Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
September 26, 2010

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

OK. so we’re all alive here, right? Everyone in this room right now is alive. God has created us as living beings. Life may be rather difficult to define biologically. I remember trying to do it in high school biology and having a terrible time with it; but then, I flunked high school biology so maybe that doesn’t prove much. Be that as it may, we all recognize life when we see it.. There are things that are alive—plants and animals—and things that aren’t—rocks, water, air. We’re alive, and we know what that means. We are animated beings not inanimate objects. Biologically speaking we are animals. We are alive, and we know what that means.

Or do we? The author of the letter we know as 1 Timothy uses a very striking phrase that raises some doubts about that, at least in my mind. He says “take hold of the life that really is life.” Now that statement “Life that is life,” which is essentially what this line says, the word “really” serving only to add emphasis, sounds like a tautology. A tautology is a statement that simply repeats its subject without adding any additional information. “Red is red,” or “this pulpit is this pulpit,” or, for that matter, 2 + 2 = 4, mathematical equations also being tautologies in which the right side of the equation says the same thing as the left side. Or “the Washington Husky football team is a football team.” Well, maybe not that one after the Nebraska game. When the author of 1 Timothy says take hold of the life that really is life it sounds like he’s just repeating himself.

But maybe not. There is after that word “really” that I dismissed a minute ago. Putting that “really” in there seems perhaps to suggest that there is life that really is life, and there is life that looks like life, or that we take to be life, but that really isn’t life. Which on its face sounds like nonsense. So let’s dig a little deeper to see if we can make some sense out of it and maybe even learn something from it.

Our passage from 1 Timothy contains several words of advice that the author is giving to Timothy (and to us) about how to live and how to instruct others to live. So right away we see that this passage has something to do with life and how to live it. The first bit of instruction is to be content with what we have, to be content with the basics of life: “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” Then he says do not crave wealth. Craving wealth leads people astray, for “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” a line more traditionally rendered as “the love of money is the root of all evil” and often misquoted as “Money is the root of all evil.” Our author then goes on with advice to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.” He advises us to counsel the rich not to be “haughty” but to be rich in good works, ready to share, and generous, advice that I’m sure the author would agree applies to everyone and not just to the rich.

These are ways in which our author advises us to live, but why? What reason does he give Timothy and us for living this way? The passage actually gives two reasons. The first is so that we can “take hold of the eternal life.” Our lesson first connects living this way with our hope for eternal life. That’s fine. The hope for eternal life is a very good thing; but our lesson gives a second reason why we should live this way, and that’s the one I want to focus on. We’ve already heard it. It comes in the very last line of our passage. There the author says that we should live the way the letter advises so that we “may take hold of the life that is really life.” Now, it is possible that the author intended “the life that is really life” to be a synonym for eternal life. If that’s what he meant, OK; but I see another meaning in this line. It doesn’t contradict or deny the eternal life, it adds another layer of meaning to it. That layer of meaning is precisely that indeed there really is a life that is really life, and there really is a life that isn’t really life. It may look like life. We, or the world, may take it to be life; but it isn’t life. Maybe the author meant eternal life, but the advice that the letter gives is about how we are to live in this life, so it is appropriate for us to consider what “the life that is really life” is in this life and why we should live that way beyond our hope for eternity.

The life that is really life is the life that we’ve already seen the author outline. Let’s take a closer look at the parts of that outline. The life that is really life is first of all a life of contentment with the basics of life. Once we have the basics that we need for life it is our craving for more and more that disturbs the soul and leads us into temptation. Real life is being content with what we have, when we have enough for life. The life that isn’t really life is the love of money and coveting ever greater and richer possessions.

Next comes a list of other virtues that make up the life that is really life: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. By righteous I take our author to mean simply doing what is right. Acting justly and fairly. By godliness I take our author to mean essentially piety, piety meaning devotion to religious duties and practices. Faith is, for us Christians, faith in Jesus Christ of course, trust in the God we know in and through Jesus Christ. Then love. Love is of course the central Christian virtue. Love of neighbor, self, and even enemy. Love not as a warm feeling but as a deep caring that is willing to give, willing to sacrifice for the other. Endurance. I’m not sure what this author meant by endurance. He tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith,” so perhaps endurance means keeping up the struggle to be faithful even when the going is tough and it would be so easy to give up. And finally gentleness. Treating oneself and all people gently. Treating God’s creation gently. Walking gently on the earth with care for how we impact the people we meet and the world in which we live. Gentleness is not being belligerent with others. It is not insisting on our own way. Gentleness is quiet presence with another, a listening attitude rather than one that says I must be heard. The text says “fight the good fight of the faith,” but we are to do it gently. Gentleness is above all else nonviolence, for violence is never gentle.

What does all this add up to? It adds up to a Christian life. A life lived in imitation of Christ, who showed us God’s way of love, compassion, forgiveness, and peace. Who accepted death rather than resort to violence, who truly lived and demonstrated to us the life that is really life. It is a life lived in the faith, a life diligent in prayer, in worship, and in study of the Scripture. It is a simple life, for Christ never had possessions beyond the clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet. It is a life of trusting God. And all of that truly is the life that really is life.

But why should we live it? It is after a life so different from what the world tells us life should be like. We are bombarded every day with the message you are what you own. The world says be successful, not be faithful. The world idolizes the rich and looks with disdain on the poor. The world quickly and easily resorts to violence to solve problems, which violence never really solves. The world idolizes the powerful and ignores the meek. So why should be live this life that 1 Timothy claims is really life?

Because it is really life. I don’t know anyone who lives the life that is really life consistently much less perfectly. Only Jesus has ever done that. I certainly don’t. But I have lived parts of it on occasion, and I can tell you that the rewards of the life that is really life are valuable beyond measure, even when we live them imperfectly. They are valuable beyond anything the world can ever give us. They are peace, deep peace in our souls come what may. They are a quieted spirit, a stilled inner voice that doesn’t judge, that doesn’t condemn, but that is at peace. They are a deep satisfaction with life, a satisfaction that all the money and every treasure of the world cannot bring. The rewards of the life that is really life include a wholeness in which every part of our life is integrated and consistent with every other part. That wholeness brings a profound sense that we are living life the way God intended life to be, simple, peaceful, complete. These are rewards the world cannot understand because they are not of this world. They are of God. They are of the source and ground of our being, and so they touch us at the deepest possible level, in a way the superficial rewards of the world never can.

So my friends I say to you as our author said to Timothy: Take hold of the life that really is life. Take hold of the life of faith, the life that God intends for you, the life that God is longing for you, and for me, to have. Take hold of the life that is really life and be at peace, be content, be satisfied, be whole. God offers us this life in Christ Jesus. So take hold and really, truly live. Amen.