Unashamed: Stand Firm

Stand Firm!  Oct. 27, 2019 

2 Timothy 3: 10-17           

            Friends, it’s a blessing to be with each of you again this morning. I don’t know about you, but I was deeply encouraged by last week’s celebration of Laity Sunday. It’s not often that I get to learn from others, but watching you lead worship was a gift. You encouraged me! So thank you. Last Sunday was a clear reminder for me that faith is best lived out together. You and I both know that our world often falls short of God’s best, and when we find ourselves discouraged and wounded, we need others to remind us to press on, to stand firm and to be who God calls us to be. And that’s our hope in this sermon series. As we look at 2 Timothy, I believe we’ll find encouragement to stand firm in our faith. If you have your Bibles…

            I was in college when I first started to wrestle with this idea of ministry. Up until that time, I kind of brushed aside any ideas of being a pastor, but God was beginning to do something undeniable in me, and it caused me to be excited and restless. So I sought out some wise counsel. I met with trusted friends and family members and told them what was happening inside of me. And they all said the same thing: Go for it! They were loving, supportive and affirming. Some even said they had seen this coming. And I was grateful for their kind and thoughtful words. But I wasn’t entirely convinced until I had a different kind of conversation with a seasoned pastor. I shared with him the same information, the same story, the same inward conviction, and his response was entirely unexpected.  “Oh Brett,” he said, “If you can do anything else, then do it. If there’s anything else that you can do that will bring you joy, do it. But if you say ‘Yes,’ just be certain that this truly is God’s call on your life.” Some 15 years after that conversation, I understand what my friend was trying to tell me. He was graciously reminding me that faith is the greatest adventure we’ll ever take, but that it’s also lived out in the all-too-real context of a cosmic battle between good and evil. And when the good happens, there’s no better feeling in the world. But when the evil happens, it can really hurt.

            If anybody knew about this tension, it would’ve been the Apostle Paul. He had seen some of the greatest moments our faith has to offer- healings and transformations and entire communities experiencing God’s goodness. But he had also experienced firsthand the pain of evil and all of its ugliness- sometimes called spiritual warfare- since the day he said “yes” to Jesus. In his letter to Timothy, he mentions his sufferings and persecutions, which would’ve been enough for most people to say thanks, but no thanks to following Jesus. And maybe some of those thoughts were beginning to mess with Timothy’s faith. But for Paul, those realities were a powerful part of the narrative of faith…but not the defining part. 

            We don’t talk much about that side of faith these days, but we probably need to. In fact, our inability to talk about difficult subjects like suffering and evil is creating generations of spiritual confusion. The results of a recent Barna survey on the growing reality of atheism concluded that one of the top barriers that keep people from living a life of faith is this tension between good and evil, right and wrong. (Read article here) Somewhere along the line we were fed well-intentioned ideas that bad things don’t happen to good people, that if we just do the right things and believe the right things then right things will fall into place; but that’s just not true. Sometimes the very worst things happen to the most faithful of people. And I don’t try to pretend to understand why that is. I just know that it is. But I also know that when evil strikes, we’re not left alone.

            One year ago today, evil reared its ugly head at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. As people gathered to do exactly what we’re doing today- to pray, sing and search the Scriptures- an armed man opened fire, ending the lives of 11 worshippers and changing the lives of many more. And with those changes came lots of questions, lots of emotions and lots of tears. It stands as the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil. Now, I don’t think anyone would’ve blamed Tree of Life if they had made the decision to close up shop. I don’t think anyone would’ve batted an eye if those congregations confessed that they were just too worn down, too broken, too discouraged to keep going and stand firm. But in the aftermath, they’ve discovered a wave of global support and it’s renewed their determination. And now, one year later, they are digging in their heels; they are praying again, singing again, searching the Scriptures again; and they are refusing to let evil have the final word. In the words of Rabbi Jeffry Myers, “…evil will not win. It will not chase us out of our building. So we must reopen, and we will.” Quote

            

