Trinity Sunday brought back memories. I was in the early grades, and our family went to church. I asked if I could sit with Grandpa and Grandma Bauer. Permission granted. So, I sat next to them on the east side of balcony, right next to the organ, for the few of you who remember the layout of the old church. I had a generational learning moment when I heard Grandpa sing this verse. “Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, / Casting down their golden crown around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, / Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.” I didn’t know how to pronounce “cherubim and seraphim,” let alone know what they meant. Grandpa didn’t realize it, but he was teaching me.
This past Sunday we sang “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Later I asked our youngest grandson Nick to read that verse. He just finished second grade. When he came to those two words, he passed them over. “Do you know them?” “No.” So I pronounced them and explained “cherubim and seraphim” are words for angels. It was a simple moment, probably one he won’t remember, but it was an intergenerational moment, one of many young people should have, that church youth need to have.
“Formation into a vision of human flourishing requires an environment that embodies continuity, historical memory, rituals marking seasons of life, intergenerational interdependence, and most important of all, common worship.” (James Davison Hunter, To Change the World, 283). “One generation shall commend your works to another” (Psalm 145:4).
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