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A sermon preached by Mr Antony Weiss The Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost Christ Church St Laurence Sung Eucharist & Solemn High Mass – Sunday 9th October, 2016 2 Timothy 2:1-15 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14 NRSV). AMEN.
From St Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, “You then, my child, be strengthened 1 in the grace, the gift that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these things to faithful, trusting, believing men and women who will also be able to teach.” (2 Tim 2:1-2, my translation)
In considering this morning’s Epistle from 2 Timothy, I’d like you to think about these questions. What kind of legacy would you like to leave? Is there anything that you may like to leave to the next generation which will endure...having a lasting impact? Leaving a legacy is important and can have a bearing on others much more than we perhaps could ever realise. In a Church History lecture earlier this year at Moore College we were asked to name the Church Reformers whom we think left a great legacy. Cheekily I blurted out...John Henry Newman much to the derision, albeit light-hearted, of the students and lecturer! But I was kind of being serious. John Henry Newman whose Feast Day it is celebrated today in the Roman Catholic Church was originally an evangelical Oxford University academic and priest in the Church of England. Newman was later drawn to the High Church traditions of Anglicanism. He became known as a leader of the Oxford Movement of which this Parish Church is a living and blessed offspring. Sadly in 1845 Newman left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University 1
In the original language Paul has the verb (ἐνδυναμοῦ) in the passive voice so I’d suggest we read this as “be strengthened in the grace of Christ Jesus (2 Tim 2:1a)” because the call is not just to be strong at one point…it goes further than this and is relevant to us as well. Paul’s intention is that he realises that Timothy has to be strengthen by God’s grace in order to endure and persevere continually especially when there is hardship and suffering for the Gospel. And surely so do we too as sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ takes courage and boldness, and as we know, for many at the greatest cost, their lives.
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and was received into the Roman Catholic Church. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XII. Newman’s influence on the Anglican Church and the Oxford Movement would bear much fruit, a legacy lasting to this very day. Apart from CCSL, why is so much of Anglicanism in Australia an offshoot of this tradition? It is because a significant number of Anglo-Catholic missionary priests responded to the call of bishops. They up and left the Motherland in the second half of the 19th century to sail to far-fetched places and reach out across this great continent in the name of Christ, bringing the Gospel to many fledgling remote Dioceses. And what about my true English Reformation hero Thomas Cranmer? His greatest legacy is the Book of Common Prayer. How we worship and preach in this church and across the Anglican Communion remains a legacy of Cranmer’s liturgy which preserves the notion of the one holy catholic and apostolic church whilst firmly expounding the authority of Scripture and the Reformed centrality of the atoning sacrifices of Christ and that we are justified by faith alone. Closer to home this nation has thrived on generous legacies and benefactors … For example the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, established in 1962 has distributed more than $110 million aiming to offer “a stronger and brighter future for Australians in NSW and remote areas of the north” and aims to support “a spiritually rich society that values Christian faith in action.” And let’s be thankful for the late eye surgeon, Fred Hollows whose legacy remains in the foundation bearing his name, helping restore sight to those who are needlessly blind. Well at some time in our lives we will ask ourselves the question (if we haven’t already), “What difference did I make and what lasting impact will I have?” “And do I need to be a great figure of ecclesiastical history or the community to leave a lasting legacy?” Well of course the answer is “No, you do not.”
In 2 Timothy Chapter 2, Paul urges Timothy to make sure that he leave a lasting legacy based on the blessing Timothy himself inherited through the entrusting of the Gospel to him by others. So who shared the gospel with Timothy you may ask? Well those who are familiar with Chapter 1 will know that Timothy was entrusted with the Gospel by the faithful witness of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Tim. 1:5). They were just two humble witnesses, not significant church leaders like Cranmer or Luther (or even Cardinal Newman) or wealthy philanthropists like Vincent Fairfax. Nor were Lois and
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Eunice graduates of a theological college nor were they great orators or biblical scholars... they were loving, clear witnesses to the Gospel which, by God’s Grace and the Holy Spirit, they themselves had had entrusted to them. And that’s the point...all believers are able to share the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
This parish is blessed by all those who serve in our Sunday School and, just as importantly, how encouraging is it when we see grandparents and parents (just like Timothy’s) encouraging their grandchildren and children, our future treasures of the church with the Gospel as they bring them to CCSL on Sundays and through personal witness? Such men and women are ‘entrusters’ that Paul is talking about. Furthermore you are aware that the parish is currently undergoing the search for a youth minister. The person called into this ministry must be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and be able to clearly and truthfully entrust the Gospel to faithful, trusting, believing children and youth who, Godwilling, will be able in turn to go forth and teach what has been entrusted to them as they grow in their response to Jesus Christ.
So what we take away from today’s epistle is that entrusting the Gospel is replicable, intergenerational... Hence Paul pleads with Timothy to entrust the Gospel to “entrusters” who will entrust it to “entrusters” who will again entrust it to... you’ve got it, “entrusters”. So let’s not overcomplicate the message... at the central core of this charge is the call summed up in verses 8 and 9, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. (2 Tim. 2:8-9)” That’s it isn’t it? Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David…” for it is on this cornerstone truth that the Gospel depends. For without Christ’s bodily resurrection our faith would be totally useless. As Paul wrote in his earlier First Letter to the Corinthians, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain... and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. (1 Cor. 15:14,17-18).” If this were so, hope would be lost and that would mean that all believers over the past 2000 years including those who gave their lives in the name of Christ would have done so in vain…St Laurence, Thomas Cranmer, Diertrich Bonhoeffer...and countless innocent unnamed others.
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Just one year ago this week it was reported in the media that ISIS militants hacked off the fingertips of 12-year-old boy in front of his father, a Syrian Christian ministry team leader who refused to renounce his faith in the Lord. The very same faith expressed in the Nicene Creed that we will stand and affirm together in a few moments, the same faith which the Syrian boy, his father and all 12 witnesses had entrusted to them by other Christians who brought them the Gospel of grace. The faith with which these Syrian went to their deaths strengthened in the grace and gift of Christ Jesus having obtained the salvation that is in Him, with eternal glory (1 Cor. 15:10). As Paul says, the Word of God cannot be chained. Not by ISIS not by any degree of Man’s deeds no matter how much evil and sin are appear to prevail. I think this is captured magnificently with a powerful twist in Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. Remember Paul is imprisoned in Rome chained, not to one but two Prætorian guards, one each of his arms so that he may not leave the house to spread the Gospel. But when the guards’ watch finishes, they go back to their barracks located next to Caesar’s household and obviously talk... And how does Paul’s letter to the Philippians conclude? “...all the saints send you greetings especially those of Caesar’s household. (Phil. 4:22 ESV)”
So I go back to my questions at the beginning of the sermon. Do you want to leave a legacy, and if so what would it be? Will you be an “entruster” of the Gospel to others or will you intentionally or unintentionally keep it to yourself? Or will you leave an eternal legacy once given to you, by God’s grace, just like Lois, Eunice, Timothy and Paul did? From Matthew’s Gospel, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Mt. 5:15 NRSV) Let us remember and give thanks for all Christian witnesses entrusted with the gospel of grace and as we come forward to receive the gift of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us expressed in the real presence of the Holy Sacrament of the Mass. Let us pray that each of us may offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved by Him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the Word of truth, strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, entrusting these things to faithful men and women who in turn will also be able to teach the Good News to others. (2 Tim 2:15)
+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.