This chapter has the stuff I hoped would be in the letters to Timothy. A more intimate look into St Paul’s mind because it’s leader to leader, not to the whole church.
I think Paul’s practical leadership tips come from an understanding that, on a human level, churches can’t work. We pray “Father may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” knowing that we are by definition a group of people not up to that task. We are like a bunch of alchemists forever praying to make gold from lead. We’re calling on the magic of god’s spirit of course, and it had better be real, because it’s the only way it’s going to happen.
Paul will no doubt return to that key ingredient, but doesn’t mention the Spirit here. He packs this chapter with practical group psychology. It’s all about organising around Timothy’s weaknesses and everyone else’s. Some of it reads a bit strangely today, but it’s all very culturally specific so it’s not fair to read it too wokely.
They run a welfare safety net for older widows. It’s a scheme that displays the deep scriptural theology of the soul, of human value, in striking contrast to their harsh patriarchal Greek society. But Paul is aware that any welfare system is rife for exploitation, so there’s also a lot of knowing detail about that
Then there’s the delicate issue of Timothy, an unattached young man, being pastor to unattached young women. I’ve been in churches where they give up on men having to control their hormones around women, and have single sex small teaching groups. but I prefer Paul’s advice to Timothy to think of the young women his age as people, as sisters, and take responsibility for self control of his sexual chemistry. It’s not impossible!
And again it’s a reflection of that deeper theology of humanity that Paul expressed as “in Christ there is no male or female”. It is probably quite counter-cultural in Ephesus, which was a bit of a dating town because of the Diana/Artimesis temple and festivals… (Think Cancun or Ibiza, or Tinder as a town).
I liked the tricky dance Paul told Timothy to do, of deference to elders, because he is unusually young, but also occasionally needing to call them out, because he is a leader. Love among flawed people is complex, there aren’t neat prescriptions.
I was also struck by Paul advising Timothy to drink a bit of wine for his chronic stomach issues. The church environment can lead to expectations that faithful servants should absorb health issues because we serve a higher power… I’ve seen it. But Paul is thinking about Timothy holistically. I can’t comment on the medical worth of his advice, but I admire his heart.
I had a train of thought about church membership and charity as I read it. Salvos, who I have so much time for, run with the charity idea, but you don’t have to connect with Christianity to get it, or to work for them in their centres. They partner with government, so they can be part of community relief, surrendering the right to preach while they do it. That isn’t the model here. Though maybe it is closer than it seems, in context, because surely some people would have engaged with the church primarily because of the widow welfare program, for example. It would have been a draw card.
That dynamic reminded me of unchurched families who want a church wedding or funeral, and the different responses clergy have about requiring some degree of interaction with Christianity.
It also raises the difficult issue of judgement and Judgement, that is, the human judgement required to practically navigate challenging church situations, which needs to be kept distinct from God’s Judgement, the outpouring of his wrath against human sin and evil, but sometimes gets terribly muddled.
Paul has a good bit about being alert to people’s good and bad deeds over time, even though they might not always be immediately apparent. But I’m pretty sure his purpose is to practically determine who to trust and how far to trust them in a community setting; not who is in or out, who is going to heaven or not!
I’ll return to all that another day I think. For now, is just interesting to see very familiar practical issues being handled in pragmatic ways. Everything isn’t spiritualised by Paul, he’s about making it work so that the spirit is as unconstrained as possible by the predictable foibles of human nature.
Back at work this week, back into the same old problems. The interest from the headhunter for the comms job I was hoping for has gone quiet, so I need to look again at other possibilities. I have clarity: once more into the breach I go!
Reading Timothy is making me take my responsibility to my local church more seriously.
inheriting the earth 