Rev. Dr. Les Martin

Pentecost+17
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
2 Timothy 1

Follow the pattern of the sound words – 2 Timothy 1:13a (ESV)

In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, we begin our month-long series on 2 Timothy.  Here at the outset, let’s remind ourselves just who Saint Timothy is. Timothy- in Greek Timótheos, meaning “honoring God” or “honored by God”- was an early Christian evangelist and later the first bishop of Ephesus.  Tradition relates that he died around the year AD 97. A native of Lystra, he was the son of a mixed marriage between his mother Eunice, a Jew, and a Greek father.

Among the missions with which the Paul entrusted him were that to the Thessalonians to encourage them under persecution and that to Corinth to confirm the converts in the faith.  Paul worked intimately with him, as refers to him as his “beloved child,” clearly identifying Timothy as his spiritual son.  His name appears joined with that of Paul in the salutations of seven of the Epistles. He eventually became Paul’s representative at Ephesus, and Eusebius identifies him as the first bishop of that city. He is said to have been martyred on January 22 in the year 97, for opposing the pagan worship of the goddess Diana.  Two of Paul’s later letters are addressed personally to him.

We are going to be hearing from 2 Timothy in these next weeks.  The first letter to Timothy is full of directions and instructions which tell him how to proceed in the management of the churches, with the organization of our life in godliness, as Fr. Doug explained last week. This second letter contains no such directions. It is not a sort of continuation or amplification of First Timothy. With Paul now in prison, it is written in the certain expectation of his death, and so it is better thought of as Paul’s “last will and testament to Timothy.” It is personal throughout. Tender, with the purpose of refreshing Timothy- and by extension us as well- for faithful witness to the hope contained in the gospel.

Timothy needs refreshing.  In our short passage for today, Paul states that Timothy is weeping in a spirit of fear, might possibly be ashamed for Paul’s imprisonment- what does that say about the power of the Gospel after all?-  and he urges him not to shrink from the suffering that is part and parcel of being a witness to Jesus in every age and cultural situation.  Fear, shame, and suffering seem to be Timothy’s condition at the outset of this letter, and St Paul wants to encourage him, to give him a reminder of the antidote to his present trials.  Good news for us, beloved, as fear, shame and suffering are often our experience of life as well.  We too, need encouragement in our journey of faith.  The answer to these painful realities?  I want to suggest that Paul gives it right at the beginning, when he says in verse 2 the following:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

Let’s consider how when we have fear, the peace of Jesus is the answer, when we experience shame, we find freedom in grace, and when our days seem only to be full of suffering, God’s mercy gives us a wider perspective.

First, fear and peace.  Let’s set the context:  Timothy has reasons to be afraid.  His spiritual father is imprisoned again, and likely to be killed.  The church, still in its infancy, is beset by false teachings and heretics on all sides, and as Paul’s letters make clear, there is also no small among of dissension within.  Will it thrive?  Will it even survive?  On top of this, we do well to remember that we are not dealing with the mature Bishop of Ephesus here.

1 Timothy 4:12 has Paul saying that Timothy should live in such a way that no one can despise his youth.  As of that writing, Timothy may have been an elder of the church in terms of office, but he was no graybeard.  2 Timothy comes somewhat later, but we can still safely assume that he is younger than many of his fellow leaders.  So, here he is a young man, leading a fragile church, as his mentor in the faith is jailed and awaiting execution.  Reasons to be afraid indeed.  Ours may be different:  making ends meet, illnesses known or worried about, broken relationships, the sense that there is no margin or room for error in our lives.  Whatever the case, we know this:  just because one is a Christian does not mean one is free from the very human sense of fear.

The peace of Christ Jesus speaks to our fears.  His perfect love puts them into perspective.  His ongoing presence with us is the spirit of power and love that will see us through, not by removing us from the truly fearful situations we find ourselves in, but by sustaining us in the midst of the valley of the shadow death.  Our Lord speaks clearly, saying:

My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid. (John 14:27, ESV)

Our lives may give us many reasons to fear, but baptized into Jesus, we are given something different, not as the world gives.  In the words of the old hymn by Edward Henry Bickersteth:

Peace, perfect peace.  Our future all unknown, Jesus we know and he is on the throne.

