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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

1 Timothy 2
2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For

there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
6 who gave himself a ransom for all

—this was attested at the right time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth,[a] I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.


Dear St. Paul,

Lately I’ve been reading your list of attributes for ministers found in 1 Timothy 3, and I have to say it fills me with questions. First of all, you list fourteen attributes: is 50% a pass on this test, because seven items on the list might be more realistic than fourteen. And concerning the fourteen, what if someone mostly achieves each attribute, getting half-way there, you know, say 50% of each?

So I think I’ve nailed seven for sure: temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not pugnacious, but gentle, and peaceable. These seven seem like “a gimme” to be honest, although I do have some pugnacious colleagues, so write me back if you want a list.

When you say ‘don’t be a wine-lover’ you mean don’t drink too much, right? And ‘a lover of money?‘ You know that ministers get paid now? Of course, needing money and loving money are two different things. I have only one wife, I’m not a new convert, I guess I’m beyond reproach (assuming I can get through this list) and I can mostly manage a household. And when you say ‘keep your children under control,’ you’re not including adult children are you?

Actually, Paul (can I call you Paul?) I just noticed that the NRSV say ‘bishop’ instead of the attributes of a minister. Kindly disregard this letter, and thanks for your time. I still have that pugnacious colleague list if you want it.

Sincerely, Michael

The truth is, the church has has a long and troubled history reading 1 Timothy. Early on, some of the church fathers took issue with it’s inclusion in the Bible, though they tended to the gnostic side of the tradition, and were ignored in the critical moment the canon was being formed.

More recently scholars have concluded that the language and the types of concerns listed belong to the period after Paul’s life and ministry. Add to this the inclusion of material that attempts to silence women in the church, and we begin to see why 1 Timothy is seen ‘Pauline’ rather than authentic Paul.

It is, nevertheless, part of the canon, and therefore deserves our attention, even if we read it with some caution. The test with books such as 1 Timothy is ‘what material is consistent with the life-giving message of Jesus‘ and ‘what truth about God can we uncover through a book that may deserve less attention than others.‘ We can’t ignore the book, but we can’t promote it either, particularly a book that has been used to subjugate women in the church for most of the last 1,800 years.

Back to our passage then, trouble for the United Church mind begins almost immediately. Pray “for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” Being on the more political side of the Christian spectrum, we have tended to be more critical of our rulers rather than seeking a ‘quiet and peaceable’ life within the existing order of things.

You will notice, as an example, that the traditional Anglican prayer for the Queen and her government are not part of our prayer life. Going back to the earliest days of Methodism in Canada, our tradition was less supportive of the religious order that was originally imposed on Upper Canada, and as a result we were regarded with some suspicion. A quick glance at those involved in the 1837 rebellion and you see mostly ‘dissenting’ traditions, Methodist of various types, and even some Quakers.


So, our forebears had to argue for a place in the religious landscape, and succeeded mostly for a force of numbers. Only later on, when wealthier Methodists take their place among the elite in Ontario, do we see greater alignment between church positions and the position of the government. By the early part of the last century, particularly through the lens of temperance, we see the Methodist project and the work of the government become one.

Later on, beginning in the 1960’s and 70’s, we see the church recapture the oppositional stance toward government that it possessed originally. By the 1980’s we were fully prophetic once more, with very little chance that the project of the church could be confused with the agenda of the government of the day. And this continues, except that our Premier is a member of the United Church, and so the future of the church’s influence over the government remains unclear.

Scholars tell us that this passage is part of the transition from the martyrdom period of the church to the accommodation period. At the very beginning of the Jesus movement, believers were unwilling to pray to Caesar or make sacrifices to the various gods of Rome and were therefore put to death. Of course, persecution waxed and waned, with some emperors more troubled by Christians than others.

By the time 1 Timothy is written, it has become apparent that the world will not end immediately as expected, and voices within the church began to look for a ways to be in the world but not of the world, to live faithfully as Christian Romans, and not just Christians.

So the author of Timothy turns the traditional approach of the church on it’s head. Instead of a tiny group of believers standing against a hostile world, 1 Timothy argues for a growing group of believers opening itself to the world, so that all might be saved by Jesus.

It is a dramatic shift, one that completely reorients the church and opens the way to the expansion that follows. There is even a snippet of ancient liturgy, a prayer or a hymn that likely came from worship shared at that time, that backs up this reorientation from hostility to openness:

there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all

Jesus death and resurrection becomes universal then, not just for a small group of followers, those added to the faith one-by-one, but for all people.

Of course, this idea is not without controversy. Then as now, many want to limit the number of people with access to salvation, lest it be diminished somehow and become too common. There is a very human urge to remain special, and salvation for all people troubles those who need to be unique.

So two messages in this short passage in 1 Timothy, but really the same message. Be open to the world in a way that will save as many people as possible, and don’t defeat yourself by being an enemy of this world or by closing yourself off from this world.

In other words, try for a 50% grade wherever possible. Don’t become too closely associated with Caesar and his government, but don’t be an enemy either. Remain the church of Jesus Christ, unique as his followers, but remember that he died to save all, not just a select few.

There is a lively debate in the church to try to identify the moment that we became less relevant to Canadian society. The decline in numbers, a traditional marker, actually started in the year of my birth, 1965. But it wasn’t my fault. But I’m working on a theory that we actually became less relevant to Canadian society in 1927, the year that prohibition was repealed and society said ‘no’ to a government project that was completely identified with the mission of the church.

In some ways it is a cautionary tale. Become too closely associated with government, and people will turn away. But the opposite is true too. Become too oppositional, too given to protest and constant criticism, and people will turn away. We need to find the middle ground, between having a strong voice and being open to all. May God help us as we try. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 9:43 AM