Video and Sermon of Divine Service for 17th Sunday after Pentecost

Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer

17^th Sunday after Pentecost

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4         

2 Timothy 1:1-14      

Luke 17:1-10

O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. 

The Apostle Paul closes his first letter to Timothy with the exhortation, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.” Three years later, in AD 68, the aging Paul who knows that his days are now limited as he awaits his execution by the emperor Nero, writes again to Timothy offering strong words of encouragement. “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” (1 Timothy 1:13-14) The word “deposit” is a connecting point between the two letters. The Apostle does not use the word carelessly. 

Up until the time that I began to study the Scriptures and the history of the church intently in seminary, the only time that I ever heard the word “deposit” was in connection with money going into a bank account. Except for right now, I suspect the same for all of you. 

It may seem odd that the Apostle would use a word that we associate with money to talk about the essential content of the Christian faith. But, in another way, it makes perfect sense because what Timothy first learned from his Grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, then learned from the Apostle Paul, is indeed precious and needs to be carefully preserved. 

The Greek word that is used for “deposit” is “paratheke.” The word literally means, “what is entrusted to one’s care.” Long before Paul used “paratheke,” the word was in common usage for anything that was of value to an individual that was then entrusted to someone else’s care for safekeeping. In Jewish, Grecian, and Roman Law a deposit, a paretheke, was a contract by which the depositor freely entrusted something to the guardianship of another with the understanding that it will be kept safe from thief or harm. 

The deposit that the Apostle speaks of is the documented and witnessed mighty acts of God. This is the story of our salvation that culminates in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament bears witness to the Mighty Acts of God that include the creation of the universe; God’s promise of redemption after the Fall into sin; the saving of Noah and his family from the great flood; the establishment of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Israel’s rescue from the bondage to slavery in Egypt; the establishment of the Promised Land; the building of the Temple; and the work of the Prophets to proclaim God’s justice and the promise of the coming Messiah. The Deposit also includes the testimony of the Mighty Acts of God in Christ Jesus who is God incarnate and who dies on the cross for us and rises from the dead. The Deposit reveals the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to create the Church through Holy Baptism and the teaching of the faith.

All of this is precious and must be carefully guarded by Timothy and the Church. The Apostle knows that it can be misused. Paul wrote a strongly worded letter to the church in Galatia because the grace of God in Christ was being turned into a work by false teachers that insisted that Holy Baptism and confession of faith are not enough. They convinced the congregation that circumcision and that observing Jewish festivals are a matter of salvation. The Apostle corrected that false teaching with clear statements that we are saved by Christ alone through faith alone by his grace alone. Jude warned the church “⁴ For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” How can a person remain a Christian if he no longer confesses that Christ Jesus is God incarnate and his Lord and Master? How can he trust in God’s grace when it has been perverted into a work of a mere human? How can we know the peace of God when God’s forgiveness and salvation are twisted into something that we attain through our own efforts? We cannot. The deposit of faith reveals God’s saving activity among and for us and it bears the truth that our sins are forgiven on account of Christ’s spilled blood and death upon the cross.  

The truth of God’s grace needs to be protected, preserved for safe keeping, and shared with the world by the ministry of the Church. 

There has always been concern for theft and misuse of money. These days, we have to worry about identity theft. We guard our images, our social security numbers, and our financial information closely so that they are not stolen from us and misused and our reputations are not maligned.  

The deposit of faith that the Apostle Paul entrusted to Timothy is an ongoing concern for us. The truth of God’s salvation for us in the cross is a part of our identity. It is who we are. The number of false teachers promoting heresy has only grown with our communication capabilities. How can we know the truth of the gospel? It is given to us by Christ through His Apostles and then to the Church to be passed on from generation to generation. The Holy Spirit gifted us with Holy Scripture because it is the source and norm of our doctrine. It bears the truth of God and through the ministry of the Church we receive God’s Word and peace.     

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.