By Mikaila M
These are the final words in Paul’s First letter to Timothy. As Emily has outlined, this letter is most likely written by Paul, imprisoned in Rome to his co-worker, Timothy, as he supports the church in Ephesus where false teachers are causing problems.
This book contains some of my least favourite verses in the whole Bible (which I am very grateful to Emily for tackling 2 weeks back), and today’s reading comes after a set of instructions that are difficult to apply due to the vastly different context. Nonetheless, in reading 1 Timothy this week, I have been taken by Paul’s heart to protect the church from self-serving people and unnecessary divisions. I feel Paul saying throughout the book: “Don’t get distracted by fruitless arguments and money-hungry and power-hungry people. Don’t get distracted by the love of money. Stay focused what matters”.
And in our time of ever-increasing divisions and distractions, how important is this?
So let us pray with the words from the reading.
God, blessed and only ruler, king of king, lord of lords. You alone are immortal and live in unapproachable light. May my words bring you honour today. Amen.
In today’s reading we get more of a picture of the false teachers in the Ephesian church. Amongst other things, they have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels that result in envy, strife, malicious talk and constant friction between people, and they think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
With our CC’s crew in church today, I am sure that there are varying opinions about the social media ban implemented last month for young people under 16. While social media has its place in the modern world we know that it is not a completely benign nor neutral force.
To quote Australia’s top spy speaking earlier this month “Community cohesion remains a great blessing, but it is under siege, under threat, under attack. This is not an accident.”
While social media is not solely to blame, it has a significant role in fuelling extremism and divisive arguments and we see the effects trickle into all areas of our society.
It brought me great joy at the last Church Council meeting when we worked on our congregational profile and discussed how we celebrate and protect the diversity we have here. We wrestled with our desire to be a church who can speak about issues in our world of injustice and suffering. But importantly, we wanted to be able to do it in a way that as much as possible avoids what I would call the culture wars. We wanted to avoid getting involved in divisive issues that stir up constant friction and ultimately inhibit our ability to see Christ in people who are different to us and to love them as we are called to.
Sometimes the language of fighting battles can be confronting in the Bible, and yet when Paul encourages Timothy to
“Fight the good fight of the faith”
we can see it not as a call to get involved in fruitless arguments, but to protect the church from real threats to cohesion, and real distractions from it call. I believe this is as important as ever. And I pray that our whole church works to protect the cohesion of our community at this time.
Next we come to one of the most famous verses in the letters to Timothy:
“the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”.
And yes in the Greek it is a root and not the root. But I don’t think it will surprise many in this congregation to hear me say that Jesus’ teaching on money are just as strong, if not stronger. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
And why the strength of these teachings? I need money to live but is it true that if I love it, then I hate God? At times I have found the language about money too strong and wished God would give it a rest.
And yet I find time and time again that such strong words are 100% necessary to combat the constant messaging that the world gives me to place my hope in wealth. So often when I have my biggest battles with these texts, it is because I have let the love of money creep in and covetousness eat away at my contentment and love for people and God.
So why should we be so wary of the love of money?
Paul goes on to say:
“some eager to get rich have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs.”
It is easy to believe that getting rich by accumulating wealth and resources is the surest way to have security. Money can buy us convenience, options, and things and experiences that bring joy. Yet how often when we are focused on these things are we actually focused on ourselves, and how often are we focused on loving others and loving God?
Last week Emily shared a powerful quote by C.S. Lewis in which he said “pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man”. And how true is this for wealth and material possessions? How often when I actually have enough, do I see someone with more and think I need it too?
And we know the result of this competitive and accelerating consumption, on our planet and the worlds most vulnerable people and animals.
God trying to show people the abundance of creation and teach people not to take too much is central to the biblical narrative from the opening pages of the Bible.
After God frees the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they spend 40 years in the desert where God works sooo sooo hard to try to form them as a nation who can live well in the land.
One of the most significant symbols that come out of this period is that of the daily bread. We pray for it each time we pray the Lords prayer. This image harks back to the bread from heaven, or manna that appears each morning that the Israelites are in the wilderness.
Each day there is exactly enough manna for every person and if they take too much, by the next day it will rot and smell and be covered with worms.
God is trying to teach people not to take more than they need. This is a difficult lesson for a people who have spent their lives building storehouses for a relentlessly accumulating Pharoh.
The “manna economy”, as Ellen Davis calls it, is an economy in which everyone has just enough and not too much, and in which everyone understands that our daily bread comes from God.
There is an incredible verse from this period in Deut 15:4. After God gives a series of laws about sabbath, releasing slaves and forgiving debts, God says: “there need be no poor in the land the lord your god is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today”.
This chapter sadly goes on to say “the poor you will always have with you” and has much to say about being generous and open-handed to the poor. And yet these earlier verses are a reminder that in God’s will, abundance of creation would be shared, and that there would be no poor people.
For me, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” is not even the most challenging part of the chapter, as two verses before Paul says
“But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that”.
It is pretty hard to imagine being content with just those two things… he doesn’t even mention water, a bed, I’d quite like a house to live in, health care and medicine, money for a few hobbies and to travel to visit family…
Indeed, many people throughout the world and history, and even some here are content with little more than food and clothing. Jesus himself being one of them.
I don’t think the point of this text is that can’t want any more than these two things. But how much do we really need to be content?
It can get awkward quickly when talking about income and purchasing decisions. Again I think the goal is to keep focused on what matters and not get bogged down in comparison.
But I wanted to mention this Melbourne based Christian organisation called Manna Gum. They have a range of resources on generous and simple living. Everything from the super practical to in-depth analysis of capitalism, standard of living expectations in the west, property ownership in the Bible, poverty, aid etc. I have found it really insightful.
The founders have posted an article in which they outline their annual salary, which they choose to keep below the Australian poverty line, what they can afford, and how they afford it. So you really know they are practicing what they preach.
Their ideas for simple and generous living they outline are things that many people here do: tithing, giving to charities, working part time, buying second hand and fair trade, and budgeting.
I don’t think we are all called to drop our salaries to below the poverty line. I do think it is worth regularly examining what voices we let define what we need to be content. And I think a lot is riding on people doing this.
Paul finishes the letter with instructions for people who are rich in this present world. I think many lives in this church reflect the kind of life Paul is pointing to, and so I will finish with this and hope it is an encouragement to “guard what has been entrusted to your care”:
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.”
Amen.
