The Good Treasure

Sunday October 3, 2010

Ordinary 27C

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

The Ordination of Jane Bell Harcum to the Deacon Ministry

Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, ²To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. ⁴Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.

⁶For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; ⁷for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. ⁸Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, ⁹who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, ¹⁰but 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. ¹¹For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, ¹²and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for 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. ¹³Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

The most valuable advice I’ve ever received was advice that was not directed to me, at least that I can remember.  It doesn’t come directly from scripture, though I’m sure we could, if we searched, find a proverb or two that could be interpreted to mean the same thing.  It’s not specific to the life of faith, but it is invaluable to life in community, whether that is a nuclear family or a faith family.  The advice was this:  “Respond, don’t react.”   In other words, think before you act.  It is so appropriate for so many situations, and whenever I DON’T follow it, I do so at my own peril. 

Originally, it was advice given by my sister Karen to Leslie, when Hannah and Caleb were still toddlers, and Judson was just a baby.  I believe the context had to do with disciplining them.  K-K’s words have served us well over the years.  I know I have probably shared them with you on more than one occasion.

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is something like that – in this case, Paul has been re-imprisoned in Rome, and is conscious of the fact that he is most likely near the end of his life, and he is writing to Timothy to pour out the last of his thoughts and insights into what it means to be a servant of Christ and the Gospel, in a very personal way.  Paul is making a conscious effort to pass on to Timothy the task that he has been carrying out until now – that of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.   While Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice, were Jewish     Christ follower, his father was a Greek, so his life straddled the two worlds he was trying to bring together.  

Paul and Timothy were as close to being father and son as they could be, without actually being blood relatives.  Paul has known Timothy since his youth, and Timothy accompanied Paul on many of his missionary journeys. 

There is an element of connectedness between them that speaks to the importance of relationships within the body of Christ.  There is always going to be the teacher/pupil relationship, but those relationships that mark us more profoundly go beyond that.  They may BEGIN as that – think of who the most influential teacher in your life was, whether in elementary, middle, or high school, or college, or in Sunday School, or as a youth, and then ask yourself, does the term ‘teacher’ describe what that relationship meant to you?  Usually the answer is no, or if it is ‘yes’, you have to qualify and expand it to encompass more than simply the subject matter they taught you.

Paul’s lessons to Timothy had to do with scripture of course, but more than that, they had to do with the indwelling Spirit of God, mediated through Jesus Christ, and how THAT relationship transformed lives – beginning with Paul’s own, and how it continues to transform lives is why we are here.

This past Wednesday evening, I asked folks to think about the person in their lives whom they could say had a profound effect on their faith pilgrimage.  One person named a childhood pastor, another a Sunday School teacher who taught for decades … I named my preteen Sunday School teacher and my father, who’s passing introduction to a study of Paul’s letters to Timothy during a Sunday School opening assembly sparked in my mind the understanding that what we hold to be Holy Scripture ALSO, in the beginning, were REAL letters FROM real people TO real people.  It was a simple turn of phrase, something about ‘to a young pastor named Timothy’… you wouldn’t think something like that would make that much difference, would you?  And yet, here we are, over 30 years later, and it still stands out in my mind.

Deacons serve in that same way – in mentoring, in modeling, in teaching, often – how many of our Sunday School teachers also serve as deacons?  But it is in that willingness to serve – to make oneself available for the work of the Kingdom – that marks those who would be our servant leaders, and that is why we have set aside this time to acknowledge both what we see and what we know to be true in Jane’s life:  that she does what she does because of her relationship with Jesus Christ.    

So it is in that spirit that we say “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from the person who was YOUR Paul, Jane, 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.”

   

 (Ordination Service of Jane Bell Harcum)