Sunday, September 16th, 2007
Sixteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1st Timothy 1:12-17
Traditionally, Scholars have dated the writing of Paul’s epistle to Timothy between the years 62 and 67 of the Common Era – towards the end of Paul’s ministry. So if we accept that Paul became a follower of the one whom he first persecuted within three to five years of the resurrection, he is writing that he is (STILL) the foremost of sinners even after three decades of ministry; of missionary journeys, of preaching in marketplaces and synagogues, of discipling and teaching and admonishing and cajoling and, in some cases, even some pretty straightforward arm-twisting, as we saw Wednesday before last in studying Philemon.
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that somewhere along the way Paul would have reached some sort of milestone when it comes to sinning – something like those signs you see in factories ‘143 days with no accidents’.
It would seem maybe a little more encouraging to read ‘YOU too, can be like ME’ … after all, isn’t that what we WANT to see? That it IS an attainable goal, that we really CAN be free from sin, if even for a short while, or maybe, possibly, hopefully a … LONGER while?
To be a Christian is to be willing to – and to actually engage in the practice of examining – and reexamining – oneself on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It is to be ready to question one’s motivations, one’s assumptions, and one’s unexpressed thoughts and test them against the witness of the Holy Spirit. It is to be on the prowl, as it were, for those stray thoughts and undercurrents that are so easy to rationalize on one level, but which, when viewed in the light of the Holy Spirit, reveal themselves to be less than what they first appeared to be.
Viewed in that light, then we are faced with the grim reality that faced Paul every day, and which caused him to write so honestly about himself even after thirty years of uninterrupted service of the Lord.
Why would he do that? Why point to himself as the foremost of sinners and in the next breath try to convince others to take him as an example? This is where we have to look at what he is saying, not just at the way in which he is saying it. And what DOES he say? Let’s read verse 16 again:
We like to idealize people that we read about in the Bible. Especially Stephen, the first martyr, or the disciples AFTER the resurrection (we’d rather skip over what they were doing the day BEFORE), and MOST especially, Paul. After all, he DID write all those letters, and made all those trips, and got thrown into prison, and was flogged and beaten and stoned nearly to death. So we almost automatically begin to build this glow about him in our minds … give him a pretty good beard and a clean head of hair, kind and gentle eyes, and a fire in the belly … never mind that for all we know of how Paul actually LOOKED, he could have been covered in warts, walked with a limp, had really bad teeth and had a grating annoying voice. He DID, after all, talk about asking God to remove the thorn in his side …
What I believe Paul is saying is to LOOK at him, YES, but that in looking at him, we realize that we are REALLY looking at ourselves, because we are no different FROM him, or put another way, that HE was no different from US.
The PROBLEM with doing THAT, though, is that it puts us on the same level.
Let me say that again. IT PUTS US ON THE SAME LEVEL.
What does that mean, especially for us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 16th, 2007?
It means we can expect to hold ourselves to the same standards that Paul did HIMSELF. It means that we are CAPABLE of being JUST AS BOLD as Paul was. It means that we can be just as CONTENTIOUS as Paul SOMETIMES was (as good Baptists, I think we’ve got that one covered!).
It also means that we can express ourselves just as Paul did, with the same depth of emotion, with the same feeling, with the same conviction, with the same passion that Paul did. It means that we can hold each other accountable just like Paul demanded accountability from Peter when he flipped on the issue of eating with gentiles. I wonder if I’m using the correct word. Maybe another word would be more appropriate – not only CAN we do these things, but we are RESPONSIBLE FOR doing these things. It is part of our calling, part of what makes us who we are – not as Baptists, but as Christ-followers.
You’ve heard me say it before and I will continue to say it until we begin to understand and practice what it means to LIVE IN COMMUNITY with each other.
I don’t mean ‘live IN the same community’, I don’t mean ‘neighborhood’, I mean FAMILY. THAT is the community spoken of in the New Testament. That is what WE HERE TODAY are still trying to hash out on a daily and weekly basis. And if we’re not working on it, working on building relationships, working on MENDING relationships, working on getting to know – REALLY KNOW each other EVEN THOUGH we’ve known each other all our lives, we are missing out on the greatest blessing that we can ever experience here on earth – that of being surrounded by and being a part of a family of faith that loves and supports one another, that breathes in the Holy Spirit and breathes out the love of God in their everyday life.
We’re not trying to RETURN to the faith community that we read about in Acts, we’re trying to understand what it means to BE IN that same KIND of faith community TODAY in Emmerton. We can’t recreate the first century church because we don’t live in the first century. We are TASKED with creating the twenty-first century church the body of Christ – building on what we can learn and have learned from the church that has been made up of people just like us working out their salvation with fear and trembling for the last twenty centuries!
We CAN do it. We CAN, we ARE capable of being sensitive enough to the leading of the Holy Spirit to take the next step. The question is, what will that step look like? Where will it take us?
We don’t HAVE TO know. It would be nice to, but we don’t have to. That is where FAITH comes in.
God has given us the word of grace and salvation to take to the world.
Will we pass it on?
Let’s pray.
Sixteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1st Timothy 1:12-17
12I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.Have you ever noticed how much Paul uses the first person pronoun? This passage is FULL of the ‘I’ and ‘me’ words. “I am grateful’, ‘who has strengthened ME’, ‘because he judged ME faithful’, ‘appointed ME to his service’, ‘I was formerly’, ‘I received’, ‘I had acted’, ‘grace overflowed for ME’, and ‘I am the foremost’. I’ve heard Paul described as, among other things, an egomaniac, always talking about himself, holding himself up as an example, talking about how he was the most zealous, the most dedicated, the best student … we read about it in his letter to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, and in several other places. It is not that different here … but it is important to note WHAT he is saying he excels at. We read in verse fifteen: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost”
Traditionally, Scholars have dated the writing of Paul’s epistle to Timothy between the years 62 and 67 of the Common Era – towards the end of Paul’s ministry. So if we accept that Paul became a follower of the one whom he first persecuted within three to five years of the resurrection, he is writing that he is (STILL) the foremost of sinners even after three decades of ministry; of missionary journeys, of preaching in marketplaces and synagogues, of discipling and teaching and admonishing and cajoling and, in some cases, even some pretty straightforward arm-twisting, as we saw Wednesday before last in studying Philemon.
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that somewhere along the way Paul would have reached some sort of milestone when it comes to sinning – something like those signs you see in factories ‘143 days with no accidents’.
It would seem maybe a little more encouraging to read ‘YOU too, can be like ME’ … after all, isn’t that what we WANT to see? That it IS an attainable goal, that we really CAN be free from sin, if even for a short while, or maybe, possibly, hopefully a … LONGER while?
To be a Christian is to be willing to – and to actually engage in the practice of examining – and reexamining – oneself on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It is to be ready to question one’s motivations, one’s assumptions, and one’s unexpressed thoughts and test them against the witness of the Holy Spirit. It is to be on the prowl, as it were, for those stray thoughts and undercurrents that are so easy to rationalize on one level, but which, when viewed in the light of the Holy Spirit, reveal themselves to be less than what they first appeared to be.
Viewed in that light, then we are faced with the grim reality that faced Paul every day, and which caused him to write so honestly about himself even after thirty years of uninterrupted service of the Lord.
Why would he do that? Why point to himself as the foremost of sinners and in the next breath try to convince others to take him as an example? This is where we have to look at what he is saying, not just at the way in which he is saying it. And what DOES he say? Let’s read verse 16 again:
16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.Paul has just finished saying Christ came into the world to save sinners – of which HE (Paul) is the foremost – and that it is BECAUSE OF THAT that PAUL received mercy – so that IN HIM (Paul) Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making HIM an example to those who would come to believe in … who? In Paul? NO! In CHRIST!!!
We like to idealize people that we read about in the Bible. Especially Stephen, the first martyr, or the disciples AFTER the resurrection (we’d rather skip over what they were doing the day BEFORE), and MOST especially, Paul. After all, he DID write all those letters, and made all those trips, and got thrown into prison, and was flogged and beaten and stoned nearly to death. So we almost automatically begin to build this glow about him in our minds … give him a pretty good beard and a clean head of hair, kind and gentle eyes, and a fire in the belly … never mind that for all we know of how Paul actually LOOKED, he could have been covered in warts, walked with a limp, had really bad teeth and had a grating annoying voice. He DID, after all, talk about asking God to remove the thorn in his side …
What I believe Paul is saying is to LOOK at him, YES, but that in looking at him, we realize that we are REALLY looking at ourselves, because we are no different FROM him, or put another way, that HE was no different from US.
The PROBLEM with doing THAT, though, is that it puts us on the same level.
Let me say that again. IT PUTS US ON THE SAME LEVEL.
What does that mean, especially for us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 16th, 2007?
It means we can expect to hold ourselves to the same standards that Paul did HIMSELF. It means that we are CAPABLE of being JUST AS BOLD as Paul was. It means that we can be just as CONTENTIOUS as Paul SOMETIMES was (as good Baptists, I think we’ve got that one covered!).
It also means that we can express ourselves just as Paul did, with the same depth of emotion, with the same feeling, with the same conviction, with the same passion that Paul did. It means that we can hold each other accountable just like Paul demanded accountability from Peter when he flipped on the issue of eating with gentiles. I wonder if I’m using the correct word. Maybe another word would be more appropriate – not only CAN we do these things, but we are RESPONSIBLE FOR doing these things. It is part of our calling, part of what makes us who we are – not as Baptists, but as Christ-followers.
You’ve heard me say it before and I will continue to say it until we begin to understand and practice what it means to LIVE IN COMMUNITY with each other.
I don’t mean ‘live IN the same community’, I don’t mean ‘neighborhood’, I mean FAMILY. THAT is the community spoken of in the New Testament. That is what WE HERE TODAY are still trying to hash out on a daily and weekly basis. And if we’re not working on it, working on building relationships, working on MENDING relationships, working on getting to know – REALLY KNOW each other EVEN THOUGH we’ve known each other all our lives, we are missing out on the greatest blessing that we can ever experience here on earth – that of being surrounded by and being a part of a family of faith that loves and supports one another, that breathes in the Holy Spirit and breathes out the love of God in their everyday life.
We’re not trying to RETURN to the faith community that we read about in Acts, we’re trying to understand what it means to BE IN that same KIND of faith community TODAY in Emmerton. We can’t recreate the first century church because we don’t live in the first century. We are TASKED with creating the twenty-first century church the body of Christ – building on what we can learn and have learned from the church that has been made up of people just like us working out their salvation with fear and trembling for the last twenty centuries!
We CAN do it. We CAN, we ARE capable of being sensitive enough to the leading of the Holy Spirit to take the next step. The question is, what will that step look like? Where will it take us?
We don’t HAVE TO know. It would be nice to, but we don’t have to. That is where FAITH comes in.
God has given us the word of grace and salvation to take to the world.
Will we pass it on?
Let’s pray.
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