Shame and grace.  Shame- that pervasive, negative emotional state marked by chronic self-reproach and a sense of failure- is, like fear, common to us all to some extent, Christian or not.  Timothy is perhaps ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment, or perhaps that such a glorious truth as the Gospel could produce such a shabby church.  Maybe he is simply ashamed of himself- if he was just better, maybe he could do something about the mess.  I remember the shame of being a nerdy and socially awkward child. I know the shame I experience today at how I fail those closest to me, sometimes unintentionally and, sadly, sometimes not.  You no doubt have your own examples, your own shame. 

The solution lies in the truth of grace:  that God extends his unmerited favor towards us because we are his beloved children, no matter who we are or what we have done.  We are all prodigals, and all those who come home find a warm and accepting embrace.  The appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light, is that embrace for all who put their trust in Him.

Suffering and mercy.  Jesus addresses this head-on.  In John 16:33, he plainly says:

While you are in the world, you will have to suffer. But cheer up! I have defeated the world! (CEV)

To live in this world, where Jesus has indeed come among us, but where the Kingdom is still both “already-and-not yet,” is to suffer.  Miracles and deliverance from evil do happen, but more often than not, suffering still prevails. Psalm 88, and many other places in Scripture, normalize the idea that the person of faith suffers- that if you are a Christian and you’re suffering, it’s not necessarily because you’ve done something wrong. Paul is suffering, the church is suffering, Timothy is suffering, and so are we today.  Where is the mercy?  In Jesus, and in what he has done for us.  Writing in Romans 8:18, Paul states that:

I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. (NET)

The glory that will be revealed to us.  Other translations say “in us.”  The mercy of the Lord is that the current state of play in the world is not the final answer.  The final statement is one of mercy- a glory revealed to us and in us, in places like Saint Brendan’s, where the lost and the lonely and the hurting can gather around font and altar and become family, growing up into him who is the head.  A mercy that will one day spread beyond the walls of all our beleaguered churches until God himself will found a new heaven, a new earth, and wipe away every last tear from our eyes.

Peace, grace, and mercy in the face of fear, shame and suffering.  This is the confident approach to life that Paul wants to rekindle in Timothy by calling him back to the truth of his faith in Christ Jesus.  How?  Right there in verse 13 he says it, as he urges Timothy and us to “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me.” (ESV). Now, let’s be clear:  Christianity is not a personality cult, even one centered around St. Paul. Faith is a gift, after all, that we are given by Jesus, not something we stir up within ourselves, or that some other person can possibly give us.  However, because of the incarnational reality that is Christianity, we can also say a little bit more. The content of our faith, you see, is something like a family heirloom. It has a pedigree. For Timothy that faith takes tangible form in the examples of Paul and Lois and Eunice. It also takes form in his ordination by the laying on of the Apostle’s hands. Many within the Anglican church make much of the laying on of hands as the proof of “apostolic succession.” Personally, I would say it is both important and useful, but not sufficient. The actual succession comes not just through authorized hands, but more importantly through believing hearts.

Paul, his grandma and his mom passed the faith on to Timothy. They all pass it on to us. As do others. For me, they include people like Saint Augustine, Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, Karl Barth, Robert Jenson, and Philip Cary. Both my ordaining Bishop, and my current one. The church is a family. My biological family did not pass the faith on to me, but the family of the church did – and does. Which is why we need places like Saint Brendan’s. 

Timothy is instructed to guard the deposit, to follow the pattern of sound words. The things he received from his family of faith. So are we. Whether it is in catechism class or from this pulpit, Father Doug and I try and pass that deposit faithfully on to you. It’s not so much about Doug and Les – both you and God know we’re just humans – rather it’s about this apostolic succession, the pattern of sound words that we have received from those whose shoulders we stand on and the baptismal family we surround ourselves with. 

We cling to the message that comes forth from all these mouths, and from the church throughout the ages. That message is the gospel. And that’s something good to guard because it’s going to see us all through this present night and into the age that is to come.  As another older brother, St John Cassian reminds us in his writing:

We are called to pass beyond the fear…to the fullest freedom of love and to the confidence that belongs to the friends and sons of God.