Sectional 1. Spiritual Empowerment for Unashamed Ministry

Transcript (edited for readability).

Before I begin the topic for this afternoon, there are three things I'd like to touch on briefly.

First of all, a question that arose after the last session. One of the brothers asked me — and it's a question that's usually asked when I teach about meditation and prayer, as I do — does this mean that prayer is a means of grace? I say no. Prayer and meditation is using the God-given means of grace. It's exercising our faith in the word of God. It's as simple as that. Faith is always faith in the word of God. The problem is that we see it very abstractly, as if it's out there, and that's the end of the story. How do we receive what Christ offers to us? In and through his word, which is the means of the Spirit. And that, by the way, is the term I prefer — to talk about the means of the Holy Spirit, or the means of salvation. You get into far less trouble than with the other term, "means of grace." But let's stick with that classical term. So, prayer and meditation is using the word of God, exercising our faith in the word of God. It's as simple as that.

Secondly, just two things I had intended to mention but didn't get to, as you know, since I was a little rushed in the last session. First of all, in connection with the exercise of meditation and prayer — just a couple of months ago I met with a pastor who had just retired, and we were speaking about prayer and the connection between prayer and the Holy Spirit. We had quite a long chat, but the most important part was something he wanted to share with me, so that I could share it with other people — an experience he had. He said that for many years, increasingly, he was — this was his own term — "running on empty." He was giving and giving and giving, and feeling totally, spiritually depleted. And then the big transformation in his ministry — he said he wished somebody had taught him this, and that he'd done it much earlier — he was ministered to by a brother who said, "Why don't you pray for the Holy Spirit every day?" Simple. Pray for the Holy Spirit every day to empower you in your ministry. It changed everything for him, and turned his ministry from a great burden, a great sense of crippling obligation, into a joy.

Thirdly, remember what Jesus said to the woman who said, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts you sucked" — he said, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Mary, twice blessed. Another way of looking at meditation is that by means of meditation, the word of God, the gospel, becomes incarnate in us — becomes embodied in us. So we assimilate it, take it right into the center of our being, our heart, and it's there, then, and whether we know it or not, it affects the whole of our being, it permeates everything we do every day. So we operate, if you like, out of the word of God. The word becomes, in a small way, incarnate in us — the word that was incarnate for us becomes incarnate in us.

Now, the topic for this afternoon is spiritual empowerment. I want to be a little bit naughty and say, okay, I'm your fairy godmother — or godfather, as the case may be. You're really with it this afternoon. And I'm going to give you one wish. But it's a very specific kind of wish. I offer you the option of having spiritual power that you can exercise any way you choose. Power — not just ordinary power, not physical power, not that you're going to become some superstud, or Superman, or something like that — but spiritual power that you can use any way you wish. How would you use that power? What would you use that power to do? Think of those antagonists. Think of all the problem people in your congregation. Think of your failures, or your perceived failures. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to perform a miracle or two? How would you exercise spiritual power if you had the option? I'm going to leave that hanging.

Okay — spiritual empowerment for unashamed ministry. Are you — assistants to the wife of a pastor — are you pastors proud to be pastors, and Lutheran pastors? Or are you ashamed of your ministry? Paul was not ashamed of his ministry. If anything, he was a little bit over the top the other way — he boasted at any opportunity, he boasted about his ministry, not about himself. But what he really was proud about was the fact that he, of all people, was chosen to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. And that gave him great cause, not just for pride, but for boasting.

Let me just list some of the things Paul boasts about in connection with his ministry. He boasts not about himself, but about his Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if there's anything worth boasting about, it's Jesus — the risen Lord Jesus, who's made him his apostle. He boasts about the hope of glory that he has as an apostle of Jesus. And most remarkably, he boasts about his congregations — he even boasts about his troublesome congregations, like those so-and-so's in Corinth. He boasts not about his power, but his authority as an apostle. He boasts about his good conscience, as a minister of the grace of God, the good conscience that enables him to administer God's grace here on earth. Most oddly — surely he's a weirdo — he boasts about his afflictions, his troubles. He boasts, and here's something really strange, about his weakness — because when he's weak, then he is strong. But most of all, he boasts about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What the world regarded as most shameful — the crucified Messiah, and still regards as utterly shameful — is, for Paul, an object of pride, of boasting.

If there's something I would wish for each one of you, if there's something I would encourage you toward, it's to take pride in your ministry. And by ministry I mean not just you as pastors, but you — both of you — involved together as a team in ministry, whether you like it or not. You're in it together. All of you have experienced that — that together you can say, at the end of your life, "Well, that was jolly good. It was tough. But for the life of me, if I was given a second option, I wouldn't have married any other guy" — not because he was the greatest guy, but because I wouldn't have chosen to do anything else, or married anyone in any other profession.

Do you realize how privileged you are to be involved in ministry? There is no profession, there is no job, that quite matches it — for its glories as well as its miseries. They go together.

