Before I read the second lesson I want to say a bit about what it is and where it came from. Many of you will already know these basics, but if you're new to church all these readings can seem to come out of nowhere.
In those writings by early followers of Jesus that we call the New Testament, there are four variations on the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We call them gospels. They were written - in Greek - by people we call Matthew, Mark Luke and John and we read them often in church. There are 21 letters in the New Testament, also written in Greek, that we read less often. Most were written by the apostle Paul, or by someone writing in Paul's name, to churches or fellow pastors. Many were written before the gospels. From the beginning these letters have been passed around and read out loud in churches, for their edification and encouragement; they were never considered private correspondence. This letter was written by a follower of Paul - I'll call him Paul - to encourage a fellow evangelist and pastor named Timothy. I'm reading from the middle of the letter we call 2nd Timothy. Listen for the Word of God:
One of the first things scholars do when they read a New Testament letter is to ask, "What occasioned it? What was going on in that church?" In this case, it seems, the people weren't listening to their pastor, Timothy. The time was coming, Paul said, when people wouldn't put up with sound doctrine, with right teaching, but instead would turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. They'd find other teachers to suit their itching ears and their own desires.
Indeed, this time had already come, apparently, for earlier in the letter Paul names a couple of those teachers and has some choice words about them and their followers. There were lovers of themselves, he says: lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power: in other words, followers of Jesus who had gone bad. (3:1-5) (The ancient Greeks loved making lists of their opponent's vices. Just for the record, I'd like to point out these particular teachers were not fornicators or homosexuals). We don't know what they were teaching, for Paul only makes a passing reference to its content. We do know Paul and Timothy didn't agree with it - or at least Paul didn't. Timothy may have wavered, for Paul urges him to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed, remembering that it was Paul who taught him.
Paul reminds Timothy that he's known the scriptures from childhood, those holy writings where he learned of salvation through Christ Jesus. Paul urges Timothy to stay the course: to teach with patience, to endure suffering and carry out his ministry, to keep proclaiming the message, in times favorable -- and not.
So 2000 years later, we ask: does this long-ago instruction have anything to do with us? At first glance, no. The theological controversy itself is lost to history. As 21st century, liberal-minded folks we're a likely to chafe at the way Paul speaks about his opponents and object to the general tone of the whole letter. But Paul insists that all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. So before we dismiss it, let's open ourselves to the Holy Spirit to see if this scripture may teach - even correct - us.
I'll start with a personal testimony. When Paul says that people will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths I was reminded of some wandering I did recently. I don't know what I ordered on the internet to deserve it, but the other day I received a catalog from an expensive Park Avenue store of fine furnishings and gifts. As I was leafing through photographs of glittering jewels and sofa tables costing thousands of dollars, my eye was caught by these little enamel boxes made by a company called Halcyon Days. I was especially drawn to their 2007 Christmas box. It had festive skating scenes on top, all around and inside. It was snowing. All the skaters were white people from the 19th century, of course, and they were falling down and courting and having fun. What made me pause? A longing to go skating in the country? Or a deep, unarticulated belief that if I owned that box I would also have holiday parties with friends and a happy Christmas? That if I gazed at those snow scenes long enough, global warming would go away? The $220 price tag jolted me back to reality but it was a close call. It was just a miniature example of the many times - and I know I'm not alone - I've wandered away to the myth that I am what I have in my house. Which is just one myth in our pantheon of consumer myths: we are what we own, we are what we drive, we are what we eat, we are what we wear. (And that what we own, drive, eat and wear will save us).
Karl Marx would say that my little box fetish keeps me from seeing the truth that the mining for its 24-K gold-plated fittings left a mountain of toxic waste near a poor village in Peru or Ghana.1 Paul, and other teachers of sound doctrine, would say it turns me away from the truth we are children of God, no more no less, all equally beloved regardless of what we buy or own. They would point out that Christ saves, not Halcyon Days. But we turn away from those truths. Good news they may be, but they're difficult to grasp, hard to trust, and demand something of us. And the myths speak so powerfully to our desires. Our desires to be comfortable, safe, loved, special. Like all myths - and this is one of many - there is truth in this consumer myth: a beautiful object in our house can be a blessing. So we listen to teachers who tell us buying stuff is good. We invite them into our house through the television set. We accumulate them in our magazine rack. We don't put up with listening to sound doctrine.
Paul has a word to us: get sober. Chapter 4, verse 5, "as for you, always be sober," or, more literally, "stay sober in all things." Paul is not simply saying abstain from alcohol or drugs - although being sober may include that. The New International Version translates this phrase as "keep your head in all situations." Others say, "be watchful" or "be steady in all things" (RSV). Sobriety: being watchful and steady and keeping our heads in all situations. Listening to the truth rather than turning to myths.
And as we know, sobriety is not easy. The alcohol, the drugs, the myths: their siren songs call us. It's not possible to resist them alone. So Christ has gathered us into his church. Christ calls us into the church so we may encourage and teach each other with utmost patience. So we may proclaim the message of God's love to one another and the world, in good times and in bad. And God has given us the Holy Scriptures. This letter from Paul that speaks to us across centuries. The sacred writings that - when carefully and lovingly interpreted, in community and with the help of the Holy Spirit - are useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, for keeping our heads in all situations, for turning from myths to truth. Thanks be to God!