Active
Duty
Sermon
for October 3, 2004
2
Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
1. Good
Morning. Let’s Pray. O Lord, may the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: This morning God has a very important instruction for us as His disciples and there are echoes of it in all of today’s readings. We hear the prophet Habakkuk saying:
“press on to fulfillment.” (Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4)
The Psalmists encourages us to:
“. . . sing for joy to the
LORD; (to) shout aloud to the Rock of
our salvation. 2
(to) come before him with thanksgiving and (to) extol him with music and song.
6
(to) bow down in worship, (and to) kneel before the LORD our Maker; Why?
. . . (because) 7 . . . He is our God and we are the people of His
pasture, the flock under His care.” (Psalm 95:1-2,6-7,8-9)
And
in the Gospel reading from Luke the disciples ask Jesus to
“increase their faith” and He responds with:
“If you have faith as small as a mustard
seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’
and it will obey you.’” In other words,
faith is the power and all you need is a minute amount of it to move the
world! You don’t need to be great in
faith. Indeed, even if you’re poor in
faith – even if you only have as little faith as small as a mustard seed, you
will be able to move nature at will. So
the implication here is that we have all the faith we need – and all that is
needed is for us to use it – to fan it into a flame! (Luke 17:5-10)
And finally in
the Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to his young protégé Timothy we hear
these words:
“ . . . fan into flame the gift of God . .
. “
In all of these readings can you
sense an underlying theme? It’s the
encouragement to “act!” “to do!” “to
be faithful!” To lean forward in our
faith!
This is a
timely message for us at TCC isn’t it?
I really
don’t think that this is a coincidence.
Through
our G12 training we’re becoming very intentional about learning how to become
active and fruitful disciples of Jesus Christ and in turn “to disciple” others
first into a living faith and then into a more and more active and dynamic
faith!
In all of
these readings we hear a call to zeal! .
. . to an active and dynamic faith which no longer
merely exists but is zealous and radical!
Listen
again to the action words in these scripture references:
“Press on (don’t seek
safety), sing for joy (don’t sing for comfort), shout
aloud (don’t whimper and wine), come before Him (don’t keep Him at a distance),
extol Him (don’t demean Him), bow down before Him (don’t slouch before Him),
kneel before Him (don’t stand before Him in arrogance), and finally “fan into
flame! (don’t leave the kindling smoldering)”
There’s
nothing passive about any of these words is there? They’re a call to dramatic and positive
action! Heck – they’re a call to war!
This is the sort of speech you’d
expect from a General as you were standing on the battle line awaiting his call
to “Charge!”
3. Where do you stand? Now before we delve any deeper
into what our Lord is saying to us this morning we need to reflect upon
ourselves and our readiness to hear it.
Are you
standing on the battle line but ready at any moment to run the other way? Or are you standing on the battle line . . .
scared, but certain in your General and of the ultimate victory? Or perhaps you aren’t even in the battle . .
.
You see,
many Christians don’t really understand that when we were born we were born
into a war zone and our life’s mission is to fight and take ground for the
Many of
us want to hide in the neutral zone of faithlessness, and laziness, and
carelessness, and compromise. Little do
we know that there is no “neutral zone” – we’ve simply joined the enemy in our passivity.
Some of us might even be
saying, “Show me Lord your
miracles and then I’ll get involved again!
Give us a revival! Give us power
. . . and then I’ll act again!”
Jesus
doesn’t have much time for people like this –
Mark 8:11: “The Pharisees came and began to question
Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a
sign from heaven. 12. He sighed deeply and said, no sign
will be given to it.”
Do you
know why I know this is a battle? Because death faces all of us – an end to all of our dreaming. Satan wants us for himself forever but so too
does God. Hell or heaven await us and
the choice is ours. These are the high stakes of war not the stakes of some
soap opera or midday TV melodrama!
4. OK – let’s turn now to the Epistle reading
for today – turn with me please to 2 Timothy 1:6-8 and 13 – 14.
Let me give us some
background before we begin to read.
Paul is
writing to his young disciple Timothy whom we think struggled with anxiety and
fear. We read about this in the fourth
chapter of this same letter:
1Tim. 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you
(Timothy) because you’re young, but set an example for the believers in speech,
in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
You see,
Paul is speaking to a young and, to some extent, anxious disciple. Can anyone relate to Timothy?
