Serving the Lord in Times of Transition

BISHOP Sutton, other bishops and clergy, faculty and staff, other distinguished guests, and especially you graduates with your families and friends, it is a privilege and a pleasure to be with you this morning.

I want to share with you some thoughts from the texts we’ve just heard read. Those of you who have seen the movie Star Wars may recall the scene in which R2D2, the robot, conveys a message sent from Princess Leia to Obiwan Kenobi, pleading for help. R2D2 beams a hologram of the Princess into their midst and they watch this shimmering 3D image as she delivers her message. I often think of that scene when I hear the Scriptures read in the congregation. There are images in our midst right now with a message for us.

What do we see? First, from Deuteronomy we catch part of Moses’ address to the people of Israel in the Plains of Moab, just across the Jordan from the promised land. He is preparing them for entering the land they have been journeying towards for so long. It will not be easy, for he himself is about to die and they will soon face many battles. Their need, according to Moses, is a renewal of their covenant commitment to God and His Law.

In similar fashion in 2 Timothy we have Paul’s last recorded words. This epistle comes from the very end of his life, perhaps days or even hours before his martyrdom. He writes to Timothy to prepare him for the apostle’s passing and for the battles Timothy will face. He calls Timothy to a renewed commitment to God and to His service for the sake of the Gospel.

So both of our texts are charges given at times of transition. They are very appropriate for a graduation ceremony, especially a graduation from seminary. The message of Moses and Paul is very relevant for this particular day in these graduates’ lives. And I suspect these images speak truths we all need to be reminded of.

Be faithful to the Law
Moses’ exhortation to Israel in her time of transition is to be faithful to God’s Law. This Law has three aspects, all touched on in our text. First, the Law is a revelation of the one true God. "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6.4-5). Second, the Law is a revelation of the deeds of this God in history, seen here in Moses tying the giving of the law to the great act of deliverance from Egypt. And third, the Law reveals the pattern of life that God calls His people to embody. Moses says the people are to study and teach diligently the law of God that they may survive as His people in the land He was giving them. So the Law reveals the Person of God, the plan of God and the pattern of God’s life for His people.

The Law as the revelation of God and as the story of creation and redemption continues on through to the New Testament and beyond. The people, places, events and institutions of the Old Testament are occasions of God’s work in their own setting and also provide patterns that are replicated as the story continues until they are all brought to fulfillment in Jesus. For Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Spirit brings about the restored relationship with God for which the Old Testament longs. In Jesus we have the decisive revelation of God and the decisive act of God in the middle of history as God’s plan unfolds and we move from creation to new creation by way of redemption.

The Law as a pattern of life also plays a crucial role on beyond the Old Testament. Scripture makes it clear that these laws are not arbitrary rules that God made up just to give us hoops to jump through. Rather, they form a pattern of life that represents a life in harmony with God and with one another. Most profoundly, the laws of God are the transposition into human society of the very character of God Himself.

Not surprisingly, then, in the New Testament St. Paul affirms that, "the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7.12). Paul is well aware, of course, that sin leads us to misuse the Law by finding in it a way to continue in our self-centeredness rather than exalting God. And he recognizes that the Law does not provide the power to actually live the pattern of life it reveals. But the Law as a pattern is affirmed in the New Testament and refined as God’s plan moves from the stage of working through a particular nation to that of working through a people formed from all nations to spread His Kingdom to all nations.

Continue in the Scriptures
It is this great revelation of God and His purposes and His pattern of life which is at the heart of Paul’s charge to Timothy. Timothy is to continue in the things he has heard from the sacred scriptures (2 Timothy 3.14-17). He had heard them not only from Paul but also in his home growing up. For Timothy’s mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, had been obedient to Moses’ command and had instructed Timothy in the commands of the Lord (2 Timothy 1.5).

In Paul’s charge to Timothy we see the same aspects of the Law we saw in Deuteronomy, namely, the revelation of God, the story of God’s redemption and the pattern of life which reflects that redemption. When Paul says Timothy is to do the work of an evangelist (4.5), he refers to the revelation of God and His activity. That is, Timothy is to tell people about the one true God who created the universe, who is at work in history to reconcile all things to Himself. He is to proclaim the supreme revelation of this God in Jesus Christ and the supreme act of redemption in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

The Good News is precisely that God is as good as Jesus revealed Him to be in His holiness, righteousness and mercy. The Good News is that His will for us is holiness, peace, wholeness, harmony with God, with one another and with the created order. The Good News is that He has redeemed us from our sin by the Cross and shared the transforming power of His own indestructible Life through the resurrection of Jesus and the sharing of His Spirit with us. The Good News is that there is a community we can belong to here on earth, the Church, that that lives out this life, however imperfectly, under the lordship of Christ. The Good News is that this new life which has begun will be brought to completion in ways that are beyond our comprehension as we share in God’s life more and more and as His purpose to unite in Christ all things in Heaven and earth is brought to fulfillment (cf. 1 Corinthians 15.20-28; Ephesians 1.10; Colossians 1.20).

Along with his work as an evangelist, Timothy is also to oversee the people of God. Paul speaks much in this passage about reproving, correcting and training in righteousness. Timothy is to help people understand the new pattern of life they are to live as Christians. This task is difficult due to the patterns of sin that people have ingrained in them. It is made more difficult by false teachers who teach people what they want to hear, promoting patterns of life and views of God and His will that allow, or even force, people to remain in their sin, calling sin righteousness and righteousness sin. Such false teachers have been present throughout the life of the Church and certainly there are many of them flourishing in our own day.

