In what ways has your relationship with God been shaped by what you inherit from your ancestors?

I imagine for some of you there are some very positive, good things you can say about this. For example, having a parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle as a role model for living lives of deep faith and integrity can really shape someone’s relationship with God. Perhaps having family traditions of life-giving faith has helped you to have a live-giving relationship with the living God. We can inherit wisdom and faith and love and strength from our ancestors, including from our “spiritual ancestors,” those kindred spirits who came before our who are outside of our genetic lineage.

At the same time, I also imagine that for some of you there may be been some challenges involved in this, in how your relationship with God has been shaped by what you inherit from your ancestors. Perhaps you’ve had to contend with family traditions that involve harmful uses of religion, centered around fear or judgment or condemnation or delusion, or any of the unfortunately many ways that religion of any kind can be abused. This can complicate our relationships with God. We may have had to be on a journey of unlearning and discovery – for example, that God is not like an abusive father, or that the living God is beyond whatever idol people can worship in God’s stead.

Or perhaps there have been other unhealthy family inheritances that unfortunately you have a had to contend with, regardless of whether they’re tied up with religion. And maybe God or Jesus in your life have been important for finding healing or freedom from these things. For example, experiencing God as a source of unconditional love and support, where one’s parents were not – this can be a very powerful experience.

So, I hope you see how rich a question this can be to explore:

In what ways has your relationship with God been shaped by what you inherit from your ancestors?

We often are hardly even aware of what all we have inherited from our ancestors, for good, for ill, for neutral.

And we may not be entirely aware of what all we are accepting or rejecting from our inheritance. What all we are forgetting or denying. What all we are needing to heal from. What wounds we are perpetuating. What all is helping in our well-being. What all we are leaving behind or carrying forward. 

However much we are aware of it or not, the fact is that our ancestors are indeed present in meaningful ways in our lives, and we do indeed have active relationships with what all we inherit from them.

It is also true that God is very much in the mix here, that our relationships with God are deeply involved in our relationships with what we inherit from our ancestors.

You can see this play out in how many individuals and communities relate with God and experience God and speak about God.

You can also see this play out in the biblical testimonies about God, which are these epic multigenerational dramas, exploring how not only blessings but also curses can be passed from one generation to another. Triumphs, catastrophes, breakthroughs, wounds, resentments, reconciliations: on the biblical stage this all is seen from a wider scope than just one lifetime, as one generation after another wrestles with how to live well with each other and with God.

The Hebrew Prophets, for example, can be unrelenting in how they explain their people’s current troubles and sufferings as being consequences for not only their own bad behavior and bad faith, but also the bad behavior and bad faith of their ancestors. An elder friend of mine, who is a Jew who converted to Christianity, likes to say about the Bible, “Nowhere in the history of the world has a people kept such a thorough record of their mistakes and moral shortcomings.”

Remember that the next time you hear about some controversy over teaching the history of slavery and racist laws in the United States. Being honest and accountable for our moral shortcomings and the damages these have caused is a deeply faithful and wise thing to strive for. And “our” includes our ancestors. Because we all inherit more than we may care to admit from our ancestors.

The latest research on trauma shows that even trauma can be inherited. It can be passed down through behavior, of course – one generation who has unresolved trauma can cause trauma for the next generation. But it can even be passed down genetically. If a mouse has been trained to associate a smell with a painful experience – when there’s the smell, there’s a shock – anytime it smells that smell it has a trauma response of bracing itself against a threat, whether or not the shock comes. That mouse’s offspring will do the same. When they experience that smell, they will brace themselves against a threat, even though they never experienced the connection between the smell and the pain. It was their parents who did; or even their grandparents. The trauma response was passed down genetically.

There’s an important book called “My Grandmother’s Hands,” by the psychologist Dr. Resmaa Manakem. It explores how inherited trauma is manifest in race relations in the United States, and in the lived experiences of folks of various races. Part of what I really appreciate about Dr. Manakem’s book is that while it is primarily for Americans of African ancestry, which is very important, he also emphasizes the importance for those of us with European ancestry to reflect on the traumatic experiences of our ancestors and how that may have been passed down, as well as inflicted on others. [“My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem”]

Just think about the centuries of war on European soil. And the famines and persecutions and tremendous upheavals. What’s your own family’s story in the midst of all that? Consider too that the science of psychology has shown clearly that there is trauma in not only being a victim of potentially deadly experiences, but also in being the perpetrator of violence. How has that all been passed down? How has that affected the well-being of our souls?

How is this all true in addition to the tremendous resilience of your ancestors, which is also your inheritance, the gifts that helped them survive and thrive. This is also important to the possibilities of healing for the present generation.

There is a psychological dimension to healing; there is a physical dimension to healing. I recommend Dr. Manakem’s book to learn about all that.

There is also a spiritual dimension to healing.

I can tell you with confidence that an important way that God can be at work in our lives is in helping us – whoever we are, wherever we are on life’s journey – to receive healing for some of the pain that we have inherited from those who came before us, as well as to claim what all is life-giving and loving from what we inherit.

This has been my personal experience, and the experience of many whom I’ve been able to accompany as a pastor, and it is a common theme in the testimonies of wise people through the ages. This includes the testimonies in the Bible.

The Bible contains not only wrestling with the painful legacies of sin, but also clear testimonies for how people can find healing and restoration with God and each other. We don’t need to inherit strife, we can inherit instead everlasting life.

That’s the gift that Jesus embodied. He embodied the divine power of love that interrupted the cycles of his people’s harmful inheritance, and pulled from the depths of their history the fruits of his ancestors’ authentic encounters with God, even as he ushered in a new and powerful manifestation of the living God on Earth.

The gift that Jesus embodied and embodies still is a gift, by grace, we can receive, with open hands, as we resolve to turn our hearts away from the powers of sin and toward the warm embrace of our Holy Creator, of such great power and love.

For this I give thanks to God.

Thanks be to God.

You can view the video of this sermon here.

Delivered Sunday, July 14, 2024, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg, at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge

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