Sunday, October 6, 2019

Nothing to be ashamed about


A Sermon preached on Oct. 6, 2019, Pentecost 17 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10


Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy – apparently written from prison towards the end of Paul’s life – shows us that succession planning or management was already a topic in Paul’s day. Succession planning – to quote from that modern fount of wisdom Wikipedia – “is a process for identifying and developing new leaders who can replace old leaders when they leave, retire or die.” Key elements are:

  • Identify those with the potential to assume greater responsibility in the organization
  • Provide critical development experiences to those that can move into key roles

And that is what we see Paul does with Timothy. He became Paul’s companion and co-worker on Paul’s second missionary journey. Recognizing his potential, Paul entrusted him with many important assignments. Timothy's name appears as the co-author on 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon. As an important figure in the early Church, he is addressed as the recipient of the First and Second Epistles to Timothy: both of which are full of advice and instructions on how to be a good Christian leader. In the setting of the letter, as Paul’s life draws to a close, he is looking for spiritual heirs to carry on his mission in Christ’s name.

Of course, Paul is not looking for one single successor. Paul wants to identify and nurture many successors, as many potential leaders as there were and are Christian communities. While his advice to Timothy is on the one hand very personal – look at how he calls him his beloved child and recalls Timothy’s tears when they had last met just before Paul set sail for Jerusalem on his final journey: “There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again.” (Acts 20:37-38) But it is also in part a general message addressed to all future Christian leaders. Let’s take a closer look at some of those messages – and how they also relate to the Baptism we celebrate today.

Many of us first received and then were nurtured in our faith by our parents and grandparents. In Timothy’s case, Paul raises up the role of his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, both Jews, as the source of his sincere faith, a faith that lived first in them and now lives in Timothy. (2 Timothy 1:5) Soon, Tim and Lauren, supported by their friends Lisa and Alexander, Noam’s godparents, will publicly promise to be responsible for seeing that Noam is brought up in the Christian faith and life as defined in the Baptismal Covenant that we will all recite and renew together.

Receiving the faith from our parents and ancestors, or from our mentors is not enough, Paul goes on to say. Faith needs personal practice and renewal: “For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.” (1:6) For those baptized as infants, we have the rite of Confirmation as a public “rekindling.” But rekindling is not a one off or once and for all activity. All of us need to be constantly reminded of God’s gifts and to have opportunities to put them into practice. For example, we hear and learn about the “spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (1:7) when scripture is read, we practice using this gift in and through our Christian community in fellowship and outreach. 

Paul tells Timothy, “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner,” because by the rules of their society (and to be honest ours too) being in prison was something shameful and people who had been in prison were to be avoided. Both Paul and the Gospel he preached were very much out of favor with the ruling classes. But this does not matter, on the contrary being in prison for the Gospel is for Paul a badge of honor: “join with me in suffering for the gospel,” he says and over the centuries untold and countless Christians have done so and have gone to prison – or far too often to their deaths – for the sake of the gospel. I gave you two examples this week in my email announcements: Blessed Richard Henkes and St. Maurice. 

Today too Christians still follow Paul’s call to join him in suffering for the gospel when for example they publicly support refugees, advocate for peace and justice, or demonstrate for the changes needed to protect God’s creation.  These are reflections of the Baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to strive for justice and peace among all people. I also hope that in a future Prayer Book revision we will add the promise that the Anglican Church of Canada uses in their liturgy: Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation and respect, sustain, and renew the life of the earth?[1]

In today’s society, not being ashamed of the testimony about our Lord has another implication. Believing in God and “relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace,” (1:9) is becoming counter cultural. According to the more recent surveys, around a third of the population were non-religious: this percentage is growing. And the prevalent message is that everything has a price, and that all that counts is what we do and achieve. But that is not our message. We are not ashamed to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.” For in the letter to Timothy Paul passes on his appointment as a “herald and an apostle and a teacher” (1:11) to Timothy and to all who follow Christ. 

We are sent to tell the world that God’s free gift of love and acceptance has been uniquely “revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (1:10) Christ’s resurrection is not just some abstract concept that we affirm in the creed – a mumbled “on the third day he rose again” – it is a promise to us all, the power that enables endurance, the reason we need know no fear. “I know the one in whom I have put my trust,” Paul writes referring to Jesus, “and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him,” that is Timothy and by extension all of us.

Paul’s final commands to Timothy are to “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

Holding to the standards of sound teaching is as important – and often as difficult - today as it was in Paul’s day. We have prosperity gospels to contend with, nationalistic Christianity, and narrow definitions of who our neighbor is: by color, belief, social class, sexual orientation. But we have clear teaching to the contrary. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us that even our greatest enemy can be our neighbor. Paul tells the Galatians that the deep divisions of his day are no longer relevant: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Nor our ours. In fact, our own Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has given us a very clear and succinct summary of the standards of sound teaching: “If it's not about love, it's not about God.” That is what we must hold on to and that is how we can best guard the good treasure entrusted to us that is God’s gift of new life in Christ: forgiven and forgiving, loving and loved, trusting and trusted, serving and served. 

And it is this gift of new life of grace that we will now pass on to Noam, which we do not through our own power or authority, but solely by the power and gift of God’s Holy Spirit.
Amen.


[1] https://www.anglican.ca/faith/ministry/baptised/