Living the Faith We have Inherited

October 2, 2022 World Communion Sunday 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Living the Faith we have Inherited 17th Sunday after Pentecost Opening Song Welcome The promises of the world turn to ashes and dust, but the promises of God last forever. The Holy One calls to us: “Come!” We come to rekindle the gift of God ablaze within us. Opening Prayer (Lamentations 1, 2 Timothy 1) Source of grace and peace, you call us into being; you keep us in safety; you hold us in life. Far too often, we turn from you, placing our trust in the frail promises of other human beings and the insecure security of wealth. Be with us now. Bring us into your presence. Comfort our pain. Challenge our pride. Enter into our prayer and our praise, that our worship may be pleasing to you. We pray these things in the name of the one who loved us first, Jesus Christ. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Mpho Tutu) Song Standing on the Promises UMH 374 Children’s Sermon Preparation Bring a globe or a world map. Choose some places where you have lived or visited or where you know someone. Prepare to locate and talk about these places. If you have a souvenir from another country, it may be fun to bring that to show to the children as well. Message Greet the children as you typically do. Say: I have brought something special for us to look at today. Does anyone know what this is? Take time for them to answer. Say: A map or a globe shows where all the countries are in the world are. Show the children where they are on the map. Ask: Has anyone here traveled to another country? Take time to find where the children have been. If the children have not been outside of the United States, ask about countries they might want to visit and why. You can also talk about one or two places you have visited and show them souvenirs. Say: Today is World Communion Sunday. Today we remember that God’s church isn’t just here inside our sanctuary. It is full of people from all around the United States and all around our world. We all do God’s work together! Each of us has something we can do to show God’s love to the world. Ask: What are some things that you can do? Take some answers. Say: No matter how big or small we are, we can all show God’s love. Just think about all the people around the world showing God’s love! Closing Prayer Loving God, thank you for big church full of your people from all over the world! Give us courage to show your love to everyone we meet. Amen. (ResourceUMC.org) Passing the Peace of Christ (2 Timothy 1) Hear the words of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” The peace of Christ is ours, through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Scripture 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Sermon Living the Faith we have Inherited Is there anything God can't do? It's a question that has been asked for as long as humanity has been searching for the meaning of life. God is omnipotent, we say, and omniscient ” all powerful and all knowing. There is nothing beyond God's power. There is nothing God cannot do. And yet, St. Paul tells us that there IS one thing God can't do. Listen closely to these words that he wrote to Timothy: "If we are faithless, He remains true, for He cannot deny Himself." Did you catch that? "He cannot deny Himself." There it is ” the one thing God cannot do. If you are ever on a television quiz show and the announcer says, "Now, for $1 million, is there anything God cannot do?" you will know the answer. "I've got it! I've got it!" you can scream while you hug your partner and dance across the stage. "What is the answer?" the announcer will ask. And you can look straight into the camera and reply, "God cannot deny Himself." Our task in life, is to be more like God. Our faith is the story of our striving to be connected to God. C.S. Lewis was an English professor, a prolific writer, and a lay leader in the Anglican church. We are familiar with many of his writings. Many which are secular, but with an intentional deep Christian message. The Screwtape Letters was one if his books. Like the books of Timothy – it is a series of letters written by the chief devil, Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood. Who as a young man, has just started his career as a devil. If there is a hierarchy of angels going up, there is a lowarchy of devils going down. Wormwood is troubled, because he finds that it is particularly hard to evangelize Christians to the dark side. There is one that his is working on, which he calls the patient. In one of his letters, Screwtape reminds Wormwood that his job is not to get the patient to commit some horrible sin, but to just distract him from his faith. Help him to forget to pray, to go to church, to put God first in his life. MY DEAR WORMWOOD, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a I brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour. One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. (From the Screwtape Letters) This is written from the perspective of the devil, the enemy is God. In the preface of the book, C S Lewis says that the devil is always a liar and that nothing that he says is right. It is the exact opposite of what Paul says to Timothy in our scripture. Paul is encouraging Timothy to live in the faith. The letter is passed on to encourage pastors. 