I don't know if things are the same here in the USA as they are in Australia, but there's a growing sense of public embarrassment — not just at the Christian faith, but at all religious belief and practice. Around the middle of the year — was it this year or last year, I don't know, things just go over my head — in any case, a while ago, I attended a theologians' conference and heard a very interesting paper by a woman who specialized in religious biographies. And what she commented on, in these religious biographies, in particular autobiographies, was that the common feature of most of them — except those written by Aboriginal Christians — was a sense of embarrassment at being Christian.

Now, that's common, and I find myself slipping into it. You know the way it works — you meet somebody, and they ask what you do. And if I tell them I'm a pastor, they don't know what that means. I've got to tell them I'm a priest, and it's as if I told them I've got AIDS — it's so embarrassing for them, you can see it palpably, they don't know what to do with me. Nobody knows what to do with me — just ask my wife.

One of the most interesting features I've seen happening in my lifetime in Australia is the gradual loss of respect for the church, and everything to do with the church, particularly ministers. And I think the same thing is happening here in North America, although it's not as bad, because church attendance is still much higher — you mightn't believe it, but it's much higher here than in most parts of the Western world, particularly Australia. Australia has never been a particularly Christian country — it's never been Christian, so we aren't even post-Christian, we're pre-Christian. All those convicts that came there — they're the problem. And those hedonistic Germans.

What characterizes public life in Australia, particularly among what really counts, the intellectual elite, is a sense of contempt for Christianity, and most of all for orthodox Christianity — it's particularly the Catholics who have it in the gun in Australia. Mind you, the Lutherans would get it just as much, but we're so insignificant that nobody regards us as any threat. But it hits us occasionally. Schleiermacher once wrote a series of "Addresses to the Cultured Despisers of Religion." Well, the cultured despisers of religion in Schleiermacher's time were nothing compared to the contempt of the chattering classes for Christianity today. And many of them are ex-Christians, lapsed Christians — most of them lapsed Catholics, some of them even lapsed Lutherans — that's possible.

Now, the funny thing about the intellectual elite in the Western world is that they no longer attack the Christian faith by means of reasoned argument. The common weapon they use is ridicule, contempt, just ridicule. It's not even worth considering — you just sweep it aside by ridiculing it, making it look stupid. I've heard that over and over again in recent times, particularly on television. We have a society that purports to be tolerant. If there are two key dogmas that characterize postmodern Western society, it's inclusivity and tolerance. And both of those are weasel words, because they are anything but what they claim to be. We have a society that purports to be tolerant, but is tolerant of all religious ideas except Christianity. There's no tolerance for Christianity. It's interesting to see how intellectuals bend over backward to put the best possible construction on Islam, and everything to do with Islam — and I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's funny to see it. For them, Islam can't do anything wrong, even when it blows down the Twin Towers — "no, that's okay, there's good reasons for it." But Christianity can't do anything right. Something funny is going on here.

Mind you, we are not without fault. What's happened is that this growing contempt for the Christian faith has been aggravated by the awful, terrible scandal of sexual abuse in the church. And not just the scandal of sexual abuse — that's always been there; let's not go over the top, people are no less immoral now than they ever were. But the scandal is the way the church has covered up and condoned sexual abuse. And the world has had to remind us of the law of God in this area, and how grievous sexual abuse of a people is, particularly from clergy. One of my teachers, Dr. Henry Hamann, used to say that the worst kind of abuse is the abuse of office — where people abuse office, it has the worst effect. And the worst abuse of office is the abuse of spiritual office, where the best is used in the worst way. And it's in the abuse of innocent people sexually, by those of us who have office in the church, that the cause of Christ has been publicly discredited.

There have been certain times when I've felt that people have looked at me, once they've seen that I'm a priest or a pastor, as if I'm a rapist or a child molester — you could see it in their eyes. That kind of contempt has fueled this. And then, what's new in the equation is — there've been two waves. First there was the sexual liberation wave that swept through Western societies, and I needn't speak on that, but the new wave is the push to sanction homosexuality. And if there's one group of people that has moved from the periphery right to the center of power in Western culture, it is homosexuals — they form the new elite. And there is a growing hatred — and that's not even strong enough a word — a hatred of Christianity by people who are homosexual and people who are promoting the cause of homosexuality.

Just recently I read a review of a book by Peter Hitchens. He's the brother of the notorious Christopher Hitchens — have any of you heard of him? Yeah, a very, very good journalist, one of the most fierce and effective public critics of Christianity in the Western world — anything he writes gets published in newspapers everywhere. Well, he has a brother named Peter. They come from an atheist family, and Peter is a convert from atheism. He's written a very interesting book called The Rage Against God — lovely title, from Psalm 2, "Why do the heathen rage?" In it he explores the strange phenomenon — he says what's completely puzzling is the growing fury (that's his term) against religion in the US, and even worse in Great Britain, he says — I don't know if that's the case. And then he asks the question: what's the reason for this growing fury against Christianity, particularly, but more generally against all religion? And I think he's thinking a little bit of his brother. His answer is that those who are the leaders in our society realize that God's law is the only force that restrains man's lust for power and glory. So we have leaders who want power, who want to establish and recreate society — utopian revolutionaries who want to change the way things are. Say, for example, homosexuals want to change the whole of Western society so that it accommodates this, even applauds and sanctions it. And they realize, instinctively, that the only thing that restrains them, in democratic societies, from the full exercise of their power, is God's law. The Christian religion is seen as the principal obstacle to a desire for absolute power. That's his words.

