1 Passing the Torch (2 Timothy 1:1-14) We had a fun time yesterday out here at the blessing of the animals. We had15 people, 15 dogs, two horses and one mule. They raised a joyful noise. I especially enjoy the dogs with their alert ears and curious snuffling and barking bravado and general joy of life. It reminded me of one of my favorite detective series. Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie books feature Bernie Little, a private detective who runs the Little Detective Agency in the Phoenix area, and his 100 pound German Shepherd cross named Chet. Chet is a very enthusiastic, waggy kind of dog who failed his police dog trials because of some unexplained encounter with a cat, but now has made good as Bernie’s sidekick, and the narrator of the Chet and Bernie mysteries. The books are told from his optimistic, doggy point of view. For him every day is better than the last. When I read scriptures like last week’s parable or this week’s epistle, I feel a bit like Chet. My tail really gets to wagging. Because Paul shows us just how good the good news is, and encourages Timothy and all of us not to be shy about spreading it to a very confused world. So let’s focus on 2 Timothy 1:1-14 this morning. I’m going to set the scene for you first. Timothy was Paul’s protégé and missionary in training. In verse 2 of today’s reading Paul calls him “my beloved child”. He was actually the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother, and Paul took him under his wing until Timothy himself became a leader in the fledgling church in Ephesus. He accompanied Paul on several missionary journeys, and was even listed as the co-sender of six of Paul’s letters in the New Testament. Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy from a Roman dungeon, knowing that his own life would soon be coming to an end. So this is an affectionate and probably lonely letter to his son in the Christian faith, assuring him of his prayers and giving him guidance in leading the Ephesian church. And the words that really stood out for me are those of verses 5-7. Please listen closely as I read them again: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I’m sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands (his anointing, or even ordination by the Holy Spirit); for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline.” So, Paul is sharing a fond recollection with Timothy to remind him of the legacy that launched his ministry. I intend to talk a bit more about this pedigree of faith passed down to him, but there’s something else here I need to do first. Because Paul’s facing some of the same issues we face today in our culture. There once was a time when we could talk about “the faith” and its liberating power, and it would actually be understood, and embraced, by a great many listeners. 2 But things have changed a lot. Among younger generations, especially, there are now many people who have only a fragmented picture of what all this means (if any picture at all). We’ve had a couple of generations now who perhaps haven’t made it as high a priority to transmit the faith to their children, reasoning that they don’t want to interfere with their spiritual decision-making process. (That’s a sermon for another time…) But a good many people have decided that the Christian faith is in some way an anachronism. That it’s no longer relevant, at least beyond a peppering of some useful ethical teaching. So the long chain of transmission, generation to generation, is broken with them, and lies inert on the ground. And what’s often left is hearsay, shallow teaching to tickle their ears, and a plenitude of half-truths and non-truths that carom off the core of the central teaching of the gospel. That is, Jesus and the Christian faith are being misrepresented by all too many people in our time. We need reliable teaching, which is a big part of Paul’s reason for writing this whole letter. In its next paragraph he says, “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us [note the past tense] and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began [it was always part of the plan], but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Let’s unpack this, piece by piece. The first thing here I want to emphasize is that Paul’s second letter to Timothy would have to have been completed in the 60’s A.D., that is, within 35 years or so of Jesus’s death and resurrection. It would be to us as if it all happened about the middle of the Reagan Administration. So it was still reasonably fresh in the minds of eyewitnesses to the actual events, which included many of the folks Paul interacted and ministered with. That is to say, the story Paul had to share was intact, uncorrupted, and supported by many witnesses who were still alive. That’s why Paul talks about the “testimony” that he wants Timothy not to be ashamed of. Kind of like in our time, in which spreading the gospel can invite derision and shaming. Paul had the testimony of eyewitnesses to the Resurrection, and he himself had directly encountered the risen Christ. And we, in turn, have the witness of Paul whose letters have been preserved through the ages, and are one vessel through which the gospel has been passed down to us. In other words, our faith is not without considerable historical evidence. Paul tells Timothy (verses 8-9) that he can rely on the power of God to withstand the scorn and persecution of an unbelieving world. And that power is accessible to each and every one of us through the Holy Spirit indwelling us by faith and baptism. 3 Indeed, it’s here that Paul lays out what the gospel, the good news, is. He says that the God who gives Timothy the power to endure is the same God who (and again please notice the tense here) “saved us”. Not, will save us if we say and do all the right things. Not will save us if we manage to climb the long, steep ladder of perfection. Not might save us only if it’s God’s solemn and incomprehensible will to do so, as some religions teach. No, God has saved us by sending his loving Son to remove all the collective darkness of humanity’s misdeeds through his death on the Cross, and declaring that all who simply believe and receive his gift of grace are saved. Saved from what? Saved from a meaningless, futile and self-serving life. Saved from an afterlife of self-induced separation from a loving God and from everything that’s good, peaceful and harmonious. Saved for all eternity, “not according to our works but according to God’s own purpose and grace!” Paul says. And he says that this grace “was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” That’s kind of a mind-bender unless you recognize that time is part of the created order and not actually something to which the Godhead is subject. So the Cross and the Resurrection were part of the plan from before creation. Why? I have no idea. Above my paygrade. That’s God’s business. But His business produces good news. Because Paul says that “this grace has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Our Eucharistic liturgy praises God the Father, saying, “You, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.” And, in Paul’s own words, in his resurrection “our Savior Jesus Christ abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” He’s the first fruit of the Resurrection, and we are joints heirs with him of everlasting life, living forever in incorruptible bodies in a place of unimaginable splendor and joy. This is the message with which Paul entrusted Timothy, and through them both entrusts to us, generation by generation as witness to the creator God’s loving acts upon this earth. // So, what do you think? Is this worth preserving? Is it worth spreading this news to a lost world? Is it worth inviting our friends and neighbors to be part of the family? Is it even worth temporarily suffering for? Paul thought so, and he urges each and every one of us to think the same.