October 9, 2022 – Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23)

There’s a whole bunch of “if”s in our epistle reading today:

IF we have died with him, we will also live with him;
IF we endure, we will also reign with him;
IF we deny him, he will also deny us;
IF we are faithless, he remains faithful–
for he cannot deny himself. (2 Tim 2:11-13)

The structure of this reading makes us think that the IFs are important, but I think what is most important is the statement, “Jesus remains faithful” (2 Tim 2:13).

Ask my son what his favorite part of the month of October is, and you’ll get one of two answers: going apple picking or Halloween. Most kids find Halloween to be an exciting holiday. They get to pretend to be someone else. They get to dress up and either go door to door in our neighborhoods, or even in some places, go “trunk to trunk.” House after house, car after car, they fill up their bags with treats.

But in our neighborhoods, they may wonder if all the houses are participating. Some people may not be home. Some people may not open their front doors. The children may begin to have their doubts. One way that they can be certain that people are participating – that people will answer their doors and give out a treat – is that those people turn on the lights at their house. Even if our children see the light on, they might still doubt that the people inside the house will answer.

Do you remember how excited you felt when you held out your bag or your pumpkin and waited for the treat to be dropped into it? When we as kids opened our bags of treats, we felt excited, but we also trusted and had faith that the bag would be strong enough to hold the candy. We put our faith in the bag that it wouldn’t break. 

As adults, do you remember ever having had a bag break? When it did, do you remember having doubts about whether another bag would break? Or when, not if, it would happen again?

Following Jesus can be like that… while we follow Jesus, we may still have doubts about things in our lives. Things that may be going well could possibly suddenly turn for the worse. Or things that just haven’t been going well seem like they won’t ever get better. For people who have injuries or illness, there may be doubt that the illness will ever go away or that the injury will heal, that health will be restored.

Paul, in the letter to Timothy, reminds him that even when we have doubts, and even when we aren’t faithful in following Jesus, Jesus will remain faithful to us. I know I try to live my life in the most Christ-like way possible, but there are times that I fall short. I am so very happy to be reminded in today’s reading that I can have full confidence in knowing that no matter where I am or how my faith may waver, Jesus is with me. I hope you, too, are thankful for a faithful God that is always faithful even when we have doubts. Amen.