Download October 23 - "Passing the Baton"

“Passing the Baton”
Text:
Thesis:
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Life as a follower of Jesus Christ is not easy – life is not easy. Paul
encourages us to pass the baton of faith to those who come after us by
fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith.
2016 has been a big year for finish lines. We cheered the athletes in the Rio
Olympics as they finished their events. Michael Phelps successfully finished his
races and his swimming career. Usain Bolt also finished his races successfully and
perhaps his sprinting career. The Final Five won gold in gymnastics for their coach
who ended her long career. A few notable athletes also completed their life journey
this year. Muhammed Ali fought the good fight to the end with Parkinson’s disease.
Arnold Palmer fought the good fight with heart disease.
The apostle Paul is coming to the end of his life when he writes to his protégé,
Timothy, - “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
(v. 7) I think that all of us would like to come to the end of our life’s journey and say
this. This morning we have 2 children who are just beginning the journey of life and
faith. As we baptize them, how can we pass the baton of faith and encourage them to
fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith? What will help us to
encourage one another, wherever we may be along the way, to finish well?
Paul is in prison and expects to be executed shortly when he writes his last letter to
Timothy and the church. Timothy has traveled with Paul planting churches in Turkey
and Greece and is now a pastor in Ephesus. The churches are facing difficulty. It is
becoming apparent that Christ is not returning soon. There is no structure or order to
this new faith movement. False teachers are corrupting the faith tradition. And,
followers of Jesus Christ are beginning to face more serious persecutions following the
fire in Rome in 64 AD which was blamed on the Christians.
So Paul writes to Timothy –
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Words of instruction about church leadership, organization, and polity;
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Words of encouragement to a young man who is ill-suited to handle conflict.
“Fight the good fight...” was a phrase used in Paul’s first letter to Timothy as he
described the duties of a leader. “But as for you, man of God...pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good
fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which
you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Tim
6:11-12)
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Words of warning about enemies inside and outside the church;
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Words of hope that the same Lord would stand by Timothy’s side in times of trial
and the same crown of righteousness would be Timothy’s prize at the finish line.
Paul is a living example to Timothy and to us of a faithful life.
So, as we pass the baton to Elam and Meadow, let us do these three things. First,
“fight the good fight.” Life is a struggle – there are challenges at many levels.
Government seems to always be involved in a struggle. Municipal, state, national – it
doesn’t matter. There are financial, social, and moral problems. Government is
always in turmoil and it always has been. We just see more of it with the 24/7 news
cycle. The church struggles – all the time. We struggle for leadership, for
volunteers, for financial support. We struggle to speak in a meaningful way to
younger adults about life and faith. We struggle with what it is to be the church.
And our individual lives are a struggle from beginning to end. A newborn struggles to
be born. A child struggles to learn. A teenager struggles with identity and peer
pressure. Young adults struggle to find meaningful work and a life partner. Couples
struggle to stay together and raise children. And older adults struggle with health
issues, financial uncertainty, and loss. When we come to the end of our struggle, all
of us can say that we have fought the fight. But can we echo the words of Paul that
we have fought the good fight? Have we found meaning and purpose in who we are
and what we do? Can we look back upon life with a sense of satisfaction rather than
regrets?
Despite the struggle and the challenges of his life, Paul has no regrets. He has
followed the calling of Jesus in his life. He has given it every bit of his energy. And
he is content to come to the end. Few are called to the life which Paul was given.
But all of us are called to follow Jesus through the circumstances of our lives – to love
God, neighbor, one another, and self. All of us are called to pass the good news to
those who need to hear it especially our children. As we do, we have the satisfaction
of having fought the good fight.
Second, “finish the race.” I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movies
Finding Nemo and this past summer Finding Dory. Dory is a very forgetful but
tenacious regal tang fish. In a delightful scene from the first movie, Dory is trying to
cheer the flagging faith of Marlin the clown fish who is seeking his son, Nemo. She
wisely counsels, “Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down, do you
wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just
keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim!”
That’s what we do – we keep going one step at a time, one day at a time. Paul never
gave up. In spite of shipwrecks, numerous beatings, and imprisonment he kept
preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. He remembered the prize that awaited him
at the end of his race – the crown of righteousness. We tend to look at athletic
contests only for winners and losers. But in the race of life all that matters is finishing
well. The crown of righteousness is not just for athletes like Paul but for all who look
to the Lord in faith and finish the race.
Finally, “keep the faith.” Last week, the PCUSA lost one of its beloved saints. Rev.
Benjamin Weir was a former moderator of the General Assembly, a longtime
missionary in Lebanon, a pastor, evangelist, and seminary professor. And Ben was
also a former hostage who was kidnaped in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984 and held captive
for 16 months. I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Weir at the New Wilmington
Missionary Conference right after he was released. Weir was held in solitary
confinement for most of those months. He searched for a way to hold on to his faith.
In the small, bare room where he was held, Weir looked up at the ceiling and saw the
light. He later told a reporter, “I missed the presence of God in there. “I knew I must
hold on to my identity at all cost. I let my imagination go to work. I looked up and
saw a round metal weight suspended from the light fixture above me. It looked like an
eye. ‘Here’s God’s eye watching over me,’ I thought. I counted the parts of which
the radiator in the room was made. The parts, I decided, could represent people. I
felt the links on the chain that tied me to a pipe in the wall, and the chain became, well,
a sort of Protestant rosary.” [from sermon by Chris Keating, “Keeping the Faith in
Changing Times,” sermonsuite.com, Oct 2016] In that room, the Lord stood by him
and gave him the strength to endure – and one day he would again proclaim the good
news of Jesus Christ.
Paul was deserted by his friends but the Lord stood by him and gave him strength to
proclaim the gospel during his trial before the Emperor. It’s easy to lose your faith in
bad times, but it’s just as easy to lose your faith in good times. In bad times you feel
deserted. In good times you feel as if you don’t need God. So the bottom line is, we
have to “keep the faith” in all circumstances, good and bad.
“Fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith.” This is the life that we model to
the world. This is the life that we encourage in one another. This is the life that we
show to our children.
We don’t know what life will bring to Elam or to Meadow. But the promise is that God
will be present and working with each to give the strength and courage to struggle
through and finish well. So we need to pass along the baton of faith. We need to tell
the stories of faith as found in scripture – Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Deborah,
Peter and Mary Magdalene and Paul, and most of all Jesus. But we need to share
our own stories of faith. What difference does it make in our lives? How are we a
part of what God is about in our world? And we need to show them the love and
compassion of Jesus – in our encouraging words, in our hugs of reassurance, in our
challenge to serve others. At the end of each of our lives, may we be able to say, “I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Amen