2 Timothy 1:1-14
This is a Tibetan singing bowl. We use it
as a gong to begin and end prayer time in our contemplative prayer group. But
it’s not a gong: it’s a singing bowl, and it makes a haunting kind of sound.
So, there is a fascinating musical composition called Longplayer, composed by Jem Finer. It is made up of six pieces
played on 234 singing bowls of different sized and different tones. The six
pieces are played simultaneously. They start out in sync, and then different
sections of each piece slowly start weaving in and out of the others in many,
many different combinations and permutations until, finally, all the pieces
come back into sync. But for this composition, it will take one thousand years
for that to happen. Longplayer began
playing at 12:00am on January 1, 2000 — so its been playing continuously for
over 19 years now — and it will finish at midnight on Dec. 31, 2999. A
foundation has been started to make sure it keeps playing. There are several
listening places around the world, including the Lighthouse in London, and you
can also listen to it streamed online. The sound is mesmerizing and sinks into
you: the piece conveys the sense of music playing forever, always changing and
yet always the same. And after awhile, you can forget you’re listening to it, even
though it continues without ever stopping.
Why do I tell you this? Because for me
this is a helpful metaphor, a way of understanding something that Paul tries to
convey in the reading we heard today from his second letter to Timothy. Now,
I’m going to refer to the author as Paul: this may have been written by one of
Paul’s associates, but the message is the same either way. Timothy has
something, something special, something amazing. But he didn’t give it to
himself. His grandmother Lois had it and his mother Eunice had it, and they no
doubt passed it on to him. Paul had it, and he also passed it on to him by
laying hands on him. More importantly, though, those women and Paul were merely
conduits: what is being passed on comes from God and God alone. Timothy’s
awesome gift is nothing less than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ
himself — a spirit, we are told, of power
and love and self-discipline.
And Paul tells Timothy to rekindle
the gift of God that is within you. The Holy Spirit, of course, never grows
cold. She never gets tired, never goes away, never goes out. So when Paul tells
Timothy to rekindle this gift, he cannot mean to make the Spirit present again,
because the Spirit never left; he cannot mean to make the Spirit flame up again
because the fire of the Spirit is always there. So Paul must be encouraging
Timothy to reconnect with the Spirit within him and to feel her warmth anew, to
remember that he has this gift at all. For it is the Spirit who enables him to
experience the presence and power of the Risen Christ in his life.
Each one of us has this same gift. It
comes from God, and there are many ways God can activate it in us: through the
witness of faithful people, through the waters of baptism, through the laying
on of hands by a priest or bishop, through a simple prayer of faith. And we can
imagine or envision the Spirit in many ways: as fire, as wind, as breath, as
energy, as power. But I personally love the metaphor of music, which is why I
think of Longplayer. There is a song
going on in our souls all the time, a deep hum of love which never stops and
never fades. It is vibrating within us and among us right now. But we can and
do easily forget to listen to it. The din of daily life, the noise of the
world, the clamor of our own minds can all drown out the divine music which is
always playing.
And it is always playing. I need to
emphasize that: we don’t control the Holy Spirit. We don’t make the Spirit
happen. The Spirit within us is a gift: the word “grace” is used in this reading
multiple times, and grace means God’s gift, unearned and freely given. So we
don’t have to believe more, try harder, or exert greater mental and emotional
energy to gain the Spirit. The Spirit lives within us as pure gift right now.
The fire is always burning, the music is always playing. We simply need to
trust in that Presence and allow ourselves to tune into it.
That is one of the primary purposes of
our common worship: to remind us of the Spirit within us and, together, to
recognize and realize that Spirit at work. But of course we are only here for
an hour: most of our time is spent in the world, living our lives. So it’s
important we find ways to connect with the Spirit daily. Those ways will vary
from person to person, depending on our personalities and circumstances. But I
think I can safely say that we can all find ways to listen for the Spirit and
ways to act in the Spirit. Listening for the Spirit means praying, however that
works best for us. I find sitting in contemplative prayer to be so connecting
and life-giving, but that is just one example. Others include meditating on
passages from the Bible, reading a devotional book, journaling, praying as you
do your daily tasks like getting dressed or doing the dishes. All those are
ways of tuning in — and not forgetting.
But beyond just remembering the Spirit,
we are also called to tap into the Spirit. For she is a Spirit of power and love and self-discipline. There
are ways of living well and loving that are beyond our power to do. People in
12 Step recovery programs know this: they depend on a Power greater than
themselves to stay clean and sober. But all of us need this power, this Spirit,
if we are to follow Christ into fullness of life. Deliberately invoking the
Spirit and trusting in the Spirit’s power to work through us are ways we fully
tune into the Spirit. Whether we are trying to love a difficult co-worker or we
are taking significant risks for the sake of goodness in the world, Paul
reminds us to rekindle the gift of God that is within us and use it.
So I have two questions to leave you
with. First, how are you connecting with the Spirit in prayer every day? If you
aren’t, I encourage you to do so. Second, how are you intentionally using the
power of the Spirit to live and to love? If you aren’t, I encourage you to do
so. The bottom line is that we have this
amazing gift within us. It’s a pure gift, freely given, always available to us,
no strings attached. The music within us is always playing: we need only open
our ears and our hearts to hear it.
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