So, in Australia, if you talk to most young people under the age of thirty who are educated, the common perception is that Christianity — even among those who are not anti-Christian — well, it's the older group, the baby boomers and those immediately after, who have this fury against God. For younger people, there's a greater indifference — the perception is that Christianity is old-fashioned, out of touch, and basically irrelevant to their lives. I fancy it's not much different here. We've got a big problem in Western society with retaining our young people. The story is quite different in Africa and Asia — there, most Christians are under the age of thirty, and they worry because they have no old people. We worry because we have no young people.

And a lot of that is focused on us, and we can't escape it. As pastors and pastors' wives, we are lightning conductors for this mood in our community. But one of the funny things about this anti-Christian sentiment is that it's obviously uneasy — you know, if they were really convinced about it, they wouldn't have to scream so loud, right? If you're really a convinced atheist, you don't have to try to convince everybody else, let alone convince Christians. There's an uneasy conscience at work here, a sense of unease, and a sense in which — whether they know it or not — they are threatened by Jesus and his claims, and threatened by those who represent Jesus. We might not realize it, but in some way they see that we represent Jesus, and that's very threatening.

You need to realize, I think, that wherever you go outside the church, you as pastors are threatening figures. You threaten people in the whole way they see themselves and see the whole of life. And as you know, the normal reaction when somebody threatens you is you fight back — you abuse, or ridicule, or put down the person who threatens you. And we feel, "Hey, what have I done?" In many cases you haven't said or done anything, and yet they dump on you. What's going on here? And this has a demoralizing effect on us as pastors, so much so that we begin to fear the disparagement we receive, fear the social rejection.

So, if I can be personal — if I go to a party these days where I mix with people of my generation and my level of education — say it's a party and I'm largely unknown, maybe I know a few people there, but most of them are people who've just recently retired, ex-professionals — I get busy asking people questions. I keep them talking. Why do I keep them talking? Because as soon as they get around to asking me what I do, the whole social dynamic changes. Basically, they find an excuse to move on to the next group of people. And I've found, on one or two occasions, that people tell somebody else, "Hey, that fellow — watch out for him."

I had a very interesting case where our daughter, who is a musician, a very accomplished musician — Claire and I were at a concert where she performed, with a lovely singer, and she plays in a string quartet. One of the best young women singers performed for them — she's really superb. But she's married to a philosopher of science, from here, from Harvard. Now, I got talking to him, not knowing he was her husband, and we got talking, and he told me about himself, and history and philosophy of science, that kind of stuff — I'd done a bit of reading — and I asked what he was doing, and kept on going. He's interested in Darwin and Darwinian theory, evolution, and it was just good, good intellectual discussion — until he heard I was a theologian. And do you know what he did? He turned his back on me and just walked away. It was as dramatic as that.

And in this situation we get rather confused at the antagonism of people — you know, we're nice guys, why is everybody so worked up about us? We get frustrated at the rejection we experience. But most of all, it's very easy in this situation to be crippled by a sense of powerlessness. What can we do in the situation? And what it does is make us very timid — timid to be assertive at all, or even to be confident in dealing with people in our society. And it's very easy, then, to become increasingly angry at the situation. And in this situation we find that we crave spiritual power, to be able to defeat, or to shame, our opponents, our antagonists.

Two kinds of spiritual power. Now, sometimes I go into a situation and I fantasize — wouldn't it be great for me to get all those wonderful arguments and knock those cocky blokes off their feet, to tear strips off them? Which is stupid, because I've done a lot of that in my life, and I know you achieve nothing with argument except greater antagonism — you just harden people's hearts still more. But still, I keep on fantasizing about having this intellectual power. And can you wonder why the Pentecostal movement has such appeal? Because it offers supernatural power. How do these cocky intellectuals cope with a few miracles here and there? Well, they cope quite well, because they just ridicule them and explain them away. But we look for, we crave, some kind of power to be able to deliver the knockout blow and win the battle for our Lord.

As I see it, there are two common reactions in the church at the moment in the West. On the one hand — and this is the dominant movement — the dominant movement is toward cultural accommodation, and you'll see it everywhere in the church. The church embraces homosexuals, embraces the cause of homosexuals, and doesn't just embrace it, it leads the cause for homosexuality. So you accommodate with society, you become inclusive, you become tolerant, you become unassertive — you go the way of accommodation. Now, you and your church, and I in my church, are more likely to go the other way, which is to circle the wagons around the fortress of the church, to withdraw from society, and to establish a fortress, to try to retain at least a few strongholds in our society from which we can eventually launch out and conquer the world.

Okay, in all this, the danger is that we become increasingly ashamed — ashamed of ourselves, ashamed of the gospel, ashamed of the church, ashamed to be Christian. What resources do we have for unashamed ministry in this situation?

