II Timothy 1:3-7
May 12, 2024
My mom once told me that when I was
a little girl, I’m guessing probably around Garrison’s age, I came in from
outside with a skinned knee or elbow or something. I did what little ones do
and I showed it to her because I wanted her to take care of it and me.
She
cleaned it and bandaged it and gave it a kiss and said, “There, it’s all
better.” And apparently I looked askance at her when she tried to end her
comfort there and said,
“Aren’t
you gonna say ‘bless your little heart?!’”
Clearly, I was a budding
Presbyterian even then, because I recognized that this was not going decently
and in order. I mean there is a process to these matters, mom. First you
bandage the bruise, then you kiss it to make it better, then you say, you
always say, “Bless your little heart.”
At my mom’s memorial service I told another
story. The first time I broke my right wrist I broke it so badly I had to have
surgery. To help with the healing I had to wear it in a cast with pins and an
external fixator that came out of the cast to keep it in place. After eight
long weeks I was able to have the cast and the hardware removed and I was able
to drive for the first time, although it was not easy.
Back
then we lived in the same town as my parents did, so I carefully drove over to
see them. My wrist looked terrible. It was black and blue, and my skin looked
like skin looks after it has been in a cast for eight weeks. It was just awful.
I need to say that I was in my early 40’s at this time with two young kids, but
when my mom looked at my poor beat-up, battered wrist, she picked up my hand,
kissed it, and said, “Bless your little heart.” There is a process to these
things.
Today is Mother’s Day and while it
is a happy day for some, it is a challenging, difficult, and even painful day
for others. That pain and difficulty needs to be recognized. I don’t want to
romanticize or idealize motherhood either. Motherhood is hard, parenthood is
hard, and it’s complex. Mothers are human, which means they have flaws and
failings just like everyone else. My mother certainly had her failings, just as
her mother did, and her mother before her, and just as I do. My kids will
attest to that.
So, as I said, I’m not trying to
romanticize motherhood or mothers. But I have always found it interesting that
when Paul wrote this second letter to Timothy – a letter that was meant to
encourage Timothy to hold fast to his faith and to trust that God was with him,
to find courage in the belief that the Holy Spirit was empowering him, and that
he was being called to witness to the gospel – Paul began by telling Timothy to
remember the faith of his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice. Paul writes
that Timothy’s faith is not a faith that began in him first, but that was
passed down to him, handed down to him, like a precious family heirloom, from
his grandmother to his mother to him. Timothy’s faith is generational, and it
began with these two important women in his life.
My father was and always will be an
important and beloved influence in my life and in my faith. But my mother’s
faith was a constant in my life as well. As was my gramma’s. And clearly that
must have been true for Timothy as well because Paul lifts these two women up as
examples of faith and as the two people who planted the seed of that faith in
Timothy.
As I said, Paul is writing to
encourage Timothy in his faith and in his witness. To be a follower of Jesus at
that time, especially to be one who proclaimed the faith, meant that you could
literally put your life in danger. Persecution, physical literal persecution,
of believers was a reality. It took trust and it took courage to share the good
news of the gospel. Paul wants Timothy to not only cling to the spark of faith
in him but to remember from where his faith comes and from whom it comes.
Paul tells Timothy,
“… rekindle the gift of God that is
within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit
of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
The word rekindle, used
by the New Revised Standard Version, here is a faithful translation of the
scripture, but in this instance I think it loses some of the urgency, the
passion that the original Greek conveys. Paul is urging Timothy to “agitate,”
to “stir into a flame” this gift of God. Paul is persuading him, exhorting him
to coax the embers of his faith into a brightly burning flame. Paul is telling
Timothy to get stirred up!
I wonder if Paul’s advice to Timothy
is actually a warning; a warning against complacency, against a faith that is
settled and predictable and placid. Don’t take the faith you have for granted!
Stir it up, ignite it, take the faith of the generations before you and fashion
it into a faith of your own! Stir up the faith of your family, agitate the
faith of your childhood, mold it and shape it into a faith that is yours.
In the past I have preached on this
passage on Confirmation Sundays or Sundays when we emphasize Christian
Education because teaching, whether its in confirmation or Christian ed or some
other setting, is the way we teach our children and young people the
foundations of our faith and give them permission and safe space to ask
questions, to take the faith that is passed on to them and make it their own.
But this is not just for young
people. Even those of us who have passed the age of confirmation are still
called to be learners of faith, learners of scripture, and to always ask
questions. It’s not about being argumentative, it’s about growing in our faith,
agitating our faith, and rekindling our faith. Just as Paul exhorted Timothy to
get stirred up, we too are called to get stirred up. To stir up our faith, to
rekindle it, to agitate it. We are never too old, and never too learned to stir
up our faith through questions and discussion and learning. We may grow older,
but we should never grow complacent in our faith.
After
all Paul was many things, but the one thing he was not was complacent. From
what we know of him, especially through his letters, was that his passion never
dimmed, his fervor for Jesus and the gospel was never extinguished. His faith
in Christ pushed him and helped him push others to live up the high calling
they were given. Considering he was most likely writing this letter to Timothy
from a jail cell, imprisoned for preaching the gospel, his faith was not only
the most important thing he had, but it was also all he had. Paul understood
more than most what it means to persecute and to be persecuted for faith.
Paul agitated that flame of faith
within him, and he encouraged Timothy to do the same by remembering where his
faith began – in his mother and his grandmother. And we are called to do the
same – to remember the faith of our mothers. But as I said earlier, not
everyone can do that. Motherhood is not a perfect state of being, nor are
mothers. So, what I encourage us to do is rekindle the gift of faith that is
within us from whoever it came, from whoever planted it within our hearts –
whether it was our mothers or fathers or grandparents or people in the church
or a teacher or some other person who inspired us and loved us … or all of the
above.
Fred Rogers talked about remembering
the person or people who loved us into being. Because that love is the spark of
faith. That love is the seed of belief and hope and endurance. That love is the
flame that pushes us and continues to grow us. Remember the person or persons
who loved you into being. Give thanks for the love they gave you and the love
that they inspired in you, and then rekindle it. Agitate it. Stir it up. What
amazing things we can do if we stir up the faith that is within us, if we fan
the spark into a flame, if we refuse to be complacent, if we remember, always
remember, the faith of our mothers, our fathers, and all those who loved us
into being.
Thanks be to God for them. Thanks be
to God for all of you. Thanks be to God.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”
Amen.
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