2 Timothy 3 If you are reading these Give Us This Day meditations, then you probably already know the supreme importance of the Holy Scriptures. For many of us, it is something so deeply ingrained in us that it is as taken for granted as food or air. If you have been reading St. Paul’s two letters to St. Timothy, then it will have been impossible for you to miss the extraordinary importance that Paul places on the apostolic teaching... Read more
2 Timothy 2:14-26 For years, I spent my life as a Christian focusing on some of the most obvious sins in my own life. It’s true, that the sin in our lives should be a daily focus, for without acknowledging our sins there can be no confession of sins or repentance, and without these, no man shall see God. But it dawned on me years later that instead of focusing on my sins and how I kept repeating them, I... Read more
2 Timothy 1:15-2:13 At Halloween a lot of people dress up as a variety of monsters and other diverse personae. Many of us have secret fantasies about who we would really like to be, fantasies about archetypal roles such as heroes, athletes, actors, artists, warriors, kings, scientists, doctors, or entrepreneurs. What St. Paul is asking us to be this morning is a race of warrior-kings, united under the banner of the King of kings, in whose kingdom we train and... Read more
2 Timothy 1:1-14 I want to discuss predestination and free will this morning. There – that ought to wake some of us up! All throughout St. Paul’s incredible opening to his second letter to Timothy he asserts, side by side, two fundamental truths of life in Christ. First, your salvation, your faith, and your good works are all by the grace of God that comes through Jesus Christ. Second, you are the one who is to actively keep this faith... Read more
1 Timothy 6:12-21 One final time, St. Paul is stirred up to remind Timothy of the most important things he has just told him. It is like the final resolution in an extended symphony because Paul skillfully draws together the themes he has recorded for Timothy in the preceding 5 chapters. There is one meta-theme or meta-narrative that unites all of Paul’s other themes, and it is this: that God is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings... Read more
1 Timothy 6:1-11 We live in a bipolar country that has on the one hand unparalleled worldly success, measured by physical comfort and luxury, and on the other hand has unparalleled unhappiness. You could almost say that the U.S. has been a grand experiment in finding happiness in worldly things. That experiment is a manifest failure. I seem to remember Solomon conducting the same experiment 3000 years ago, but then again, his results weren’t published in the Journal of Reproducible... Read more
1 Timothy 5:17-25 St. Paul’s topic today is a very important one in the life of the church: the treatment of pastors or elders (presbyters or priests.) Throughout 1 Timothy, Paul has dealt extensively with the office of elder because he is writing to Timothy on how to govern a church. I wish there were some way I could speak of how Christians ought to treat their pastors without including myself (as a pastor) in this discussion. But I’m going... Read more
1 Timothy 5:1-16 Today, St. Paul teaches us about a little known “office” in the early church: that of widow. Paul’s extended commandments concerning widows are astonishing in two ways. The first thing that astonishes me is how seriously the early church took its vocation to provide for widows (see also James 1:27.) The second is how high the standards are for this little “office.” As I read this passage, I can’t help but think that it’s not just the... Read more
1 Timothy 4:6-16 St. Paul speaks once again of the need for St. Timothy to be a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. In particular, Paul is concerned that Timothy, who acted as an early bishop over churches, instruct the brethren. Those who Timothy teaches are to be nourished by him in the words of faith and in the good doctrine or teaching (verse 6), which Paul has passed on to Timothy but which Timothy must now pass on to the... Read more
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Friday of the 21st Sunday after Trinity – 2 Timothy 4:1-8
2 Timothy 4:1-8 Something about me rebels against the phrase “We’re all winners here” when used in the middle of an athletic competition where there are obviously losers. Maybe it comes from my years of watching the Chicago Cubs, but in a lot of human endeavors it sure doesn’t seem to me as if we are all winners. It seems like a vain attempt to hide the very fact that there are indeed losers in some aspects of human endeavor.... Read more