Now, what I'd like to do is take a close look at a passage from the apostle Paul, writing to young Pastor Timothy, who was in a situation very much like this. I hadn't realized this was going to be for pastors' wives too, so it'll be a little bit heavy — but look, if there's stuff here you don't understand, please wave your hand and I'll explain. Second Timothy 1:6–14. By the way, this is also a reading, in a few — one of the Sundays in the three-year lectionary, about a month from now, or so. So here's some stuff for your sermon — that should keep you awake.

Okay, this is what — after the initial opening of the letter, and very interestingly, in view of the sisters here — Paul thanks God that the faith that first lived in Lois and Eunice, Timothy's grandmother and mother, now lives in Timothy. You realize Timothy's father was pagan, and he was mothered into the faith by these two women, his grandmother and his mother. So the faith that lived in them now lives in Timothy — a very common story, increasingly so, I find, among people who don't come from a Christian background, even those coming into the seminary at the moment.

By the way, if I can add a little aside here, since we have so many women present — just as there's spiritual fathering, there's spiritual mothering, and I think we've got to do a lot more thinking about this, and working through this. Bev and I have spoken about this in the past, and one of the good things about Doxology is that we have a spiritual mother in residence — if I can bestow an honorary title on you, Bev. God made us different, not just for physical reasons of procreation, but also with different gifts, so that we have different spiritual functions. Now, just because women are not to be called into the office of the ministry doesn't mean women don't have a ministry in the church — it's a very important ministry, there are certain things only women can do. That's another story, but let me just encourage you — one of the most important aspects of spiritual mothering is ministry in prayer, prayer ministry. There's a lot of thinking about this in the early church, and you can already see it in the New Testament.

But here — okay, after this thanksgiving for his grandmother and his mother, Paul says this: for this reason — that's Timothy's faith, the faith he's received from his grandmother and mother — for this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of grace, the charisma that is in you through the laying on of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, and love, and soundmindedness — another translation is self-control, or "sound mind." So he concludes: since we have this kind of spirit, do not be ashamed of our Lord's testimony, or of me, his prisoner, but suffer abuse together with me for the sake of the gospel, according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling — not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time began, and has now been manifested through the epiphany, the appearance, of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who abolished death itself and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel, of which I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher. For this reason — because of the gospel — I too suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have trusted, and I am convinced that he has the power to guard my deposit until that day. Hold on to the pattern of healthy words — usually translated "sound words," but "healthy" or "healing" words is much more accurate — that you've heard from me. By the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus, guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who resides, or dwells, in you.

Notice there the reference to being ashamed — first Paul says "do not be ashamed," and then, "I am not ashamed." Unashamed ministry. Timothy is in danger of being ashamed as a pastor, and he's encouraged here by Paul to exercise an unashamed ministry.

Let me go through this now, and as I go, you'll see its application to the situation I've set out before you.

First of all, verses 6 and 7. "For this reason" — that's Timothy's faith — "I remind you to rekindle" — that's the key word I'd like you to hold in mind — "to rekindle the gift of grace, charisma" — from which you get "charismatic" and "charismatic movement" and all that kind of stuff — "that is in you through the laying on of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, and love, and sound-mindedness."

What Paul does to buck Timothy up is to take him back to his ordination, and reminds him of his ordination. His ordination is the empowerment to exercise unashamed ministry. So if ever you feel ashamed of your ministry, go back to your ordination. His ordination was his appointment, by the Lord Jesus, to do the Lord's work, and he was empowered for his ministry through the laying on of hands. Paul says that he laid his hands on Timothy — in 2 Timothy we find out that the whole group of elders, Paul's fellow pastors, laid hands on Timothy when he was ordained. And as Paul laid his hands on Timothy, he gave Timothy a blessing — a blessing which didn't just empower Timothy for ministry on that day of ordination, but continues to empower him every day of his life. The probable words Paul spoke over Timothy, as he laid his hands on him in blessing, were: "God the Father give you the spirit of power, and love, and sound-mindedness." So it was a blessing in which Paul gave Timothy the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit for those three purposes.

Now, the gift of the Spirit, Paul says, which was given to Timothy in his ordination, was given as a charisma. Charisma contains within it, in the Greek, charis, which is grace. So a charisma is a gift of grace — and a gift of grace means something that is never possessed, but is always received as a gift from God. So a charisma is never a possession — and this is where some of the Pentecostal teaching is a little bit misleading. You get the idea that, okay, speaking in tongues is a charisma, and once you've received it, then you possess it. But that's not what a charisma is — a charisma is something that is given but never possessed, and you need to keep on receiving it. The charisma of the Holy Spirit — the gift of the Holy Spirit — is given to empower Timothy in his ministry. So what's implied here is that the Holy Spirit is given to Timothy to empower him for his ministry, and he therefore needs to keep on receiving the Holy Spirit, to continue to be empowered for his ministry.

