St. Thomas Lutheran Church - Bloomington, IN Sermon for October 7, 2007

St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church

3800 East Third Street

Bloomington, Indiana 47401

(812) 332-5252

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost (October 7, 2007)

Liturgical Color: Green

Reverend Doctor Lyle E. McKee

"Hold Fast"

Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. (vv. 12-14)

Paul, writing from prison, exhorts Timothy to hold on and not be overcome by the trials of faith.

As I read this particular portion of the scripture, it brings to mind a poster. You may have seen it. It pictures a kitten clinging to small rope stretched across the top of the picture, about to drop who-knows-where. The caption reads: "Hang in there!" It's a phrase that has become common parlance—as though our modern existence involves so much stress that we are barely able to persevere, to face the pressures, to make it through the day—hanging on by the barest grip, like that kitten.

There is something here of the sentiment Paul conveys to Timothy. But Paul intends to say much more than that. He invites not a bare clinging to an uncertain tether, like a kitten clutching for dear life by a slipping nail. What Paul wants for Timothy is his standing firm upon the foundation built solidly and unshakably in Christ.

The implication of Paul's letter is that, in Christ, we have a resource that constitutes a thoroughly trustworthy faith, a faith which moves beyond the trial of circumstance or the fear of failure. In Christ, we live in faith, not fear. We hold this gift close to the heart; we don't hang in there expecting at any moment to fall.

Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. (vv. 13-14)

There is a stage play that I saw a couple of years ago at Christian Theological Seminary. It's called "The Living." It portrays 17th century London as seen through the eyes of several key people who helped to hold together a semblance of order in the midst of widespread suffering and death. Over 100,000 people died in the plagues of London.

John Graunt, the central character and statistician intent on understanding the plague's progression, says late in the play that in June of 1665, a thousand people died. In July, a thousand a week, and in August a thousand a day. Soon thereafter, he continues, it was a thousand an hour.

In the face of such overwhelming death and helplessness, the characters in the play find their own reason for remaining. They stay connected in a time when suspicion and fear are so great that no one touches another for fear of catching the disease.

At the end of the performance, John reaches out a hand to a woman who, having lost her family to the plague, served as a nurse for the duration. That moment is the very first time anyone has made direct human contact at any time during the play.

It is a moment of salvation. Humanity may have waned in its glory. People may have behaved shamefully and shamelessly. But redemption remained an option. Hope was not completely eradicated.

"I wonder," John muses, "if almost anything can become a plague. I just thought you should keep it in mind for the future."

The people in this rather somber and depressing play, on the whole, appear until the very end merely to be holding on, hanging in there by the thinnest of threads. Hanging onto hope, hanging onto meaning, hanging onto health, hanging onto one another. The isolation, despair, and fear of such a time are terrible. And it is instructive to know that the playwright intended the work as a kind of parable, written in reflection on the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco and with a thought to the AIDS epidemic.

There are many possible answers to the question John Gaunt poses, aren't there? What is it that plagues us? What is it that plagues you?

You might think, with the reports of shooting in schools and of drug-related violence that crime is the modern plague. AIDS, cancer, racism, secularism, materialism, greed, and many more possibilities come to mind. It may be that the terror that our government seems intent on instilling in us is one of the most destructive forms of human plague.

The reassuring words of Paul to Timothy were intended to nip that plague in the bud.

Let's consider for a few moments the role fear plays in our lives.

I caught just a bit of a movie while balancing the checkbook by the midnight oil called "Defending Your Life". It is a fanciful tale of two young people who find themselves in a strange sort of heaven following fatal accidents. In this place, the short stay is devoted to reviewing the life one led in order to determine whether they should be sent back to earth to work again at living well or sent to a more prestigious existence. The criterion: How well had they overcome fear in their lives?

How much are you motivated by fear? How much do you live in fear? How far do you go to avoid fearful situations, people, conversations, and issues in life?

Another film titled "Under the Influence" is about a family in which the father is an alcoholic. The movie depicts wife and children, some of them grown and starting families of their own, trapped in a cycle of denial, anger, and fear. It was the fear that most struck me. No one would admit that there was a problem because to do so would create change. Each imagined that the family would become even more chaotic if they dared challenge the way things were.

Each child finds their own way of escape, whether it be humor or sarcasm, retreat or submission, caretaking or a careful walking on egg-shells. Not until the father dies does any healing begin. Only then, when one of the pieces of that complicated puzzle is removed, are people able to see how horribly they had been affected. Only then do they face the fear that keeps them from acting in constructive ways.

Hanging on. Holding fast. These are not always the positive factors in life that Paul would have them be. If it is in fear that we live our lives, even the fear of the consequences of simply speaking our mind, we are holding fast to the wrong thing. It is the good treasure of the gospel alone that is worthy of the tight grasp Paul encourages.

As you may know, I love science fiction novels. I still remember how thoroughly I enjoyed reading the "Dune" trilogy by Frank Herbert. In these novels, Herbert weaves a fantastic tale of the heroic figure, Paul Atreides, as he impacts the shape of intergalactic history. What sticks in my mind is what he called the "Litany Against Fear" that the main character uses frequently in the face of his enemies: "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear."

I believe that it is fear that often kills the will and short-circuits the leadings of the spirit of God. Paul cautions Timothy against giving in to the power of this emotion. We do well to heed that admonition. It can plague our hearts, our relationships, our communities, and even nations. Paul notes early in this passage:

I am reminded of your sincere faith...For this reason I remind you to 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.

When we sense that fear is keeping us from speaking a word in love, when we feel fear creating walls between us and other people, when we find fear the motivation for hoarding God's gifts, this word can help us put aside cowardice and renew the power, love and self-discipline that come from God.

The writer of 1 John phrases the insight in a slightly different way: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love." (4:18)

This is a challenging, an awesome, and a comforting word. For where fear controls, even to think of turning it aside is profoundly threatening. Where people may speak and act and live from love unrestrained by fear—that is an awesome sight. What greater comfort could exist than to know that in love as God intends it, fear should take no part? Where we see it, we should cast it out. Where we feel it, we should let love overcome it. When we imagine it to be our motivation, we should resist it. Holding fast the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, grasping as fully as we may the grace granted through him, we may know in our souls the perfect love which casts out every fear.

This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 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. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord unto eternal life. — Amen