I.N.I.

A homily to be preached at the Concordia College, Bronxville, NY Pre-Seminary Nurture Retreat on Thursday, 6 February 2003 at the Major Bowes Retreat Center in Ossining, NY, and based on 2 Timothy chapter 4, especially verses 2-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

Parts of this passage have really fascinated me for years. I’d probably start with verse 13 where Paul asks Timothy to swing by Troas and pick up “my scrolls, especially the parchments.” There are translations that say books and notebooks. And I wonder what in the world Paul would have had written down in parchment notebooks. I always assumed the scrolls were some Holy Scripture, though they wouldn’t have to be. But those parchments that were especially of interest to Paul! Maybe I’ve been a librarian too long.

Then there are the other personal greetings, as in Paul’s other letters. On the one hand, in verse 11, “only Luke is with me,” but on the other hand, in verse 21, “Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.” (Why is it we have no ‘St. Eubulus Lutheran Church? Is it because Lutherans don’t greet other people, even at a distance??)

“Alexander the metalworker (v. 14) did me a great deal of harm.” And I wonder what happened. Physical harm? Damage to Paul’s reputation or ministry? Complaints to the authorities? “He opposed our message” is all we know.

“Demas, (v. 10) because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” And I hope that he hooked up with the church there and loved the Lord, too.

And there is the awfully lonely air about some of Paul’s comments. That may have been what attracted me to this section of Scripture when I was a teenager. There’s the “only Luke is with me” after Demas deserted and the others also left. There’s “at my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me” in verse 16. “Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus” (v.20) and they’re not doing me any good from there. And then that comment wedged in between the other closing greetings — you can almost see Paul with pen in hand, trying to remember everyone who had said to pass on greetings to Timothy and trying to be sure he didn’t leave anyone out — and then the thought hits him in the middle of that “Do your best to get here before winter.” Because as uncomfortable as this prison cell is now, it’s going to be really awful when the weather turns. Bring that cloak from Troas, Timothy. Get here before winter.

But I want to focus your attention somewhere else this evening. I want you to look at the first part of the chapter with me.

Paul winds up this letter with a very strong charge to Timothy. Timothy is his young protégé, you’ll remember. I imagine Paul had others whom we don’t know anything about. Maybe good old Eubulus was one. Or Tychichus, whom Paul sent to Ephesus (v. 12). But Timothy is the one we know about, Timothy and Titus, to whom Paul wrote these letters in the New Testament. And Paul gives him this charge.

When he could see the end approaching, when he could write about himself in a past tense “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (v. 7) and not in a present tense; now is when he gives this final charge to Timothy. He writes “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction … Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (vv. 2, 5) These imperatives are the kind of thing we hear at ordination and installation services. Young pastors are sent out into their ministries with St. Paul’s words ringing in their ears. And, as God wills, they do these things. And their ministries are fruitful.

I wonder whether preachers of ordination and installation sermons don’t usually take the verses 3 and 4 and make them refer to the parishioners of these pastors. I wonder whether these two verses aren’t usually interpreted as Paul’s warning to Timothy about what will happen among his hearers if he isn’t absolutely diligent about preaching the Word, and all the rest. But I wonder, I also wonder whether these in between verses aren’t usually miss-applied.

As I read this chapter of Scripture these days, I believe that verses 3 and 4 refer to preachers rather than to parishioners. Timothy is charged to be steadfast in the work of the ministry “for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

‘Timothy,’ I believe Paul is saying, ‘be steadfast in proclaiming Jesus because one of these days preachers will not any longer honestly adhere to the truth. You’ve got to remain faithful, or the cause will be lost to these others.’

You can see things like this in our own Missouri Synod if you want. There are preachers who gather around them teachers with odd hobbyhorses. You can see them at some meetings and conventions as if these teachers were rock stars and they were the groupies. You can sense it in things you read when certain men are praised up one side and down the other, while other men are shredded into confetti at every chance.

What has happened in our tiny little church body (tiny when compared to the rest of the Christian family) that makes some of us believe that we have a patent and franchise on God’s truth and the only proper practice? Why do some of us attack brothers in the ministry so fiercely? I think there’s a clue in this passage. I think that, as a church body, we aren’t heeding the charge St. Paul gave to Timothy.

Are we preaching the Word? Or are we attacking those who do so, but do it with a little different spin from the way we preach?

Are we prepared in season and out of season? Or are we only ready to refuse to do new things because we’ve never done it that way before?

Do we follow the wonderful Law-Gospel pattern that Paul sets out, to “correct, rebuke, and encourage”? Or do we never get to the “encourage”? Do we do it all with great patience? Or do we demand? Do we throw out deadlines for change? Do we bring charges first and refuse to discuss even later?

The problems in the ministry, in various church bodies, in schools, and in life are problems of this world. Most of them can likely be traced to loving the world too much, like Demas, and deserting our real responsibilities.

Most of us here tonight are younger folks feeling the call into the ministry of the Gospel. It’s a marvelous work to be involved in. There are men here tonight with far richer and more varied pastoral experience than I have, but even I can tell you that it’s wonderfully fulfilling to be able to stand at the altar of God and tell people that their sins are forgiven. It’s amazing to be able to invite people to come and experience the Lord in the meal He sets before us. It’s a powerfully life-changing thing to experience grace happening right in front of you, right in your hands as you pour water on a baby’s head; or to see the look in people’s eyes when they come to the altar for various reasons. This Gospel ministry is a marvelous work to be involved in.

So, with Saint Paul, I want to charge you to keep your heads in all situations, to endure hardships as they come your way (because they will), to do the work of an evangelist (for it really is good news that we have to share), and to discharge all the duties of your ministry (whether now as students or later, as God wills, in an ordained ministry). And I pray that eventually someone will preach a sermon to mark your retirement or your final home-going and be truthful in saying that you fought the good fight; that you have finished the race; and that you have kept the faith. May the Holy Spirit make it so.

In the mean time, though, keep your scrolls and especially your parchments close at hand.

Amen

S.D.G.