Now, what the Holy Spirit does is give three gifts to Timothy for his ministry. What was it that Timothy received by having the gift of the Holy Spirit given to him in ordination? First, power. Secondly, love. Thirdly, sound-mindedness, self-control. And they all belong together — they are one bundle. If you take any one of them by itself, it's not the complete package.

First, Timothy is given power for his ministry — he doesn't operate out of his own power, his own giftedness, his own intelligence, his own training. The powerful ministry comes from the Holy Spirit. And there's always a danger that we, even despite our theology, operate as pastors and pastors' wives out of our own power, using our own intelligence, our own spirit. God gives us his power, the power of his Holy Spirit, for the ministry of the gospel. That power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It's the same power that brought us to life together with Christ in baptism. It's the forgiving, life-giving power of the gospel. It's the power that overcomes sin, and death, and the devil. It's the power that enables us to do what is otherwise impossible.

Have you ever considered that as pastors and as Christians, you're called to do what is, humanly speaking, impossible? Look, to be frank, I find it hard enough to do my own work, my human work — it's almost impossible for me to be a good teacher, a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather, and that takes me way beyond my human resources. What can I do to help Liz Jericho, whose husband has just died? And yet, as a friend, that's what I need to do. Now, and that's just from a human point of view. You're not called just to do your own work, but to do God's work. You've got to be kidding — how can you, a puny human being, do the work of God? The answer is: only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only by the Spirit's power can you do the work of God. That's the first thing given to Timothy, and to each one of you — and not just the pastor; in a different way, in baptism, each one of you, women, is given the Holy Spirit in baptism to exercise spiritual power in your vocation.

Second gift: love. Notice the two things are connected — the power that's given to Paul is the power to love. The danger is that, even if we use the Holy Spirit and operate by the Spirit, we exercise God's power lovelessly. The church is full of it, and particularly our Lutheran church is full of it, and particularly the conservative Lutheran churches are full of it — we've got the right gospel, we know the truth, and instead of exercising the truth in love, we exercise the truth, we speak the truth, lovelessly. We're called by our Lord in ordination to exercise spiritual power lovingly. And that doesn't mean being Mr. Nice Guy — anything but being Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. Popular. The love we are to exercise is the love of Christ, who gave himself for us.

One of the biggest problems you come across again and again is how easy it is for good, orthodox pastors to be abusive, and we're not even aware that we're abusing people. Do you realize that most of the people who were once Christians and have drifted away from the church, if you hear their story, most of them will say it's because of mistreatment by a particular pastor — you can call it excuses, but there's still something in it. And if you confront that particular pastor, they say, "Look, I was only doing my job." The problem of exercising ministry in a loveless, abusive, spiritually abusive kind of way.

The love we are to exercise is the love of the Father, poured into us by the Holy Spirit. We have the power to love in a way that's not possible as a human being — to love not with our own human love, which is very limited, but to love with the love of Christ — lavish, self-giving, self-sacrificing love, love which seeks nothing in return. You can't do that by yourself, with your own limited capacity for love. You only need to have a child, a baby, to realize how limited your capacity to love is — or you only need to have some problems in your marriage to realize how limited your capacity for love is. We have a very limited capacity for love. We are, however, called to love with the love of Christ. And the Holy Spirit pours the love of the Father and the Son into us, so that we can love others with the love of Christ.

Thirdly, the way we are to love is in a sound-minded, or self-controlled, way. There's always a danger that we use the power of the Holy Spirit, we love people, and then we get terribly hurt when people don't respond, or when people respond negatively — and then we lose our self-control, our emotional self-control, and we act out of reaction to the effect they have on us. We've invested a lot in this person, this person turns against us, rejects our love, and then we, in turn, give them the cold treatment. We react emotionally in a way that is not self-controlled, not sound-minded.

There's a wonderful word Paul uses here, which I could spend a lot of time on because it touches on something so important in ministry and in our spiritual life — the word sōphronismos. From sōphrōn, mindedness — your cast of mind, your attitude. Sōphronismos is sound or healthy-mindedness, healthy-mindedness, clear-mindedness, and part of it has the idea of self-control. If you see the situation clearly, if you have a sound mind and understand what's going on, then you can react in a way that's not reactive in an emotionally negative way — you can react appropriately.

The "so" part of the word comes from the same root as "save," sōzō, and "salvation," sōtēria — for those of you who remember a few Greek words. It's interesting that in classical Greek, this is primarily not a philosophical term but a medical term, used for both physical and mental health. A person who is healthy, sound-minded, is sound in body and mind — that's where that phrase comes from. Its opposite is insanity, with its disorder, impulsiveness, and lack of self-control. It's interesting that Paul uses this term in his pastoral epistles not for physical or mental health, but for spiritual health — the spiritual health that enables people to think and feel and act like Jesus. To be spiritually sound-minded means to have the mind of Christ, to feel as Christ feels, to react the way Christ reacts, with his heart, and to act in the same way Christ acts.

Now, we need that kind of sound-mindedness and self-control if we're going to exercise an unabusive, loving ministry as pastors and lay people.

