1 Timothy 6:6-10(GNT)
Fellowship of Faith @ St. John’s Meadows
September 29, 2019
1 Timothy 6:6-10 (GNT)
Well, religion does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.
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“God will raise us up on eagles’ wings, bear us on the breath of dawn, make us to shine like the sun, and hold us in the palm of her hand.”
So we just sang.
And to that … I say … “thank you, Jesus. We need that right now.”
It’s been quite a week for our nation … not to mention quite a week for some of us, individually. And it’s in that context that we read from 1 Timothy that religion DOES make us very rich but only if we are satisfied with what we have. And it tells us that those who have wandered away from the faith … have broken hearts with many sorrows.
In other words, our faith can help us make sense out of EVERYTHING.
Our FAITH can keep us on an even keel.
Our faith is what gives life MEANING … not all of the things that the world tells us are important.
And if we DON’T hold onto our faith as our ballast to keep us afloat … as our swim board to keep us above the waters … then our hearts will be broken with many sorrows.
1 Timothy “is one of three letters in the New Testament … often grouped together along with Second Timothy and Titus in what are called the Pastoral Epistles. The letter, traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, consists mainly of counsels – or pieces of advice … wisdom – to his younger colleague, Timothy, regarding HIS ministry in Ephesus (1:3).[i]
Timothy (also known as Saint Timothy) was “an early Christian evangelist who traveled around with Paul, and who became the first Christian bishop of Ephesus (which was a city in Greece near the border with Turkey). Tradition tells us that Timothy died around the year AD 97.”[ii] Paul is believed to have died in the mid 60’s … probably around July of 64.[iii] So this was written to a young Timothy who was just starting out in his religious work.
This advice that Paul was giving his young protégé, includes “instructions on the organization of the Church and the responsibilities resting on certain groups of LEADERS in the church. Paul also writes about the need for faithfulness in maintaining the truth”[iv] even when you’re surrounded by people who don’t live it or who don’t believe it.
And that’s where we find this Common Lectionary Reading today. All things considered … it seems like a pretty good reading for right now, I think.
What did we bring INTO the world? Nothing!
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What can we take OUT of the world? Nothing!
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What matters is how we LIVE our life while we’re here.
To leave the world better than we FOUND it.
To have touched at least ONE life so that they know that they are loved.
To BE loved and cared for by others.
Or, as Paul tells Timothy … So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us.
Would that it were so for people in POWER around the world.
Those who are destroying the Amazon rain forests that clean the air for the entire PLANET.
Those who want POWER … usually in the form of money – though not always ONLY money … those who are DESTROYING the rain forests … the planet’s air filter.
Or those who are manipulating laws around the world to allow chemicals to be dumped into our rivers and seas JUST so that they can make more money … with no second thought about the people who have to live, bathe in, cook with and DRINK that polluted water.
Or those who find ways to manipulate peoples’ thoughts into creating groups of people who they teach us are DIFFERENT than … or LESS than we are.
GOD didn’t create the world that way.
GOD didn’t create better thans and less thans.
Paul tells Timothy that those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction.
The word “rich” here doesn’t have to mean MONEY – although it certainly CAN. But it can mean those who want to get ANY material gain … any kind of power … those who seek to ACCUMULATE anything that is of value to them or their society – their culture – those people “fall into temptation.” It’s a temptation to FORGET who GOD is … to forget their FAITH. They are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires and once in that trap, it pulls them down to ruin and destruction.
But that could NEVER happen to US, right?
Paul says that the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. And while that’s certainly TRUE, it’s the love of ANYTHING that we put greater emphasis on … that is a source for all kinds of evil. It’s not just money.
MONEY, by itself, isn’t bad. Money can do great things.
It’s the LOVE of money.
It’s the POWER that money gives people.
It’s the INFLUENCE that money generates which tempts us.
It’s a love of CELEBRITY or notoriety or whatever strokes our ego.
THAT love … the way that it prioritizes our LIFE is what becomes the temptation to NOT live as we are supposed live to according to Jesus.
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I’ve been reading about the British government and what a mess they are lately. And let’s face it … ours is no better.
I think that’s the thing that strikes me.
We are all so willing to think that the OTHER person is wrong, and WE are right.
That we are BETTER than … that our COUNTRY is better than … that our SYSTEM and our CULTURE are better than anyone else’s.
Whether we’re talking about politics or about the best way to get from here to the other side of the city.
Whatever WE think, has to be the best way.
Do we take the Interstate or go through town?
Do we stop for ice cream on the way or go right to our destination?
SOMEWHERE … sometime … there has to be some data … some empirical evidence … some objective FACTS that we can agree about.
Our GPS tells us what the FASTEST route might be to get across town … depending on traffic, it could be EITHER going through the city or taking 490.
But THEN we have to talk about WHY we’re going and what we want to get out of the TRIP.
Are we going just to GET there, or do we want to go in order to spend time together?
The first would dictate no stops along the way and take the fastest route. Just get in the car and GO.
The latter would be leisurely in order to have the time to share together.
Both of them are RIGHT … but both might not be right for YOU. Maybe your priority is DIFFERENT from mine. Maybe I want to stop and have ice cream and you want to just GET there. Are either one of us really WRONG?
