Finding God in The World

2 Timothy 2:3-15

October 14, 2007, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A week ago yesterday Barbara, Trevor and I went to Lambertville and New Hope. It happened to be the weekend for the Fall Arts and Crafts Festival in New Hope. It is a very good show with a lot of very fine crafts and artwork. We were browsing the booths, not planning to buy anything, when I visited the booth of the photographer Dan Westfall. He specializes in European photography. I saw a picture that I had to have of a cemetery monument from an old cemetery in Prague close to the airport. He said the date on the monument is 1890. But what is fascinating about this monument is that it is an ornate crucifix and alongside it a tree has grown up and the crucifix is slowly becoming imbedded in the tree. The minute I saw it, it became symbolic to me of the way the world encroaches on faith and religion, and if we are not careful, it will obliterate it.

And is that not the story of the Bible? Time and time again the people gradually took their faith, their beliefs, and blended it with other religions and secular society so that it became something very different than it was in the beginning. In our reading from 2nd Timothy today we hear:

³Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer. ⁵And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. ⁶It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.
⁸Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, ⁹for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.

What do we hear in these words today? Seek to please God, follow the rules, those who participate in the work of God will be blessed, and last but not least, stay on message. While the letter is attributed to Paul, there is uncertainty. Because of writings of the early church leaders, the vocabulary used, the style of writing used, and the situation described in the Pastoral letters, which includes both Timothy’s and Titus, do not fit with what we know about the life of Paul. The thinking of most scholars is that the Pastoral letters are the work of a pseudonymous writer, who uses the name of Paul to give his writings the necessary apostolic support and weight. We also know that this was often done by ancient authors.

So what we more than likely have here is post-apostolic authorship when the church began to see the need to rework the theme of hope.

As J. C. Becker writes in The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible under “Pastoral Letters:”

The delay of Christ’s glorious Parousia (Christ’s second coming) made the church aware of the need to reformulate its attitude towards the world and of coming to terms with its own existence as having to endure within the world. The hope is modified – not abandoned. The theme becomes that of pilgrimage: what does it mean to be in the world – to continue to live in it, but not be of it?

This is the question that has bedeviled the Church since the beginning of time. How are we to be in the world, yet not of the world? As we know there have been times in history when some in the Church have said it is impossible and have fled to the desert, or the wilderness. John the Baptist was part of a Jewish sect, the Essenes, that fled to the wilderness from the second century BC to the first century AD. That is why he is “the voice crying in the wilderness.” That is why the people go out into the wilderness to hear him. In the beginning of the third century AD there was a movement of ascetics and monks who moved into the desert of Egypt and became known as the desert fathers and mothers. They fled the cities, because they saw them as great dens of vice and corruption that made it impossible for anyone to be holy or Christ like.

But if we follow Jesus Christ we cannot flee the world, because the one we call the Christ did not flee the world, but worked to transform it from within. In a review of the new book coming out this fall by J.R.R. Tolkien entitled Children of Húrin in Christian Century Magazine Philip Zaleski writes:

. . . He is the creator of a deeply felt moral universe in which beings, human or not, search for or flee from beauty, truth, and goodness under the invisible presence of God. To a Christian, this is a description of the world as we know it. The great fantasist Tolkien proves, in the end, to be the greatest of realists.

We flee into the world to save it and the author of Second Timothy then gives us the way to do it. Don’t be afraid to share in the suffering. Christ suffered for you, don’t you be afraid to suffer for Christ, and the ones who Christ loves. This is a kick in the seat of the pants for those who see their faith as a guarantee of success in their worldly lives. So many today use their faith an insurance policy against pain and suffering, and cannot understand it when they do suffer and they ask “Why, God?” God, Jesus, never said we would not suffer or experience pain in life. What God and Jesus said was they would be there to support us through those times. Jesus did not succumb to the temptation to turn rocks into bread, which could have fed the world. The people of the world needed to learn how to care for each other. That is how we please God, by caring for each other. We are the servants of God, and of each other. We do our Messiah’s commands when we serve others. When we can stay on target and not get sidetracked into working for prosperity, success, and security, then we are following the leadership of our God. And when we do that it is pleasing to God. The prophet Amos knew this when he spoke God’s word and prophesied against the people of Israel:

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

Amos was telling the people that God says forget what the Torah says about religious rituals and festivals. I don’t want them; I will not be moved by them. What I want instead is justice for all of my people, and you, my people, living in righteousness. And if we can do this then we will know blessings in our life. Here again blessings is not about prosperity, success, or security. But the blessing is in knowing that we have done the best we could to live a Christ-like life, and the peace that knowledge imparts.

In our reading from Jeremiah we hear the prophet telling people to live peaceably among their captors and to seek the welfare of the cities they live in, in Babylon. In other words, don’t try to get revenge on the Babylonians, but live with them, work with them. We can see the wisdom of this prophecy, because the people would be blessed with external and internal peace, but the wisdom of the world says to let your anger burn hot within you, seek revenge, kill your enemies.

In many ways living in the world is an in-and-out sort of journey. In prayer and meditation we move away from the world and into God, but from there we move back out into the world where our spirituality affects our words and actions within the world. In that in and out movement we find our peace. On the cover of your bulletin you see a very simple diagram of a spiritual exercise that captures this in and out way of living. This is a labyrinth; it is not a maze, because there are no dead ends. But if you start on the bottom you enter the labyrinth and you immediately head towards the center, but then you are soon heading out again, and just when you think you are getting close to the center you head all the way back to the outer rim. This is a simple labyrinth, a five circuit labyrinth, but most of them have a longer path to follow. You can find large labyrinths in the stone floors of some of Europe’s famous cathedrals; some of them have 11 circuits. As we walk the labyrinth we are mindful that God leads us towards the center of holiness, but we create the in and out by our own choices, but even then God leads us inexorably towards the center if we stay on the path. And of course, once we are in the center we move again towards the outside, the world. We cannot stay in the center, but we must go out into the world. But the center is what gives us the strength and faith to live in the world. There are several labyrinths around. You can find one outdoors in a secluded spot at Christ Presbyterian Church in Martinsville which anyone can use. Sometimes places like Xavier Center at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, or Mount Saint Mary’s in Watchung put out a portable labyrinth that the public may come in and use. You can find these if you google “labyrinth, New Jersey.” I would be more than happy to go with a group to one of these if there is an interest.

It is our faith in God, our hope in God that gives us the courage, the strength to stay on target and remain faithful in the world. It is our trust and perseverance that will keep the cross of Jesus Christ as a shining beacon, and not allow it to be covered over by the creeping ways of the world. It is not about rituals, about words; it is about justice, kindness, and letting God be God in our lives.

Amen

© 2007 Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Peters