Twenty-five years ago, product developers at Matsushita Electric Company were trying to develop a home bread-making machine.
”But they were having trouble getting the machine to knead dough correctly. Despite their efforts, the crust of the bread came out overcooked while the inside was hardly done at all. Employees exhaustively analyzed the problem. They even compared X-rays of dough kneaded by the machine and dough kneaded by professional bakers. But they were unable to obtain any meaningful data.
“Finally, software developer Ikuko Tanaka proposed a creative solution. The Osaka International Hotel had a reputation for making the best bread in Osaka. Why not use it as a model? Tanaka trained with the hotel’s head baker to study his kneading technique. She observed that the baker had a distinctive way of stretching the dough. To imitate that, the engineers added special ribs inside the machine and developed a unique ‘twist dough’ method. In its first year on the market, their bread-making machine set a record for sales of a new kitchen appliance.”But it is true, isn’t it, some things can’t be learned in a lab or with an X-ray machine. There are some things we can only learn by spending time with another human being. [Story told in Ikujiro Nonaka, “The Knowledge-Creating Company,” in Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management (Harvard Business Review Press, 1998), pp. 26-27.]
A mentor is one human being spending time with another human being. A mentor is a person, usually older and more experienced, who helps and guides another person’s development. This “trusted counsellor or coach” does what she or he does not for personal gain but for the benefit of someone else.
A little interesting history: Did you know the original “Mentor” is a character in the legendary Greek poet Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey? When Odysseus, King of Ithaca went to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his kingdom to Mentor. Mentor also served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseus’s son, Telemachus.
Many of you here this morning have been mentors to someone else (and no doubt you have been mentored yourselves) at various times in your lives. And it does not matter what your vocation or background or life experience has been, being a mentor or being mentored applies in virtually every area of life -- in business, in schools, in the church, in community concerns. Mentoring occurs with adults of all ages, with children and youth, and with adults-at-risk and children- and youth-at-risk. I remember very clearly my grandfather mentoring me as my driving instructor. He did not want me to become a 16-year-old youth-at-risk while driving a car -- especially his 1956 sky-blue Chrysler New Yorker. If I were to ask you who mentored you or whom have you mentored, I suspect I would hear some interesting and motivational stories.
I have another word this morning for mentors. We could also call them “connectors” because mentors are those people who help other individuals learn and develop in their lives by connecting them with new knowledge, with spiritual inspiration and with other gifted people.
This morning I want to talk with you particularly about “spiritual mentors.” Spiritual mentors are spiritual connectors. They are individuals who help others make at least three significant connections in their lives. One, spiritual mentors help someone else connect with God – with life-changing faith in God. Two, spiritual mentors connect people with life-changing faith in God through personal inspiration and not with merely information. Three, spiritual mentors connect people with the truth and blessing, the richness and relevancy of Jesus Christ for our lives and for the world.
Spiritual mentors help people connect with God -- with life-changing faith in God. This is life-altering faith in God with a track record. In Timothy’s case, his first spiritual mentors were in his family. His grandmother Lois passed down a vibrant faith to her daughter Eunice -- Timothy’s mother -- who in turn passed that rich faith down to him. In our Scripture from 2 Timothy 1, we heard how the Apostle Paul reminded his young protégé, Timothy, of how his dynamic faith was intimately connected with his family’s faith in God.
The Apostle Paul’s own personal faith was also built on that same life-altering faith in God with a track record. He said in verse 3 of 2 Timothy 1, “I give thanks [for you] to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did.” Or as The Message Bible puts it: “I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors.” Paul did not disregard the rich faith of his Jewish ancestors. He had not left the God of Abraham to worship and serve another God. Instead, he recognized that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah of the Scripture [cf., Acts 23:1, 24:14, 26:6], which meant Paul affirmed a continuity with the faith of his Jewish ancestors.
