The first major issue to face
Christianity was, “What are we going to do with all these Gentile converts?” Jesus’
teaching was seen as a reform movement within Judaism; but, when the fledgling
church began spreading its witness, many Jews—especially within leadership—were
hostile. But Gentiles accepted the gospel and came by droves!
“What are we going to do with
all these Gentile converts?” There were no creeds for them to memorize—no New
Testament for them to read. The Gospels and Epistles wouldn’t appear for
another thirty years; and by that time, churches had been established.
Under Peter’s leadership, the
initial response was simple: make them become Jews first: submit to the law,
keep the kosher dietary rules, offer the proper sacrifices… Make the men be
circumcised (that’ll weed out the riff-raff!). A whole Christian sect—mostly
converted Jews—grew out of that teaching. They were called “Judaizers.”
Communities of believers emerged
in Jerusalem and Caesarea. Some disciples moved north, into Syria. and were
teaching and gathering believers in Antioch. Paul took the Gospel into what we
know today as Turkey. All this happened, without a written doctrine or manual
of policies and procedures.
By the time Paul reached Corinth
in his second missionary journey, there already was a church there, and at
least two preachers had preceded him. There we see a chaotic mess resulting
from the debate over which preacher got it right: “I follow Peter/I support
Apollos/I agree with Paul…”
They were confusing ends and
means. The Gospel was about Jesus. They were arguing over preachers and baptism
and the role of women and whether to eat meat…
And to add to the challenge,
the new converts were coming out of pagan religions, and wanted simply to add
Jesus as one more God in their pantheon. They wanted to continue to worship in
the Temple of Diana, the Temple of Apollo and the Oracle at Delphi...
What are we going to do with
all these Gentile converts? Paul returned to Jerusalem and challenged Peter and
those who said Gentiles must become Jews before they could become Christians.
Paul prevailed, and Gentiles could enter the church simply by a confession of
faith and submission to baptism.
But the challenges continued; with
a surplus of Christian preachers, many of them recent converts, there were heresies:
Gnosticism (the Gospel of John appears to have been written, at least in part,
as a counter-testimony to Gnosticism), Docetism, Arianism… Paul’s letters were
the first attempts to bring together a message that was consistent and faithful
to the life and teachings of Jesus.
But we humans are insecure when
it comes to spiritual matters. “What if we get it wrong?” We want things nailed
down, carved in stone. We’re uncomfortable with faith. We prefer certainty. We
tend to fall for slick-talking carnival barkers and sideshows offering “Five
Easy Steps to Heaven” or “Fire Insurance Doctrines” or a “Prosperity Gospel.”
Paul refused to compromise. Over
and over he said, “The rituals we perform, the liturgies we recite, and the
ethical standards we put into practice are expressions of the faith we hold;
they are not the means by which we attain heaven and avoid hell.”
In Paul’s second missionary
journey—in Lystra—he developed a strong mentoring relationship with a young
Christian named Timothy. Timothy accompanied Paul on some of his later
journeys, and eventually Paul left him in charge of the church in Ephesus.
But the mentoring continued
with this young Bishop of Ephesus, and we have two of Paul’s letters to him.
Our text today comes from the second letter. Timothy was confronted with heresies:
- religion without power;
- trusting in the right form, the right ritual, instead of trusting in the grace of God;
- fads and fancies… you know them: “it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere; after all, we’re all trying to get to the same place…”
- religion that focuses almost exclusively on the destination, and neglects the journey…
- superficial faith that clings to the ancient wisdom that “The good are rewarded and the evil are punished.” And if we don’t see that happening in our world, we rationalize: “Well, ‘When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be’…”
- simplistic faith that trivializes the Gospel’s promise of heaven, assigning it exclusively to another time and another place totally separated from life here and now.
Those kinds of heresies. And
Paul writes:
2 Timothy 3:13-17 (NRSV) But wicked people and impostors will go
from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. 14But as for you,
continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you
learned it, 15and how from
childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture
is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and
for training in righteousness, 17so
that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good
work.
From the
beginnings of Christianity—I suppose throughout the history of religions in
general—voices have called for believers to check their brains at the door when
engaging in matters of faith. Just wrap your mind in memorized creeds and doctrines and carefully
selected verses of Scripture. And don’t ask questions. Just accept what we
tell you.
Those voices had become the official voice of the church by the Middle
Ages, as creeds and catechisms replaced rational thinking. And then, Martin
Luther nailed his famous “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg Church.
The Reformation had limited effectiveness. It released the minds of some
brilliant thinkers—both sacred and secular. Indirectly it led to the
Enlightenment, which produced the writings of John Locke, whose ideas heavily
influenced the thinking of Thomas and Alexander Campbell, founders of our
denomination.
The Campbells separated themselves from
their church heritage, primarily in opposition to the use of creeds as tests of
faith and tests of fellowship. Alexander Campbell said, “Faith is personal; not
doctrinal;” and he and his father offered a faith that was reasonable, based
upon Scripture.
Hopefully, you can see how those principles
line up so well with our text today, when Paul encourages Timothy to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from
whom you learned it, 15and how from
childhood you have known the sacred writings…”
My friend, Rodney Allen Reeves, a cradle Disciple and serious student of
Christianity, calls it a “Reverent Intelligence.” Our reason, he says, “needs
to be tempered especially with ‘reverent intelligence’, grounded not only in
sacred writings and faith, but as Alexander Campbell stressed, grounded also in
our rational human experience, and in the humility of our human condition that
recognizes that we are not ‘omniscient’ beings. Rather, we ‘live and move and
have our very being’ in a creative cosmos filled with Mystery.” And our faith
brings us to the awareness of a divine persona that, in William James’ term, is
"a more"—more than we can know; more even than we can ever imagine!”
In such a state of awareness, we can only stand before that divine persona
in awe and reverence.
But in our own time, those voices are being raised again. The result has
been damaging: a “spiritually hungry, institutionally disillusioned public”[1]
increasingly perceives the church as mindlessly locked into irrelevant,
irrational doctrines, judgmental, homophobic and committed only to its own
well-being.
That same disillusioned public wants to know, simply, “What does it mean
to follow Jesus and to become more like him?” For several weeks now, we’ve been looking at that
same question> It involves infinitely more than mental affirmations and
verbal recitations. The founders of the Christian Church,
from the beginning, called on Disciples to bring “a reverent intelligence” to
our faith journey.
The integration of faith and intellect—the integration of our whole
being—is imbedded in the DNA of our church history; and is indispensable to the
health and vitality of our witness. Paul puts it this way in Romans 12:1:
I appeal to you
therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your whole
being as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship.
[1]
Thomas G. Bandy identifies this public as the largest and fastest-growing
spiritual population in North America.
