Reflection on II Timothy 1:12b

To be delivered at St. John's on November 9th, God willing.

St. Paul writing (perhaps to Timothy?)
probably by Valentin de Boulogne, 17th century

One of the great formative influences in my early life was singing what I believed.  Sometimes those songs still ring in my ears, and I find myself singing along.  One of my favorites was always “I Know Whom I Have Believed” by Daniel W. Whittle, published in1883.  It goes in part something like this:

I know not why God’s wondrous grace

To me He hath made known,

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love

Redeemed me for His own.   

• But “I know Whom I have believed,
• And am persuaded that He is able
• To keep that which I’ve committed
• Unto Him against that day.”

I know not when my Lord may come,

At night or noonday fair,

Nor if I walk the vale with Him,

Or meet Him in the air.

• But “I know Whom I have believed,
• And am persuaded that He is able
• To keep that which I’ve committed
• Unto Him against that day.”

I’m sure some of you noticed that this is a quote  from the Authorized Version of the Bible,  The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, Chapter one, verse 12b.

I have come to the conclusion that one of the reasons this particular song, and this particular verse of Scripture has been so ubiquitous this week is because of an article entitled “Evangelicals’ Favorite Heresies” in the November 2014 Issue of “Christianity Today.”  The good news is that more than 9 in 10 believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that heaven and hell are real.  I doubt that Main Line Protestant samplings would fare so well.  Some of the more disturbing findings about Evangelical Christians are: 27% either agree or couldn’t deny for sure that Jesus, while the first of creation, is a created being.  58% consider the Holy Spirit to be a force, and not a personal being.  A whopping 77% believe that people seek God first, and then God responds with grace.   A smaller, but still significant 24% are willing to believe that the Book of Mormon might be a revelation from God.  

Another issue that has had doctrine and the methodology by which it is discovered and developed on my mind this week is our own upcoming Diocesan Convention in Chillicothe.  The third resolution proposes that  our Diocesan Convention memorialize the General Convention to modify the marriage ceremony in the Book of Common Prayer in a way that replaces the words “husband and wife” or “man and woman” with the phrase “these two persons.”  Whatever one’s opinion might be on the issue, and whether or not it passes,  The proposal would be a major change in the historic position of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and of how the Church has always interpreted the Bible.  But for the purposes of today’s line of thought, I would ask you to temporarily set aside the issue of same sex union in the Episcopal or any other Church.  Rather I would ask you to think about the ecclesiology, that is the belief about what the church is, which gives rise to such a resolution as resolution three, or for that matter, which allows so many of our Evangelical brethren and sisters to deny the received understandings about our Lord, about the Trinity, about Salvation, and about Revelation.  

Resolution three arises from the commonly held belief that a simple majority vote in constitutional process, taken in a relatively small denomination in one time and place, is sufficient justification for making a major change in the patrimony of the church.  Without consultation with our Roman Catholic, or Protestant, or Orthodox, or Coptic fellow believers, we are willing to declare that what belongs to all of us is ours to modify at will.  That is a dangerous position to take, because it points out the falseness of our membership in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church by rending the fabric of the broader Christian community, which is the body of Christ, and which we claim to be a part of every time we say the Creed.  It is virtually the same position assumed by that individual Evangelical Believer who affirmed to the pollsters that Jesus Was a created Being or that our desires rather than God’s love initiates and enables our reconciliation with God.  We live in a world where individuals and small groups feel very free to place their own feelings and thoughts and impulses above those of the broader Christian community, with little regard for unintended consequences.  Anyone can say that they are a part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  To submit to the Church and actually be so is another thing entirely.

This brings us back to Second Timothy 1:12.  Archbishop Paul is writing to admonish and instruct young Bishop Timothy.  The Apostle claims his authority from Jesus with confidence, and continues his statement of Creedal Orthodoxy from the First Letter, in which he had addressed many specific organizational and moral and relational implications of the faith Jesus left to the Apostles.  Two phrases stand out to me in this particular verse which seem to have bearing on our present situation.  First, he says “I know whom I have believed.”  His faith is grounded in the sure and living relationship that he shares with God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  God’s grace had been manifest in his education and upbringing, in the example of blessed Stephen, the protomartyr, in the loving example of Barnabas and the congregation in Antioch who welcomed him into the Faith he had persecuted.  Then there was the blessed time apart, and so many other things which had caused his certainty of the reality of God to grow and deepen.  And now he called his young protege to share in that same certainty.  It is that certainty of faith to which we are called.  It is based on a knowable and personal ever growing faith in the one who saved us and who calls us brother, or sister, and friend.  It is based on evidence, and is definable in rational terms which are consistent with God’s own character, of which reason is a part.  The second phrase to which I alluded earlier is “I am persuaded.”  Those three words say volumes about this rationality of God’s Character which Apostle and Archbishop Paul strives to employ in his own life.  Rene Descartes, the great French philosopher, is famous for saying that we should methodologically doubt every proposition to prove its validity, or conversely, its invalidity.  Paul cautions Bishop Timothy to make sound and logical decisions, based on his relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the Church’s Husband, remembering that he- Timothy- is a Bishop of the Church, which is Christ’s Bride.  You see, whatever current societal attitudes may say or teach, we as Christians are called to make our decisions rationally and in a conciliar manner which includes all of the great branches of Christianity, based on the relationship which Jesus Christ offers us through his Church.  Our decisions are never our own, nor do they belong to a committee.  They ought always to be taken within the broader historic Christian community in which we live, and in the shadow of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Now what does this mean practically?

1. If something you desire to do, some change you would like to make, is contradictory to what the Church has always believed to be a part of the received body of teaching which characterizes the Scriptures, and the Fathers, and the Councils, and the Doctors, and the Schoolmen, and the Reformers, and all the rest; you are probably making a mistake and should revisit your thought process and the  teaching of the Church over the last 2,000 years before moving ahead.
2. You should concentrate on verifiable knowledge and formal logical inference, rather than on  feelings.  Feelings are very real things, and they more often than not lead to justification of things which have terrible unintended consequences.  The words “I feel” usually introduce very bad theology which has serious negative consequences, unintended and otherwise.
3. Because we all live in our own little worlds, it is important that we consult with others, especially other believers of different denominational traditions and from different countries, and with the teachings of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church if we are to honestly think through the implications of our beliefs and their moral and practical implications for us and for others.  
4. And finally, we should all resist the destructive teachings of this age that there is no ultimate truth based in God’s self revelation of his own character, and that we as individuals are and ought to be the final arbiters of truth in our own lives.  The societal results of such beliefs are anarchy, selfishness, and irresponsibility.  The end of such a story is always tragic, even though none of the players really meant for anyone to get hurt.

And that is all I have today.  It is amazing what can flow out of one little song.  So keep singing, and serve God faithfully, and think about what you do.  Amen.