Back to Sermon Index 1 Timothy July 6, 2008 This morning's text presents a preacher's dream and nightmare. There are so many options for sermons in this text that we could be here a very long time! Sorry, Harold! We could talk about the first verse's call to prayer and the four types of prayer Paul lists. We could talk about the role of Worship for the Christian and for the world. We could explore what it is to be a dual citizen, of the country we live in and love...and of heaven, which is calls for our primary allegiance. But what I have chosen to today is the heart of the text and really the heart of the proclamation of the early church. In this text, Paul shares with us a distillation of the Gospel, or Good News. If you are looking for a passage that shares the message of the church, this is it.         "This is good, and pleases God our Savior — who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is One God and One Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus — who gave himself as a ransom for all humanity---" (1 Timothy 2:3-6) There is One God. This is central to both the proclamation of the Old and New Testament. There is One God.         For many, it seems that they have no God at all. There lives are adrift and they live them alone and without a central core purpose or calling. They live for the moment. The world is a place of great challenge and is without purpose. Life can seem meaningless and alone. There are those who have too many gods. Mammon or money, power, prestige, power, all clamor for ultimate allegiance. The ego is king, and they sit up the throne and anything that bring pleasure is ok. Theirs is a world full of relativity...without a single God to whom we are all accountable and who establishes what is good and true. Anything anyone wants to believe is fine...and we can see the absurdity of this relativistic world view. No, there is One God. And what's more, this God desires that all men we saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. These are the same thing...to be saved is to come to the knowledge of the truth. The truth about God...that God is, That God is holy...and that God desires that we be saved. God loves us, often in spite of what we do, what we say, or who we try to be. God loves us beyond it all. God desires that we come to the knowledge of the truth and that we be saved.         The truth about ourselves. That we are sinners and that we fall short of the Glory of God. This is not news to most of us, but we make excuse for ourselves...living in a world with relative truth. I know that I am not perfect, but really I have not done all that much bad...I have never killed anyone! Not robbed a bank! I am not as bad as...those people. But an argument that says we are not as bad as some, does not justify our own shortcomings. It is a way to avert attention from us to someone else. Like when we were kids...the first thing is to deny involvement...Who did this? Not me. I don't Know. Second, we would try and shift attention away from ourselves to one of my brothers...well, Richard shaved the dog! Or Charlie ate the center out of the cake and frosted over a napkin to hide it! But God, like our parents, is not fooled. My folks would say, well, we will get to him in a minute...but right now we are talking about you! God says that we are in need of salvation. We have fallen from grace. We have sinned...both inadvertently and actively, sometimes joyfully! But God does not seek our judgment nor our punishment. This is awesome and amazing! God does not want justice, but seeks mercy. God desires THAT WE ALL (EVEN THE WORST OF US) SHOULD BE SAVED! And so, there is one mediator between God and humanity...one who is the one to bridge the gap between our sin and God's holiness. One to be the bridge to carry us over our sin and into the presence of our Father in heaven who loves us and welcomes us home as the prodigal child we are! One Mediator, Christ Jesus. Now, remember, that Christ is not Jesus' last name, but a title. It means messiah, God's anointed savior. The one mediator is Jesus the Christ, God's savior. God is holy and we are sinful, and the space between the two is so broad we can not hope to cross it...regardless of how holy we might become. No, we need a mediator, one who will help us settle our case and find a good resolution. Jesus is the Messiah, the man who came to be the mediator. It is important to note that although Paul refers to Jesus as the man, he also uses the title Christ and it is clear in Paul's writing and preaching that Jesus is the one and only unique Son of God. He was fully human, and fully divine. This is a hard concept for us to grasp, but an important one. God our savior sent his one and only son into the world, so that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.... For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Those words are, of course, from the Gospel of John, verse 3:16-17. God desires that all humanity be saved. God knows that we can not do it ourselves. That no one can climb up to heaven...so heaven comes down to us. He sent his Son...God himself, we are told, is in Christ. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God...in him the fullness of deity dwelt...God comes to be among us and to save us. And This one Mediator, he gave himself as a ransom for all. Not only did Jesus come into the world...something that is so incredible that our human minds struggle to comprehend all that it meant...but he goes further. In order to demonstrate his deep love for us, he is willing to go all the way to the cross and to die for us. He gave his life, it was not taken from him. He gave it as an act of sacrificial love. Remember his words on the night before his death...this is my body, GIVEN for you... This cup is in my blood, Given for you and for many for the forgiveness of Sin.... To ransom is to redeem, to purchase with a great price, to reclaim us and restore us to our intended home. Do not think of the ransom as a payment to God, as if God is some unfeeling judge who demands his pound of flesh regardless...remember, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. God sent his son...so that we might be saved. Finally, he died as a ransom for all.... Not for some, not for the religious or holy. Not for one nation or people or ethnic group. For Americans, for Chinese and African, and Indian and Latino...for rich and poor, for homeless and smelly and needy and poor and educated and rich and happy... For all. The high and low, the rich and poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile...God wants the whole world to come to the knowledge of the truth. And less you feel that the Gospel is somehow failing...Jeff Huget told me about a piece he heard on NPR where some supposed scholar was predicting the end of the church in a generation....whereas I was at a class this week where I learned with joy that 90,000 people a day are converting to Christ...are coming to know and trust him as savior and lord, 90,000 a day world wide! A closing word of caution. God wants the world...God wants all, and so must the church. Often churches have seemed closed to some...where folks are not made to feel welcome and where they do not find Christ's love shared by his followers. We must take special caution to never allow prejudice or pre-judging into our Church...where someone, anyone would find a welcome. And that brings us to communion. We celebrate an open communion, which means that anyone and everyone is welcome at the table of the Lord. This is not my table, it is not your table, the Methodist table, or the American table...this is the table of Christ Jesus, who is the ONE Mediator between us and God...who gave his life as a ransom for ALL. Here are the signs of that sacrifice, given to us by Christ himself. The bread, his body given and broken for us. The cup, his blood poured out...for the forgiveness of Sins. We each come to the truth in this moment, in these acts. We come forward, acknowledging that we are imperfect sinners who sin both willingly and unknowingly. We come seeking his mercy and his grace...and we know that God desires it with all his heart that we come...that we come to the knowledge of the truth that Jesus loves us..that he died for us...and that we are called to live for him. As we receive the elements, we receive anew Christ's Spirit...as we eat his body and drink his blood symbolically we mark ourselves as not our own, but as his own redeemed and ransomed children. Everyone is welcome at the table of the lord. Come, come to the table of mercy... Back to Sermon Index