1 Timothy is a book about the order of the church. As we begin 2 Timothy – the emphasis is on personal faith – the way we live out the faith in our own lives. It is not just for pastors, but for us all. If we have the faith in our hearts, we are carriers of the faith and we are leaders. There is one thing that Paul and Screwtape agree on – that our faith connected to God is our power. The power that raised Christ from the dead is inside of each of us – if we hold onto the faith. Paul is writing Timothy from prison. But he reminds Timothy that his words are free – the gospel travels wherever it must go and it changes lives and it makes it point no matter what the circumstance. Paul reminds Timothy that he inherited his faith from his mother and grandmother. We don’t know about the circumstance, but Eunice raises her son Timothy alone. Eunice stays with her mother, and they make sure that Timothy grows up in the church. No matter what our story, each of us inherited our faith from someone, even if we didn’t grow up in the church. There was someone in our lives, who even if we never heard a bible story, we knew what it meant to be a Christian from their actions. We could see the spirit of Christ in them. For me, that person is my Aunt Maggie. When my mother and I moved from Arkansas to Illinois, we stayed with Uncle Chester and Aunt Maggie. My grandmother came with us for a while. As a two year old, Aunt Maggie explained that there were a lot of adults in the house, but that she was my person. I listened only to her, I went where she went. We were a team. Every Sunday we went to church. Not everyone in the household went to church every Sunday, but we were there. My uncle was a deacon, so he would be in the pulpit every Sunday. My mother and I moved out a year later, and my mother was not a church goer, but that experience still sticks with me. I had the strength to be in the pulpit every Sunday, because that’s where I saw my uncle. Now that I am grown looking back at that experience, I think it was my grandma’s design for me to inherit Aunt Maggie’s faith. Just a few days ago, Aunt Maggie sent me an encouraging message on Facebook. We are of different deniminations, but she still is my faith mentor. The faith that we inherit is longstanding, but it is still powerful, unchained and useful today. The scewtape letters are a classic today – because the devil still works to distract us from our faith. Pauls message in timothy is classic as well. There is power in our faith. And when we put that power to use in the world, we are making a difference. Bruce Larson tells an unusual story about a woman in their congregation who had been feeling for some time that God had given her a special ministry to those who are hospitalized. She loved calling on patients and trying to impart something of God's love through scripture messages, through prayer, through friendship and concern. She began to sense God wanted her to do this on a continuing basis in one of their local hospitals. This is a woman, mind you, with no special training in counseling or pastoral calling. Nevertheless, she presented herself to the administrator of a local hospital one morning and declared that she would very much like to come on staff as their chaplain--unpaid, of course. To her amazement, he responded positively. "That's just what we've needed here," he said. "I've been hoping we could find our way to make a chaplain available in an unofficial kind of role. You're on." That all happened over ten years ago. This woman now spends several days a week doing what she loves most, ministering to the sick. This untrained layperson is the hospital chaplain, the only one they've got, and an unofficial but integral part of all staff meetings. (3) You may not be able to make the kind of time commitment that this woman made, but God has called every believer to a ministry. It may be a ministry of caring, of music, of teaching or a host of other ways of serving God and serving God's children. But an integral part of living a fulfilling life is hearing God's voice in your life and of giving your life to something high and worthwhile. Paul reminds Timothy of his heritage and he reminds him of his high calling. I visited my dentist this week. Of all the rooms available he always puts me in this bright Tennessee orange room with a plaque on the wall that reads like this: I’d rather a see sermon than hear one any day. I’d rather one should walk with me than merely show the way. The eye is a better pupil, more willing than the ear. Fine counsel is confusing, but example is always clear. And the best of all the preachers are the ones who live their creeds, For to see a good put into action is what everybody needs. God calls all us to have a rekindled spirit, to be an example, to trust in the power of our faith. I want to leave you with the words of our scripture – in a very simple form From Paul, and older preacher to timothy, whom I love very much and whom God loved:I thank God for you every day. I remember everything we did together and look forward to being with you again. I remember how much you love God, just as your mother and grandmother loved God. Because I remember all this, I also remind you that you have a job to do. God has given you the gifts to be a fine leader, and the church has elected you to be its leader. So do not give up. God does not want you to be too cautious about using your gifts. Instead, God fills you with power and love and self control. So use those gifts. Do not be ashamed to stand up for God’s ways. If people tease you, call you rnames, or even push you around, you can take it. Look at me – I am in prison for doing God’s work, but I do not mind. I know God will take care of me even in prison. And I know that God will take care of you. So remember everything you have learned about God’s love and plan for the world. Follow my brave example. And most of all, remember that God’s Holy Spirit lives in you and gives power to do amazing work for God. Amen. Song One Bread, One Body UMH 620 Pastoral Prayer Generous God, it is easy for us to comfortably imagine so many other Christians praying today and receiving the elements of Holy Communion. We like to think of this as a nice event; yet you remind us that when we have received these gifts we are also called to use the strength that they provide to witness to others through acts of reconciling love. This Communion is not a “nice” service, meant for our comfort. It is a challenge for us to truly accept the love of Jesus Christ, who gave to us his body and his blood, that we might be redeemed to do God’s loving will. As we have gathered here this day, bringing our prayer concerns to you, O Lord, help us to remember that you hold each one of us gently and lovingly, offering your healing mercies. Give us courage to be your witnesses, seeking peace in this war-torn world. For we ask this in the name of Jesus the Christ. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment We can teach people that. We can teach people how to be generous. A child by the name of William placed a dollar in the offering plate some months ago with this note attached: “Dear God, I love you much. When I get to heaven I want to love you even more. I want to give you something today and bow down to you forever. Signed, William.” He probably was no more than six years old. With this sense of generosity can you imagine what this fellow may accomplish as an adult; what kind of help he will be for the world when he grows up Moment for Stewardship Invite several folks to bring forward coins or bills from a variety of countries (or use visuals on the screen, or very descriptive language to help identify different currency), as you identify how congregations around the world are receiving an offering this morning. Whether we share kwatcha, francs, pesos or dollars, we are invited to bring an offering today, to support this congregation and our world-wide ministries. (Describe one or two specific outreach ministries which are underwritten by your offering) From the smallest coin to the largest check, every gift is valued, appreciated and will be used to sustain the work of Christ in the world. With generous hearts and open hands, let us share our offering. Prayer of Thanksgiving God of all good gifts, we’ve gathered to grow in faith, to share our voices and to offer our gifts. We’ve offered these gifts, grateful for all we’ve received from your hand. Receive this offering. Fill us once more with your Spirit, and help us spread the Table love known here to all we encounter in the coming days. AMEN Invitation to Communion God creates and sustains our world, connecting us more surely than any world wide web, binding us together more closely than any cable. On this World Communion Sunday, we gather around one extended table to give thanks for the beauty of God’s people, “church,” with all its varied denominations, with people of every color, nation, and culture. Gracias a Dios! We thank God for beautiful music, in various languages. Grazie Dio [Grat-zia Dee-O] (Italian) We offer thanks for worship in many forms. Sin isiyeo gamsahabnida (Korean) (Shin Ni Ye O Gamshab nit ha) We thank God for Jesus, whose compassion fills us, so we might share whenever we see brothers and sisters in need, whether next door or on the other side of the globe. All are welcome at this Table. It extends from this sanctuary all around the globe, and there is bread and juice for all who will feast with Christ. Come! The feast is prepared, and you have a place. Communion Page 13 Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook As God has poured God’s love on you, go now in peace to bring God’s love to all people. Rest in the confidence of God’s abiding presence with you and be joyful in your service to God. Go in peace and love. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Community Time Benediction As we go back into the ordinariness of the world out there, may God infuse our whole selves with the specialness that we’ve created here together. Let it shape everything we say and do as bearers of God’s image. May it be so! (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Phiwa Langini) Additional Illustrations Max Lucado relates a touching, true story about a mother named Maria and her daughter, Christina. Maria and Christina lived in a poor village in Brazil. Maria's husband died when Christina was an infant. Maria got a job as a maid in order to support herself and Christina. There were no luxuries, but they got by. For fifteen years things went rather well. But now Christina became a teenager and teenagers often have minds of their own. Christina was not interested in marrying young and raising a family like most of the other girls that she grew up with. Not that she couldn't have had her pick of husbands. Her olive skin and brown eyes, as well as her infectious personality, kept a steady stream of prospects at her door. But she kept them all at arm's length. Christina wanted to go to the city. She dreamed of trading her dusty neighborhood for exciting avenues and city life. Just the thought of this horrified Maria. "People don't know you there," she said with desperation in her voice. "Jobs are scarce and the life is cruel. And besides, if you went there, what would you do for a living?" This is what horrified Maria most. Maria knew exactly what Christina would have to do for a living. That's why her heart broke when she awoke one morning to find her daughter's bed empty. Christina had gone and Maria knew where. Maria set out immediately to bring her back. Maria threw some clothes in a bag, gathered up all her money, and ran out of the house. But not before she had an inspired idea. On her way to the bus stop she paused at a drugstore. She entered a photograph booth there and spent all the money she could afford on pictures of herself. With a purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the bus to Rio de Janeiro. And there Maria began her search. Knowing what a girl would have to do to support herself in this cruel city Maria began with the bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with a reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture ” taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. She wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. A few weeks later young Christina descended a flight of hotel stairs. "Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home.' She did." (4) And so can you and I. We really can. And God cannot refuse us entrance back into His family. Perhaps it would help if, in our imagination, every time we see a cross, we could see it as a snapshot of God and on the back of every cross we could see these words, "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." Human parents may turn their back on their children. God cannot. Human beings may forget their promises and go back on their word. God cannot. Human beings may reject people because of past sins. God cannot. If anyone here this day would turn your heart over to God ” no matter what you've done, no matter what you have become ” God will receive you. God can do no other. For you see, God's nature and God's name is Love. There is one thing God simply cannot do. He cannot deny Himself. 4. Max Lucado, NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM THE SAVIOR (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah Press, 1986). pp. 157-59. