Thankfulness in the mess (1 Tim. 1:12–17)
Today we’re engaging in Paul’s first letter to Timothy, which is the first of the Pastoral Epistles. 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus have been known as the Pastoral Epistles or Letters since the 1700’s. This isn’t because they’re just for pastors, or because they are all about pastoral theology or pastoral care. They address issues that pastors and congregations face together, particularly when it comes to the kinds of teaching we here in churches. So, it’s good for all Christians to read them and hear their warnings and encouragements.
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul warns against false teachings three times, and under each he addresses different issues like discipline, order, and worship in the Church. After some opening verses of warning against false teachers, we get to our reading for today.
Paul is thankful for his appointment in ministry.
Paul had an extremely challenging ministry to serve. It was messy and unorganised. People so often had no idea what was good doctrine and what were complete lies. The Christian Church was in its very early days, so there weren’t any systems or structures in place.
These days, we tend to complain about our systems and structures. Being an institutional church has its downsides. Communication from the churchwide office can be slow. We can feel disconnected from our Lutheran neighbours. We have to do Child Safe training before we can volunteer for anything. We have to have set times and places for everything we do. We worry about the money we have in the bank and the maintenance costs of our buildings. We get frustrated with rules and regulations. We don’t like going to meetings at night. We don’t like going to meetings.
We are not often thankful for our systems and structures. Just imagine what it would be like if we had none.
Paul was making it up as he went along. Groups had clearly started to form all over the Mediterranean to worship their newfound Messiah. Some of them were Jews who believed that Jesus was the one they were waiting for. Some of them were Gentiles who had come from an entirely different belief system.
Communication wasn’t particularly easy. The Romans had a postal system, but it was not particularly quick. That’s another thing we complain about today… Paul, as an add-on apostle, took on the task of encouraging, rebuking, and teaching the groups of Christians that were popping up everywhere. That group has a conflict over who can come to Communion, that other group isn’t sure whether women should cover their heads in church, that other group has a leader that is making up all kinds of rubbish, that other group has a young pastor who is learning on the go.
The early church was a mess and God had appointed Paul to serve it. You can imagine how stressful, frustrating, exhausting, and impossible that would’ve been. Yet, somehow, Paul can say that he is thankful to God. He has three reasons:
His strength doesn’t come from himself—it comes from Jesus.
Despite his previous attitude towards the church, Jesus considers him faithful.
He did not appoint himself as a leader in the church—Jesus did.
If you find anything in life stressful, it is probably because you either expect more from yourself, or you feel the weight of expectations from others. That’s the case in anything in life—family, work, school, study, music, sport—but it’s especially true when it comes to the Christian life.
These expectations—either from self or from another source—are not necessarily a bad thing. God gives us the Law as his expectations of us. It’s supposed to weigh us down and make us realise our need for help, but not for its own sake. The weight of God’s expectation is not a means to itself—it directs us to the Gospel.
At work or school, for example, you are expected to complete certain tasks by a certain time. You need to know those expectations so that you get the job done. If you just turned up to work or school and no one spoke to you, no emails were waiting for you, and nothing was waiting to be done, what’s the point of being there? We need expectations to get us moving.
Those expectations, though, can sometimes be all there is. We turn up to work or school and as soon as we walk through the door, we are underperforming and underdelivering. We feel inadequate because we haven’t done what’s expected of us. We run around, trying to get it all done in time to impress someone (or satisfy our own standards) and when we get it done, there’s something else to do or we’re not happy with what we just did. It’s an endless cycle that only leads to despair and failure.
It's possible to see the Christian faith the same way. We hear God’s Law and feel guilty. We might also feel “Law” from others around us. You see how faithful and positive that Christian is over there and feel like we’re falling short. You go to Bible study and feel inadequate compared to the Bible wizards around you. You think that you’re not getting to church enough and consider giving up because it feels like no one would notice anyway.
It’s also possible to be a church that does that to people. Some examples of how this plays out could be a side-comment to someone about how you haven’t seen them much at worship lately, not knowing that they already felt guilty about that. Grumbling when someone doesn’t do a job correctly. Avoiding a guest because they’re a stranger, or for fear that they’ve been coming for years and you didn’t notice.
