October 6, 2013 – 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
A Spirit of Encouragement
20th Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 27] – October 6, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Let’s be clear right off the top: Timothy is discouraged.
He is a leader of the church in Ephesus, a church Paul where Paul had worked.
But news reaches him that Timothy is discouraged, so Paul writes to encourage him in faith.
Paul writes him despite the fact that he is currently in prison.
Timothy feels as if he has lost his faith in the face of things that have discouraged him.
Things were making it difficult for him and his congregation to
carry on in Christian faith and life.
You know how in Sunday school when we used to sing “This little light of mine” and
when we got to the part about hiding it under the bushel basket we would put our
hand over the “light” of our finger?
It’s like that with Timothy, except he’s not covering his own light,
the light given him in baptism:
something else is putting a bushel basket over his light,
making it very difficult for that light to shine.
He is discouraged in the face of rival teachings, discouraged by hearing that Paul,
a former illustrious leader in the church, is in prison,
discouraged by the fact that Jesus – the central feature of this new faith –
was shamefully found guilty of treason against the state and
executed very publicly on a cross.
He’s discouraged, he’s depressed, he’s turned in on himself.
Faith, for Paul, is something that looks outward and toward the future, God’s good future.
But Timothy is struggling with a different spirit, a deadly spirit,
a spirit of fear and cowardice that turns him inward upon himself.
And so Paul writes to encourage him in faith – and in faithfulness.
He begins by reminding Timothy of the living faith of his mother and grandmother.
Their faith was alive – it was active and busy and doing things:
it was faithfulness as much as it was faith.
And this faith that was alive in them was something he received from them as a gift.
They gave it to him, and he received it, so that it too lived in him.
Paul is saying to him that even though it feels dead, it was once alive – and it’s not dead,
it just needs to be re-kindled, and it will live again.
Faith is, in the Lutheran understanding, above all a deep trust that God is at work for good,
that God is at work for life, that God is at work for love.
Faith is a deep deep trust that God is working – and that trust brings joy,
that trust brings hope, and that trust enables one to continue working with God for
the day when finally all things will be made well.
But right now, that faith is dormant in Timothy.
When you’re depressed, it’s hard to see God at work in the world,
and it’s hard to see how God could possibly be at work in you.
It often feels like faith is something you have to generate on your own,
but Paul knows that this is never the case: faith is always a gift.
And so he tells Timothy: relax: this faith was given you as a gift:
from your mother and grandmother, and from me in the laying on of hands.
It’s there, all right: it just needs to be re-kindled again and fanned into a living flame again.
Well: what is it that is discouraging you what is it that gets you down and discourages your faith?
We all either know or have known what Timothy is talking about.
[Ask for responses: this way, the people will know that they are not alone]
Mental illness like depression and anxiety certainly makes Christian faith difficult.
Addiction makes it very difficult.
Grief that won’t heal can be a great bushel basket over the light of faith and hope and joy.
Things that turn you inward hamper faith, right?
The need to be constantly entertained and to entertain ourselves.
A consumer culture that constantly tells us we are what we buy does great damage to
a Christian faith that tells us God loves just as we are and that we are
useful to God just as we are.
The closing of many churches makes it difficult and discouraging.
The sometimes un-Christian behaviour of other Christians makes it difficult and discouraging.
Watching those we love suffer can be very discouraging and can make it difficult to trust in a
good and loving and gracious God.
I think it’s always been difficult to be genuinely Christian and to trust in
a genuinely loving and gracious God.
And yet – that’s what we do: that’s what we get paid the big bucks for.
I wonder if it helps knowing that you are not alone?
That was part of the point of asking you publicly together what it is that gets you down:
you’re not alone.
You’re in good company: and Timothy is in good company too.
You and Timothy are in fact in very, very good company:
Because let’s face it, Jesus was frequently discouraged.
Discouraged by his disciples.
Discouraged by a God who called him to some very difficult tasks.
Discouraged above all maybe by a God who, when the going got very tough on the cross,
seemed to abandon him when he cried:
My God my God why have you abandoned me?
The thing is: Jesus loves us enough to inhabit our forsakenness with us,
to sit with us in our feeling abandoned,
to dwell with us in our abandonment – for as long as it takes.
So that we do not have to be alone. That’s the measure of God’s goodness and love.
