Community Church Sermons
October 7, 2007
World
Communion Sunday
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Listen to this Sermon!
We have several important things going on today!
It is Worldwide Communion Sunday when Christians around the globe pause at the Table of the Lord to think of each other, and to understand the wideness of God’s kingdom, and to appreciate how – though very different from each other – yet we are one in Christ.
Today is also the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week. This is an important occasion in the life of our church because a number of our members experience mental illness of one kind or another in their families, and they have found that Christ has a particular concern for them and their loved ones. In biblical times, society demonized those who suffered with mental illness, but Jesus humanized them. And in our day, the Church must be a place that affirms and supports human beings who struggle with what is more and more being described in the mental health community as brain disorders. How proud Christ must be of the families who stand up and lay claim to the dignity of their loved one’s lives! Thank you all for giving these books to our church library!
And last but not least, today is also the official start to “Trails Through Tellico” – our annual Stewardship campaign.
So how in the world can we thread these three themes together today and still get out of church in something less than three hours?
When you think about it, World Communion Sunday, Mental Health Awareness Week, and “Trails Through Tellico” are all about the same basic thing. And that same basic thing is nothing less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the tremendous responsibility and awesome privilege we have been given for proclaiming and living the Gospel.
Now, I know that there are people sitting in pews all around the world – and perhaps right here in Tellico Village – who think of the Church as a kind of amenity - an agency established to serve their own needs and personal interests, with a little charitable work thrown in so they’ll at least have SOMETHING on the books when they go to heaven.
I’m not talking to that group of people today! I want instead to speak candidly with those of you who have committed your lives to serving Jesus Christ and to laying down your life for the sake of the Gospel.
Just recently, there has been published a book revealing the inner life of Mother Theresa. While the world looks upon Mother Theresa as a saint, Mother Theresa saw herself as a struggler. For most of her life as a missionary, the book of her confessions reveals that the little nun had little sense of intimacy with God. She longed to feel God’s presence, but it came only in brief moments that did not last. And Mother Theresa grieved that spiritual emptiness.
This flies in the face of what many people think faith is supposed to look like, doesn’t it? Faith is supposed to create closeness with God, not separation from God. Faith is supposed to give us fulfillment, not leave us empty. Faith is supposed to make us comfortable, not uncomfortable. Faith is supposed to put a smile on our face, not make us sad.
But that was not the faith experience of Mother Theresa.
And yet the whole world knows she was indeed a SAINT – with capital letters!
Why do you suppose that is?
Well, the way I’d describe it is like this: while Mother Theresa was seeking the reality of God, the world saw the reality of God IN Mother Theresa – while the little nun sought to reach out and touch Jesus, Jesus reached out and touched the poor of Calcutta through her.
What was not real to her was very real to US and to those she cared for in Jesus’ name.
And right there is the heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian.
Our text today from Second Timothy makes the point.
I love the Timothy letters because they are written to young Christians who are just starting out on their faith journey. The letters share the learnings of the larger Christian community gleaned from their years of experience in following Jesus. They impart the wisdom of the elders, if you will.
And right away, in the very first chapter, we find out something that helps us understand Mother Theresa – and ourselves – a little better. Two simple instructions are given in that opening chapter.
First, “Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you…”
Second, “Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you…”
The Bible teaches that each of us has been given a gift for good of the community, for building up the church. Whenever you walk into a church, you can see at work the various gifts people have been given. For instance, in the church where I grew up there was Elsie, the woman who sat every week in the front pew – notebook in hand – jotting down all the things she didn’t like about Rev. Seale’s sermon. Elsie had the gift of complaining – and she used it generously! Then there was Dick, the fellow who loved to get up at Church meetings and yell. I was too young to know what it was Dick was yelling about, but I was old enough to know he really had the gift – of yelling! And there was Bob who you soon learned to never ask how he was because he’d tell you – in graphic detail. He had the gift of self-pity.
There were lots of gifts at work in that boyhood church of mine. And not all of them were good!
What’s your gift?
Maybe your gift is like Corrine’s. She was a very pleasant looking woman who – the very first time our family went to that church – came over and welcomed us. She asked me my name, and I told her it was “Butch.” And after that – whenever Corrine saw me – she said, “Hi, Butch! It’s GREAT to see you!” She called me by name and made me feel special. And she had a gift for doing that for others, too. Corrine was the Sunday School Superintendent and worked hard at helping us kids learn about Jesus. She was in the adult bible class and my parents used to say that she helped people ask really tough questions and complimented them for helping her see things she’d not seen before. And even years later, when Corrine was retired and getting up there in age, she took it upon herself to read through the death notices in the newspaper to see if there were some who died without a family, or with a very small family – and she would go to the funeral home to pray for the one who’d died, or to sit with a lonely widow.
What do you think Corrine’s gift was?
I think it was the gift that we sometimes lose sight of. I know I do. I think Mother Theresa did. And perhaps you do, too.
“Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you…”
I want you to notice those words. What is the gift that is within the young Christians being written to?
“Fan into flame the gift of…GOD…which is – WHERE? - in you!”
Corrine’s gift was Christ within.
Your gift is Christ within!
FAN THAT GIFT INTO FLAME, the letter says!
Sometimes we Christians stick our noses so high into the sky that we no longer see the wonder of the Gospel. We reach UPWARD to find God when in fact God has already taken up residence WITHIN.
“Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you...”
And then this wonderful thought: “Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you…”
A deposit – you know – is simply a down payment on something bigger that will come later. And what these young Christians are being taught is that God has made a deposit into your life. And that deposit is a piece of the kingdom of God!
“Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you…!”
This is the Church’s great calling – to hold sacred the deposit God has made into us – to hold above all else, the piece of the kingdom of God that has been entrusted to us.
Church is not about getting our own needs met – Church is not about doing things right – Church is not about doctrinal agreement – Church is not about providing spiritual comfort to ourselves.
Church is about taking that deposit of the kingdom of God that has been entrusted to us and making it GROW! We feed the hungry, but we will feed more. We help the poor, but we will help more. We build homes, but we will build more. We save abused children, but we will save more. We bring the touch of God’s beautiful kingdom into the lives of many people, but there are many more people who need God.
So God has made an investment in you and me and us together as a church. We are like the managers of God’s great Mutual Fund.
And God expects a return on the investment.
That’s why we reach out and join hands with Christians all over the globe – to strengthen the kingdom of God. That’s why we open our arms to persons who suffer with mental illness and others who are pushed to the edges of society – to represent God’s love and acceptance.
And that’s why we start Trails Through Tellico today.
We are fanning into flame the gift of God within us. And we are guarding the good deposit with which we have been entrusted.
What part will you have in proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ?