Where Have I Been?

For those of you that have not heard, I have out of town quite a bit in the last two weeks. I spent a whole week in New Orleans with our mission team helping the people there to rebuild. I will be preaching more on this experience on Sunday, but I thought I'd give you a few of the details about our trip.

We were able to help four homeowners while we were in New Orleans. We met three of the homeowners we helped, which was an unexpected, but very rewarding part of the trip. What did we actually do? We "gutted" homes, mostly. When a team "guts" a home, they remove absolutely everything in it. Thankfully, the homes we were in already had personal effects removed. Our job was to tear down wall board and all the nails so that the only thing left were the studs. It was physically challenging work!

When you're in someone else's home, literally tearing it apart, you become very aware of how you have entered their personal space and their personal lives in a very intimate way. In the bathroom of one of the homes, a linen closet was still in the wall. Of course, it was ridden with mold and needed to be removed. When we opened the door, we found all the things you find in a linen closet--towels, washcloths, soap etc. You are quickly reminded that you're not just dismantling the "nuts and bolts" of a home. You're dismantling a whole life, a life style, normalcy as it was before the storm. So many emotions go with that. There is an inherent sadness to see a home stripped down. There is a sense that something new is arising out of the ruins. There is hope for a brighter future. There is frustration with a painfully slow process. So much more goes into "gutting" a home than just the physical labor.

So, it was a real roller coaster of a week, and I promise you will hear more about it on Sunday, October 28th. If you can't make it on Sunday for worship, you can hear the audio file of the sermon on Trinity's podcast at www.trinityalexandria.org.

2 Timothy 1:1-14 for Sunday, October 7, 2007

Translation:
(1)Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus (2)to Timothy, beloved child; grace, mercy, peace from God the father and Christ our Lord. (3)I thank God, whom I serve as [my] forefathers with a clear conscience, as I have constantly remembered you in my prayers day and night, (4)longing to see you, remembering your tears, in order that I may be filled with joy. (5)I am reminded of your sincere faith, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and then in your mother, Eunice and I have been persuaded also in you. (6)For this reason I am reminding you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. (7)For God did not give us a cowardly spirit, but power and love and self-control. (8)Therefore, do not be ashamed of testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner, but suffer together with me for the gospel by the power of God, (9)who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not by our own work but by his own purpose and grace, given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal time (10)and now it was revealed through the coming of our savior Christ Jesus, abolishing death, giving light on the one hand and life and immortality through the gospel on the other. (11)I was appointed into this a preacher and apostle and teacher, (12)for this reason I am suffering, but I am not ashamed for I have known whom I have faith in and have been persuaded that he is able to guard what I have entrusted unto that day. (13)Hold as an example the sound words which you heard from me in faith and love in Christ Jesus. (14)Guard the good treasure entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit living in us.

I think we all know that if a fire is given fuel and plenty of oxygen it can rage for quite a while. Though we rarely have a reason to keep a fire going for a long time anymore, but we've all heard the stories of insatiable forest fires. A campfire image is the kind of thing Paul is evoking when he writes to Timothy "I am reminding you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands." If you want to keep your campfire going, you need to take some care to make sure it is well stocked with wood and you need to regularly fan it.

The same is true for our spiritual lives. Timothy must have had a pretty powerful experience, as Paul recalls his tears and how filled with joy he is whenever he recalls Timothy's faith. I know I've had some powerful spiritual experiences in my life. They're really exhilarating when they happen. But the spiritual high does not last forever. It takes work to stay on that "mountain top" as some call it. It takes lots of fanning to keep the spiritual flames burning.

Paul is also pretty clear that Timothy received this "gift" (we do not know exactly what it is) from God at the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands, for all of Christian history, has been a powerful way in which the Spirit is conveyed. In Greek, the word used for "gift" is charisma the root for the word we know as "charismatic." When we think of a charismatic person we think of someone who has extraordinary skills, usually leaders. Extraordinary skills or gifts were exactly the kind of thing conveyed through the Spirit, particularly at the laying on of hands.

Every baptized Christian has had hands laid on them. Part of baptism is the laying on of hands when we say the words "The Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ." Everyone of us has also received a charisma from God at our own baptisms. Unfortunately, the same is true for as was true for Timothy. If we do not rekindle the gift (charisma) that God gave us, we will soon forget it.

Let's not forget that every charisma is important to the kingdom of God. God made us all different and special and every gift, every charisma possessed by each of us has a very special purpose in the kingdom of God. The whole world is waiting for us to rekindle our charism so that the kingdom of God might come just a little closer to this very mixed-up world.