Lessons From Our Fathers: A Series

The mysterious author of Hebrews in his 6th chapter,  speaks of "not laying again the foundations".

I get the feeling that much of the learning in the Church today, including that from our mistakes, is not a true learning, but a re-learning of many things previously taught to us by history. It is a sort of re-invention of the Eclessiastical wheel.

For example: The blight of televangelism and the proponents of the prosperity gospel in the Church today, are a real problem to be sure, but are no different from those described in the New Testament who used "Godliness as a means to financial gain" (I Timothy 6:9).

In dealing with the issue, I wonder if anyone has taken the time to ask the question, "How was this problem dealt with in the early Church?" Surely we could avoid their mistakes or repeat some of their successes; surely there's something to be learned from their experience.

It is in this light, that lately I've been revisiting our commandment to "honor our father and mother".  It is our imperative not only to honor those Fathers that are immediate, but also those Patriarchs which are historical. When I read the classics, I am always astounded that the instructions of men that have been decayed for millennia, can be so acutely relevant today!

So it is with this reality in mind that I embark on this series. I feel as if it would do us well, who have lived so briefly, to heed these "Lessons From Our Fathers". Again, the writer of Hebrews, makes these "Lessons" from lives of Heroes long dead, the literary climax of his opus in the Eleventh Chapter. It is a reminder to us that there is still wisdom to be mined here, that there is still water in this well of knowledge, and it would bode well for us to drink it.