2 Tm 3:14-4:5
21 October 2007
“Remember Who You Are, part 2”
Two weeks ago, if you recall, my sermon text was Psalm 137—what I called the “baby dashing” psalm. I said it has that nickname due to the way it ends. “O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!” (vv. 8-9).
I said that the psalmist, aside from venting pain and rage, is issuing a protest. He’s telling his fellow Jews to not forget who they are.
Well, today’s epistle reading also deals with questions of identity. Except in this case, we have the words of an old master to a young apprentice. There’s a whole lot of stuff packed into our scripture passage, but there’s a command that rings out: remember who you are!
That command is for Timothy, but it’s also for the church. “Remember who you are” is something all of us need to hear.
For the Jews in Psalm 137, the threat they face is assimilation into the Babylonian culture. The Babylonian Empire is the 800 pound gorilla. The threat of the Jews’ losing themselves is very real. But for Timothy and the first century church—and need I say, the twenty first century church?—the threat of assimilation comes in different forms.
Before I go into it, though, let’s hear someone else’s take on the matter. Here’s how Eugene Peterson interprets the beginning of chapter 4 in his paraphrase called The Message (vv. 1-5). This is the apostle Paul speaking to his protégé, Timothy:
“I can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.
“You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.”
We don’t know what the exact threats are, but Paul seems to be pretty urgent with his instructions to Timothy. I’m reminded of the last-second coaching that happens on the sideline, just before the quarterback returns to the huddle for the play that will either win or lose the game.
What is the “spiritual junk food,” as Peterson puts it, the “catchy opinions” and “mirages” that we often chase? And how do they threaten our identity?
I don’t think I need to tell you that the church is not immune to going after fads. We have a shopping mall mentality, or better, an online shopping mentality. If we don’t find the “catchy opinions” to suit our “itching ears,” then sister, we’ll take our business elsewhere—thank you very much!
Still, going along with “the latest thing” isn’t the end of the world, provided we keep our heads on straight and see it for what it is—just a fad. But admittedly, it can be a challenge to see the difference between “the latest thing” and something truly born of the Holy Spirit.
Even the church itself, in its earliest days, was thought by many to be just a fad, something that would soon blow over. In Acts 5, Peter and some other apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council of elders. The apostles have disobeyed their orders to stop teaching in the name of Jesus, and so, they’re now being threatened with death.
But one of the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, tells them to hold their horses! His suggestion is that they “keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” And the scripture adds, “They were convinced by him” (vv. 38-39). That is, they were convinced not to kill them. They still order up a good whipping for them!
On Friday and Saturday a week ago, I went with Tara and Ian to Pittsburgh. We attended Presbymergent. That’s a combination of “Presbyterian” and “Emergent,” as in the emerging church. That’s a movement, a conversation, that’s still quite young. We just spent over a month looking at it during Sunday school.
My point is that here’s something else in which what will remain—and what’s just a fad—has yet to be sorted out.
One fad of recent years is the so-called “prosperity gospel.” In a nutshell, it states that prosperity, especially financial prosperity, is evidence of God’s favor. Of course, this isn’t anything new. It’s been around for thousands of years. For example in the book of Job, all of his problems—the death of his children, his financial ruin, his poor health—were considered to be signs of God’s displeasure with him.
When we remember the meaning of “gospel” as “good news,” then the prosperity gospel is no gospel at all. It isn’t good news, and it says that we have to acquire for ourselves what we already have anyway: the love of God.
As I’ve already indicated, we’re not sure what winds of crazy doctrine are blowing when Paul is speaking. But we do hear his proposal to Timothy: “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it” (3:14). I find the last part of that little nugget of wisdom fascinating. “Knowing from whom you learned it.”
Here’s my question: what difference does it make? Does it matter who you go to, if the content you receive, so to speak, is the same in any case? I think it does, if we’re speaking of matters of faith.
If someone’s instructing me in auto repair or baking cookies, he or she can believe that God is a celestial squirrel, and it won’t make a difference! I say it’s true in matters of faith because there’s more to it than just the content, the material. Other things do come into play, like the spirit of the teacher: the care, the love.
The apostle certainly seems to think so, and he goes on to remind Timothy of the scriptures. Among their benefits is “that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work” (v. 17). Here’s a case in point for remembering who we are—for not losing our identity! Do we belong to God? Is that an identity we claim? Is that who we are?
What does it mean to belong to God? What does that involve? No doubt, there are many ways to go about answering that, but one way appears at the end of our passage: “As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully” (v. 5).
That’s the verse Peterson re-interprets as “keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.”
Again, there’s something in there that really catches my eye. Paul tells Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist.” He doesn’t say to be an evangelist, just do the work of one. What does that say to you? Do images of the fire-and-brimstone revivalist come into your head? Someone waving his Bible around, pounding on the pulpit, shouting, “Repent, ye sinners!”?
Okay, let’s step back a moment. An evangelist, simply put, is one who brings the evangel. In Greek, the word is eujaggevlion (euaggelion)—literally, “good message” or “good news.” The word has been Anglicized to “evangel.” So when we strip away all of the cultural and religious baggage that the word “evangelist” has accumulated, we’re left with “one who brings good news.” The word is in use centuries before Christ.
Still, Paul recognizes “evangelist” as an office in the church. In Ephesians 4:11, he puts it alongside apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers. So, if Paul isn’t telling Timothy (and by extension, us) to be an evangelist, but to do the work of one, what is it that he’s saying?
We should keep in mind his earlier comment about belonging to God and being equipped for every good work. If we belong to God, if we claim the triune God’s ownership of us, then we are in Christ. If that’s true, then we are good news. We carry it with us, no matter where we are, no matter who we’re with. Again we’re reminded: remember who you are. Be who you are. Be good news.
Ultimately, doing the work of an evangelist is less about “doing” than it is about “being.” That’s because being good news to each other, being good news to the world, involves more than anything we can “do.” You understand, of course, that I’m not talking about just any good news, but rather, the good news—the good news of Jesus Christ.
One of the presenters at Presbymergent was B. J. Woodworth, who is lead pastor of the Open Door, a church in Pittsburgh. He described the Open Door as the outgrowth of a new worship service that his pastor thought he should lead. He was ready to go, but his pastor said they first needed to pray.
Before they embarked on this new project, they had to pray. They needed God’s wisdom and blessing. They didn’t mention this during “joys and concerns” the following Sunday, and then forget about it. It wasn’t the subject of one or two prayer meetings. This was a matter of prayer for nine months!
We can learn something from the Benedictines about this. They have 1500 years of experience. Right at the beginning of the Rule of Benedict—right there in the prologue, we hear this: “First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection.”
We have this crazy idea that it’s up to us to make it happen! Sure, we say the right things. We pay lip service to the Lord, but if we’re honest, we too often leave Christ out of the equation. We neglect the privilege—not the obligation—of prayer. And by no means am I leaving myself out of this critique!
Think how much greater our efforts could be if there were enough love in us to really pray. But I know, the “spiritual junk food” our society offers is hard to resist! That’s how the evangel—the good news—becomes distorted, as one writer puts it, into “the sedative for the comfortable.”[1] That’s a good description.
So, to again borrow from Eugene Peterson, we’re encouraged to “keep it simple” and to “keep the Message alive.” That’s who we are. We are people of good news. Let’s remember who we are, and be the good news.