1
Timothy 3:1-13
Ordinary
26
September
29, 2019
William G. Carter
The saying is sure: whoever aspires to the office of
bishop desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above
reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an
apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and
not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping
his children submissive and respectful in every way— for if someone does
not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s
church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may
be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the
devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may
not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not
indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the
mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be
tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as
deacons. Women likewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate,
faithful in all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them
manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well
as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith
that is in Christ Jesus.
The topic today is leadership. What kind of leaders
should we have? If you have paid attention to the news, you can read into this matter
whatever you wish. But Paul is talking about leadership in the church.
The apostle must have been pretty old at the time because
he mentions church offices that took a while to develop and become widespread: “bishops
(or “overseers”), deacons,” and later in the letter, “elders.” The young Christian
movement called the “church” had developed to the point of becoming an
organization with forms of hierarchy. That took a while. So we think this
letter came late in the New Testament.
In our Presbyterian preliminary principles, we hold that
any association of Christians can decide how to organize themselves. Church
organization is not “one size fits all.” The people who are governed must
decide how that will work.
Years ago, I was reminded of this when our presbytery
asked me to moderate the Session of a small church nearby. We opened the
meeting in prayer, approved the minutes, and then I asked for a report from the
Christian Education committee. The elders around the table began to laugh. “We
only have thirty-five members,” they said. “We don’t have any committees.” Sure
enough. They made all their decisions in the parking lot, and I, as the visiting
moderator, was there to rubber stamp whatever they had already decided.
Likewise, we Presbyterians have never thought much of
bishops. Paul and Timothy may have had them in their churches, but we don’t.
Bishops move your preacher to another church about the time they are learning
your names. Bishops tell others what to do, a top-down model, while
Presbyterians make decisions as a group. The issues are decided on the floor,
and then voted upstairs to reach a broader constituency.
But to hear Paul talk about bishops doesn’t sound all
that interesting. Bishops? Do we really care about bishops? Well, maybe.
Paul says if you’re a bishop, you should not be a
drunkard. Likewise, the deacons should not indulge in too much wine. Now, why
do you suppose he had to say that?
Or there’s the repeated warning that neither bishop nor
deacon should be greedy, that church leaders must not be in love with money.
Hmm… do you think that’s a problem? You tell me. How about Joel Osteen, that
television evangelist in Houston? Does he really need a 17,000 square foot
tax-free mansion with three elevators?
And what about the recent financial reports about Liberty
University and its president, Jerry Falwell, Jr.? Under his leadership, the school has been
buying up an enormous amount of real estate with the money it receives from its
students.[1]
Not only that; the Baptist has been photographed in Florida dance clubs where
alcohol is served. Say it isn’t so.
The topic today is leadership, Christian leadership in
the Christian church. What kind of leaders do we need? Paul has his list of
character traits: temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, gentle, not
quarrelsome, and above reproach. And he says, “married only once.” It’s a line
that causes divorced leaders to flinch, especially if they had their hearts set
on serving as a bishop in Paul’s church.
It’s also a line that kept at least one single person
from agreeing to serve as a deacon. She said, “How can I serve as a deacon if
I’ve never been married only once?” Good point.
The sense of that text is in the old King James
translation, where it declares bishops and deacons should be married “to one wife.”
Ah, that makes it much clearer! The rule is about fidelity and faithfulness. If
you’re not faithful at home, how can you be faithful to the flock? If your home
life is not well ordered, you will almost certainly make a mess of the church.
This is important. One of the most painful conversations
that I will ever remember was on the front porch of a summer conference center.
A man from Florida told me why he left his church and would never go back. His
pastor was a very prominent preacher and a good friend, he said. He was well
spoken, well loved, well paid - - - and then the voicemail recordings surfaced.
The text messages were posted on a website.