For us, the Christian faith has 2,000-plus years of significant history, as well as the 2,000 or so years of our Jewish roots back to Abraham, that help us connect our faith with the life-giving God who exists, who is real and who cares enough to respond to all who seek him -- as Hebrews 11:6 states so plainly. As young Timothy’s spiritual mentor, Paul thanked God for Timothy night and day. He asked God to give his grace, mercy and peace to Timothy as he had experienced God’s grace himself. Through Paul’s mentoring and laying on of hands, God gave Timothy the gift of ministry with the power, love and self-control of the Holy Spirit. Paul also coached Timothy to accept any suffering he might encounter as he witnessed to the truth of the Good News. And Paul said God would give him strength to endure that suffering. As Timothy’s mentor, Paul was constantly encouraging Timothy to stay connected to the rich and vibrant faith in God that he had received from his mother, grandmother and Paul – and which he had come to believe.
Spiritual mentors also connect people with life-changing faith in God through inspiration and not merely information. I remember some of the spiritual mentors in my life who inspired me to grow in the faith. I remember Paul -- the university student leader in our church youth group. He inspired me by the way he lived his life as a believer in Jesus: his love for God, his hunger and respect for the Bible and his disciplined life in training to be a medical doctor. I remember “Mary,” the 80-year-old retired missionary, who inspired me with the way she prayed -- simply yet passionately, especially that one time when it was just the two of us praying together for the worship service soon to begin. I remember Pastor Art who inspired me with his messages and his pastoral prayers Sunday after Sunday. I remember a business man, Martin, my Sunday school teacher, who inspired me with his knowledge of the Bible -- yet more so for his acceptance of us questioning and sometime mischievous young boys who were trying to figure out what the Christian life really meant. All of these mentors were constantly connecting me with faith in God that was real and that worked. As I think back, I know now they were hoping to ignite my soul to love God and to love the people of this world.
My spirit resonates with what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote:
“Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power and that we can do – every one [of us] -- our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as it if were a work of art.”I like that. We are living, breathing works of art God is restoring for his glory. We need to inspire each other to see God painting or weaving or sculpting or moulding or orchestrating our lives for his glory. As spiritual mentors, we can help one another connect with the amazing love of God, the master artist of all that is good and beautiful and wholesome. Being that kind of connector is my heart’s constant cry.
Finally, spiritual mentors connect others with the truth and blessing, the richness and relevancy of Jesus Christ for our lives and for the world. Jesus Christ is the ultimate goal and the source of life-giving faith in God. Union with Jesus Christ, beginning now and extending into eternity is “the promised life” from God that Jesus sent Paul as his Apostle to proclaim. That’s in the first verse Les read this morning in 2 Timothy 1. That’s the kind of faith we mean when the church states it is the church of Jesus Christ. As spiritual mentors, we can help each other connect with God’s salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross for the world. As spiritual mentors we answer God’s call to be the people of God and to tell the Good News that God has ended the power of death for all humanity and has revealed the reality of eternal life through Jesus. This is the kind of faith Paul wanted Timothy (and us) to see when he wrote:
“[God] saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. [God] gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus … He has ended the power of death and through the gospel has revealed immortal life.”The celebration of Holy Communion -- or simply Communion -- is an opportunity for each of us to connect again with life-changing faith in Jesus Christ. Communion is the opportunity for each of us to connect with life-changing faith in God as we allow ourselves to be loved by God in Jesus Christ. And as we thank God for the love he showed by sending Jesus -- who gave his life for us, who rose again from death and who lives to pray for us forever -- we will experience the deeper connection with God we long for. Communion connects us once again with Jesus Christ who has taken away all that separates us from God and who has made us friends with God and with one another.
The celebration of Communion is the recognition that Jesus Christ invites all who believe in him, all who long to be nourished and strengthened on their journey of faith with him and who seek to live justly and in peace with their neighbours, to sit with him and share in this joyful table that is his.
My friends, God has called us to be spiritual connectors with others. Some of you experienced being connectors recently with our youth during their journey of Confirmation. You shared with them your connection with the relevancy of Jesus Christ in your own lives. That’s one way we are spiritual mentors or connectors with one another. So, this morning, we thank God he has brought us together to this table to be strengthened and encouraged and connected to his love through the life, death and resurrection of his life-giving Son -- Jesus Christ.
May this life-giving connection be so for you and for me.
Rev. Chris Miller
October 3, 2010
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto
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