Benjamin noted that Timothy's ethnicity was the source of stigmatization. Timothy grew up in an environment where being mixed-race led to being despised in the community. And, though he did not choose his earthly parentage, Timothy bore the brunt of insults because he was not a "full Jew".

However, Timothy had the blessing of being born into another family: the family of faith in Christ Jesus. In that family, he no longer bore the stigma of his earthly parentage. And Paul, speaking prophetically, identified Timothy on the basis of his spiritual heritage: Timothy, you are not fake, you are not 'half', you are not despised. You are authentically Christian, you have been made whole by faith, and I am not afraid nor ashamed to be associated with you. In fact, I give you the closest association I can: we are father and son in the faith.

At Bronx Bethany, and at most churches in the United States, congregations have a tendency to pool into ethnic and cultural divides. One of the dangers in this is that persons who don't fit the profile- "full White", "full Black", "full Jamaican", "full Japanese", or other designation- might be subjected to the same stigmatization as Timothy experienced.

How do we address this concern? By looking at each other not through the eyes of culture or ethnicity, but through the eyes of faith. We, regardless of our earthly backgrounds, are siblings by nature of our spiritual lives. Because of the love of God, we have come into an eternal inheritance: we are true sons.

Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word;
Thou ever with me and I with Thee, Lord,
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. 
(Dallan Forgaill; translation/verse by Mary E. Byrne/Eleanor H. Hull)