Now, let me go back to what Paul says. He says, "I remind you to rekindle the gift of grace that is in you through the laying on of hands." There's a wonderful picture here — rekindling. You have a combination of two words and two pictures — for those of you who've got Greek, it's anazōpyrein. Anazōpyrein is to kindle a fire from the coals at the hearth each morning. Some of you may remember times when people had wood fires and stoves — I still remember the time before we had electricity, we had a stove, and overnight Mum would damp the stove down, and then next morning you'd scrape away all the ashes, isolate the coals, and start the fire off again in the stove. That's the picture — you rekindle the fire on the hearth. So Paul says, I remind you to rekindle the gift of the Spirit in you, in a regular fashion, like the fire on a hearth.

The second picture is anazōō, which combines both — it's the word for reviving a dead person. So Paul encourages Timothy to rekindle the fire of the Spirit every morning — every evening too, but especially every morning — and in this way rise up from bed, if you like, resurrected for the new day, with the gift of new life.

What we have here is an allusion to the holy fire on the altar for burnt offering at the temple in Jerusalem. When the divine service was inaugurated in Leviticus chapter 9 — if you don't remember, you'd better get my commentary — Moses got everything ready, there were seven days of preparation, and then the climax of the inaugural was that all the sacrifices were laid out on the altar, and fire came from the Holy of Holies onto the altar and set the altar aflame. That fire was the holy fire, the most holy fire, which was never allowed to go out. The priests had to make sure that fire never went out — every morning, the first thing they would do was scrape off the ashes, gather the coals together, and rekindle the fire on the altar. That fire was the holy fire that sanctified the altar, the burnt offerings, the priests, and the people. So it was the fire that made the altar holy, that made the offerings holy, that made the people holy. And that fire was the manifestation of God's glory, his life-giving, gracious presence. Remember, God's glory appeared in a pillar of fire and smoke — and that culminates in the pillar of smoke that arises from the altar at the tabernacle, and later the temple. That pillar is the presence of the living God. By means of that fire, God made his daily epiphany, his appearance, to his people at the temple in Jerusalem — he revealed his glory to the people.

Well, Paul uses this as a picture for what Timothy needs to do every morning — he needs to rekindle the holy fire. How does he rekindle the holy fire? By means of meditation and prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that fire enlightens him, resurrects him, and sanctifies him for his daily ministry. So the daily kindling of the holy fire, which is lit in his heart, makes everything that Timothy does wholly — holy — during the day. The rekindling of the holy fire — a wonderful picture of your daily devotions. Every morning, to push away the ashes, to rekindle the holy fire, the fire that revives your faith.

Now, what's the purpose of this? Can we go back and read verses 8 through 11? "So do not be ashamed of our Lord's testimony, or of me his prisoner, but suffer abuse together with me for the gospel, according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time began, and has now been manifested through the epiphany, the appearance, of our Lord Jesus, who abolished death itself and kindled life and immortality through the incorruptibility of the gospel, of which I have been appointed herald, apostle, and teacher."

Well, what's the purpose of Timothy's daily empowerment by the Holy Spirit? Number one, to love in a sound-minded way. Secondly, even more than that, it's to suffer abuse — to suffer the abuse that comes from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to do that in a loving way. The power to deal with abuse in a way that doesn't cripple you with shame, that gets rid of shame, that frees you from the shame that comes from the gospel of the crucified Christ, and from Timothy's identification with Paul, who was shamefully imprisoned as a Roman prisoner. The Holy Spirit gives us power — gave Timothy power, gives Paul power — to endure abuse by the exercise of godly power. The Holy Spirit enables Paul and Timothy to endure abuse graciously rather than vindictively — not just to tolerate abuse, but to practice positive retaliation, repaying evil with good — not just to put up with evil, but to repay evil with good. And to do that proudly, rather than manipulatively, as an ashamed victim.

And by means of enduring abuse in this gracious way, they exercise power as God does. You see, God didn't come into the world to save the world by exercising his power and performing miracles, forcing people to believe — how did God redeem the world? Through the suffering and death of his Son. By allowing himself to be shamed. I don't know whether you realize that the ultimate, most horrible act of shaming that has ever occurred is the shaming of God, which occurred on the cross. How does God exercise his power? By allowing himself to be shamed, but in such a way that he then redeems the world through the suffering and death of his cross. So we also are called to endure abuse in a godly way, as a witness to the way God exercises his power for the salvation of the world.

The normal pattern of the world is that if you have power, you accumulate more power for yourself by disempowering others. Here we have someone who doesn't use his power to promote himself by disempowering others — instead, he disempowers death for all human beings, and he honors Paul and Timothy by making them co-workers with Christ. So he exercises his power in this wonderful way. God exercises his power to administer his grace through Jesus, and then through Timothy — uses his power to save people from eternal death and corruption, and calls Timothy, and all of us, to administer his grace. That's our holy calling. And we administer God's grace most clearly in the face of abuse — in the way we react to the inevitable abuse that we suffer.