It’s no accident that the primary way God comes to us is in bread that is broken and in
wine that is poured out: God comes to us in brokenness to share our brokenness.
Sure: Timothy may have been embarrassed by the fact that his saviour – and
the saviour of the whole world – died a shameful horrific death on a cross.
Nevertheless, that is why he ultimately was not alone in his discouragement and difficulty.
Jesus was mysteriously present with him.
And Jesus is present with you: that is a God you can trust.
That kindles faith. But there’s more.
A few weeks ago, I asked the new confirmation class where God dependably comes to us.
We toured the worship space and said there are four ways God can be counted on to come to us.
We moved to the font: in the water of baptism where God graciously welcomes us into
the family of God and in the mission we share to
love bless and heal this whole world and every person in it.
We moved to the pulpit: in the word where God speaks to us and names us beloved and
chosen and holy and forgiven and made new and where we find our place in God’s story.
We moved to the table: where God feeds us with divine life and love in bread broken
and wine poured out.
Then I looked out in the place where the assembly gathers on Sunday morning and
asked them where the 4th place is where God dependably comes to us.
Not thinking they’d get it, I answered for them: God comes to us through other people,
through fellow Christians gathered here.
And all of them said, “I was going to say that!”
See: I didn’t have faith in them, but I should have.
God has given each of us a portion of the divine spirit that was at work in Jesus.
And that means each of us has been given a portion of the faith and trust
that was at work in Jesus.
You have it in you.
You received it in your baptism.
You received it from your mentors in faith, whether that was your mother or grandmother,
or your father or your grandfather, or whether it was a godparent or some other person
or persons who were not related to you by blood but by a common baptism.
You have it in you.
As Paul says this morning, it was given you.
It is a gift, and it is a gift that has been entrusted to you like a precious jewel.
It’s a gift that not’s meant to be squandered, it’s a flame that’s not meant to go out:
it’s a gift that’s meant to be treasured and stewarded and it’s a fire that’s meant to be
kindled by worship and prayer and study and service.
Yes: there is much that seeks to put a bushel basket over the light of faith and trust in a
good and generous loving God.
But you have it in you.
It’s meant for the life of the world and the life of those around you: it’s meant to live in you.
To act in you and to act through you and to shine out.
Steward the gift of faith with care.
But that is almost impossible to do alone.
Keeping faith is something we need to do together.
I’ve told you before about a rabbi who was asked about the meaning and
importance of community.
He took a coal from a fire that was burning hot, and placed it to the side on its own.
After a while it became cold and grey and lifeless.
When he put it back with the other hot coals, though, it began to shine bright again and
to give off the warmth it was intended to give.
Just so, faith is something we re-kindle in one another.
The story speaks of the importance of gathering together weekly, of encouraging one another,
of never writing one another off, of keeping faith with one another.
Jesus trusts us enough to give us this gift of faith that
is meant to live in us for the sake of the world.
Jesus trusts us enough to entrust us with the tasks that he performed on this earth.
Jesus keeps faith with us, and just so we need to keep faith with one another.
Last week after worship I had a conversation with some of you about being in ministry here
for 13 years.
I said the most important thing was that I had to trust the people.
I have to keep faith with you.
I trust you to be God’s people in this time and in this place.
I have a lot of faith in you.
As I thought about that this week, I thought about the Community Meal sign-up sheet.
When I made up the sheet for the first time last year, I thought to myself:
that’s a mighty big sheet!
And it seemed like a lot to ask: to ask you to prepare meals for between 50 and 60 people
26 weeks of the year, fall, winter, spring and summer.
But you kept faith with one another by together filling up that sheet: it was inspiring.
And I have faith that you will do it again: because . . . this is something God is calling us to,
because God has given you the faith that will make it possible,
because we trust that God is working in us and through us,
because we know that God has not given us a spirit of fear and cowardice –
though much conspires to do that – but rather we know that
God has given us a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline –
and that is mighty good news.
We know that God has graciously given us faith by those who have gone before us.
We know that the dead continue to inspire us to faith and good works.
We know that the faith they have given us is a precious gift of light not to let go out but to
be kindled and rekindled over and over again into a living flame of love.
We know that we have been given the gift of one another to encourage and inspire one another.
We know that we have been given the gift of one another to keep faith with one another.
We know that God in Christ is with us, both in our discouragement and in our work.
You have the gift within you. May it live and shine and give light and warmth.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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