10/28/2007                                                           Timothy 4:1-8, 16-18

“The Balm That Heals The Itch”

Rev. Jonthan Rumburg

Introduction

            They say the truth often hurts. 

            An elderly woman was reminded of that one Sunday morning when she went to visit a church.  When she walked into the sanctuary she told one of the ushers that she wanted to sit up front in the pew closest to the pulpit.  The usher shook his head and told the elderly woman that he didn’t think that was a very good idea. 

            When she asked him why he didn’t think it was a very good idea the usher whispered, “Well, to tell you the truth, the pastor’s sermons are really boring.”

            The elderly woman said very indignantly, “Young man, do you know who I am?” 

            When the usher answered “no” the elderly woman said in a loud voice, “I am the pastor’s mother!” 

            The stunned and embarrassed usher apologized and then asked, “Do you know who I am?” 

            When the elderly woman answered “no” the usher said in a loud voice, “Good” and quickly disappeared.

            Yes, it’s true.  The truth often hurts, and often we would prefer that people tell us the things that we want to hear, and keep their actual thoughts and the actual truth to themselves.

            This preference, this attitude, has been an ever evolving process over the centuries.  It was happening when Paul was doing his ministry, and some how he knew that it was going to continue long after he was gone.

Move 1:  The Letter

            Our text for today comes from a letter by Paul and is a powerful word to one of his most trusted and admired followers, Timothy.  It is written from prison, not long before Paul’s death.  It is, in a manner of speaking, his final reflections before he passes the torch to a new generation.  And it’s a letter filled with emotional and distressing reflections during his last days.

            Read the opening verses of this letter and you will see warm memories of Timothy, his faithful mother and grandmother.

            Read further and you’ll find the painful memories of those who deceived him, along with the meaning of his ministry and the call that God has placed on Timothy’s heart.

            And then he concludes with the eloquent epitaph which becomes the blessing for all who die in faith:  “…the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

            It is a powerful letter, for it is the last word of a great saint, the final message to young Timothy, and to us.  They are the final words of a man who turned his life from persecuting Christians, into a life as a faithful follower of Christ, despite the adversity it brought, because he knew, and then showed it through his ministry, what life in Christ meant, and what it would ultimately bring about.

            Even in this small section of our text, Paul shows us that he was never abandoned, was given the strength to minister in the face of adversity, forgave those who deserted him, and kept the faith in spite of all that came against him.

            This is one final example, from Paul, of what a Christian is to strive for in their faith journey.

            Yet, before Paul signs off for the last time, departs from this earthly life to life eternal, before Paul sounds the final bell of his fight, and before he finishes the race, he gives to Timothy an intriguing phrase.  One that probably made sense to Timothy at the time, but is eerie in how it still speaks true to us today, some two thousand years later. 

            “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”

            This line raises some important and interesting questions.

            Was Paul speaking to Timothy about the immanent days ahead?  Or was Paul speaking to all generations to come about what all believers and the Church was going to encounter?

            And what the heck did Paul mean when he said that will have itchy ears!?      

Move 2:  Itchy Ears

            Apparently Paul thinks sound doctrine is in for a hard time in which people— and here we must assume he means people both within and beyond the church— will not put up with sound doctrine.

            “Will not put up with”?  That’s an interesting choice of words.  Other translations have it as “will not tolerate”, “will not stand”, and “will not accept” sound doctrine or sound teaching. 

            Why might this be the case that people become so intolerant of such Gospel teaching?  In curt metaphoric language, Paul says this happens because people have these ‘itching ears’! 

            But what does it mean to have itching ears?  And why do the ears of some folk itch?  What sort of scratching of itching ears leads people astray?
            Apparently, if we follow along with Paul, people’s ears become itchy when they hear teachings that do not fit their personal desires.  They get itchy ears when they ear the truth… and it hurts.

*******

            All of us know that we as human beings are a veritable cauldron of desires, and Paul thinks that maybe we get itchy ears and do not want to hear the Gospel teachings when our desires are not flattered by what the Gospel commends and commands. 

            Therefore we can understand that to have itchy ears means to want to hear something that suits us and our personal desires.

            To see examples of this, we just have to look at popular culture today.  Listen to a lot of politicians, and you will hear them playing to the galleries, whatever gallery that might be in a particular time and place.

            Look at celebrities who are now swearing devotions to fashionable and hip spiritual trends. 