Each one of you has been given your station, your vocation in life, so that you can administer the grace of God to the people God has placed in your care. As pastors, you administer the grace of God in your parish, your congregation, and you do it through the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the epiphany of Jesus, here and now. The word "epiphany" is the Greek term for the visible appearance of a god or goddess — in the Old Testament, it's the term for the visible appearance of the invisible God. Normally Paul uses that term for the appearance of Christ on the last day, but here he uses it for what happens in the preaching of the gospel in the divine service. Every time Timothy preaches the gospel, every Sunday, that preaching brings to light Christ himself, and the incorruptibility, the life, of Jesus himself, here and now — the appearance of the invisible Lord Jesus in the assembled congregation. So the preaching of the gospel brings life and immortality to light. Eternity, if you like, begins to dawn here and now in time. And that produces the reaction of rejection from the opponents of the gospel.

But what then is the secret of unashamed ministry? Coming to the end now, you'll be pleased to know — verses 12 to 14. If you have your Bibles, otherwise just listen: "For this reason" — because God exercises his power in this way — "for this reason, because of the gospel, I too suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have trusted, and I am convinced that he has the power to guard my deposit until that day. Hold on to the pattern of healthy words that you've heard from me. By the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus, guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who resides in you."

What's the secret of unashamed ministry? It's the gift of the Holy Spirit — the Holy Spirit who enables us to love and to endure abuse in a loving, gracious way, to endure abuse without becoming abusive in turn. In fact, Paul says that instead of abuse shaming him, silencing him, and putting an end to his ministry, abuse has the opposite effect — it's counterproductive, because it makes him more and more reliant, less and less reliant on himself and more and more reliant on his Lord Jesus, the one he trusts for everything. And he's convinced that Jesus will never let him down — he himself may let himself down, but Jesus never lets him down.

And then Paul goes on to use a remarkable picture. He says, in effect, Jesus will never let you or me, or any pastor, down, because of what he's invested in us — he has an investment in us, he has invested his property with us, given us as a deposit his own property, his own possession. Jesus is like a wealthy landowner, or a wealthy person, who entrusts his property to Paul to manage — "Here is my property, I make it over to you, I give it to you to manage on my behalf." That deposit Paul gives is the teaching of the gospel — the teaching and preaching of the gospel that Jesus gives to Paul, and that Paul then hands on, or deposits, with his students, the pastors he trains and ordains.

Now, then you get a strange twist in Paul's argument. Normally speaking, if you're given property to look after — say I give you a million dollars to invest and look after — you've got to protect and guard and look after the money I invest in you. But here we have a funny twist — Christ protects his investment in Paul; Paul doesn't need to protect what Christ has invested in him. Here you have an investment that protects its manager. It's a bit of a funny twist — can I put it again? Normally, if I give you a million dollars, you've got to guard it for me, you're accountable to me, you've got to protect it for me. But here we have an investment that Jesus makes in Paul that Jesus himself protects — and he uses it, here's the twist, to protect Paul. The reason Jesus will never let him down is because of what Jesus has invested in Paul, which protects him. Paul is convinced Christ is reliable, from his own past experience — he won't be disappointed, because Christ has invested this in him, and he will protect his investment, and Paul, to the very end.

Now, finally, what does this mean for Timothy and for us? How do we rekindle the holy fire every day, every morning, of our ministry, of our lives? Paul says, first of all, that we are to hold on to the pattern of healthy words. "Healthy words" — that's one of Paul's favorite terms in the pastoral epistles. It's usually translated "sound," and that's not all that helpful, because I, as a Westerner and as a Lutheran, think, okay, sound words, sound doctrine, means correct doctrine. Now, that's not wrong, but "sound doctrine" or "sound words" first of all means healing, or healthy, words, doctrine — it's a medical term. Paul uses this term "healthy" or "healing" in three different ways. He uses it to refer to the words of Jesus — what's so wonderful about the words of Jesus is that they make and keep us spiritually healthy. Heresy makes you spiritually sick; right teaching, the words of Jesus, are healthy, they keep us spiritually healthy. The right words, which carry the healthy teaching of law and gospel, produce a clear conscience, a healthy conscience — healthy doctrine is that which produces a clear conscience, you can look up the passage in turn. And the healthy words of healthy doctrine produce a healthy faith. What keeps you healthy is your faith in Jesus and his healing words.

So what we need to do every morning of our ministry is go back for a spiritual health check — not just a check, but spiritual treatment, so that we're given the right medicine, so we can operate in a healthy way during the day. Paul says it's important not only to hold on to the right words, but to use them in the right order — there's a healthy pattern of words. You can use Scripture in a way that's heretical or wrong. You need to use the right words in the right order, in a way that's in agreement with the confession of faith in our creed, and the distinction between law and gospel. There's nothing that damages consciences as much as using the gospel where the law should be used, and the law where the gospel should be used — not confusing law and gospel theoretically, but abusing law and gospel in your own meditation, and then in your pastoral care of other people.

