“If one generation becomes ashamed of the gospel and does not risk testimony, how will the next generation know [or learn it]?”[1] This is the challenge of the church faces. It is the challenge of today, and it will be the challenge of tomorrow. It has also been the challenge that we faced in our history locally.
As we face next week with the joy of Matsiko, and the pressure of our lunch program with the children of York, this is our challenge as well. Joy mixed with challenge. Mission facing struggle. Testimony intersecting with history.
If we become ashamed of the gospel and do not risk the work of testimony the then next generation will not know of the Lord—they will not learn and they may not hear. Now I know you will look at me, as I have looked at myself in the mirror in preparing for next week and offered the same response, and said:
“But I am not ashamed of the gospel or of the Lord.
I will do what God calls me to do.”
Yet our text today is a reminder, as is the Table which is set before us. They both state that sometimes we need to take a moment and breathe in the Spirit of the Lord. For as we have talked about over the last couple of weeks together, the pressures, and the traumas, and the general sense of suffering in this world—a sense of suffering that we will see as we hand our lunches this week, and even as we hug the children of Matsiko and enjoy supper on Tuesday, it could cause us to forget our faith and lose our history.
This does not mean that we stop believing. But when we are confronted by so much, the words of Paul’s second letter to Timothy are necessary. “Then, as now, rejection and suffering looms as threats to people of faith.”[2]
This is where we fall back onto our history… and we. . .remember.
Move 1- history.
Digging into our text, Paul reminds Timothy of those who came before him. But before he can remind Timothy of his personal spiritual history, Paul has an important single word to say to his disciple. It is the word: tears.
First occurring in the gospel of Luke when an unnamed woman wipes our Savior’s feet with her hair because her tears had flowed down upon Jesus’ feet, this is a visceral word. It is a word of passion. In fact, tears are often accompanied with great out pouring of passion.
When Paul uses the word for tears in verse 5, he often associates them with a sense of saying good-bye to someone, or a church, that he loves deeply. Tears come with memory and feelings of affection. In this case tears represent the shepherds deep, tender, compassionate, care for the flock that God has entrusted to that person. In this case that flock is the person of Timothy.
It is Timothy’s tears that Paul is aware of. Paul recalls Timothy’s tears as he spends time in prayer with the Lord. And because of that apparent pain, regardless of its nature, those tears move Paul to remind Timothy of the historic testimony of those who came before young Timothy. For Timothy, like you and me, we stand on ground that others have shared and taught us. It is our combined spiritual history that is with us.
Timothy is not the first person in the world to display faith, and Timothy is also not the first person to bring forth a tearful response when someone reflects upon the life that is lived in the society and space of this world.
Lois. Eunice. Or whoever’s name you would like to insert into that moment. They speak a word of testimony that Paul says is there to remind Timothy of God’s presence and are to ‘rekindle the gift that God gave you.’ (verse 6). And what is that gift? This not “works righteousness” and it is not outdoing the other person in matters of faith. It is not only faith but a testimony to share with others as well.
Timothy, whether he knows it or not, is standing on the shoulders of those who came before him. This testimony is the gift. You and I, whether we feel it or not, in this very moment, with ministry happening all around us, are standing shoulder to shoulder with those who came before us. It is God’s gift to us as well when the work of Being the Church is hard, and we feel pressed upon and wonder how will we remain faithful in our context.
Move 2- it helps
In this moment, we expect Paul to pivot and offer Timothy a pep talk. To tell him, and the church to basically, ‘get up and snap to it for we have work to do.’ But he does not.
I wish that he did. I truly wish that he would. There are in fact times that I need Paul to do so. Times when the burdens of daily ministry and the prospect of what it looks like, like what we might see next week, could benefit from a little bit of that type of language. But again, Paul does not do this.
Instead, Paul moves into a discourse where he talks about more suffering.
He uses words like ‘prisoner,’ and tells his disciple that he will ‘suffer for the gospel.’ Not exactly what I bet Timothy thought he would hear from Paul in this second letter. Paul mixes suffering into a conversation about ‘calling’ and says that as we are called by God to be present in this community, or in any community where we are sent, that we should stand together with Jesus and be not ashamed of what is coming because we have put our trust in the Lord.
And in all of this, I think it is a reminder of our history yet again. For when the struggles come. Timothy should look back, he should bring to mind those who came before him, as we do here at Bethesda, and we should be reminded of the good treasure that God has given us. The true treasure that we hand out next week with those lunch bags—the treasure of the love of God.
For that helps us when the work of the Lord becomes too much and we feel the tears breaking through and we want to break down (and we do break down). Our history reminds of God’s faithfulness through the generations in the testimony of those we love and those who too are called to serve.
Conclusion
This does not mean the work is always easy and the burden is always light and gentle. Frankly it is often much more of a hard task. But this table reminds us, as we serve the Lord, of those who came before of, and as we work together, it, like the Lord who called us, is enough.
DM
