Before going in to teach this morning I was able to have breakfast with the Lutheran Laymen’s League men at Concordia. Conversations covered politics, deck building, what happens when you load the wrong shell into a gun, and the local Indians’ pow-wow throughout this week.

One of the men said that pow-wows were held so that men and women would find mates, sometimes from other tribes, to perpetuate the species. I said, “Sounds like prom.”

After breakfast, Pastor Reinke led a Bible Study of 1 Timothy 1. He noted that Paul’s letters all had similar invocations of grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thought that was quite interesting, since one of the tools people use to perpetuate theological liberalism is the denial of Paul’s inspiration.

Something struck me in verses 3 and 4:

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

Endless genealogies. That is an interesting charge. It recalls Matthew 3:9, Jesus’ charge to the Pharisees and Sadducees not to rely on their lineage for their salvation. But here’s another thought. Some Christian denominations use historic episcopal succession as a requirement that the Sacraments do what they are meant to do. If St. Paul is advising against the obsession of genetic lineage, might it follow that episcopal lineage promotes the same kind of idle speculation instead of faith?