It’s our PRIORITIES that determine our values.
Right?
But shouldn’t it be our VALUES that determine our priorities?
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Politics is like money.
Being political is not bad in and of itself … it’s what we DO with our politics or money and how much we VALUE them that makes both of those things DANGEROUS for us. Why dangerous? Because both of them bring power. And the POWER is what tempts us. It’s like the old saying, “Power corrupts … and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.”
It’s hard for me to look back on Watergate and believe – with the benefit of HINDSIGHT – that anyone in their right mind could have been supporting President Nixon right up to the time that he resigned. But according to studies, as much as 30% of the country DID support him then. Almost one-THIRD of the country.
Things are clearer in hindsight.
But I know first-hand from some people in MY life who supported Nixon at the time … who at the time even thought he should not resign because he did nothing wrong … when you talk to them now, their ideas have CHANGED. They see through the lens of hindsight how corrupt he was.
Where was their openness to being wrong even then?
With his impeachment and a bunch of people from the White House going to jail, we, as a nation, said that we value the Rule of Law … the integrity of our election system … and the fact that no one is ABOVE the law.
We have said … as a result of Watergate and other scandals … that we will honor and protect Whistleblowers … NOT because they know something firsthand, but because they are brave enough to say things that others don’t have the COURAGE to say. Put things in the open so they can be investigated.
The process that we developed has an Inspector General who checks things out enough to say whether it is a CREDIBLE accusation or not.
NOT to say if people are guilty or innocent … just to say that it’s a credible situation to be investigated.
Those are our VALUES as a nation.
They should determine our PRIORITIES. Right?
But those who want to get rich … Paul says … those who want to have money or power or prestige because that’s what THEY value … those people fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires.
What are we … who are followers of Jesus … what are WE supposed to do with all of this that’s going on around us … in our NAME, I might add … what are we supposed to DO?
Well the first thing is to make sure that our VALUES are shaping our PRIORITIES.
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I was struck the other day by one of our Senators saying that he couldn’t believe the evidence that had been put forth because it was put out there by the Democrats and he’s a Republican.
And when a reporter said to him, “Well, I thought you were good friends with Senator so-and-so. Isn’t he a Democrat?”
The first guy said, “Well yes, but he’s different.”
We are ALL so willing to think that OUR friends are different …. OUR family is better … OUR country is the best … that WE are smarter and we know what’s true.
How many times have you heard someone say, “Those (Mexicans … or gays … or women … or Republicans … or Democrats …) are terrible … but my friend, so-and-so who IS one of those things … is the EXCEPTION.”
We have to stop acting as if we are all EXCEPTIONS.
We think that we are all above AVERAGE.
That’s what we mean by American Exceptionalism. We’re BETTER than … we’re SMARTER than … we’re RICHER than … we’re more POWERFUL than … we’re more DESERVING than.
And when we ACT like that, then WE are the people that Paul is teaching Timothy NOT to be like.
We are forgetting that God created us ALL.
That there is no GAME here … life is for REAL and it involves treating people as we wish to be treated.
That’s hard to hear, maybe. I know I am making some of us – all of us – uncomfortable. At least I HOPE I am because it’s true … we are no BETTER and no WORSE than anyone else. We’re ALL children of the living God.
But right now, we are acting in ways that the Bible tells us NOT to act like.
And we’re doing it with a sense that it’s all okay because WE are different than the other people. We are smarter. WE know what’s REALLY going on.
Why? Why do we think that? And I am just as guilty as everyone else.
Whatever happened to the HUMILITY of Christ?
Are we are so caught up in playing the blame game that we can’t even recognize when we are part of the problem?
Racism … Climate Change … Poverty … Violence … Homelessness … Sexism … Politicization of our Values …
I found a hymn that we’ll sing in a little bit. It says:
1 In an age of twisted values
we have lost the truth we need.
In sophisticated language
we have justified our greed.
By our struggle for possessions
we have robbed the poor and weak.
Hear our cry and heal our nation;
your forgiveness, Lord, we seek.
I wonder if we will still be seeking God’s forgiveness 50 years from now when people study this time. They MAY look back and see two Presidents who tried to guarantee political victory by attacking the candidate from the opposite party and using illegal methods to get the information for doing that. One, by his own admission, authorized a physical break-in of the Democratic Party Headquarters and the other, by HIS own admission, asked a foreign leader to get information on HIS opponent.
These are not disputed facts.
And it makes me wonder if we, as a people, aren’t just like the people in the Old Testament who would hear a prophet … repent and turn back to God … and then a generation (50 years) later repeat the same darn things again and again.
We’re no better than they were.
Paul wrote to Timothy … Some have been so eager to have whatever it is that gives power that they have wandered away from their faith.
Have we?
Has our country?
Have you and I?
4 We who hear your word so often
choose so rarely to obey.
Turn us from our willful wandering;
give us truth to light our way.
In the power of your Spirit
come to cleanse us, make us new;
hear our cry and heal our nation
till our nation honors you.
Please turn in your bulletin to Hymn #345. Let’s remain seated and sing together stanzas 1 and 4. Amen.
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Epistle_to_Timothy
[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Timothy
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