Wrangling over Words

Dear people of Christ Church,

This Sunday, we celebrate the baptism of Olivia Christie. Olivia has been coming to Christ Church with her big brother Nicholas (3) and parents Amy and David. Welcome to the household of God, Olivia!

This week as we celebrate the Eucharist with Baptism, we'll continue our journey through the books of Jeremiah and Timothy. We've been reading both continuously since September, and we'll be with them for several more weeks. It's good to spend some more time listening to the same books in church, but it doesn't leave a lot of space to spend sustained time grappling with them since preachers tend to focus more on the Gospel texts for Sundays. Given continuous readings, they don't often tie up neatly with the themes of the Gospel.

The letters of first and second Timothy is one of the books we call "the pastorals"-scholars are pretty sure that Paul himself didn't write them, but as part of the Biblical canon we still read them and value what they have to say. Of course, we value them in context; Timothy is also the book that counsels women not to speak in church, so it requires a bit of cultural unpacking as well. These last few weeks Timothy has had some very memorable phrases, in which he speaks to the people who aren't as steadfastin their beliefs as he would like. In that world, like ours, there was a lot of competition for religious allegiance, and a lot of controversy, and he jumps right into the fray. Last week we heard him counsel "avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening." This week, he warns, "For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires."

Who are these people with itchy ears? Are they the people who don't bother coming to church? Agnostics and atheists? Is it us? And is it really such a bad thing? I think I want to speak in defense of those "itchy eared folks," those who wrangle over words and interrogate received texts and beliefs. Timothy was speaking to a community that worried that people would abandon their faith in favor of the next big thing. Then and now, people are distractable. It seems to me, though, that "wrangling" is actually part of the call of the Christian, not a liability to faith. Today, the obstacle to faith isn't doubt, it's apathy. We should start to worry when we don't even care enough to struggle. Being critical of our historical faith doesn't mean we'll fall away, it means that we are interested! As long as we're asking questions, we're engaging; as long as we are "wrangling over words" we're affirming that the words that we say have power.

This week, I invite you to take a few minutes of prayer and do some of that interrogation. Do it in love, trusting God to be with you. Ask God to sit with you in your questions, and guide you to listen for God's word. Ask yourself how God speaks to you in your current context, in your life here and now.

Ask, and the door will be opened unto you, seek and ye shall find..

Blessings,

Sara+