Give Your Chains A Little Shake
2 Timothy 2:8-15
October 14, 2007

If we could read this whole letter of Paul to Timothy together this morning, and if we could stand back a bit and forget that it’s scripture, we might see a love letter from a spiritual father to his spiritual son, full of tenderness and hope. What strikes me as I read the letter is that Paul isn’t telling Timothy anything that Timothy doesn’t already know. After all, Timothy has been Paul’s travelling companion at this point for nearly twenty years and probably could recite Paul’s theology and sermons backwards and forwards from memory. No, this isn’t about Paul instructing his younger friend in the details of the faith, but instead showing Timothy how to replace fear and shame with joy and love. This is a letter that does more showing than telling.

Now, Paul is facing a death sentence in prison in Rome. That the grim reality. As a prisoner of some stature we can imagine that Paul is shackled to a guard, sort of a personal jailer, but the outcome is not in doubt. Paul has been condemned to death by the Roman authorities for subversive political activity. I am not sure what part of Paul’s preaching of joy and love in Jesus the authorities heard as subversive politics, but evidently they prefered people to live in fear and shame. Perhaps fear and shame were the means by which empire was maintained at that time, and joy and love threatened the social contract. I don’t know.

Do you think there may be any parallels today? Do you think if the gospel of Jesus Christ were to break out for real in our world, a black kid in Jena, Louisiana would have ever been tried as an adult for smacking a white kid, while white kids who hung lynch ropes over the site – the very symbols of execution, fear and shame – would have gotten away with a verbal spanking for a prank?

That’s just one example of many that come to mind about our world when push comes to shove. Anger and fear and shame and retaliation seem to be our default modes. Sometimes I do believe that we are still waiting for the gospel to break out! Sometimes I do get in my heart that the joy and love of Jesus Christ – raised from the dead, raised from execution, fear and shame – truly is subversive political activity! After all, if you don’t live in fear and shame who is going to control you? Christians by definition ought to be accused of the subversive activity of living joyfully and lovingly!

In any case, Paul perceives that Timothy is struggling with fear and shame, and that fear and shame are like chains on Timothy’s heart. Fear, of course, because you can die for this gospel. Shame, more subtly, because there is a lot of judgment involved.

Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads in your life? Down one path you can see security and respectability. But there’s another path and you suspect that down that path lies your heart and your calling. What are people going to think if you take that path? You know how other people’s judgments kind of creep into your heart and you start to doubt yourself?: What’s wrong with my heart? Why can’t I stay in the box? What’s the matter with me?

Something like this is going on in Timothy’s heart because it’s one thing to follow Paul around taking notes and carrying letters while Paul proclaims the gospel, but it’s quite another for Timothy to take on the mantle of leadership and become what he believes! Suppose he’s not good enough!? Suppose the gospel fails because of him!? Suppose nobody follows him! Suppose everyone looks at him and says, Don’t be a goose, Timothy, you’re not Paul! What were you thinking!

Now Paul is an old fox. He knows it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to tell someone shaking in his shoes not to be afraid, or someone listening to all those voices inside not to be ashamed. So in the letter – we have to read between the lines a little, but Timothy would have gotten the point – Paul picks up his own very real chains – the kind that go clink and thud – and Paul gives his chains a little shake. (Watch me, Timothy!) At the other end of the chain Paul notices the guard, his jailer, and says to himself, Oh, my! Look here at the other end of my chain! I’ve got a captive audience! Maybe I’ll preach him a little good news, see what happens! (Timothy, are you watching?)

Here’s the thing. Here’s what Paul is showing Timothy by giving his chains a shake and seeing what God can do. He says: I may be chained and condemned. But the word of God is not! I put my trust in the God who raised Jesus from the tomb. In return God has entrusted me even now, even in this hell-hole, with a spirit of power and of love! I have no fear. I have no regrets! You be strong, then, Timothy, my beloved child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus!

What would it be like, do you think, for youto know this God who gives the gift of inner freedom? Are you aware that everything we do here on Sunday – come to this beautiful place, take in this holy hour, sing, pray, listen, hope, care and plan – it all serves one purpose – that you may encounter and become more deeply acquainted with the God who raises up hope and tenderness even in scary and conflicted places?

So fix this picture in your head, Paul says: Jesus, raised from the dead! You, raised from fear and judgment! The two pictures go together. They are yours for the asking!

You know what? There are many wonderful things we do here in this church. We take care of the building and the business of church. We run programs and reach out to kids. We worship in ways that are evocative and interesting and sometimes beautiful. But you know what we almost never do? We almost never ask God to be God for us!

What do you suppose might happen here if we really and truly asked God to be the God that scripture says God is?

After all, we pray the Lord’s prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do we think, God’s going to shrug us off when we pray that prayer? Do you remember what Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel: Ask, and you will receive; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. What’s God going to say to you if you knock on that door, Aw, shucks, guys, go home, I was just kidding!?

How about this one. Do you remember these words? They come from one of Paul’s other letters, the one to the Philippians who were having trouble getting real in their prayer life. Paul pleads with them, he says: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Pray with this in mind, and is God going to say, “Oops. Sorry! I’ll make it up to you when you get to heaven!”

I don’t think so!

Do the promises say you’ll never get into tough places? No. Do the promises say that God is going to rescue you from every mess you may or may not have gotten yourself into? No. Do the promises say you’re never going to be scared out of your wits? No. Do they say you are never going to hear those voices saying what were you thinking? No!

What do they say? They say: Go ahead. Give your chains a little shake and ask God to be God for you. And then you will find ample reasons for living joyfully and lovingly – maybe even at the other end of what you’re scared and worried about!

A final point. Like Paul showing Timothy, we have to show one another how it’s done. Chain-rattling isn’t done alone. It isn’t the habit of the world to show you the power of joy and love! On the contrary – whether the chains go clunk and thud like Paul’s – or whether the chains are inner voices harping at you – the world has a preference that you don’t learn what God can do. So we’re going to have to teach from one another how it’s done.

My prayer for us this evening is this: May we ask God to be God for us. May God who raised Jesus from the dead, raise us up from fear and judgment. May we, over time, with practice, in prayer with others, rattle our chains until they break.

And may many who witness fear and shame falling from us be encouraged to rattle their chains, and cause the gospel to break out in our world today!

Amen