October 21, 2007 - Pentecost 21, Year C
Saint James Episcopal Church, Saint James, NY

It’s not often in Scripture
that we hear about someone
who has grown up in the church.
Not surprisingly, really, given that the books of the New Testament were mostly written in the first fifty or so years of the church’s life, and so many of the people whose stories are recorded
were adults when Jesus came on the scene, and so were adult converts.

Most of the disciples
and the leaders of the early church
appear to spring fully grown out of nowhere
confidant, full of faith,
ready to go out preaching from day one.
All it takes
is a word from Jesus or, later, one of the apostles,
the water of baptism,
and they are ready to go,
with none of the struggles and fears
that most of us have experienced
as we’ve tried to work out what it means, to be a Christian.

But Timothy is different. We met him a few weeks ago, and have been reading parts of the letters to him over the last month or so. He’s one of the leaders in those first few years
of Christianity, just like the others, but as you might remember, just far enough behind
that he learned his faith
not from a traveling evangelist,
but in much the same way as we learn ours, from his family.
I’m sure there were many others like him, but we don’t get to hear their stories. Only Timothy’s makes it into Scripture, thanks to those two letters and few stray references elsewhere in the New Testament.

Timothy grew up in Lystra, a small town in modern day Turkey.
His father was Greek; his mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, had come to follow Christ
and brought Timothy up to do the same.

Then, as far as we know, the apostle Paul came through Lystra, and took Timothy under his wing. They traveled together all across Asia Minor
preaching and teaching and sharing the good news of Jesus. Later Paul sent Timothy off with another leader, Silas to work in Macedonia and in Greece, and by the time of the two letters that we know as 1 and 2 Timothy, Timothy had settled in Ephesus, not far from where he grew up.

These two letters to Timothy
are basic advice for the church,
basic advice
wen there are no traditions and no guidelines,
advice about what it is
that this thing we call church
might look like.
And in the section we read today, Paul reminds Timothy once again
that whatever else he does, he is to hold fast to the faith
that his mother and grandmother taught him,
he is to hold fast to faith
in Christ.
And when he’s uncertain, when he’s confused,
when he needs some help,
when no-one else is at hand to give him advice,
he can turn to the Scriptures, the sacred writings
that will remind him about the God he worships, that will recall him
to his faith in Christ.

Two thousand years later
we’re in a different place from Timothy. Our church is well established;
we have all the benefits
of years of Christian tradition,
and plenty of people
more experienced in the faith
to turn to when we have questions.

But two things — two things at the very least — haven’t changed.
First of all, Scripture is still the touchstone of faith, the place we can go
to receive encouragement and wisdom.
As we heard today, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”

Most likely the Scripture that this refers to
was just the Old Testament; what we know as the New TEstament
was just a bunch of manuscripts
that circulated among the churches.
passed around from community to community. But as time went on,
the church
began to recognize these letters, along with the gospels the stories of Jesus, as somehow distinctively authoritative,
they began to recognize
that God somehow spoke through them in a unique way,
and so included than in what we call the canon, the collection of literature
that we now call the Bible.
And the church recognized that these writings, both the Old Testament and what we now call the New Testament
are useful to teaching, to correct us, to train us, to equip us
for the work of God in this world.

Note that it says that they are useful. This is practical stuff.
Our Scriptures are holy, but they are not holy in and of themselves. They are holy
because through them
God speaks to us; through them
we can get good solid advice about who God is,
and how we should live, as people who belong to God.
There’s a real temptation, I think, for us to think about scripture in one of two ways.
One way
is to focus on the holiness of these words, to set them apart and revere them
honoring them as the word of God.
Which in many ways is right and good,
except that it is so easy
to take it to an extreme that God never intended,
to worship the words
rather than the God
to whom they testify.

You hear this sometimes
when people insist on reading out o a particular version of the bible
because “that’s the way Jesus said it.”
But they forget that everything we have is a translation, words that were spoken perhaps in Hebrew or Aramaic, then written down in Hebrew or Greek, then copied and copied and copied by hand — there were no photocopiers or printing presses — until finally in the sixteenth century they were translated into English.
And then over the years since then, we’ve discovered new manuscripts from the early days of the church, and corrected our translations,
so that what we have today
is reliable, but we will never understand the exact original words as they were understood the first time round, because we just can’t go back in time and across the world
to become the same people who heard them the very first time.

These words are holy
not because of the exact letters and syllables, but because
through them
God speaks to us.

And the other extreme is just as bad. The temptation to say
that because we’re not the same people and these aren’t the exact original words,
then they can never be any more
than a historical record, a document that gives us insight into the faith of the past
but which has no direct relevance to us today.

Both of these extremes
ignore the central character of our scriptures, that they are inspired by God, God-breathed,
and from the beginning of time, when God breathes on something
God brings that thing
to life. Not just once, but continually.

And so when we read the scriptures, we know that God inspires these words. God breathes life into them, even now,
so that they aren’t just dead letters but alive, the living and active word of God.

And as the living and active word, when we read scripture
we are invited into a conversation with God.
A conversation where the spirit of God is active and alive in us
inviting us into truth.
We may discover that we need to disagree with the Scriptures,
to argue with God
just as Abraham did in the book of Genesis,
or to shout at God
just as the psalms so often shout lament and scream.

We may find contradictions in Scripture, because God needed to have different conversations with the people at different times,
we may find principles that we then need to apply in different ways today.
We may find commands that Jesus ignored,
and new ways of living that he commanded.
We may find things that turn our stomachs, and things that fill us with joy.

But when we read these living, breathing, scriptures, we are able to join a conversation with our living and breathing God,
and be encouraged and equipped
for the life of faith.

We have just as much access to God
as Timothy did, one of the great leaders
of the first years of the Christian Church.
What an opportunity!

And the second thing we share with Timothy,
is the importance of our families, our elders
in encouraging us
in the life of faith.

There’s nothing more precious that we can give our children
than faith in God,
nothing more precious
than the habit of turning to God day by day
in prayer,
in worship,
in reading scripture.
I’m thankful
that my parents thought there was nothing more important to share with me
than faith in Christ.
I’m thankful
that we prayed together
at every meal. I’m thankful
that they took me to church Sunday by Sunday,
sometimes over my protestations,
so that now as an adult
I cannot imagine not being in church on a Sunday
to meet with my community
and my God.
And I’m thankful
that they read to me from the bible
every evening until I could read it for myself
and then bought me workbooks
that helped me to read it for myself.
That’s why I’m here today.

So take a leaf out of Timothy’s letter. Read the Bible, read it every day. Look for the word of God, living and active in the pages, in your life, and in our world. Listen for the Spirit at work in you.
And share it all with our children.
So that we all, who belong to God, will be proficient,
equipped for every Good work,
and confident in our salvation.

©Raewynne J.Whiteley, 2007