A Spirit of Power and Love

A Youth Sermon for Proper 22 C RCL 10/3/2010, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Lamentations 1:1-6; Lam. 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

Did you hear and notice that powerful little sentence from our readings today? “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

What is cowardice? What does it look like? Can you show me what cowardice looks like?
What does it feel like to have cowardice, to be cowardly?

So the great apostle Paul taught us that God did NOT give us that kind of spirit. God does not want us to look or to feel that way.

Instead, God gave us a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline!

That spirit of power, the spirit of love, looks different that cowardice, doesn’t it? What does it look like to be filled with power and with love? To be bold?

Yesterday, we had a retreat out at a nature preserve where a group of us gathered together to learn about St. Francis of Assisi. Do you know anything at all about St. Francis?

Well, when Francis was a young man, he faced a really tough situation where he had to choose whether to live with a spirit of cowardice or with a spirit of boldness. Francis’ father ran his own business and he wanted Francis to join him and to learn the business so that he could take it over when his father grew old. But instead, Francis was more interested in working in churches! What’s worse is that Francis was giving away his father’s money to poor people! Finally, his father was fed up with this. He had had enough of this strange behavior. So he dragged his son, Francis, into church to stand before the bishop to make Francis swear to give up this craziness and to be a good son.

Francis had to choose! Was he going to cower under his father’s anger and do what his father wanted? Or was he going to listen to God, follow Jesus and be bold and courageous?

Do you know what he did? He decided to follow Jesus! He took of all of his clothes, gave them back to his father, and walked away totally free to begin a brand new life!

Francis was a Christian, and he chose to live with that spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline that Jesus had given to him.

Do you know how to live with that Holy Spirit inside of us? That Spirit does not allow us to be ashamed of the Gospel. But when we are filled with the Holy Spirit like Jesus and like Francis, then we can stand up with boldness and say to others,

“I don’t care what you say, because I am going to love you no matter what! And I don’t care what you do, because God is going to love you no matter what! And there's nothing you can do to change that!”

That’s the freedom that we have in the Holy Spirit! To speak and act in a spirit of power and love and self-control.

Let’s pray together:

O God, you made us and you have given us this Spirit of power and love: help us to not be cowards, but to be bold and brave and strong so that we can love everybody and so that we can tell everybody that you love them too. Thank you for giving us such great and wonderful gifts, and thank you for teaching us through the example of people like Francis of Assisi. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.