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan A juggler with a circus was pulled over for speeding. The officer was suspicious when he looked in the back seat and saw several large knives. "What are you doing with those?" he asked. "I'm a juggler with the circus," said the man. "To make it more exciting I juggle those large knives." "Well, show me," said the officer. So the juggler started juggling six of these large knives all at once. Knives were flying everywhere, though amazingly all of them were expertly under his control. While he was performing, another car passed by. The driver of this car did a double take when he saw the juggler throwing six knives up in the air at one time and catching them. He turned to his wife and said, "That's it. I'm through drinking. Why, if I ever got stopped, I could never pass one of those new sobriety tests!" There's a ridiculous story about a young man who was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. Finally he went to the checkout line, but this older woman got in front of him. "Pardon me," she said, "I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look like my son, who just died recently." "I'm very sorry," replied the young man, "is there anything I can do for you?" "Yes," she said, "As I'm leaving, would you say "˜Good bye, Mother!'? It would make me feel so much better." "Sure," answered the young man. As the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye, Mother!" She waved back at him and disappeared through the supermarket door. As he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was $127.50. "How can that be?" he asked, "I only purchased a few things!" The clerk looked over the top of his reading glasses and said drily, "Your mother said that you would pay for her." (1) In a sense we all pay for the strengths and weaknesses of our parents. Usually people of faith, love and integrity produce children of faith, love and integrity. As people use to say, "the fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree." Penelope J. Stokes in her book Simple Words of Wisdom gives us a beautiful picture of faith in its purest sense. She tells about a scene in the action-packed movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Indy's quest is to find the Holy Grail, the original chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper. But in order to prove himself pure in heart, Indy must face life-threatening challenges that test his humility, his obedience, and his trust. In the final challenge, Indy finds himself teetering on the brink of a deep, vast chasm. The way across, according to the legends, lies right before him. But he cannot see it. He must step out in faith, with no tangible assurance of support. He must trust what his eyes cannot see. Fearful but determined, Indy steps out . . . and discovers himself standing on a bridge of rock, solid and firm beneath his feet but invisible to the eye. (4) I've stood on that rock, haven't you? Anyone who's ever turned a loved one over to God, anyone who's ever staked his life and his reputation on seeking God's will for his life, anyone who's ever sat in a doctor's room and said, "œLord, I'm scared. But I'm turning this over to you. I know whatever comes I will always be under your watchful care," knows what it is to step out on that unseen bridge. It comes to us all sooner or later and it is there where we discover whether we just believe in God or whether we have faith in God. St. Paul had faith in God. That is why he could write, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Young Timothy proved to have that kind of faith as well. Maybe it was because he saw that kind of faith in his mother and grandmother. In times of crisis the greatest gift we can give our children is the example of a peaceful, trusting spirit. Maybe it came from Timothy's sense of calling. When you believe you are seeking to do God's will in the world, you begin to sense God's presence in the world. And it gives you confidence that God is indeed in control. Whatever the source, Timothy was a special follower of our Lord. May we each be special followers as well. ________________________________________ 3. Bruce Larson, The Presence (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988), p. 30. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan An army officer, his wife, and two children were living in a hotel while he was on a temporary military assignment. One day, a guest in the hotel saw one of the little girls playing house in the lobby. She was saddened for the little girl and said, I’m so sorry that you don’t have a home. The little girl responded quickly, oh we have a home, we don’t have a house to put it in. This is Mother’s Day and the festival of the Christian home and I want to talk about that word of the little girl. But I want to add to it and talk about the fact that families are to provide for us a house for our home and a home for our faith Not only do we know who we are, we need to know that we belong. Hoover Rupert tells a beautiful story about some friends of his who were foster parents of a little girl. One afternoon she asked her mother if she could go play in the park, and the mother told her she could if she would return home by 6:00 for dinner. Well, she came in at a quarter of 6, and the mother reminded her that she still had 15 more minutes to play. And the little girl responded, I know, but I wanted to come back early. And then the little girl explained that her natural parents never required her to come home at any particular time, she could home whenever she pleased. When she was playing with other children, she said, one of them would be called, would hear her mother call and know that she had to be home by 7:00. Another would hear a whistle and know that it was his dad reminding him to come home. And still others would be called and they would leave the park and she would be left there alone in the dark, waiting for her call, but that call would never come. She said, it makes me feel so good that someone wants me to come in, that I came in early. Now that’s what families are for. To let us know that we are wanted, that we are important, that somebody cares about us. Something that really only the family can give us in the kind of power that we need it to be given, and that is that we really belong, that we are in a relationship with others that are important.