15th Sunday after Pentecost
1 Timothy 2:1-7
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Interesting Times
There’s an ancient Chinese curse, you’ve probably heard it before, that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” At least I thought it was Chinese until I started to do some research for this sermon and found out that this saying isn’t Chinese at all. The Chinese have no equivalent for this expression, and it seems like it may have been mis-attributed to the Chinese by British people in the 1930s. The closest thing the Chinese have to this expression dates all the way back to 1627, in a collection of short stories, which contains the phrase “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility, than a human in times of chaos.”
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a curse art all; it sounds like a blessing! “May you live in interesting times!” But, interesting doesn’t always mean good, and that’s the point. War is terrible, but you certainly won’t be bored if bullets are flying and bombs are exploding, nearby. Floods aren’t boring. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes aren’t boring. Disease and pandemics aren’t boring, though can have their boring aspects, as activities become restricted for various reasons.
Shortly after learning about this supposed Chinese curse, I started praying to God for a boring life. I was not going to tempt fate by hoping for an interesting one; I wanted a nice boring life, where I could be happy, nothing scary would happen, just simple, peaceful, no conflict, no drama. Of course, that all went out the window three years ago when the pandemic hit. I remember when it first started, it was so surreal. Pandemics weren’t supposed to be something that happened in the modern day. Pandemics were relics of the past, they belong in history books, they were something for us to read about and study, not experience, firsthand. How was this happening? It took me a really long time to get accustomed to the idea that I was living through a pandemic, for it to be normalized, and now it’s just a part of everyday life.
I just got another booster shot, last week. The worst reaction I ever had to the Covid vaccines up until this point was some soreness at the injection site, but about 12 hours after receiving this last one, I started feeling a little light-headed and I started shivering uncontrollably, even though I didn’t really feel cold. So, I went to bed really early, got under the covers, and went to sleep. I ended up waking up at 3:00 in the morning, and proceeded to toss and turn for the rest of the night. I’m really tired of living in interesting times.
Our epistle reading today starts with, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” A quiet and peaceable life, the opposite of living in interesting times. I was watching a video with 3 Bible scholars discussing this text, and the consensus seemed to be that none of them really liked it. They seemed to particularly have a problem with the last part of verse 2, “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” The author seems to be suggesting that a person’s goal in life should be a quiet life, that the people he is writing to should settle for respectability and comfort within the culture that they’re living in. If we look at the all of Jesus’ teachings, I think we can say that this goal doesn’t really seem to fit Jesus’ message for us.
If we go beyond today’s lectionary, to the rest of 1 Timothy, chapter 2, this idea of respectability and proper behavior within the culture carries through: “I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”
So, what do we do with that? When we read a piece of scripture like this, it’s important to take it seriously, and to read it with respect, but that does not mean that we take it literally. Personally, I think to simply take scripture literally is not taking it seriously, and not respecting it. When we read scripture, we have to ask ourselves, what was the purpose of this text? In the case of 1 Timothy, it’s a letter, written to a specific group of believers to address specific problems. We have to think about the time that it was written, almost 2000 years ago, and what the culture was like in that area and time. And, we have to remember that there are female leaders in the Bible, from the businesswoman Lydia in Acts who seems to be the main source of financial support for the church in her area, to Deborah, who appears in the book of Judges, and is both a judge and a prophet.
So yes, 1st Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through 15 is in the Bible, and it has been used to oppress women and to keep women out of leadership in the church, but that doesn’t mean that we have to read it that way. It is a product of its time and place, and we can appreciate it for the historical artifact that it is, without taking it literally.
But all of this, the whole of 1st Timothy, chapter 2, is about striving for “a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” That is what the author is saying that we should pray for, that we need to pray for our leaders with this goal in mind. But, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we just roll over and accept things as they are. If we look at these acts of prayer as more far-reaching, with an eye to the future and the possibility of change, then we can read into the text an acceptance of a more immediate future in which we are standing up for the rights of others, working for justice, working to save our world, and praying for God to move in our leaders to help make these things a reality.
A quiet and peaceable life can be the goal for everyone, and should be the goal for everyone, because God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants us to work for this future, where everyone can be safe and happy and at peace. In a world so filled with strife, this text offers us hope. I don’t want to live in interesting times anymore, and I don’t think God wants us to, either. But, changing the world from what it is now to what it could be isn’t going to be quick, and it isn’t going to be easy. Thankfully, we have God on our side, the Creator of all, who is constantly moving in the world and in us to change things. So work, and pray, and trust that God is with us, working to make the world a better place. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
