October 2nd: "Down and Out"

Watch the Sermon here

First United Presbyterian Church

“Down and Out”

Rev. Amy Morgan

October 2, 2022

2 Timothy 1:3-14  

 3 I 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.

 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

 5 I 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.

 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;

 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

 8 Do 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,

 9 who 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,

 10 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.

 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,

 12 and 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.

 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

 14 Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

I could see tears in his eyes. Wilian, the director of Yucatan Peninsula Missions in Mexico, looked a little down and out at the end of our worship service. It was the final day of our mission trip, and we had celebrated Communion with the mission team, our Mexican hosts, and all the folks who had worked with us, fed us, and helped us throughout the week. It was a moving experience, but in all the years I’ve known Wilian, I’ve never seen him cry when a group was leaving. I put my arm around him, and we offered the benediction together. 

A little later, on the drive to the airport, Wilian explained his emotion. In the three years since my last trip to Mexico, two very dear members of our YPM family had died. 

Richard had been on several trips with me and was a member of my church in Michigan, and he’d served as President of the YPM board for a time. He was strong and energetic, always positive and encouraging, and gave his all on every trip. At 59 years old, he’d died of a sudden heart attack. 

On all my previous trips with YPM, we had a mother/daughter team who did all the cooking for us. Mari was the daughter. She was always smiling and giving great bear hugs, singing and playing with the neighborhood kids. She loved the groups from the U.S. and did her best to communicate with limited English. She had been struggling with diabetes for years, but the last time I saw her she had been doing really well and was proud of how healthy she was. But one night, she fell ill and refused to go to the hospital, and by the morning she was gone. 

The week of our mission trip with YPM in June, I got word that Charlie, the husband of one of YPM’s longest-tenured board members, had died. He had been on medical mission trips in the past, and he and Wilian had developed a tender friendship through mutual visits. 

So when Wilian presided at the Communion table during that worship service, he felt the communion of these folks from all over our Presbytery, who had been near-strangers before that week, the communion of Mexican and American Christians, and the communion with those dear friends, Richard, Mari, and Charlie. I could understand why he was so moved. He wasn’t feeling down and out because our group was leaving. But he was feeling how the community of faith around YPM had been handed down and spread out. 

This is the feeling expressed in Paul’s emotional letter to Timothy. The letter may be an actual letter from Paul in prison, but many scholars think it more probable that it is a letter written in the tradition of Paul decades after his death. This makes sense because what we hear in this letter is how the faith has been handed down and spread out. Faith in Jesus has been handed down to Timothy through his mother and grandmother, and through the literal hands of Paul. 

And Timothy is being encouraged to keep spreading his faith out, to “rekindle the gift of God that is within” him, to not be ashamed of his testimony, to “hold on to the standard of sound teaching,” and “guard the good treasure entrusted to” him. These are instructions appropriate for a relatively established Christian movement, when faith is starting to stagnate, suffering turns people away, understanding of the gospel gets confusing, and the preciousness of the good news begins to wane. Whatever the historical origins of this letter, it clearly has something to say to the whole church, then and now, beyond what it might have meant to an individual early Christian. 

This letter never mentions the sacrament of Communion, but I couldn’t help reflecting on this World Communion Sunday how it really is all about Communion, especially in this first chapter. This letter makes clear that faith is not an individual exercise, something that only matters between me and God. This letter describes a “down and out” faith, a faith that is handed down and spread out. And that’s exactly what happens in the sacrament of Communion. 

At the Communion table, we are connected to those who have come before us. As our Directory for Worship states, “The Lord’s Supper…connects us with God’s saving power and providential care from generation to generation…When we gather at the Lord’s Supper the Spirit draws us into Christ’s presence and unites with the Church in every time and place. We join with all the faithful in heaven and on earth in offering thanksgiving to the triune God.” 

This instruction also reminds us that we are connected through this sacrament to those who are distant from us, as Paul and Timothy were. World Communion Sunday is an especially poignant reminder of our connections with Christians all over the globe who are celebrating this sacrament with us today. It testifies to how much the Christian faith has spread out all over the world. 

In the Lord’s Supper, we are also connected to the love and suffering of Jesus Christ, remembering his death that “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” a gospel for which Paul was not ashamed to suffer. At this table, we remember in prayer the suffering of the world around us, our beloved ones who have died in the faith, and know that Christ’s presence at this table means Christ is present who those who suffer and grieve. 

But, as our prayer following Communion says, through this meal we are taken out to live as changed people, “because we have shared the living bread and cannot remain the same.” This sacrament connects us to those who have handed down the faith, but it also nourishes us to spread the faith out, to “go out with joy” as Isaiah says. The Directory for Worship also adds that in the Lord’s Supper, we “recommit ourselves to love and serve God, one another, and our neighbors in the world.” 

We don’t do this work on our own, but, as Paul writes, “relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.” We aren’t changed into better people or more capable people at this table. We are changed into people who trust that, by the grace and power of God in Jesus Christ, we can do the work of God in the world just the way we are, in all our frailty and brokenness. We come here to be reminded of the eternal promises of God in Jesus Christ, who brings life out of death and can use all things for God’s good purposes in the world. 

Paul is concerned that Timothy should “hold to the standard of sound teaching” and “guard the good treasure entrusted to” him. There are a lot of things in the church that need to change. We’ve talked about several of them in the last sermon series. But there are other things that we need to hold on to, things that we treasure and should guard. Communion is one of those things. We may change how we practice it, the tunes we sing, the words in the liturgy and prayers. The shortbread recipe may get tweaked as it is handed down. Including our online community is a testimony to how we are spread out. But this “down and out” ritual is a treasure, a gift, and a standard we hold on to. Not because we love tradition. But because of how it hands our faith down and spreads it out, each and every time we come to this table. 

This year, and very recently, our church family has experienced the deaths of folks who are dear to us. Many of us have lost loved ones in our families or are grieving the deaths of close friends. But in this meal, today, beloved, we are united with all of them in the loving presence of Jesus Christ. That faith that has been handed down to us from them is being lived out in this sacrament and spread out through the nourishment and calling we receive here. 

Through the years of the pandemic, and all the travel mayhem and expense of the last several months, many of us have been separated from people we love. Some of us have loved ones who are incarcerated, deployed in the military, or living in other countries. All those we love and long to be near are united with us in this meal today through the loving presence of Jesus Christ. 

And right here in this room, and gathered with us online, there are saints of the church, people who continue to help us know and grow in faith. Even those who don’t feel like saints, even if we, like Timothy and his community, are feeling stagnant in our faith, want to avoid suffering, are confused or feel like frauds, or just feel like the gospel isn’t that precious and important in our lives anymore – that is when we most need to embrace our sainthood, our unconditional belonging at this table and in Christ’s body. Because here is where we “rekindle the gift of God that is within us.” Here is where we are nourished for the work God calls us to. Here is where we “go out with joy” to spread the good news. Here is where faith that is “down and out” is handed down and spread out. And that faith is all we need, all the world needs. It is the faith that God gives us, by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. It is a gift and a treasure that has been handed down and that we are called to spread out. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.