In our scripture readings for today, we begin the apostle Paul's first letter to his true child in the faith, Timothy of Lystra. Paul met Timothy on his first missionary journey, approximately AD 47, when Paul was likely in his early forties, and Timothy was in his early twenties or younger. And Paul took a special interest in Timothy due to his strength of faith, his maturity, and his potential for leadership. He recruited Timothy to travel with him on his second missionary journey, and at the time of this letter, approximately AD 63, Paul had recently been released from prison in Rome, and he had assigned Timothy to oversee the churches in Ephesus. In this first part of the letter, Paul stresses to Timothy the importance of the character of the messenger, the church, to the reception of the message, the gospel...
There was a time in the recent past, when the proud nation of Canada was represented on the world stage....by Katy Perry's boyfriend. Do you remember cringing, when watching the highlights of G7 meetings, when Katy Perry's boyfriend was showing other world leaders his fancy socks? Do you remember the oh-so-obviously-real tears, when Katy Perry's boyfriend apologised for some supposed crime Canada committed many generations ago? Do you remember the glibness with which Katy Perry's boyfriend gave away taxpayer money to the latest cause celebre? When the messenger is a joke, it is very hard to take the message seriously....
The message Paul shares is serious and important: “There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.” Now, if only God would impress this truth directly into all of the human hearts on this planet! But instead, as Paul recognises, the message must be delivered by human heralds – and that means, for good or for ill, the church IS the pillar and support of the truth. The behaviour of the church matters, because if the church is a joke, its message cannot be taken seriously.
And Paul emphasises to Timothy, that good behaviour starts with the leadership. Bishops and deacons must be respectable, so that their message is respected. Having a church leader who is a drunk or an adulterer or a crappy parent, reflects badly on the message. Scandal...is a very convenient excuse to ignore what the church is saying.
And as Paul states to Timothy, it also matters HOW the message is presented. In Paul's culture, a church dominated by women trying to teach men would be a joke. Let the men do the praying, and then everyone in Paul's culture will listen. A double-tongued church that gave different messages to different groups would be a joke. Tell the truth and don't lie, and then the people will listen. Do everything you can to make sure that the church is taken seriously.
Seriously. That is how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God. For the sake of the message, we are called to be serious. For the sake of the souls Jesus is trying to reach, we are called to be serious.
And this is a problem for us, not only because taking church seriously implies effort and commitment and sombreness and joylessness. Our society has special words to describe those who are serious about their faith, who make faith-based decisions about things more consequential than how to spend an hour or two on Sunday. Our society calls them zealots. They call them fanatics. They call them extremists. And they don't use those words as compliments! If we are serious, we can expect pushback.
And Paul tells Timothy where a serious church puts the priority in life. “Pray for the king so that the necessities of life can be obtained quietly and peaceably, and then we can focus on spreading salvation. Yes, we need to grow food and make goods and provide energy and heal the sick and teach the young, but THEN, the MAIN thing is the knowledge of the truth.”
There was a quote from a famous pastor I heard when I was at seminary. The fact that I can't remember the exact wording or who said it, is also indicative of the problem. Essentially, the quote said something like this, “the correct posture for a preacher, is one of fear and trembling, based on the weight of responsibility of delivering the message.” Souls hang in the balance. But fear only registers if you take it seriously. And too many of my sermons have left the message...less impactful, less developed, less serious than it deserves...