Summer series on the Pastoral Epistles

2 Timothy 3, 4

1 August 2010

It may just be me, or it may be that many of my friends are having That Milestone Birthday this year … you know, the one which brings with it the invitations to join AARP … whatever, it seems to me that there has been a lot of talk lately about … legacy.  Planning ahead for the future … and what kind of a statement you want to make with your life … how you would like to be remembered after you are no longer walking the earth.

Had we stuck to the usual lectionary texts for this Sunday … the appointed readings that we usually explore together each week … we would have had a perfect Gospel reading about … legacy.  If you or I would be worshipping at Kent Lutheran or Renton UCC or St. Andrew’s Presbyterian this morning, we’d be hearing the story Jesus told about the man … the very successful man … who happened to be blessed at harvest time with a bumper crop … and, who decided to store up and not share the surplus … tearing down his old smaller barns to build new, bigger ones.

Yes, it sounds like the wise, prudent thing to do … build up the savings, the investment, the endowment, the trust fund.  Have a full legacy larder for that rainy day.  It sounds like great wisdom … except to Jesus.

Summer series on the Pastoral Epistles

2 Timothy 1, 2

25 July 2010

Today we return, together, to our summer exploration of the Pastoral Epistles … 1st and 2^nd Timothy and Titus.

You and I, with the Cortez servants, we all took a little detour through the lectionary texts for the past two weeks (you, here with Marcia and Christy … thank you very much! … and me with our Cortez servants, at Zion Lutheran in Salt Lake City and Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran in Boise.)

Here, we completed our walk through 1^st Timothy back on the 4^th of July.

You will recall that 1^st Timothy is basically an instruction manual, less than a letter; most likely, not written by the Apostle Paul but one of his later followers instead; written to the Greek-speaking churches in Asia in the first part of the second century of this era … written to Paul’s followers, Paul’s students, represented in these books by the name of his beloved young disciple Timothy.

The instructions we hear and read there are words about “how to establish and organize the church as an institution.”  There are words about bishops and deacons, widows and slaves, elders and women.  Some of them are quite offensive to our ears, with good reason, because we don’t live in the time or place that the author of 1^st Timothy did, and his life situation was very different from ours.  Much of what is written in that letter, particularly those offensive words about women and slaves keeping in their respective, quiet, submissive places, are simply not gospel … they are a cultural word and the culture has changed much since the 2^nd century AD … to which many, most of us would say, “Thanks Be To God!”