'via Blog this'
Can Christ Really Make a Difference?
1 Timothy 6:11-19
September 29, 2013
I may have let it slip, so some of you may be aware that I’m a fan of football in general and the Pittsburgh Steelers in particular. However, their season thus far this season has challenged my faith. Doubt is beginning to creep in and is eroding my confidence and hope of seeing the black and gold in the SuperBowl this year. I may yet again be wearing purple this February.
Now, I don’t know if the Apostle Paul would have been a fan of football because the Steelers were not around back then, but I do know he liked sports. Several places in his letters he uses sports metaphors to describe the Christian life. In 1 Corinthians 9 he refers to the forerunner of the Olympic games and asks the rhetorical question, “do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize”. He looks to boxing as an illustration of self-control and discipline.[1] In this advice to his protégée Timothy, Paul encourages, “Fight the good fight of faith.” At the end of his life Paul summarizes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”[2]
That would be a good epitaph for us all. This morning we will turn we will consider how we might carve those words into our own lives.
Let us pray:
Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to accept our word. Silence in us any voice but your own; that hearing we may also follow through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Paul described the world in which he lived and saw the direction it was moving and concluded that there will come a time when, “people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they are still animals.”[3]
Does any of this sound familiar? Have you read anything in the newspaper or seen anything on the news that fits this description? Do you know anyone with some of these tendencies?
The Apostle Paul did and he knew this was the world his student Timothy would be living in. This was the world that would challenge his role as a pastor of a fledgling Christian Church. Given that reality the questions that consumed his thoughts were these, “How then shall we live?” “Can Christ really make a difference?”
He believes he can and uses this metaphor of sports to tell us how.
It begins of course with understanding the goal. That’s why I like football. The goal is clearly defined. It has a line across which you are to carry or pass the ball. It’s called the goal line. There are no shades of gray here. You either cross it or you don’t and we have instant replay to view the play again and again when we’re not sure.
Now, what is the goal of Christianity? Some say it is going to heaven when you die. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”[4] Faith for some begins and ends with baptism and the confession of faith in Jesus. Do that and say those words and you have reached your goal. Everything between that moment and the moment you die is just waiting around, killing time, and filling up space.
In this passage though, Paul speaks to that in between time between your confession of faith and your death and describes a more immediate and fulfilling goal. This is the difference I suppose between making the next first down or scoring a touchdown and winning the game.
In verse 11 Paul tells us how to make the next first down, “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.”
Now, these are all find sounding words and the kind of language you expect to hear in church, but are not usually found in the lexicon of our daily lives. How many times have you heard someone at work say, “Have you been watching Ron, he has really been living a righteous and godly life.” Listen to most water cooler gossip and the story is usually reversed. Have you heard about Ron…do you know what he did…
So much of our attention is focused on what is wrong with the world or in our lives that we are frankly surprised when we encounter a story about someone who does the right the thing just because it was the right thing.
I saw a story on the news a couple of months ago about a homeless man who found a wallet with nearly $500 helped return it to its owner instead of keeping the cash.
Detective Lt. Thierry Crozier of the Kingston Police Department in New York says the man, identified as Hassel “Junior” Barber, found the wallet lying on a sidewalk along Broadway on Sunday and turned it in to police. The wallet contained $485 and the owner's identification.
Police say the Barber is frequently seen picking up bottles and cans for the deposit and sleeping on stoops along the street.
Crozier wrote: "Thanks to the decency and honesty of a person that most likely could have used the cash - for food, shelter, or any other number of reasons - the wallet and cash were reunited with its owner."
Barber told police he felt bad that someone had lost money and knew that returning it was the “right thing to do.”
Crozier posted details what he called a "feel-good story" on the department's Facebook page to let people know about the man's honesty.
He says, "Many times we make judgments because of another person's appearance or circumstance...remember to keep an open mind and not make that rush to judgment."
Barber was told that several individuals had contacted the Kingston Police Department and wanted to reward him for his good deed. He said that he does not need or want any reward, he just wanted to “do the right thing.”[5]
This guy is closer to reaching the goal of right living that God sets for us all than many who are wearing fine clothes and sitting in church pews every Sunday morning.
The next quality the Apostle Paul says we should all reach for is godliness. He has already told us what that means in verse 6. He links this spiritual virtue with contentment which he connects with peace.
One of the great blessings of my ministry has been to encounter folks who I could describe with no other word than “godly”. One of the very first hospital calls I ever made while serving as a student intern in a Presbyterian church in western Pennsylvania was to a another man named Paul. He was a long time teacher of an adult Sunday School class in that church, but now was dying of a particularly brutal form of cancer.
He had suffered many other challenges and obstacles in his life, but he had responded with a faith and hope and love that could be seen by all. Every time I stopped by to visit, there was always someone from the church already there. They came to support and encourage him, but they invariably left more encouraged and more hopeful than when they arrived because he was a godly man and everyone could see it. When they were around him they felt closer to God, and do did I.
Paul liked to quote his apostolic namesake, who wrote, “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”[6]
And that is how was how he reach the goal and how we do as well. Every athlete knows that in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line, the “spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak”. We get tired and worn out. We’re tempted to give in and give up. This is where home field advantage comes into play. At the end of the game when both teams are tired, only one will still hear the cheering and adulation of the crowd. Every athlete will tell you that makes a difference, and they’ll dig deeper into the reservoir and find a little more strength than they thought they had.
The Bible says, “Fight the good fight of the faith ; take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”[7] That’s one of the reasons you come here on Sunday morning. You could have stayed home and gotten your religion on T.V. You could have heard a better preacher or listened to a full orchestra play “Amazing Grace”, but you did not. You came here because here is where the people of God gather to pray for one another, love one another, and encourage one another. You can’t get that on T.V. No one on T.V. is going to ask you how your week went or how your mother is doing in the hospital. And no one is going to cry with you when you just don’t get to where you wanted to be.
Many of you may not remember the AFC championship game played on January 14, 1995, but I do. The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the San Diego Chargers and the Chargers were leading 17 to 13 as the game clock was winding down, but the Steelers were on the move, driving down the field. A touchdown would send them to the Superbowl. It was fourth down on the three yard line and the Steeler Quarterback Neil O’Donnel threw to the running back Barry Foster, who almost caught it, but it was knocked down at the last second by a Charger defender who shall remain nameless. The game ended and we were three yards short – three yards from reaching the goal line three yards short of the SuperBowl. Three yards!!!
Maybe you know the feeling. Maybe you were so close to receiving the job you always wanted you could taste it or the promotion you thought you deserved was almost in your reach, but you came up three yards short. Maybe the doctor told you the tests did not turn out as you hoped and you came up three yards short.
When that happens, you can sink into a funk so deep it seems like you’ll never get out, or you can turn to the one who has “promised never to leave you or forsake you.” You can let him pick you up and dust you off and send you back into the game and try again. This is what grace is all about. It is about second chances and third chances and fourth chances. You will never be defeated as long as you can fight the good fight of faith and take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you were made.
I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that in the year after they came up three yards short, the Steelers did return to the SuperBowl. They still lost to the Dallas Cowboys, but they were still in the game.
And that’s the message God gives to us, the message our parents left for us, “If you don’t succeed, try, try again.” You have the home field advantage. You have people around you to encourage you to love and good works. So run the race that is before you keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.”
Let us pray:
Help me to fight the good fight. Help me to finish the race. Help me to keep the faith, so that I will receive the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day, and not to me only but to all who have loved his appearing. Amen
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