Lastly, Timothy is to guard the deposit that's been given to him — the deposit of the gospel, the deposit of the Christian faith — in the right way. Just listen again to what Paul says: "By the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus, guard the good deposit, through the Holy Spirit who resides in you." Now, what's my temptation? My temptation is to want to guard the deposit of the faith that's been given to me by arguing with people, by debate, by zeal for right doctrine. How can I guard the deposit of faith in a godly way? You see, as pastors and as pastors' wives, each one of you is a target of spiritual attack, and it looks to you as if the Christian faith, Christian doctrine, is under attack. But Satan isn't really attacking Christian doctrine — what he aims to attack is Christian faith and Christian love. His target is to destroy your faith and the faith of your people, the faith of your children. And if he can't destroy the faith, he will destroy your love for your people, and your people's love for you. So Satan attacks the deposit of faith by attacking our faith and our love. We, in turn, preserve right doctrine, healing doctrine, by our faith in Jesus, and the love of Jesus for us, by our reliance on the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Now, I don't know whether you've understood what I'm saying — can I just repeat? We are under attack, and every day of our lives Satan will try to get us in one of two ways: either he will attack our faith in Jesus, or our people's faith in Jesus, or he will attack our love for our people and our people's love for us. Now, the way we protect the gospel is not by going on a crusade for right doctrine or good doctrine, no matter how important that may be, but by holding on to faith and love. By the exercise of faith and love, we protect the gospel that has been given to us. And we do that by the Holy Spirit who lives in us — and now we go back to the very beginning of Paul's discussion: he says, rekindle the fire of the Spirit in you, every day — I remind you to rekindle it every day. If you rekindle that, the Holy Spirit will keep your faith and your love alive, and you, then, will be protected by the gospel that has been deposited with you — the Holy Spirit who dwells in your bodies as temples.

Okay, that's a bit complicated for late afternoon. Let me conclude with a number of general remarks. If I look back on the forty-something years I've been a pastor — forty-one years — it's easy for me to remember the things I should be ashamed of, and there are many things I should be ashamed of as a pastor. I've failed my Lord, so I've got good reason to be ashamed of certain parts of my ministry. But far greater than that, I have great reason, good reason, to take pride — not in my ministry, but in my Lord, and in the power of his gospel. The power of his gospel, which is made perfect in weakness. The power of the gospel, which acts in a paradoxical way. The power of the gospel, which is most evident when people get stuck into you, abuse you, and you are then enabled to react in a non-vindictive, unabusive, but loving, gracious way — to take it in, to soak it up. And that is the most powerful witness to the power of God, who turns that around, who brings life out of death, and who brings life and immortality to light through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a great privilege to be a pastor and to serve our Lord. I asked at the beginning of this session: what would you do if you were given the power to exercise spiritual power to do whatever you wanted? Well, let me tell you the good news — you've been given the most wonderful power of all in your ministry. You exercise far greater power in your congregation, in your community, than President Obama does, and all the politicians, local and federal, all around the world, or the wheelers and dealers in our society, the big managers of the corporations. The power you exercise is eternal power, the power that makes the difference — the power that enables the light of eternity to dawn and begin already here in time, to usher in heaven here on earth, to bring people from earth to heaven. The power that raises people from the dead. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that reason to be proud — not of yourselves, but proud of your work, and proud of your Lord, and proud of your ministry?

One of the most wonderful books I know on prayer is a lovely little book by Ole Hallesby called Prayer. I recommend it to you very, very strongly. He's a Norwegian Lutheran orthodox pietist, and he comments in this book on the dilemma of our risen Lord. Our risen Lord is about to commission his twelve disciples — or his eleven disciples — and he calls them to do his work. They aren't called to work for him, but to work together with him. So they are called to do supernatural work — for them to do the work of Christ, to work with Christ, doing supernatural work here on earth, they need to have supernatural power.

Now, if there's one thing that corrupts people, it's power. Lord Acton, the great English historian, said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" — very famous saying. And I would go one step further and say, no, that's not quite right — human power corrupts, but spiritual power corrupts absolutely, or diabolically. You see, Jesus was faced with a dilemma: if he gave you and me his own power, spiritual power, the power of the Holy Spirit, we would use that power in one of two dangerous ways, like magic. We'd either use that power to promote ourselves — and this, by the way, is my greatest temptation in ministry, I want to use ministry to promote the great John Kleinig, so everybody will look up to me, so I can empower myself at the expense of other people — or we'd use spiritual power to promote ourselves in order to belittle other people.

Now, how could Jesus give his power to his apostles, and his pastors, and his disciples in the church, in such a way that the power could be used only for good and not for evil at all? A power that could be exercised in such a way that even if his enemies took hold of that power, as soon as they took hold of it, that power would convert them from being enemies of Christ into disciples of Christ? There's his dilemma. What's the answer? How does Jesus give us spiritual power, the power of the Holy Spirit, in such a way that we can't use it to turn ourselves into little tin-pot gods and damn other people, destroy other people? How can it be used only for good? How can it be given to human beings in such a way that even if the enemies of Christ took hold of it, it would convert them from enemies into friends?

The answer is prayer. We have the holy fire, the power of the Spirit, the power given to us in ordination — we access that power, we exercise that power, we use that power in our daily devotions, in prayer. And that's the answer to unashamed ministry.

Thank you.