Everyone

Everyone The Reverend Pen Peery

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 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 everyone ? 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.

+ + + Our second Scripture this morning is from the first letter to Timothy. 1 Timothy is one of three letters in the New Testament we call the "Pastoral Letters." Timothy was a leader in the early church who was mentored by the Apostle Paul. In 1 Timothy, we get a chance to overhear the advice an older generation of pastors in the church has for the younger generation. The question then ? which is still relevant today ? is how are we as disciples of Jesus Christ supposed to understand ourselves in relationship to the world around

First Presbyterian Church | 200 West Trade St. | Charlotte, NC 28202 | firstpres-

us ? a world that is big and so full of difference. Listen with me for the advice from that first generation of Christian leaders ? and for a word from God.

+ + + Jim Fritze was not the kind of church member that I expected to be angry. He and his wife Betsy had hosted the church Easter Egg hunt in their yard for 35 consecutive years. Even though he was in his mid-80s, he would occasionally put on the Easter Bunny outfit and interact with the kids. Jim had been an Elder in the church I served in Louisiana more times than he could remember. A successful businessman ? he was bright, sunny, and believed in the power of positive thinking. His motto ? even listed in his obituary a few years ago ? was "Everything is wonderful!" He was generous to the church. Supportive of the staff and of me. Complimentary. An attentive listener to sermons ? even when I knew the sermon he was listening to wasn't exactly a home-run. And so I was floored one Sunday in worship when I looked out into the pews while we were singing a hymn and saw Jim's face ? normally fixed with a smile ? looking sullen and angry ? and I noticed that he was not even holding a hymnbook, much less singing the hymn. I saw him when he came out the front door of the church after worship, but while he was normally someone who would shake my hand, he made an obvious move to avoid me and walked straight to his car. A letter arrived two days later ? handwritten, of course. "I come to church to worship," the letter read, "but you have taken that joy away from me. I cannot believe you would be so callous as to choose that hymn and with your lack of judgment I do not know when I will able to find the confidence to come back into that sanctuary." Ouch. Sometimes preachers know when they are going to make people angry. Sometimes we preach on a topic that we know will ruffle a few feathers. Sometimes we have to confront a member about something that we expect will

First Presbyterian Church | 200 West Trade St. | Charlotte, NC 28202 | firstpres-

trigger a reaction.

But, generally, singing a hymn does not elicit an angry letter.

The hymn ? which we are actually going to sing following the sermon ? is called "God, You Spin the Whirling Planets." Hardly controversial.

The tune is called the AUSTRIAN HYMN ? which was the same tune as the German national anthem in the 1940s.

Jim Fritze was a lieutenant and a fighter pilot in the Navy during World War II. He flew from the Midway, Coral Sea, and Roosevelt aircraft carriers and he and his squadron saw many battles and lost many men. 65 years after the Allies defeat of the German army, the feeling of division...of "us vs. them," was still settled into Jim's bones. And who could blame him?

+ + +

Sometimes there are good reasons why we make distinctions and divisions between groups of people. As a fighter pilot in a time of war, Jim Fritze's life depended on it.

Other times those distinctions and divisions are manufactured.

In our current political environment, we don't just disagree with one another ? we are actually being conditioned to not like or respect one another ? our minds are being trained to look for fault lines that divide what we know as right/true/good from what we've been told is wrong/false/bad. When my children walk into the room while Lindsey and I are watching the news they often ask why the adults are yelling at each other and why they are so mad.

There are a lot of problems in our world ? lots of things that need to be addressed ? but I think our deepest, spiritual issue as a culture is that we have unshakable need to look out into our groups, our neighborhood, our city, our nation, our world ? and separate people...one from another. We have an unshakable desire to sort people into categories that we can value and judge ? so that we can decide who is more important, and who is worth our concern, and whose opinions matter, and who is expendable.

We see the world and each other through categories of difference...and division.

Those divisions run deep. They are difficult to unlearn.

First Presbyterian Church | 200 West Trade St. | Charlotte, NC 28202 | firstpres-

And maybe that is why a passage like the one we read from 1 Timothy sounds so... what...idealistic? Na?ve? Impossible? The wise, old pastor is urging Timothy to teach his flock to make prayers for everyone. Even for leaders who are in positions of authority ? positions in Timothy's day, mind you, that were largely filled by people who were often corrupt and abusive and tyrannical.

Make supplications, and prayers, and intercessions, and thanksgiving... for everyone...

Surely, as a friend of mine hopes, there is a long-lost footnote of who we are supposed to exclude from that list. It couldn't really mean everyone, could it? But then, the wise, old pastor goes from na?ve to crazy. We are supposed to pray for everyone so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. As if that's the secret! Remember the movie "City Slickers?" It came out almost 30 years ago ? which is kind of hard for me to believe. It was a movie about a group of middle-aged, average men who spent their lives working in the concrete jungle of the city and living in the ever-predictable suburbs who decided they would find adventure by heading out west to work on a cattle farm for a vacation. Their guide is a roughneck old cowboy named Curly whose skin is so leathery that he can light match on his cheek. Well into their adventure, Curly has finally had it. He squares his jaw, looks the average joe named Mitch right in the eye and says, "You city slickers are all alike. You spend sixty hours a week, fifty weeks a year gettin' yourself all tied up in knots, then you think you can come out here for two weeks and straighten yourself out. What you gotta find is this, (and he holds up his finger.)" "Your finger?" asks Mitch. "No--the one thing." "What's that?" asks Mitch. "That's what you gotta find out," says Curly. We try ? don't we? We put in the hours at work hoping to find our life's purpose. We try to earn enough money so that we can find security and independence.

First Presbyterian Church | 200 West Trade St. | Charlotte, NC 28202 | firstpres-

We allow ourselves to believe that a particular way of thinking will solve what ails the world around us. We hope our curious minds, our intellect, will lead us to the place where life will finally makes sense. But we know ? don't we ? that none of that makes our life quiet. None of that brings peace. And maybe that is because most of those things are pretty squarely focused on us ? our peace, our quiet, our security, our happiness. In his book, Tattoos on the Heart, Jesuit priest and next year's Willard Lecturer Gregory Boyle recounts a quote from Mother Theresa. He writes, "Mother Theresa diagnosed the world's ills this way, `We've just forgotten that we belong to each other.'" We all belong to each other. Everyone. Those with whom we agree and those with whom we don't. Those we've considered friends and those we've long considered enemies. Those we've deemed to be worthy and those we've decided are less than. Those whose stories and lives we can identify and those whose stories and lives will always feel foreign. The wisdom of the old pastor who writes to Timothy and to the rest of us who carry the torch of the Christian church is that the "one thing," the secret to life ? a quiet life, a peaceable life, a godly life ? is by praying for...which means caring for... which means being concerned about...everyone.

No distinctions. No divisions.

+ + + One of the reasons I feel confident in diagnosing our need to divvy up the world into groups so that we can know who is worthy and not as our greatest spiritual crisis is because I see us follow the same instincts when it comes to thinking about who God cares about.

First Presbyterian Church | 200 West Trade St. | Charlotte, NC 28202 | firstpres-

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