Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Tara W. Bulger on April 7, 2024

2 Timothy 3:14-17

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Meta-Narratives

In every society, there are meta-narratives that define a people. Meta-narratives are the big stories that we tell about who we are and what we care about. Take, for instance, our identity as Americans and the idea of the American Dream. The American Dream is the narrative that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life in America. The American Dream narrative tells us that if we just work hard enough, we can achieve anything we want, and so we, as Americans, are hard workers who value their freedom. Regardless of if that narrative is true for a large part of our population, that identity is still a part of who we are and of how we define ourselves. There are different meta-narratives floating around at any given time.

In our passage today from Second Timothy, we are reminded that the meta-narrative that defines our faith and our identity of faith is always the biblical story.

Timothy’s Context: False Teachings

Second Timothy is written at a time when the apostle Paul was imprisoned, and there were many false teachings going around. The overarching question in 2 Timothy is how one stands true to one's faith in the face of persecution and those who teach another way, keeping in mind that those who perpetuate the false teachings call themselves Christians.

Timothy is reminded to stay rooted in the Biblical witness. Timothy has learned the “sacred writings” from his mother and grandmother and from his work with Paul. As these false teachings are going around, he is reminded in this letter to hold fast to the scriptures he learned as a child, for they will instruct him in the way of salvation through Christ Jesus.

To be a Christian is to be rooted in the Bible. The biblical narrative is the story of God’s great love for humanity, humanity’s rebelliousness, and grace and love offered again and again. To be rooted in the biblical witness is to be so familiar with Jesus’ teachings and examples that you can’t help but be changed by them.

Inspired and for Every Good Work

All scripture is inspired by God the text tells us and that does not mean that God did the writing and the people he spoke through were merely his typewriters. Another way to translate the word inspired is breathed on by God. The same God who spoke creation into being and sent his Spirit into the world breathes God’s Spirit into the words of Holy Scripture. The scripture is still subject to the humanity and context of its authors, but God is in the text, part of the text, revealing God’s self to us in the text.

Further, our passage from 2 Timothy tells us that the Bible is good for “teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” The Bible is good for all of those things, but they are summed up by that last part: “to be proficient and equipped for every good work.”

To be equipped for good work, which Christ calls us to, we have to be proficient with scripture. We have to know scripture and have it live inside of us. It is the only way we are equipped for good work.

The biblical narrative is the unique witness to the sovereign grace of God at work in the history of God’s people. The Bible is not what we worship, Jesus Christ is—but in the Bible, we find the story of who Jesus is and what he cares about. Philosopher Paul Ricoeur has argued that the Bible has so many diverse kinds of writings within is because there are a diversity of ways to bring people closer to God. And the Bible is not always easy to read, that’s why it is important to read it in conversation with other people. We are to read scripture and discuss it with others because it is in the community that we can understand it to its fullest.

To know scripture is to know yourself as a person of faith. Scripture has sustained people of faith for generations. Translations may change and come and go, but the Spirit of God still inspires everything.

False Teachers Today

A faith community rooted in the Word of God is desperately needed today because there are still false teachers. The Christian Nationalism movement comes to mind as one of those false teachers—it is much more concerned with being performative than doing the hard work of following in Jesus’ footsteps. We have to know who Jesus is, and the Bible is the best witness to that.

Derek Henry and Coach Saban

I thought about our identity as Christians this week when I heard a hilarious interview with former Alabama running back Derek Henry. Henry was talking about playing for Coach Saban, and he said that his college coach was “old school” and, as such, has certain pet peeves. One of those was that he hated when players would celebrate after scoring a touchdown. Henry said that in one meeting after a game, Saban pulled up up film of the fame and was showing everybody. Coach Saban said, “You guys, stop doing that showboating, doing all that prayer hands, acting like you're thanking God. Later on that night, 12 o’clock, you down there (with) Black & Milds. Got liquor and chasing (girls). Forget all that.”

I don’t have an opinion on prayer hands, but his point is well made. How many of us call ourselves followers of Christ and yet we do not engage in regular reading and study of the Bible? How many of us consider ourselves people of faith and yet we aren’t rooted in the Biblical narrative? Who doesn’t consider God’s story to be the most important one of our lives? Lots of us, I bet. Even I get out of the habit at times of reading the Bible for my soul instead of for my job. But God is calling us back to the study of scripture. Because it is what sustains us—for generations. Let us teach it to our children, through church and in the witness we are to them. Let us avail ourselves of its inspiration and guidance. For today, but for all future generations, too.