Lectionary Year C
September 16, 2001

1 Timothy 1:12-17
Contemporary Address

Step VI - Contemporary Address

A. Goals

(JFC) We might hope a sermon from this text will proclaim the reality of God's reconciling mercy in Christ against the severe reality of human sinfulness.

B. Describing the Audience

(JFC) If I were preaching this Sunday I might hope this sermon could get the attention of both those who consider themselves the foremost of sinners today and those who try to deny they sin. Perhaps a congregation whose members have tired of some of the prayers of confession prayed in worship, corporate and/or individual, could appreciate a sermon on these topics. A new Church developing might like it, too.

C. Contemporary Address

(JFC) Sermon, entitled for this working draft, "Confession Is Good For The Soul"

INTRODUCTION

The author of I Timothy was written quite early in the growth of the Christian Church. It addresses some significant issues for fledgling congregations in the ancient world. For example, sin, grace and what to do in response to them, for starters.

I. SINNERS ALL ARE WE

A. First, we begin where we get into confessing. The best thing to do about our sinning is to confess it to God. Ludwig Wittgenstein, that Austrian Philosopher of earlier this past century, wrote, "A confession has to be part of your life." Confessing our sinfulness seems to be the only way to get rid of the burdensome weight of its guilt. Oscar Wilde wrote, "One's very highest moment, I have no doubt, is when we kneel in the dust and beat our breast and tell all the sinfulness of our life." Yes, confessing our sinfulness can lift us up, even toward God. Confession re-relates us to the God from whom our sinfulness separates us momentarily. Richard Dean Rosen, (b. 1949) U. S. journalist and critic, wrote Psychobabble; Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Age of Feeling in 1977. In it we read, "Confession, alas, is the new handshake." And, I hasten to add, "it's a handshake with God and, guess who initiates it? God does, even in Jesus Christ."

B. The author of I Timothy, evidently, engages in confession right repeatedly, rather regularly, almost too many times in today's passage. However, we, too, do it quite regularly in corporate worship every Lord's Day. We confess and confess and confess. Traditionally, we pray, "We have left undone those things we ought to have done; and we have done those things we ought not to have done." That's the popular way of praying it from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. My hope for I Timothy's repeated confessions is that they lead for him to repentance. Our repeated confessions can prove healthy and can become of a healing quality according to counselors of every sort.

II. CHRIST

A. Grace, of course, as we learned early on, is "God's unmerited favor", unconditional love for us, even us, who sin and challenge the author of I Timothy for the station of being the "foremost of sinners". And, yet, sin as we might, God loves more than that. God loves without any reference to our inevitable sinning. God is even said to ignore human sinning, can you believe?

B. Christ's faith gets a mention in today's text. It reads, "Christ's exceeding faith abounded with (God's) love". We rarely think of Christ's faith, we merely, assume it is there, it is real and it remains in effect even until today. Well, of course it does. You know how you rely on Christ's faithfulness and I know how I do. We might think on these ways more to recognize just how valuable Christ's faithfulness is to us.

III. RESPONSE

A. The author of I Timothy saw himself, as a forgiven sinner, to be an example for others to observe and to learn from about God's love and Christ's faithfulness. Examples are good. We need them. With our days' loosing heroes and getting far too few replacements for them, we need good and positive and faithful examples to recall and to revere. Mark Twain had a negative twist on examples. He wrote in Puddin'head Wilson, "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." I beg to differ, as did Hubert Humphrey. He said, "This is the test we need to set for ourselves: not to march alone but to march in such ways that others will want to join us." Joining is where it's at. We join to find Connectionalism, camaraderie, support.

B. We find such support, such faithful friendships, such camaraderie here in the local congregation. Timothy found it in the early church, too. There, apparently, they sang "Doxologies". There are many forms of "praising God from whom all blessings flow" throughout the Psalms, the hymnbook of ancient Israel and the New Testament Church, as well. Our text for today concludes with a Doxology praising God, the "immortal, invisible, the only God to whom be ascribed honor and glory forevermore".

CONCLUSION

We sin, Christ suffered, died and rose to relieve us of the guilt of our sinning. We can respond by living as if Christ's deeds do make a difference in our lives. We can exemplify praising God to show how glad we are God loves us so. We are healthy enough, thanks to God's healing mercy, to go and do just that to God's honor and glory.

| Return to gospel text listings | Return to epistle text listings |
| Return to Old Testament listings | Return to Psalm listings |
| User response form |