A Holy Calling

A sermon preached at Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine, October 7, 2007, World Communion Sunday.

Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

The Rev. Susan M. Reisert, Minister

If First Timothy reads like a set of church by-laws, something we saw a little bit of last Sunday, Second Timothy almost makes us feel as if we’re reading someone else’s mail or intruding on a private conversation. Of course, in a way, we are reading someone else’s mail and we are reminded that the letters, or epistles, that make up a great deal of the New Testament were written to particular groups, for particular reasons. They are indeed pieces of mail, written and then sent to particular places. Most letters were written to answer questions or concerns which a group or groups of Christians had asked or because of conflicts or problems that had been reported. So, all of the epistles could be called “someone else’s mail,” but they function on two levels, the personal and the communal, and that includes this deeply felt letter from a teacher to his student, on which we focus this morning.

The author of Second Timothy writes in the name of Paul. Now, there may be authentic fragments from Paul within the text, but this letter could not, in its entirety, have been written by Paul. This may seem controversial to us, but it would not have been a problem in the time period in which the letter was written. It would have been relatively common for students or close followers of important and significant leaders to write in the name of that leader and under their authority, especially after the leader’s death.

Timothy was known elsewhere in the New Testament. The message, though personal and intimate, is also a message for all Christians who have descended from those first fledging groups in the first century.

By the time this letter was written, probably in the first part of the second century, at least one generation of early Christians has passed from the scene, and the church is struggling with issues of right teaching and perhaps a bit of discouragement. The author exhorts Timothy (and, it should be emphasized that “exhorts” is the proper word here; it is not simply an encouragement or a request, the intent is stronger)—exhorts Timothy-- in a sense, to “remember where he came from.” Or we might say, “who” he came from; his mother and grandmother were the ones who helped to make him who he was—a follower of Jesus. If Luke Skywalker was exhorted to remember who he was or Simba the same in The Lion King, Timothy is urged to be mindful of who his mother and grandmother were, and how important that is to his faith.

It is ironic that women, like the women mentioned in this passage, have been the ones to pass down the faith to other people’s children as well as their own, even though the letter preceding this one (First Timothy) instructs women to “learn in silence with full submission” and shouldn’t be permitted to teach.

There are a couple of points to highlight from this morning’s lesson from Second Timothy, but I will focus primarily on just one: this sense of the faith being passed down through the generations. But, even as the faith is passed from generation to generation, there is something new afoot. Timothy is reminded, encouraged, urged, pushed, to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you . . . “ Timothy may have received a good foundation of faith from his mother and grandmother, but God is not a hand-me-down God. God is new all over again, experienced and understood in new and different ways.

But, as we read this, we cannot escape the reality that we are in a different place than Timothy. For how many of you is this kind of church the church of your childhood, the church of your mother and grandmother? How many of you have stuck with the faith that you were taught as a child? It is increasingly unlikely that families share in religious tradition as children become adults.

And, even more significantly, we have increasing numbers of youth and adult children who choose not to accept the faith, even with the freedom to try a different path within the faith. How many of you have adult children who don’t go to church or have chosen a very different faith or entirely different religion?

I was reading the New York Times yesterday and found several very disturbing articles, but the one that is relevant to this morning’s lesson involves how many Protestant denominations, including many evangelical churches, that are trying to draw in and keep young people in the church through the use of a very violent video game called Halo, which involves a tough marine “armed to the teeth who battles opponents with missiles, lasers, guns that fire spikes, energy blasters, and other fantastical weapons.”

The game is used especially to reach and recruit the “elusive audience of boys and young men.” Video game parties are routine and video game consoles have been installed in many of these churches. The article noted a Halo gathering at a church in Colorado where a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old sat in front of three televisions, “locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gun blasts.” One of the boys explained the game’s allure: “It’s just fun blowing people up.”

The youth minister of the church attracts the boys with the game, and then offers a Christian message or, tries—I guess—to offer a Christian message. A detractor of this practice of using this ultra-violent game, which is available in stores only to people 17 and over, stated that “if you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it.”

The large evangelical organization Focus on the Family, which seems to have an opinion about everything, hasn’t yet decided what their official view is on this practice.

I read this article and felt a lot less bad about our struggles to encourage and maintain a strong presence of children and youth.

The passing down of our faith has become enormously difficult, let’s face it. The demands on family life are great, indeed, and the expectations and opportunities in our community life place church as just one more thing in the midst of so many options. I remember when I was at the Winslow church, we had a family very involved in soccer. Soccer games on Sundays were routine and, in the fall, it was pretty much the norm that the children came to church in their soccer outfits—cleats and all—and they would dash out of the church at a particular time to get to games, often dashing out before the service was even over. But, at least they were at church.

Attracting and keeping a strong presence of families with children and youth has clearly become difficult.

And, without a real strong belief in hell, we are at a clear disadvantage. That’s how at least one of the youth pastors in the New York Times article justified their use of the violent game. If it brought the teenagers in enough to get them saved and to keep them from hell, then it was clearly worth it.

I’m still not likely to bring a proposal for a bunch of televisions and video games to the Trustees anytime soon.

So, I can feel a little comforted by the fact that teens are not exactly running to certain churches of their own free will. But, we, as a church, are still left with a small church school, and a small handful of teenagers, and a lot of concerns about the future of our faith, as we practice it.

Timothy was urged to “rekindle the gift,” “rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” We must do the same and to know that we are not only encouraged and asked to do so, we are being urged and pressed to do so.

Good thing that Timothy is further advised and implored, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. . . . . Do not be ashamed, then, but join me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling.”

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love, . . . . for God has called us with a holy calling. We too have been called to a holy calling.

It is not an easy or simple calling. It is not a calling without demands.

Our calling asks us, urges us, to rekindle the gift of God that is within. And, in rekindling that gift of God is to know that new things will happen, that a new spirit will take shape. We cannot expect that way we have always done things will be the way that we will always do things. We must be open to the newness of the Spirit.

I hope this doesn’t mean violent video games in our Parish House. But, at the same time, we need to open our minds and our hearts. Rekindling the gift of God that is within begins with each one of us and all of us together as a church.

So, we gather around the Communion table today, as Christians all over the world gather around the Table on this World Communion Sunday, and, I hope, we can find ourselves in the spirit of rekindling the gift that God has given us. We are a tradition of many gifts, but where is that gift today and where will it be in the future?

We have something worth passing on. It may be worth spending some time in consideration of that, praying over, and opening our hearts and our minds to where God might be leading us. To insist on maintaining things as they have always been is to claim our irrelevance, our lack of meaning in a complicated world.

I hope we can gather this morning, and in many other mornings, with a sincere desire to rekindle the gift of God that is within. To rekindle that gift of God, to walk in new paths, and to embrace the Spirit as that Spirit carries us to new places of meaning and hope.

But, it all begins here, around this sacred and holy table, this table around which we gather, inviting God’s grace, remembering all that Christ did for us, and opening ourselves to where we are being led, to know the Risen Christ in our hearts and minds, to rekindle the gift of God within, to embrace the fact that God is not done with us yet, but also to appreciate that our God is not a hand-me-down God, that God seeks to work in new ways.

So, let us be open that God may lead us, in faith, in hope and in trust.

Praise be to God.

Amen.

“Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church,” by Matt Richtel, New York Times, Sunday, October 7, 2007.