Remember and Proclaim
2 Timothy 3:14–4:5
October 21, 2007
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick
- Who was your role model? Who was it who first taught you about the faith? Or if it wasn’t called “faith” for you, who taught you the core values that carry you through even today? For me, one of those people was my father. He didn’t, still doesn’t, go to church, but he read to us from the Children’s Bible, and he taught us values like caring for the environment, and living responsibly, and staying true to your morals. He was one of my early faith teachers. Who was yours? A parent, a grandparent, a pastor, a professor, a friend. Think for a moment. And then, if you want, call out those names, no description, just names. Who taught you the faith? Who mentored you? (pause)
- Thanks be to God for the faith we have learned, and those who were sent to be our teachers.
- The letter of 2 Timothy is a letter from a mentor to a student, from an older, more experienced pastor to a young pastor on the verge of discouragement.
- 2 Timothy is one of the disputed letters, which just means we don’t know for sure who wrote it. It might have been Paul, it certainly wants to say it’s Paul, but it might also have been written years later, to another Timothy, written in Paul’s name. We don’t know for sure, but I don’t think it really matters. The words still apply. The challenges of ministry, of being faithful, of staying true to one’s faith cross generations and centuries. Sometimes, in almost any time, it’s hard to keep the faith.
- That seems especially true in this second letter to Pastor Timothy. Starting as we did at vs. 14 of chapter 3, you miss a lot that sets the scene for the situation. So hear now, the words that come before the words of our scripture today, as recorded in the Message version of the Bible:
1–5Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.
6–9These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself "truth." They get exploited every time and never really learn. These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax.
10–13You've been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings—suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.
- And then Paul says to Timothy, “but as for you”…There’s a lot of garbage out there, times are tough, things are going to get worse, people are going to wander away…but as for you…Remember what you’ve learned and who you learned it from. Remember your core values. Remember what you hold to be true. Remember what is most important.
- We hear this as a call to return to Orthodoxy, traditional ways of thinking, and in a sense it is. But it’s not a call to cling to old ways, the way things have always been, to stand rigid and unbending in the midst of a windstorm. Instead, it’s a call to hold on to what we know to be true; to be steadfast to that which we believe.
- And what we believe is this: that God is gracious. That God loves all people, even me, and even you. That God desires what is good and just and shalom for all people. And that our call is to live out that love and that shalom, peace, in word and deed.
- Remember that…and then: Proclaim that. Not everyone will want to hear that. Not everyone will listen. Some will wander away looking for the latest fad. Some will get distracted with other things. Some will be hostile and condescending and dismissive. But as for you…proclaim the message you know. Be persistent. Proclaim grace – even when it is not in style. Proclaim justice – even when people would rather not hear. Proclaim God’s love even when the voices of judgment, or war, or fear, or terrorism would threaten to drown you out. Proclaim God’s good news. That which you know in your heart to be true.
- As an aside, the writer then adds that line about all scripture being inspired by God and useful for reproof. That’s the line that’s been used by those who would abuse scripture. But keep in mind that the when this writer refers to scripture, he’s talking about what we call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures. This letter to Timothy, at the time it was written, wasn’t scripture. It was just a letter. And scripture, inspired by God, doesn’t have to mean literally true. It can more likely mean written by faithful men and women who have lived lives in relationship to God and in their words we find meaning and relationship for our lives. Inspired by God in the ways they wrote and the ways they lived.
- But getting back to the text for today. These are the words of a mentor to a student. The words of a veteran pastor to a young newbie pastor. In it, I hear words to a tired, disillusioned, young pastor. One who was told that everything would be fine, speak and they will listen, and who discovers that not everyone wants to hear good news. Not everyone wants to be healed. Maybe I’m reading that into it. Maybe I’m hearing that because I get weary sometimes. And I know you get weary sometimes too. And maybe once in awhile we doubt. We wonder if we’re on the right track. We wonder if we’re really getting anywhere or if we’re just paddling in circles. We wonder if anything we do really matters all that much. And then comes this letter to us, through the ages: when times are difficult, when it seems the world is against you, do this: remember what you’ve learned, and those who taught you in the first place, and then proclaim the message with persistence, regardless of how it is received.
- The message here seems clear: It’s not the absence of doubt that is the mark of faithfulness. It’s the willingness to move through the doubt and continue to proclaim and live out the good news.
- Mother Teresa, the Saint of Calcutta, made news once again recently. It seems her journals and letters written later in her life are being published. Apparently she didn’t want that. She wanted them destroyed, because in them she revealed the doubts she had through her ministry. Dark times. Times when she wondered not only if God were listening, but if there even was a God to listen. Times when she wondered about her ministry, her life’s work, how much it mattered. In those dark days she wrote to a spiritual friend these words, “The silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear…I want you to pray for me, that I let Him have a free hand.”
- She doubted, and wondered, and at times despaired, but even so, she continued to proclaim in word and deed, she continued to be God’s love in the world. Another writing attributed to her echoes this passage from 2 Timothy and maybe it also echoes both her doubts and the reconciliation of those doubts. It is titled, Love them anyway.
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Be good anyway.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People need help, but may attack you if you try to help them. Help them anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
Amen.