This Sunday's epistle reading was a grenade, and if I'm right, as I frequently am, it's a reading that quite a few churches likely wouldn't bother touching, if they read it at all. What I mean by that is that there are a few things in the Bible that, even two thousand years on, still have the power to move, bother, and offend. That stands to reason, of course, because in the big picture, you must understand that the Bible is and always has been a countercultural book, but it is more than that. The Bible has always been a countercultural book that people desperately want to be cultural. That is, most everyone wants to be on the side of the Bible, and to permit themselves to believe that they are squarely in the camp of the right side of both the scriptures, and of history. But here is where things fall apart, as they do.
Often, you can get yourself to thinking that you do fall in line with the scriptures. You can believe that no matter what a rude, unforgiving, covetous old sinner you are, that you are perfectly in line with an interpretation of the Bible. It will be vague enough for you to skate on by assuming that you're fine and you'll be fine for forever. If the Bible says not to steal, and you're a thief, you can always redefine things to say that your theft really isn't that bad. It's not the same as real theft, you know. Or perhaps, if you're an adulterer, you can consult the relevant Biblical passages that will say that you're not a real adulterer, that's other people who commit real adultery. But this passage, well, it blows the lid off of all of that by saying the words 'I command no woman to teach or hold authority over a man.' Well, what do you do with that?
Well, you get to do the thing that modern Christians are exceedingly bad at, and you get to say conclusively that there are parts of the Bible that you don't particularly like. (caveat: if this is a part of the Bible you do like, then stay tuned, pops, I'm sure I'll find something you don't like next week). Now, I'm going to assume that a lot of churches talked about the parable of the dishonest manager, and did their best to explain that in the lens of justice or what have you, but with the epistle reading, you are presented with the rare opportunity to talk about things that people don't much care for, and their desire, however much they've tried to hide it for a long time, to serve two masters at the same time.
At first, serving two masters is easy enough. The schedules line up pretty well, the demands are not too onerous, and you can fool yourself into thinking that you can manage to work both these jobs at the same time. After all, as long as they don't conflict, two paycheques, and you can keep on being the hardest working candy in town. But the schedules do conflict. You can't work at both jobs forever. Eventually one will make a demand on you, that will conflict with the other, and then you will have to choose. Which master will you serve? Honestly, we've been happily somnambulating through this ethical choice for a long time, figuring that we will never have to pay the piper.
This is what I will call the Cox and Box effect. In that one act comic opera, a landlord rents a single room to two different people, one who works at night, and one who works during the day. He figured that he could rent the same space to both men forever, and he figured wrong. The men eventually have a day off at the same time, and find one another. "Hilarity" ensues. I bring this up because this is what we're trying to do with our heads. We are renting it to two forces at the same time - God and the forces of the world. They don't often head home at the same time, but this last Sunday, they did. They came home at the same time, occupied the same space, and we all had to deal with it. When they're at home at the same time, you have to factor in that they both want the same space. They both want your adherence.
When Paul is writing to Timothy, he is telling you something that you something that you may not necessarily like, mainly because it conflict with what the world is currently saying. And the question that comes to you is 'what do you do when there is this conflict?' I'm not going to necessarily read the scripture from Sunday to you, but what I will do is to point out that if you are going to be a Christian, and you are going to be in the world, you will have to reconcile things, and will have to have them work together. And when this pulls you in two directions, you get to think of something else that is also important. That is, you get to think about all those other times where the scriptures were speaking against you as well; and there are lots of those times. There are lots of times where the scriptures give you the Cox and Box, and you have to deal with the disconnect. And the only real way of doing so is to understand that you cannot serve two masters. You can't do both. You can't both be of the world, and of God. Where there is a disconnect, where there is some degree of conflict, you have to ask the big question that of these two forces that are in conflict, which one will you serve? You will have to come to a conclusion, but the one thing you cannot do is to pretend that these things can exist at the same time and space.
But you're not going to want to choose God, you know. You're not going to want to choose God, his word or his decrees. But Christ Jesus does something that is truly and wonderfully revolutionary. He comes to save even the people who don't put him at the centre. For if the Gospel only went so far as to say 'Jesus died for those who always put him first,' there would be no point. If there was any possibility that you were going to be able to choose God all the time and every time, if you could get to the point that you were going to hear God's word and love it, and embrace it fully every time, you wouldn't need it at all. You need Christ because you're not that person.
You're a rebel. You need to know that that is the prime cause of sinfulness. Rebellion. Rebellion against God's word and his decrees. You are in the process of rebelling against Jesus of Nazareth and what he has commanded. You are renting his space to other forces, to other powers, thrones, dominions, and expecting them to continue to coexist forever. They can't coexist forever, though. They will conflict, they will push against one another, and will be immoveable and implacable. Your job now is to embrace the feeling that you have right now about the reading from Timothy, and to understand that the Scriptures are veritably dripping with passages that should make you just as uncomfortable. You've just gotten good at compartmentalizing, and in handwaving these issues away. But when the scriptures talk about the rich, the wealthy, and the fat sheep, when it talks about those who use their laborers for an unfair wage, when the scriptures talk about how you should have dominion over the world and tend it, these things are spoken against you, you know. You're just assuming that Cox and Box will only be in your space at alternating times. But they aren't.
These passages are written against you. The people of John the Baptist's time worked that out, you know. They heard the word of God preached from John, and were afflicted as they should have been. They didn't respond by saying 'thank goodness Mr. Cox is out while this is being delivered to Mr. Box.' No, in panic, they said to John 'what shall we do then?' And John tells them what to do, obviously, running through tips with the people on what would be good to do for their particular positions, but culminating with saying 'bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.' Repent and believe.
More often than not, even as Christians, we can forget that we have anything to repent of. Only once in awhile does the Bible jar us with the fact that we actually do not agree with Christ. But when it does, we would do well to remember that feeling, that desire to fight back against the scriptures. And if you can figure this out, understand that you are a rebel against God and his word, that you don't want to do what his word suggests yet figure that you can still appeal to him for forgiveness and peace, then you can work out how the other passages can exist for you as well. You can run into passages against the wealthy, against the adulterers, and against the cruel. And once you understand yourself as a rebel, as rebelling against the Lord your God, then you can understand what repentance is all about. It's about putting down your weapons, about admitting that you are wrong, and are in need of salvation. It's about understanding that you are trying to rent the space to both Cox and Box, and assuming that you can get away with it. You can't forever. Repent and believe in the Gospel, and remember that the king died for the rebels. Not for the ones who don't follow his word, not for the ones who can't follow his word, but for the ones who don't want to follow his word, and who openly rebel. Repent and believe, and rejoice that the king of kings and lord of lords dies for the rebels, the master dies for the servants who refuse to serve him.
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