Paul issues this charge, as he says, "in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom" (4.1). Paul lives his whole life conscious of God’s Presence and of his own future appearance before God. Paul is aware that he has been given much and will be held accountable for what he has done with the gifts and commission God has given him. He makes Timothy aware that the same is true for him.

Those who are in Christ have already passed from death to life as they are, and remain, in Christ, but there still remains an evaluation of their lives. As Paul says over in 1 Corinthians 3, there is only one foundation, Jesus Christ, but some folk are building on that foundation with wood, hay and straw while others are building with gold, silver, and precious stones. When we enter the presence of the God who is a consuming fire our work will be revealed. All that is done in keeping with God’s will will shine and all that is not in keeping with God will disappear from before him as darkness vanishes when light comes. Those who have built with wood, hay and straw will be saved, but only as by fire, says Paul.

Now, this is heavy stuff. Many of the fathers of the early Church tried to avoid ordained service in the light of these realities. For as St. James says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment" (James 3.1).

As Paul makes clear, this judgment by our loving God faces each one of us, whether lay or ordained. We have all been given gifts by God, varying amounts of money to work with, as Jesus’ parable puts it (Matthew 25.14-30; Luke 19.11-27), and we will each render an account (cf. Luke 16.2). The only way for any of us to be a good and faithful servant is through complete reliance upon God, trust in Him, reception of His strength and guidance and the grace of His Spirit to love, hear and obey. We are able to do all things for Him only as we do all things from Him and through Him.

So these images are very challenging. They call for loyalty to God, attention to His revelation and obedience to the pattern of His life to which we are called.

Remain faithful in ministry
Stepping back from our texts, let me conclude with three focal points that I suggest are necessary if we are going to be faithful to the realities which these passages have opened to us. I offer these thoughts especially to the graduates as they go forth to ministry of various sorts, but also to each of us, whatever our role in the Church and the world.

First, both texts make very clear the importance of Scripture. Here is the revelation from God that gives stability and focus to our minds, our emotions, our very hearts, our very lives. Amidst all its diversity Scripture speaks with a clear, coherent voice revealing the Objective Reality of God and His ways. What a great gift! Here we have the very oracles of God, as St. Paul says (Romans 3.2). Each of us must be as saturated with this book as possible.

But we all know that just knowledge of the book is not enough. The Pharisees had the Scriptures memorized and searched them daily, but some of them still failed to recognize the Son of God Himself standing right in front of them. So the second focal point I want to mention is prayer. I’m referring first of all to the Book of Common Prayer for those who are Anglicans and perhaps also for others if they don’t have a similar resource in their own jurisdiction of the Church. This book provides an incredible resource for focusing, informing, and shaping our lives in conformity to God’s Word. It guards us from personal idiosyncrasies and takes us up into the faith of the Church as the Spirit has been leading her into all truth for the past 2000 years.

Along with this prayer of the Church we also need our personal, private prayer. Our relation to God is personal (though never merely individual) and God wants us to share with Him our praises and concerns, our joys and our sorrows, our own needs and those of others. He also wants our attention. We need to listen as well as speak. Our prayer should include time for silent waiting upon God, letting Him speak heart to heart. As David says in today’s psalm, we should be seeking God’s face (Psalm 27.8).

This listening prayer is especially crucial for any ministry, whether lay or ordained. For true ministry is a sharing in Christ’s own ministry. It is not just doing things for Him, it is doing His will. And to know that will we need to be silent and receptive before Him, crying out with David in our psalm, "teach me Thy way O Lord" (27.13). Otherwise we run the risk spoken of by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. At the end of the Sermon Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven " (Matthew 7.21). Notice that He is talking about Christians. They call Him "Lord." Indeed, these are not just Christians but those who have spectacular ministries. "Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness’" (7.22-23).

So it is possible to call Jesus "Lord" and do mighty works for Him and at the end to be condemned, hearing the horrific revelation that Jesus was not involved in one’s life at all. Do you see how important it is that we spend time seeking God and His will, listening to Him and not just dreaming up things to do in His Name?

The final focal point I would hold up for your consideration is a fundamental attitude. In 2 Corinthians 5.9 Paul says his ambition is to be pleasing to God. Such a heart attitude is a response of love towards God and gratitude for the redemption God has accomplished in history. It is also an essential attitude for living out the pattern of life which is God’s own Life. Our knowledge of what is pleasing to God must be informed by the Scriptures under the guidance the Spirit has given the Church through the centuries. But given such knowledge, we have here a motto for our whole life, both as individuals and as communities. This ambition should impact every aspect of our life. Everything we do should pass through this filter: is it well-pleasing to God?

May each of us recommit ourselves to the revelation given in Scripture of God’s own Person and His plan and His pattern of life. We will fulfill the charge we’ve heard from Moses and Paul and be able to face what lies ahead if we seek to have everything in our life be from God and for God, reflecting the beauty of God.

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The Rev. Rodney Whitacre, Ph.D., D.D., is Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. His commentary on St. John’s Gospel was published by InterVarsity Press in November 1999. He is also the author of Johannine Polemic: The Role of Tradition and Theology (Scholars Press, 1982) and is currently working on a patristic Greek reader.

Posted 14 March 2001. Copyright Rodney A. Whitacre 2000.