WRANGLING WITH WORDS
JEREMIAH
29:1, 4-7; 2 TIMOTHY 2:8-15; LUKE 17:11-19
“Remind them of
this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words,
which does no
good but only ruins those who are listening.”
The other day we condo owners received a
10-page treatise of the new rules and regulations for living at our condo
complex. The document was accompanied by a semi-legal looking form that we have
to sign and return by a particular date; our signature states that I have “received,
read, understand, and will abide by the Rules and Regulations,” which in my
estimation seek to take away my inalienable rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
Haven’t
signed it, yet. However, if I don’t sign the acknowledgment form and “return it
within two weeks of receipt, it will be considered a rules violation and fines
will be levied accordingly.”
Some
of the highlights:
·
Barbecue grills
need to be neatly covered when not in use.
·
Application for
flower gardens must be in writing to the Board.
·
Curtains and
drapes must be of neutral color as seen from the outside of the building.
·
12 regulations
regarding pets, plus 10 sub-points, including
o
Pets must be
confined to the pet owners’ unit and must not be allowed to roam free, [they must
be] tethered.
o
Pets may not be
left unattended on patios or balconies.
o
All pets outside
the unit must be restrained by a leash no longer than 6 feet long or placed in
an animal carrier. (I asked about this, and the association president said
people were unhappy about pet paw prints on their cars.]
o
Photographs of
pets must be submitted to the property manager.
o
No pet shall be
allowed to become a nuisance or create any unreasonable disturbance—
§ Unruly behavior that causes personal injury or
property damage;
§ Pets in common areas who are not under the complete
physical control of a human companion;
§ Pets [that] are conspicuously unclean or parasite
infested—does this go for human companions too?
§ First there is a written warning then the fines start
at $100 and go up from there.
What
I want to know is, Are the pet police going to be patrolling all the time? Will
they take my cat to the slammer and make me post bail to get her out? Do I have
to pay per paw print on a car hood—and are they going to paw print our cats so
they can identify which one walked on someone’s car? And how about those unruly
gas grill covers—are we going to take pictures of them, too, and submit them,
so that when one escapes and roams free in common areas or becomes messy they
can identify the serious criminal and fine its owner.And the drapes? Do we have
to apply to the board if we want something other than beige or white? Somebody
stop me! Please!
I
think I have a problem.
PASTOR
TIMOTHY HAD A PROBLEM—well, he had many problems! But just to mention a few—
Ø
Paul, Timothy’s
father in the faith, his mentor, THE
expert in all things gospel, was in prison in Rome as a serious criminal;
Ø
And Timothy was
stuck in Ephesus with an out-of-control church on his hands;
Ø
The church in
Ephesus was in major trouble:
o
there was heresy,
o
there were false
teachers,
o
there were church
members—especially women—being sucked in by a pseudo-doctrines.
WHAT
A MESS! Get out the 76 Trombones because there’s trouble in River City. Heresy
has found a home in Ephesus. The heresy wasn’t blatant, like teachings that cut
to the heart of the nature of God and of Christ—like denying Christ’s divinity.
The
Ephesian heresy was much more subtle, and perhaps that was why it was such a
deep threat to the church. The false teachers were actually members of the
church, which makes the infiltration that much more dangerous and sinister. In
a large nutshell, the church in Ephesus was being destroyed by insiders who
were teaching “a form of aberrant Judaism with Greek/Gnostic tendencies that
overemphasized the law [of Moses] and under-emphasized Christ and faith,”[1] In other words, they were bastardizing the gospel. And not only that:
Ø
they talked a lot
about Jewish myths and genealogies as having basis in truth;
Ø
the rituals of
mosaic law were important, but folks shouldn’t “ let them get in the way of
your sinful nature outside of the temple”;
Ø
they downplayed
the importance and sanctity of marriage;
Ø
Greed was good
(Gordon Gecko was apparently a member of this church);
Ø
(this is a big
one): they taught that the resurrection had already come, which basically means
that no longer need they look forward to Christ’s second coming and the
resurrection of the dead!
Ø
(perhaps the
biggest problem of all): “the false teachers were so immersed in speculative
controversies that they neglected the very core of the Christian faith”[2]—which is laid out in full view in v 8:
“Remember
Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel—”
The
false teachers were spending all their time “wrangling over words!” Instead of preaching the gospel, they pursued
their own convenient agendas by engaging in semantic speculation and vague
theories, now that kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore right?
The
Ephesian Heresy was extremely destructive because:
Ø the house churches scattered around the city were
vulnerable;
Ø the teachers and teachings deceived many women into
being abused sexually, physically, and emotionally;
Ø it brought ruin to the faith of new believers,
Ø it encouraged people to walk hungrily—and happily—into
temptation.
Some
rules are meant to be broken; some rules are meant to be obeyed; some rules are
downright asinine, but no rule is a replacement for, or better than, the truth
and the truth of a Christian’s life was, is, and always will be Jesus Christ
raised from the dead. This was Paul’s
gospel; it was Timothy’s gospel, and let it be our gospel, too.
Without
the gospel—the same one that Paul suffered for and Timothy struggled against
heretics to uphold; without Christ’s love, rightly received, understood and
abided by, faith can be just a bunch of rules and regulations, points and
sub-points, a “wrangling over words, which does no good but “only ruins those
who are listening.” This wrangling we sometimes get involved in does nothing to
lead us to “obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory”
(2 Tim 2:10).
Listen
to Paul, identify with Timothy, and “do your best to present yourself to God as
one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining
the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). This week as we go about your inalienable
rights, let’s ask ourselves, What is my
gospel? I pray that our gospel will be centered on “remember[ing] Jesus
Christ, raised from the dead.” Christ is the very truth of God made flesh to
dwell among us. He is our Savior, and he came to teach us the way to live and
love, the way to grow and give, the way to die and be raised from the dead…so
that
§ If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
§ If we endure, we will also reign with him.
The
living Word of Truth can never be ruled or regulated, neither can it be chained
nor imprisoned. Thanks be to God for the untethered Gospel of Jesus Christ that
is ours today. Amen.
October 13, 2013
First Parish Federated Church of South
Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
[1]
Wilson,
Dr Ralph F. Introduction to 1 and 2 Timothy. JesusWalk
Bible Study Series @ www.jesuswalk.com.
[2]
Ibid.
