08/10/2024 - [Titus 2:1-10] – Commands to Households – We recall making overnight school trips, perhaps for various competitions. The contestants were under the microscope by those, watching for good behavior and honest competition. Any breakdown will diminish the results of the competition. What happened in towns of the ancient Mediterranean when the never before seen, Christians, showed up? They were different and would not participate in sacrifices to celebrate certain gods or goddesses. People watched! Are they secret cults holding wild parties when not seen? What about their attitude toward Caesar? But Paul’s goal is: If Christians were to be challenged by the locals it would be what they stood for and not the incidental things which people tend to mock. These were things all Christians should avoid. Reading deeply into these verses we see his comments were di-rected toward the integrity of family life. What is under scrutiny today? How many groups sneer at family life. Many in our modern society regard the family as dispensable. A relic of a past when a tyrannical, masculine father bullied his family. [v. 9-10] – For Paul slavery was part of ordinary life and we can not pretend otherwise. Nor should we pretend, we could have eliminated it overnight. What do we suppose might happen if Chris-tian slaves were told they could disobey their masters? Suppose Christian slaves, recon-ciled with God, happily performed their duties as a servant of the King of the World. [Philemon] They would become good ambassadors, teaching about our God, our savior. NB. Paul is emphatic - men need to come to terms with God first. Today we consider this to be boring or old fashioned. True freedom is not anarchy. We may tolerate rebelliousness but it cannot be our sole desire. If so, we end up isolated, lonely and aimless. If we are successful, we will have to reinvent a meaningful social structure to get on with the bus-iness of life. That will be a much greater challenge. As part of a struggling Christian com-munity how do we respond? Now as then, we should make our witness to God and con-duct our daily lives in a manner that allows for no room to criticize our home and family life. Jesus said, “Let those with ears hear.” He did not mean to hear and understand. He meant to hear and act.
[Titus 2:11-15] – Grace, Hope and Holiness – Shortly after the Russian revolution, in the early 1920s Lincoln Steffens, with fellow American journalists, traveled to Russia to see firsthand how the revolutionists were doing. Production was booming, everyone seemed happy in the new classless society. He wrote, “I have seen the future and it works.” This glimpse encouraged the journalists to extol the virtues of communism and suggest they should work to make it a universal reality. Seventy years later when the Berlin Wall fell Eastern European communism collapsed. Thirty years after Steffen’s comment Orwell wrote, :If you want a picture of the future , imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” Paul wanted people to live as if the future had already appeared in the present. This happened not as some grand social scheme, but in the form of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul clearly wanted us to see [v. 11] God’s saving grace had been unveiled, not for one group, but all people, all the human race. Yes, things looked differently. The world would be nurtured by God’s generous self-giving love and grace. The world is full of destructive temptations and many are swept along by their passions. That is no way to prepare for Jesus to appear. [v. 13] Three words guide us: 1) Sober – Drunkenness means irrational, selfish and harmful. 2) Just – Drunkenness epitomizes injustice because justice must be a principle in our lives, of righteousness. We fail in our command to assist Jesus in the task of putting the world to rights. And 3) Devout – The past century has seen the world turn its back on piety. We are familiar with the affections of piety, but they are unneces-sary. We need to be calm and make others feel calm. Make it seem natural and normal to seem to be in the presence of God. Folks do not want to work hard thus Paul adds [v. 14] Jesus does not teach living in an impossible way. He wants us to live a life for which He has set us free – ethically, and genuinely pure so that we may contribute to others and society in a positive way. That is Paul’s meaning of ‘good works.’ Or ‘behave yourself’! [3:1; 3:8; 3:14] Be generous and helpful on behalf of our wider community. Paul insists that Titus explain how their present life relates to God’s future and to make that future their own here and now. [v. 15]
[Titus 3:1- 8a] – God’s Kindness and Generosity – and Ours – (Doing What Is Good) - Like all readings we first read the book, specific verses; and then the words themselves. Take a moment to reflect – then reread the title. In a magnanimous sweep of simplifica-tion, those six words explain the entire NT. If ever we were able to sum Jesus’ theology, these 169 words just may be the time. To attempt an explanation: visualize a sumptuous party given by a generous host for folks who loved each other and wanted to attend. And, visualize another party where the folks did not belong, were critical of the host, some plotted to destroy his business, some never enjoyed parties, nor would they be quick to acknowledge that the host was trying to be generous. This passage tells us that this is exactly what God has done. [Read Titus 3:1-8a] Paul has alluded to this in [Titus] The message Jesus unveiled to the world is that there is nothing other than God’s own kind-ness and loving goodness. God also seemed to claim that there were obvious guests, well qualified to celebrate with Him. Paul claimed none existed [Phil 3:2-6] and he describes them all in [v. 3] and it is not pretty. That is the point! In the NT God’s action in Jesus is not a reward for good work, already done. It is His act of kindness and goodness. [v. 4] This is not a pat on the back because we are already God’s type to be with Him, but those He chose to be washed and renewed! We do not see it often in early Christian writings, but Paul talks about ‘new birth’ and we also see it in [John 3]. It is God’s free gift. It makes us clean of everything that polluted us. An obvious reference to baptism. [Rom. 6; Col. 3] Paul claims were are brought into the community marked by the death and resurrection of Jesus and in [1 Cor. 12] we learn this is intimately connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us, it is the appearance of God’s salvation in the future arriving in the present. Bluntly – we are invited to look at ourselves: if baptized and a believing member of Jesus extended family, take stock of the radical change within us. What we will see is a life transformed by the gospel as a result of God’s lavish/generous love. What does God want? He wants us to be generous, kind and gentle in return. [v. 2] Why? It is not that we are to be nice, not speaking evil, not quarrelsome. It is because we have forgotten the path taken to get us where we are. Here we must remember two thoughts: 1) be kind to others simply to respond to God’s kindness to us and 2) When we are kind to others this is in part the appearance of God’s kindness and loving goodness. It is how we act, that people realize who God is and what he is like. AMEN
[Prov. 6:12-19] - Warnings Against Folly
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