"One God, One Salvation for All"

1 Timothy 2:1-7                                                                                   Nancy Willet, Intern Pastor

Bethany Presbyterian Church                                                                           September 19, 2004

Prayer. Prayer is at the heart of Christian worship, our Book of Order tells us. Through prayer we open ourselves to respond to God in different ways. The text I read today begins with a list of different types of prayers, supplications, intercession, and thanksgiving, to name a few. This however, I don't believe is the important part of this passage. To me, the importance of this urging that the author of 1 Timothy extends to us, is that we are to pray for everyone. Well, we do that, don't we?  We say prayers for people in the world we don't know—for those that are hungry or hurting, for those that are outcast and marginalized. We pray for the homeless and the mentally ill. We pray for people we know, and also for people we don't know.

But look what the text goes on to say. It names specifically that we are to pray "for kings and all who are in high positions." Well, we don't have a king—at least in this country. But we do have people in high positions. The leaders of our government—from the president all the way down to those who sit on the school boards. There are kings in other countries. Do we pray regularly for them?

Why do you think this particular group of people was identified specifically to pray for? Doesn't this seem to counter the very first exhortation in this passage to pray for everyone? Do you think this might lead one to have the misconception that God's power may lie with those in authority more than with everyone else? It may. That's up to you to decide.

             According to Jouette Bassler, Professor of Greek and New Testament studies at Perkins School of Theology as well as one of the Associate Editors for the Harper Collins Study Bible, thinks that this exhortation to pray for political leaders serves as a concrete example of who to pray for, not as the goal of our prayer. Prayers for political authorities were quite common in the Jewish synagogue liturgy of that time, according to Bassler, so this would have been a good example of prayer that the original readers would have understood.

The goal of these prayers is stated next in the text saying we should pray "so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity." At those times when we pray for our political leaders and all people, this is our goal. When you hear those words, "peaceable, quiet, and godliness," what images come to your mind? I think of something calm, serene, harmonious, or tranquil. Are these adjectives you usually associate with our political leaders?  While I do think these adjectives should be our goals in prayer,  I think we are called to pray that our political leaders be shaken up a little. William Loader says, "Our prayer for politicians and people in authority has to be with the disturbance of God where power is abused and love not lived out for all." We should pray according to that saying, "pray that the afflicted are comforted and the comforted afflicted."

Stated next in the text is the theological warrant that supports this exhortation to pray for everyone. The warrant is in verse 4: God desires everyone to be saved. There are two words that catch my attention in that statement.  "Saved." That word can raise the hairs on the backs of necks of more than a few people I know. Just what are we saved from? To me, being saved means that God is working in the world and in our lives to set right what has is wrong.  Our relationships have just gotten all out of whack. Our relationships with our neighbors, our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with God. We are in the constant state of being saved in the sense that we are always in need of being brought back into the relationship with God, neighbor and self in which we were created. We were created to be in relationships that demonstrate the quiet and peaceable life of all godliness and dignity that the author of 1 Timothy writes.

The second word that caught my attention was the word everyone. There it is again. Just as we are urged to pray for everyone, God desires everyone to be saved. God desires everyone to be brought back into those right relationships.  At the end of verse 5 we see another word of inclusiveness. "All." "Christ Jesus, himself human who gave himself a ransom for all." These words of inclusion, "everyone" and "all" are in direct contrast to the "One God" and "One mediator" that is stated in verse 5. The statement "One God" reflects the Jewish Shema from Duet. 6:4: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone." There is one God is who Lord of all humankind. 

Jesus is our one mediator between God and humankind, the text tells us. Jesus, himself human, like us, is the mediator between us and God.  And just what is a mediator? A mediator is a person or thing that works between two parties or individuals to bring the two parties back into a right relationship. So if we are talking about the relationship between us and God, between us and our neighbors and the relationship we have with ourselves, most of us could honestly say that we have many different mediators or controllers we let seep into our lives today. Before we know it, we have more than one mediator between ourselves and God. These new  mediators can get in the way of our relationship with God. What are some things that mediate our actions? For many it might be their jobs, or the need for "success" in the world. For others it might be their family or a certain person in their lives. But this text is telling us that nothing, nothing other than the one mediator, Jesus Christ should assume God's power in our lives. Jesus is the one mediator that can bring us back into right relationship with God, ourselves and others.

The warrant for such a bold claim comes from the next statement found in verse six. Jesus is our mediators because "Christ Jesus, himself human, gave himself a ransom for all." This ransom theory of atonement, a theory that explains the death of Jesus on the cross was worked out by St. Iranaeus in the second century. Basically, Iranaeus assumed a cosmic battle between God and the devil. A price had to be paid for the reclamation of humanity which had fallen and was now in  the grips of the devil. The price of the ransom was the death of Christ. Personally, I have a bit of a problem with that theory. Exactly to whom was the ransom paid? Was it paid to the devil to whom humanity was being held or was it paid to God as a price for human sinfulness. Did God pay the ransom to the devil? Does God ever owe anybody anything, especially the devil? Is there really a devil? The questions go on and on.

There are, to be sure, other atonement theories that do not require a ransom to be paid. However, that is a whole different sermon for another Sunday. Again, what is important in this verse is that Jesus' death on the cross was for all. Jesus' death on the cross was for all people—without distinction. I think this is very important to remember.

I also think it is important to reflect on how Jesus' life and death on the cross affects our lives today. Are we willing to pick up our cross daily and carry it into the world daily and show the same love and acceptance Jesus did? Are we willing to be bold enough to pray for the leaders of our nation and of all nations that they  may lead us in a way that will restore wholeness and love to the earth? Are we willing to let Jesus alone be our mediator and put other controllers in our lives away?

This is a personal task, to be sure. But the good news is that we all have the same personal task. We have been called here today and every day to be the church—to be the living Body of Christ in the world. Through our study, through our worship, and through our prayers we can accomplish these tasks together.

By God's grace, we are being saved—transformed, renewed every day, every hour, every minute. We are being renewed and transformed into that state of wholeness and love in which we were created. As one response to this great gift, we pray. We pray for all pe9ople that they too may know and experience the God of love and grace who is for all—without distinction. This my friends, is the gospel—this is the good news.

Amen.     

Resources:
Bassler, Jouette M. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries. Nashville: 
Abingdon Press, 1996.
Loader, William. "First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages from the Lectionary: Pentecost 16."
http://www.textweek.com/