It seems he had a string of lady friends in addition to
his third wife. All the women found out about one another. When the church
authorities found out and confronted him, he immediately quit the ministry to
avoid taking responsibility and blamed the authorities for what he had done. It
was settled with a lot of hush money, but everybody knew what happened. The
elder said to me, “I’m never going back to church ever again.”
In a recent New York Times article titled, “Why
People Hate Religion,” Timothy Egan calls out the issue.[2]
It’s hypocrisy, especially among the leadership. We know what that means: it’s
pretending to be something you are not. It’s parading your virtues when you are
not a virtuous person. It’s purporting to love Jesus and then hating the people
whom he loves. It’s looking for Bible verses to justify cutting food assistance
to the poor.
By the way, we are never going to find verses like that
in the Bible, even if we wrench them out of context.
There is great wisdom in Paul’s ancient advice to the
church. Should we have leaders who are temperate, sensible, respectable,
hospitable, and gentle? Yes! Of course! Our leaders are called to be consistent
with the Christ they are following. I hope that’s not too much to ask.
But just to be fair, there’s no reason to restrict these
expectations of our leaders. We should expect good character and consistent behavior
of one another. Others should expect these things of us, all in the name of
Christ.
It is all too easy to put leaders up on a pedestal, a
half-step above the crowd. All that does is to make them an easier target. It
also sets them up for a greater fall. None of us have perfected the temperate,
sensible, respectable, hospitable, gentle, and faithful life. Nope. That’s why
we need Christ to pick us up when we fall, to help us to continually improve.
Indeed we are forgiven; that is the essence of the Gospel. But forgiveness
doesn’t let anybody off the hook. We are called to lives of increasing goodness
and generosity.
So I wish Paul could have mentioned that, too. He seems
to give us a scorecard for selecting our leaders. There have been occasions
when a nominating committee asks someone to be a church leader and points
toward this chapter in 1 Timothy 3. There have been many situations when the
candidate looked it over and said, “I’m not that good.”
To that, I reply that the life of faith is the school of
character. Perhaps we might surprise ourselves if we step up when the need
arises or the invitation comes. The first qualification of taking on a big job
is feeling disqualified. If we serve with our feet on the ground, we will not
fly off in some vain fantasy. Sometimes we can actually grow into the
leadership role once we become leaders.
There’s a new book by David Brooks that some of you have
recommended to me. It’s called The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.
It follows up on a previous book on The Road to Character. The irony, Brooks
tells us, is that when he wrote the book about character, he didn’t really know
what character is.
As the book on character soared to the top of best-seller
lists, his life was falling apart. A 27-year marriage crumbled. He thought he
has a lot of friends, but the friendships were an inch deep and those people
evaporated. He had now realized that his climb to become a nationally
syndicated columnist and best-selling author had poisoned his own character. “I
was aloof, invulnerable, and uncommunicative,” he said, in all the relationships
that mattered.
By his account, he had had to fake his way through a lot
of interviews. He understood the importance of a strong personal character –
but only from a distance. Brooks successfully climbed the mountain of personal
success, only to discover it wasn’t the mountain that mattered. What was far
more important was climbing the second mountain: the mountain of commitment to
others, a deeper vocation of service, a consistent faith in something greater
than his own ego, and the building of an interdependent community.
I have just started the book, but I can already tell it’s
an important one. So I commend it to you – The Second Mountain by David
Brooks. (New York: Random House, 2019)
And I can already hear a few echoes of the advice Paul
gives through Timothy to all of us: Don’t be puffed up with conceit. Don’t fall
into condemnation and disgrace. Be well thought of by outsiders. Most of all,
serve well. For the good leader knows, “It’s not about me; it’s all about them.”
How can my leadership be an act of service?
So I think about these things and hope you will too. We
are called by Christ to live honestly for the benefit of those around us. If we
are called to leadership, it is a blessing – but only if it becomes a blessing
for those we serve.
(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.
[1] See the recent expose in Politico:
https://t.ly/GOZEm
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment