The Spirit’s gift

St Timothy was one of the very first bishops in the Church. Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, in lineage, as well as in commission. We heard in the section from St Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy how Paul had laid his hands on Timothy, in the very same gesture we will employ today, to make his young disciple a bishop. And Timothy was young, quite possibly in his mid-thirties, when his ordination occurred. He was someone who, like Jeremiah, might have protested, ‘Ah, Lord; look, I do not know how to speak: I am a child.’

Just before his death in AD 64, Paul, the Apostle, sent Timothy, the Bishop, to exercise oversight of the fledgling Church in Ephesus, which he did until his martyrdom in AD 97. In the laying on of hands, in the passing on of the apostolic commission, and in the faithful witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Timothy proved to be a true bishop of the Church.

In his letter, as we heard, Paul reminds Timothy of the elements of the life to which he had been chosen. The episcopy is a gift from God, to be fanned into a flame. It comes from the Spirit of the Lord as strength, love and self-control; it is not a spirot of timidity or reticence about the Gospel. To be a bishop is to be a witness to the Lord in his death and resurrection; it is a call to holiness: to being a willing herald, a faithful apostle, a sound teacher.

To draw directly from the words and purposes of Jesus himself, given to his apostles, ‘You did not choose me; no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last … What I command you is to love one another.’

As I listen myself to this description of a bishop, I am personally confronted by what this call entails. Who can possibly live up to it? Yet, it is God’s call, Christ’s choosing, the Spirit’s gift. A gift! No wonder Paul, as he acknowledges the hardships he was enduring, spoke to Timothy of his entrustment and confidence in the care Jesus Christ holds for us, a grace granted from the beginning of time, that overcomes death and professes life.

The marks of death we each carry—of sin, doubt, despondency, tiredness, fearfulness—are, in Christ, transfigured marks of life—of grace, hope, trust, faith, confidence. In Christ, in his death-defying love, servitude gives way to friendship, and burden gives way to joy.

Behind the words of Paul to Timothy, I cannot help but hear the prophecy of Zephaniah for all God’s People:

Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is within you, the saving warrior.
He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love,
He will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.

The promises Bishops-Elect Thinh and Rene will make before God and before us each begin with the phrase ‘Do you resolve…’ They are being called to show resolve in the upholding of the Christian faith, and in the discharging of their duty of oversight of the Christian faithful (which is the meaning of the word bishop). They do so before all of us, God’s priestly, prophetic and kingly People. To be resolved is to exercise a steadfast will to live this commission faithfully. We, God’s People, take on a corresponding duty to receive their resolve with trust and hope, and to see in them the grace God is giving to them.

At the end of their promises, I will say, ‘May God who has begun this good work in you bring it to fulfillment.’ These are comforting words, I think. It is good work to which they are being called, and that is indeed good to hear, for them and for us. And it is by grace, by the favour of God, that they are being called to aim for the goal toward which the episcopal life is directed—to have a purposeful end to aim for, a horizon into which to situate their lives.

Pray for your new bishops, Thinh and Rene, as Paul prayed for Timothy. Pray that they may know this grace in Christ, that is to be theirs, will sustain and nurture them. Pray that they take courage in their calling, and find zeal for their mission. And to you, Rene and Thinh, may you pray to see in the people to whom you are sent the radiant face of Christ.