Yes, I think we all can
can’t we? How many of us, as
we’re contemplated actually doing what Jesus calls us to do – “To make
disciples” (Matt 28:19), have felt fear well up from the pit of our
stomachs? How much easier it is to just
come to Church and attend endless prayer meetings and Bible Studies? To be ever comforted and never to grow up and
join our brothers and sisters of the battle line!
Please
turn with me to the second letter of Paul to Timothy – it’s after Ephesians and
before Hebrews.
2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14 6 “For this reason I remind you – Now clearly Paul is talking
to Timothy and by extension to other Timothy’s – Christians, who, like Timothy,
need reminding. You and I need to be
reminded of what? Reading on “For this
reason I remind. . . you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the
laying on of my hands. What Paul is talking about here is the time that He laid his hands upon
Timothy and asked the Holy Spirit to come upon Him in power. This is when Timothy received his ordination
to the work of preaching the Word and celebrating the Sacrament. Each and every one of us are called to a
ministry – what’s your’s? Have hands be laid
upon you and have you experienced the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit?
God is calling us to fan
into flame the gift of His Holy Spirit.
The word “fan” is an interesting word. It means “to reactivate, to cause
to begin to be active again. It means to
cause to take on new life. Another
meaning is to “agitate.” It’s an active
word. It speaks to our role in all of
this.
We’re being called upon to
act – to activate our faith. To agitate
ourselves into action! God has kindled
a flame in us and our role is to fan that lighted kindling into a blazing flame. How many of us are simply smoldering - squandering the gift that is within
us. What an indictment this is upon Christendon today! O
Lord forgive us.
OK – let’s read on:
7. For God didn’t give us a spirit of timidity (a state
of fear because of lack of courage or moral strength – cowardice,
timidity. It means to have a “fallen
heart,” “to have a soft heart” or “one’s
heart has disappeared.” It ultimately
means to have “lost heart. For God did
not give us a spirit of “heartlessness” but (rather) a spirit of power, of love
and of self-discipline. Did you hear that? This smoldering kindling has the potential within it
of power and love and self-control. This
is the burning kindling that is ours as we – we – we . . . fan it into all that
it can be – a blazing flame of power and of love and of self-control!
8. But join with
me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” Suffering!
Ouch! We don’t like that do
we? Suffering. . . He’s calling us to
the fellowship of His suffering. He
speaks of that in his letter to the Philippians: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death” (Phil. 3:10). Truly, anyone who has joined
in this noble fellowship would never withdraw from it – it’s too too precious. To
suffer for Him is to suffer with Him and to suffer with Him is a most sublime
fellowship – never to be forgotten!
Let’s read on – verse 13 and
14:
13. What you
heard from me, keep as the pattern – as a model or behavior to be
imitated! A pattern of
sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. The early Church Fathers agree that what Paul is
talking about here is the deposit of doctrine that must be faithfully passed on
from one disciple to the next. It’s not
to be added to our contaminated in any way – it’s to remain pure. No heresy is to be added to it. The Apostles were the first to hear it and
they in turn passed it along to those first by their teaching and then by their
“laying on of hands” which gave the pure teaching life and power! Reading on:
14. Guard – to keep under watch, to watch over . . . the good
deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the
help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”
Jesus is giving us orders in
these verse – instructions which, when followed, will turn us into
gallant and valiant and dangerous warriors of our Lord!
But really - how many
of us would be legitimately described as “gallant and valiant and dangerous
warriors for Christ?”
Not many I’m afraid. . .
How many of us are zealous –
continually fanning the flame of our faith – straining towards the
front line of mortal combat!
How many of us are willing
to really join with our Lord in the fellowship of His suffering?
Instead how many of us have
bought into the American dream of “independent retired living?
”Easy living ?
Make enough money – get
enough retirement income and take it easy for the rest of our lives in the
fantasy that this is all there is! Or
perhaps there’s something else which a minimum of spiritual investment will get
us in!!!
This
thinking is so far removed for the truth – that life ultimately ends and
eternity lays before us in hell or in heaven. There is no neutral ground in eternity!
5. So what is our Lord telling us? Recognize your status as “active duty” and
turn your face towards the front lines and begin to walk towards them. It is there that real life can be found and
the most sublime fellowship with Jesus Christ.
It’s there that He can be found – not in the shadow lands of retreat or
retirement!
Are you actively walking
towards the battle lines? There is no
neutral ground! Where do you stand?
O Lord may we all be your
active disciples! Amen and Amen.
Let’s pray . . .