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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
September 23, 2024
Thecla of Iconium, 70 CE
Reading: 2 Timothy 3:10-12
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
I once made the mistake of wearing a Phillies cap when I attended an Eagles game. I won’t do that again. It was a late afternoon game on a very cold December day, and I had grabbed the only cap within easy reach as I had dashed out the door. Evidently, my wearing it was an offense to several members of the home crowd, suggesting to them that either I didn’t know the difference between football and baseball or, worse, that I didn’t care. Regardless, it was sufficient reason for a group of fired up young men to confront me with the imminent threat of doing me physical harm… I wondered at their eagerness. I was, however, delivered at the critical moment when a few unsuspecting Jets fans walked by, wearing their team’s jerseys. Their garb was far more provoking than my cap, and my intimidators raced off after them to put their fists to better use.
Now, would it be fair for me to say, having directly faced this hostility, that football creates a context where the risk of personal violence is high? This was my experience; but should it be said that this would be everyone’s experience?
Paul’s concluding contention that all who choose to live a godly life will be persecuted raises a similar issue. Should his words be taken as a warning to us all? Many read the Bible in this manner, as if Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, was actually addressing all persons throughout all of time. I have a picture in my mind’s eye of an evangelist with a floppy Bible standing next to a podium on a large stage energetically making this claim – someone who has probably profited immensely and personally by means of advocating a “godly life,” self-satisfyingly claiming some close (but unidentifiable) persecution because of it.
I don’t think that Paul meant his statement to be used as a rule – or worse, as a means for someone to heighten his own authority. Paul’s letter and his words were addressed to Timothy, a younger companion in the work of proclaiming the Gospel. They should better be read as an intimate acknowledgement of what Paul’s experience had been, his personal confiding in Timothy, expressing the depth of his travails. We strip Christian faith of much of its beauty when we make Scripture one long iteration of religious dogma rather than the accounts of persons who are seeking to live lives substantially inclusive of God, for whatever that may entail. Imagine Paul whispering these words, perhaps resignedly, maybe ruefully, as an afterthought that he just couldn’t help but say. How differently it would be heard then, bringing God so close to the heart.
Prayer
Our Father, who is there, wherever it may be – who is really there,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen
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