WHO IS YOUR TIMOTHY?
Many years ago, when I was serving a church in southwest Minnesota, there was a woman in my congregation by the name of Lola. Now I’m going to say that Lola was born in 1900, so she was well into her 90s by the time I knew her. Lola was born in Maquoketa, Iowa. She once told me a story about how she boarded a train in Maquoketa at the tender age of 17, and rode that train all the way to Philadelphia to stay with a cousin. At night, Lola and her cousin would go to a dance hall and dance with soldiers about to be shipped overseas during World War I. I was shocked! I’ve been to Philadelphia. There is no way on God’s green earth that I would allow my 17-year-old daughter to go to Philadelphia by herself! I asked Lola, “Were they nice to you?” Lola replied, “They were perfect gentlemen.” Now before we romanticize too much about the early 1900s, let me say this. Women were not allowed to vote back in those days. And I’m guessing our nation would not have elected an African-American President back then either. But on the other hand, perhaps people were a bit more Christ-like. Our nation back then was perhaps a kinder, gentler place than it is today.
Case in point, as many of you know, my oldest son is a sophomore at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He’s in a fraternity, and not long ago some guys from his fraternity went to attend a fraternity function at Kent State University. While he was there, my son met a young man from Ohio State University. This young man bragged about the fact that on numerous occasions he had drugged girls. He put something in their drinks that would make them vulnerable to whatever advances he might dream up. Can you imagine a more vicious, more self-centered act than that? It sounds to me as if this is a young man who could use a little spiritual renewal. This is a young man who could benefit from the gospel of Jesus Christ…not to mention a little jail time!
Yet there’s a lot of resistance to the gospel of Jesus Christ these days. My youngest son is a sophomore at the Meadville high school. Just last week in one of his classes the students were asked to name who they thought was the most influential person in the history of the world. My son, much to his credit, wrote down the name “Jesus Christ.” When later he was asked who he wrote down, he was ridiculed for his answer. One young man said, “There’s no proof that Jesus Christ even existed!” I told him, “Yes, there is. Apart from the Bible, we have the writings of a Jewish historian named Josephus, a Roman historian named Tacitus, and a Roman governor named Pliny the Younger.” My son was angry at the response he received. He said, “I wanted to punch that guy out!” I said, “That might not be the most Christ-like response.” He gets his temper from his mother, you know! The point is this. While Jesus Christ may be the answer to many of our social and spiritual ills, apparently far too few people are asking the question.
That brings us to the discipleship issue with which we’ve been wrestling for the last several weeks. The question was asked, “What constitutes a healthy disciple?” The following criteria have been proposed:
1. Who is your Lord? In other words, when everything else is said and done, whose agenda are you truly following?
2. Who are you? At the beginning of each day, do you wake up thinking you’ll have to go out and win your own share of security and significance, or can you truly say that those are priceless gifts you have already received?
3. Who is your Barnabas? Barnabas spoke up for the Apostle Paul and was something of a mentor to him. Who is your spiritual mentor, who is showing you how to follow Jesus Christ?
4. Who is your Timothy? Paul was something of a mentor to Timothy. Who is your apprentice – the one to whom you are passing along the life lessons that God has entrusted you?
5. Where is your Antioch? Antioch was something of a safe haven for Paul where the call of God could find him. What small group of friends is helping you discern the call of God in your life?
6. Where is your Macedonia? Macedonia was something of a field of ministry for Paul. To what field of ministry is God calling you, that hauntingly stirs your deepest passion?
The question we want to wrestle with today is this: Who is your Timothy? Who is your Timothy? You see, discipling is how the gospel has been spread for the last 2000 years. We need a Barnabas. We need someone to show us how the live the Christian life. And then we need a Timothy. We need an apprentice to pass along the life lessons that God has entrusted us. But how are we to find a Timothy if there aren’t any young people in church? Apart from our immediate families, who are we going to mentor if there aren’t any young people in church?
As many of you know, we’ve been conducting a mission self-study in recent weeks. The data is in and it’s somewhat startling. The data reveals that almost to a person, we want to add new young families to our church. Yet the data also shows that we don’t want to change very much in order for that to happen. In fact, here’s a chart that plots out in part who we are as a church. On the top of the chart is the word “adaptive,” which is a nice way of saying we’re willing to change. At the bottom of the chart is the word “settled,” which is a nice way of saying we don’t want to change. At the right side of the chart is the word “conservative,” which is a nice way of saying we’re conservative. And at the left side of the chart is the word “progressive,” which is a nice way of saying – dare I say it? – liberal. Do you know which side of the chart we were on in terms of progressive and conservative? We were actually on the progressive side. Not by a lot, but we were. And do you know where we were when it came to being adaptive or settled? We were near the bottom. We were plugged in right about here. (Let me show the choir…) So here we are, caught between a rock and a hard place. We desperately want to add new young families, but we don’t want to change for that to happen. What are we to do?
I recently had something of an epiphany on that subject in a conversation I was having with Keith and Debbie Mink. I told Keith that he was the source of my inspiration, and Debbie said that that was probably the case. (I’m kidding. That’s NOT what Debbie said.) But here’s what I got to thinking. Several weeks ago, in the class I was leading on the gospel according to John, we got to talking about what salvation is. Is salvation just going to heaven, or can salvation happen in the here and now? In the Bible, we are led to believe that salvation can happen in the here and now. For example, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew people experienced salvation when Moses led them out of bondage in Egypt. Salvation to them was essentially freedom from tyranny and oppression. In the New Testament, Jesus gives us something of a different slant. He says, “He who saves his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake and for the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, we will experience our salvation, we will find our inner peace, we will become the people God intended us to be when we learn to die to self and to live for Jesus Christ. In other words, we quit being so selfish, and we place our primary focus on others. It occurred to me that the very same thing might be true of the church. Too often in the church we only focus on what we need or what we want. Maybe the church needs to die to the self as well. Maybe the church needs to become what it was meant to be. You see, we come to church to grow as Christians, and then we go out into the world in order to transform it. Maybe the church will start to grow when we realize that. What need in the Meadville community is the First Presbyterian Church called by God to fulfill? Find the answer to that, and we will find our salvation. Discipling is how the gospel has been spread for the last 2000 years. If we don’t find our Timothys, this church will die, and the gospel of Jesus Christ will die alongside it. Amen.
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