Pentecost 19
– Series C/Proper 24 (October 20, 2019)
“Salve for Itching Ears” (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5)
What makes your ears itch? Could be an infection. Could be a build up of wax. Maybe a bug flew in there. You might want to talk to a pharmacist. They might have some salve that you could use
to help your condition.
When Paul talks about “itching ears” he means
something entirely different. He writes,
“the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
passions.” In other words, they have
ears that are eager to hear only pleasant things, only those things that they
want to hear, teachings that don’t necessarily make any demands upon them,
teachings that keep them from being held accountable. And so, the teachers they like to listen to
will never talk about things like sin or judgment or condemnation for sinful
behavior. The teachers they choose to listen
to will emphasize a certain nebulous “spirituality.” They will encourage you to be “spiritual, but
not religious.” That usually means one
of two things. One, you don’t need to go
to church because the Church is just another oppressive, bigoted
institution. Or two, you can pick and
choose whatever you want to believe, like going to the Golden Corral and having
all sorts of choices in front of you.
You don’t like asparagus? Then
move on to the mashed potatoes and gravy and put that on your plate. You don’t like having to believe in Jesus as
God in the Flesh? Then move on to the
idea that everyone is a little god and that your words are powerful to create
your own reality.
But that would be one of many
foolish myths that Paul warns about, those superstitious beliefs that do not
lead to salvation. He mentioned this in
his previous letter to Timothy. In 1
Timothy 1:4 Paul tells Timothy to charge his hearers not to devote themselves
“to myths and endless genealogies.”
Apparently, there were teachers who were inventing fanciful stories
based on the lists of names in the Old Testament. In our day, I can remember some friends who
got themselves tangled up with a group who had their own problem with
genealogies. In the living room of their
home, they had these huge charts that – so they claimed – proved Queen
Elizabeth was directly descended from King David, and therefore all the
promises given to the people of Israel now apply to England and also America
because of our original connection to England.
And that’s all they talked about.
It was weird stuff.
Later, in 1 Timothy 4, Paul writes, “the Spirit
expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting
themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” for example, forbidding
marriage and requiring abstinence from certain foods. The truth is, though, your marital status has
nothing to do with your status before God.
What you put in your mouth has nothing to do with your salvation, only
what goes into your soul via your ears and what you ultimately believe.
What do you suppose are the prominent myths that
people’s ears are itching to hear today?
One is most certainly the way many have rejected the God-ordained order
in creation, the attempt to separate the body from the soul, the idea that what
you do with your body does not matter. A
loud segment of society would have us believe that the order of male and female
no longer matter, that you can be whatever you want to be or identify as. This is a clear rejection of God’s good
creation … although we know that this creation is certainly fallen. That’s why we also should recognize the need
to love people and be merciful and compassionate when they are struggling with
these matters of gender and identity. At
the same time, we dare not succumb to the myth and the demonic deceit that makes
us say “Well, at least my sin is not as bad as all those other people!” And we excuse ourselves and try to justify
the things we do that separate us from God.
Any and all sin finally is a rejection of God’s order and God’s
intention for his redeemed creatures.
We must recognize our own fallen condition. We must recognize our own need to repent of
our sins. And then, instead of having
our itching ears satisfied, we fill our ears with the God-breathed sacred
writings that Paul says “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith
in Christ Jesus.” They are able to do
this, they are powerful, because they are indeed God-breathed. They are God’s own Words to us. They have the power of the Holy Spirit
working in them and through them, as St. Peter writes, “men spoke from God as
they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). The preached Word of Law goes into our ears
and into our hearts so that we recognize our sinful condition that deserves everlasting
condemnation. Then, the preached Word of
the Gospel – the saving message of Christ crucified and risen for the sins of
the world – goes into our ears and into our hearts so that we can by faith receive
the gifts of God … forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.
Moreover, this faith is something that God gives even
to the littlest among us, and we need to expose them to the Word of God at the
earliest moments of their lives. I bring
this up not just because of all the babies we’ve been blessed with lately here
at Messiah. I mention it because of
something Paul says in our text. When
Paul says to Timothy that “from childhood you have been acquainted with the
sacred writings,” the word there for “child” is brephos in Greek which literally
means “infant.” Paul says that Timothy
was acquainted with God’s Word from the time he was a little baby. And that’s something we should do, too. So expose your babies, your brephoi,
to the inspired Word of God. Let them
hear it in the womb. Remember how St. John
jumped for joy in his mother’s womb when Mary, with Jesus in her womb, came to
visit. Bring your babies to baptism, the
Word and promises of God connected to the water. Make the Word of God a part of your life at
home. Bring your babies and children to Sunday
School and later to confirmation instruction and youth group Bible studies. Bring them first and foremost to the Divine
Service, even while they are in the womb, because this is the place where they
will be formed and shaped by the texts that we hear in the liturgy and the
lectionary. This is the shape of our
life as adult children of God, too … constantly being formed and shaped by the
sacred writings that are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus. We need to support all these
families with these little brephoi.
And when we see these little ones, totally dependent on their mothers
and fathers, it teaches us about faith. It
teaches us that we are all children, totally dependent upon our heavenly Father
for everything, including and especially the gift of salvation by grace through
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The message of the cross of Christ is not going to
satisfy any itching ears, that’s for sure.
It involves sin and death. It’s uncomfortable. It means I’m guilty. It means I’m accountable to someone bigger
than me. But that should not stop us
from doing as Paul says to Pastor Timothy and to all pastors and congregations:
“Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
We should never stop preaching the message of the cross of Christ,
because that’s the very message that our ears and our hearts need to hear. Yes, it involves sin and death. But it ends in forgiveness and resurrection. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but Jesus comforts
us with mercy and compassion. Yes, we
are guilty, but the blood of Jesus declares us not guilty. Yes, I’m accountable to someone bigger than
me. But that bigger someone is our loving
Father who “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in
order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
That might not be the salve you want for your
itching ears. But it’s the only one that’s
going to do the job of bringing you to and keeping you in the faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
INI
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