A Good Foundation
Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
1 Timothy 6:6-19
I’m looking for clues. I’m snooping through this letter like it was written for me, because maybe it has been. This is a church letter for a leader who has inherited a church. This isn’t the first generation, this is the second, or third. The fervor of the early years has worn off. It’s a lot more tedious now–more rules, more morality. This whole church thing doesn’t seem to be going away so now someone has to figure out what to do with it.
I feel this letter deeply as a young church leader. It was just last month I did some of my own rearranging. I carried the desk chair that had been in my office over to the main office area. I had sat in it for five years–it’s a nice office chair. But it never fit me. I’m 5’2”. My predecessor is not. I could never quite get comfortable. And for some reason, just recently, I decided to fix it. I lifted that chair out and over (quite glad none of you saw that actually, it wasn’t very dignified) and moved in a chair that better suited my stature.
It has made my life so much better.
Even if you’ve inherited something, even if you’re working from old systems, you’ve got to have a good foundation.
At least that’s what this scripture, this letter tells me.
To be truthful, I’m not sure I trust this letter entirely. I don’t know when the last time you read the whole of 1 Timothy, but it’s a doozy. You’ll find details about what to wear for worship, who can be a deacon, and some interesting ideas about women. There are plenty of pieces of practical advice I’m happy to file away as historical relics. But there’s this underlying sense of a group of people left to actually figure out the rules that I can’t help but sympathize with, even if I’ve updated those rules a bit.
I think the file folders with my handwriting on them in the office over there, the job descriptions I’ve written, the bulletins I’ve cataloged.
I’ve been awake at two in the morning thinking about how we need an employee handbook.
I get the spirit of this letter even if we can disagree about the details. So I’m listening to this ending. Where it’s not just an outline of the exact rules, but some admonitions about the foundation.
pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness
be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share
this is the firm foundation for the coming age
For all of those moralistic details from earlier, there is a looseness that shows what the guiding principles really are. You can’t hold too tightly to money. You can’t be so rigid you can’t be kind. You have to be open and generous.
This is the foundation that will endure.
I’m reading this hoping it’s true, because it’s not feeling like much is enduring these days. I am part of the generation that has been blamed for killing cable tv, paper napkins, and department stores. Fair, I suppose. But I’m more concerned about the potential death of democracy, or retirement systems, or, you know, the existential threat that is climate change. It’s hard to see what’s enduring, what’s foundational, what’s good.
I’m reading back to listen to what it was like in another tumultuous time, when things weren’t going as expected. I’m reading this, hoping that some of it actually is for me. Because I want to know what will endure.
I want to know that our organizing and our adapting matters. I want to know that I’m not just rearranging chairs.
Be rich in good deeds, be rich in good deeds, I repeat to myself.
Can I have fifty bucks to pay my phone bill, can you come on a Saturday to play piano, can I borrow some chairs.
Yes, I say, thinking, be rich in good deeds, be rich in good deeds.
Can you help me pay for top surgery, can we host this at your house, can you help with my mother’s funeral.
Yes, I say, thinking, be rich in good deeds, be rich in good deeds.
And there’s a way of doing this that doesn’t feel like emptying, but like rooting. Like locking into that thing that you could do endlessly, because it’s so core, so foundational. It’s not arrogant, but it’s secure. It’s generous, because it feels safe, it feels true.
You’ve inherited so much that you haven’t chosen. And I know you’re trying to make sense of this all.
All I can offer is what I have found, from looking beyond my own life into the letters of faithful people from long ago. And I cannot in good conscience advise you to do exactly what they did. They were organizing for their time and place. We can even learn from their mistakes. But we can also hear their wisdom passed through the shifting of so many generations.
pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness
be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share
this is the firm foundation for the coming age
We will adapt and organize the world and the church we have inherited. We will make what we need for this time and place, knowing even in its newness it is an old familiar cycle. We will find underneath the change the foundation that is good.
There may God bless us.
Amen.