            Turn on the infomercial that swears all you have to do to cure your obesity is to pick up the phone and buy the book that will tell you what home remedy you simply have to concoct.
            So what do people do who have itchy ears? 

            They scratch their ears by ‘accumulating teachers’ that will suit them and satisfy their desires. They reject the sound doctrine that is intended to build them up in the faith and nurture them in the truth.  And they look endlessly for those teachers that will flatter their already existing desires, passions, and inclinations. 

            Other translators say itchy-eared folk look for those who will ‘tickle their fancy’, or who will teach ‘according to their own tastes’.

            Perhaps then it would be a fair way of stating Paul’s point by saying, “Itchy-eared people are consumers looking desperately for that teacher and those teachings that will give them a gospel, a “good news” that is on their own terms, on the terms of their own raw desires, their own tastes, their own fancy, their own preferences.”

            Unfortunately, people don’t find the church to be a place to fin the healing balm to their itchy ears.  They believe it’s not the place for such healing because it either tells them how to live but then fails to live it out themselves.  Or it panders to whatever it believes the greater majority wants to hear.

            Either way, itchy eared people often see the church as a dead end to what it is they need for their lives.

Move 3:  Gandhi

            In a day of itching ears, the world is looking for integrity in life; lives which confirm the truth Christians profess and proclaim, because often the world will not listen to our words until they have seen it lived in our lives.

            The late Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most respected leaders of modern history.  As a Hindu, Gandhi greatly admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount.

            When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, “Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?”

            Gandhi replied, “I don’t reject your Christ.  I love your Christ.  It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

            Gandhi’s rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practicing law in South Africa.  He had become attracted to the Christian faith, had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was seriously exploring becoming a Christian.  And so like anyone who is considering such a decision, Gandhi decided to attend a church service.

            As he came up the steps of the large church where he intended to go, a white South African elder of the church barred his way at the door.  In a belligerent tone of voice “Where do you think you’re going, kaffir?” was the welcome the man gave to Gandhi.  The word “kaffir” is an offensive ethnic and racial slur.

            In response to this question, Gandhi replied, “I’d like to attend worship here.”

            The indignant church elder snarled back at him saying, “There’s no room for kaffirs in this church.  Get out or I’ll have my assistants throw you down the steps.”

            From that moment, Gandhi decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would never again consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of a body that seemed to go against and be in opposition to, what its creator taught.

            Gandhi said, in a painful judgment on the church, “Christians will have to look a lot more saved before I am to believe in their Savior.”

*******

            A day of itching ears is no time for fluffy, ethereal, speculative theology.  Rather a day of itching ears calls for a balm to heal that itch.  And such a balm comes from a theology of action, a Gospel that reaches out to people, a faith that is lived out in tangible, faithful, lives which confirm the message we proclaim.

            The world is full of itchy ears that are searching for meaning, searching for strength, searching for forgiveness, searching to be rescued from the lion’s mouth. 

            It’s as if the world is saying to the church:  If God so loved the world that God gave his only Son, then show me! 

            If Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life then show me! 

            If the ethic of Jesus and the values of Christian faith can have relevance to our broken and troubled world then show me! 

            If the church claims to be a redemptive community, if this church claims to be a welcoming and caring fellowship, a global congregation committed to making the world a better place, then show me!

            Paul knew of the itchy ears the world was going to develop.  And Paul knew that the only balm that would cure that itch was not just sound teaching itself, but the grace and skill with which is it explained and promoted.  It would have to be lived out.

Conclusion

            The truth often hurts.  Hearing what we do not want to hear causes us pain that we would just assume go without.  But what we so often forget is that sometimes in order to get well, we have to go through the pain of healing.  And healing can often be more painful than the original wound.

            Saying the things that people don’t want to hear, saying the truth, is a very hard thing to do.  Developing and using the grace and skill necessary to explain and promote the Gospel truth, the sound doctrine that people don’t want to hear is a very hard thing to do.  Particularly in a world that causes us to throw up our hands and say “What’s the point?!” 

            But Paul reminds us that when we rise up and respond to the difficult task of explaining and promoting the Gospel truth, the difficult task of bringing a healing balm to itchy ears, when we endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out our ministry fully, fight the good fight, and finish the race, never will we be alone.  God will stand by us, give us strength so that through us the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all who need the balm to heal their itchy ears will find it in the truth and grace of Jesus Christ, that we live out in our lives. 

            Amen.