Expectations have their place and purpose, but they are not everything, especially when it comes to the church.
Paul expresses utter thankfulness because the pressure is not on him to perform at a certain level. He strives to be the best servant he can because he wants to, but it’s not because he feels he must “or else”.
His strength comes from Jesus, not from within himself. Consider his situation and the mess he was appointed to serving. Bishop Steve Schultz is visiting next month—ask him how much strength and patience he needs for his job. Any bishop will tell you that their ability to do their job certainly doesn’t come from within themselves. Hopefully, any pastor would tell you the same thing, particularly when things are especially busy and messy.
Despite his previous attitude towards the church, Jesus considers Paul faithful. Paul was a Pharisee who used to seek out Christian communities and punishing them. He was the worst of the worst, but God considered him a faithful servant. More on that shortly.
Paul didn’t appoint himself as a leader in the church—Jesus did. It was Christ who called Paul into his role as apostle and servant to the church. Paul can’t boast, but neither can he say that he has put all this on himself. Jesus appointed him and provides everything he needs to carry out the tasks set for him. It’s the same for any bishop, any pastor, and any Christian person. Christ has called you here. He gives you what you need to do his will, whatever that is for you and for us together.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
The gospel in a nutshell. Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Christ, which is a big deal for Paul to say. He came into the world, becoming a human being and living in our mess and dealing with our problems. He did it to save sinners, which is all people, and Paul calls himself the worst one.
Each of us can only speak for our own sin. We are not to judge our fellow Christians or fellow human beings—that is for God to do. Paul tells his own story—a blaspheming, persecuting, offensive, and violent man directly opposed to the church who was rudely interrupted by Jesus himself and immediately told to get to work.
It says in Acts 9:
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Saul, later renamed Paul, didn’t realise it at the time, but he had already been forgiven his sin. He had already been deemed faithful before God. He was already worthy to be called by God to carry out his ministry. At that moment, Saul was on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians, and Jesus immediately reverses his whole life without any ceremony or big occasion. “I am Jesus, whom you’re persecuting. Go.”
You don’t have to be a Christian for a certain amount of time to be worthy of being on a roster. You don’t have to complete a particular course to be able to participate in the life of the church. The way we operate, you do have to complete a course if you want to receive the Lord’s Supper or become a member of the church, but that’s only because it’s good for the whole community to be one in faith and understanding. When you come to the Sacrament, we need to be confident that we are in fact “in communion”—that is, we all know what we’re receiving and agree on that. It's the same for confirmation and membership.
But, when it comes to being a person of faith and being called to serve in a certain way, God will call you when he deems you fit. Anyone is eligible to be forgiven their sins and be saved. Look at what Christ did for Saul, then Paul.
Within the church, we have measures in place so that we are held accountable for our teaching and actions, but there is nothing stopping you from receiving the life and salvation that Jesus came into this world to give. In fact, it’s already yours by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.
Our story is an example for others to see.
Paul did not see his life-changing reversal as something that was only for him. “When I was shown mercy,” he says, “Jesus demonstrated total patience as an example for all would-be believers to see.” He opens his letter to Timothy and his church not to brag about how far he’s come or even to give God credit necessarily, but to encourage other Christians by it.
“Look what he has done for me, the worst of sinners! What does he have in mind for you?”
We each have our own stories, too. Our journey of faith, the road we’ve travelled to get here today, is not only for yourself. Tell your story. Share it with each other. When someone asks why you go to church, tell them that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, and I’m one of them. Let your story speak for itself—that’s what Paul did.
So, despite the mess of ministry, the difficulties of communities to deal with, the challenges of getting around, and the slow means of communication, Paul was thankful to God because without him, he would’ve been nowhere.
Likewise, despite the problems we have and the challenges we deal with individually and as a community, we are thankful to the God who gives us the strength to carry on, who considers us faithful, and who appoints us to serve in his church. He sent his son into the world to save sinners, to save us, and we have a story to tell.
“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Ti. 1:17)
