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.
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