            I can’t begin to imagine the ongoing pain experienced by those Tree of Life worshippers, nor would I ever want to trivialize their tragedy by mindlessly comparing that horrific event to our own times of struggle. But with that said, there are days and seasons when it sure feels like evil is winning. And maybe you’re in one of those seasons right now. Maybe something has happened that has caused your faith to be shaken, if not downright shattered. And if that’s the case, don’t get too down on yourself. Jesus says in John 10:10 that the enemy of our souls seeks to kill, steal and destroy. And none of us our immune to the darts of enemy. But at the same time, Jesus stands ready and waiting to give us abundant life, and when we draw near to Him, we’ll find what we need to stand firm. This, I believe, is what Paul wants his young friend, Timothy, to know. He doesn’t lie to Timothy, never suggests to Timothy, that everything will be perfect. On the contrary, he tells him to expect times of trouble, to anticipate tough times, because the enemy does not want to see the things of God prevail. So how do we press on? How do we stand firm in an unpredictable, unstable and uncertain world? We set our feet firmly on the One who is able, stable and certain by rooting ourselves in the God-breathed Scriptures that have stood the test of time. 

            One of the most important resources we have to help us navigate this world is the Bible. if our Bibles are doing little more than collecting dust, we’re essentially putting a lid on God’s primary way of influencing us. Because when we open God’s Word, we’re doing more than reading words on pages; we’re opening our lives for God to breathe his life into us. That’s what we mean when we say the Bible is “God-breathed.” These words stem from God’s heart and flow into us in ways that speak to us, and form us, and shape us. Simply put, these words put us in touch with the One who gives us life. In his own moment of temptation, (yes, even Jesus was not immune to the enemy’s attacks) Jesus found strength in God’s Word. For Jesus, God’s Word was truth, and that truth was enough to sustain his faith and help him stand firm. And this Word will be enough for us. 

I wish I could stand here today and tell you that evil won’t happen. But it will. Sometimes it comes from obvious places; sometimes it comes from sources that cut deep to the heart- friends who up and leave, news that we never expected, children who give in to destructive behaviors, etc. And when it does, our worldviews run the risk of growing distorted. Some of you might remember one of the first Snickers’ commercials advertising the new catchphrase You’re not you when you’re hungry. The commercial featured the ageless wonder Betty White trying to play football, but when the ball was thrown her way, she miserably dropped the pass and proceeded to fall into a pile of mud. Recognizing the plight of their obviously out-of-sorts friend, the teammates rushed to the scene with a candy bar and Betty snapped back in to the ultra-gifted wide-receiver they all new her to be. She wasn’t herself when she was hungry. We’re not ourselves when evil and suffering strike. And neither is our faith. But there is hope.

            I have here one of the most meaningful Bibles I’ve ever owned. This particular Bible helped me navigate a decade of my life full of ups and downs. And it shows. It’s frayed at the edges and the cardboard and leather that make up its binding is held together by packaging tape. The hundreds of underlined passages and markings and notes tell the story of a young man who was desperately trying to make sense of a strange world, and world where newborn life brings so much joy and untimely deaths bring unspeakable pain; a world where some relationships make it and others fall apart; a world where some prayers go answered while others seem to linger; a world where some lives seem so easy, while others have to try so hard.  Like Paul wrote to Timothy, this small Bible has proven to be a wonderful source of teaching and correction and training for righteousness. But if I could put it another way, I would say this: this Bible has been exactly what Psalm 119 said it would be: a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It’s not that this Bible somehow provided answers to every question, because it hasn’t. Nor have these Scriptures somehow protected me from every possible harm, because they didn’t. Instead, these Scriptures have done far more. They’ve led me where we all need to go—the presence of God. And it’s in God’s presence where we find the footing to stand firm. 

The great reformer, Martin Luther, once had this to say about the power of the Bible: “Nothing helps more powerfully against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts than occupying oneself with God’s Word…”  But when I was a child in Sunday School, I learned it this way: The BIBLE, yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the BIBLE. I’ll be the first to admit how hard it can be to remain faithful, especially when it feels like it’s all falling apart. But I’ll also be the first to tell you that when you open this Word, you’ll return to an old, old story that is still being written today. And this story is enough to help you stand firm. If there is one spiritual practice I would love to see you take up, it would be the daily reading of God’s Word. Because in this book, you’ll find more than words; you’ll find a Savior ready to lead you and light your way until that day when He makes all the wrongs of the world right again. And so long as we, the people of God, stand firm in the Scriptures, evil will never have the word. Amen.