The Twentieth Day of Advent, 2017

The Twentieth Day of Advent, 2017

Friday, December 22, 2017

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope; to Timothy my true child in the faith; Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I Timothy 1:1-2

Paul always begins his letters to individuals and to the churches in the format of greeting that was widely used in his time. We have come to expect this pattern, but let’s not make the mistake of taking this just as a greeting and of missing a message here as we move past the greeting to see what he has to say in the body of his letter. Look at these verses and see a couple of good morsels worth “chewing on” for a while.

The first one is right there in the first line. We are so guilty of “dividing God.” We really do not know how to express the Trinity, so we speak of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, almost as though we were speaking of three entities. God is the Creator; Christ is the Savior; and Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Presence with us today.

But Paul says he is speaking on behalf of “God our Savior.” Pretty clear that he does not separate the Father and the Son. That may not seem too important at first glance, but it is extremely important if we are to remember that this baby born at Christmas is no ordinary child! In some way that we – I – will never understand, Jesus is not only the Son of God but he is God. So it was God in the manger; it was God walking around healing; it was God speaking in the synagogue; it was God feeding the five thousand on the hillside near the sea. It was God on the cross.

And then Paul drops in a little word that should give us real peace right now at this time in our history. He says that Jesus is “our hope.” This fall has not been the brightest of times financially for this country, and the temptation sometimes is to lose hope. The market is bad; jobs are scarce; businesses are closing; real estate declines in value. Financially, things seem hopeless right now, and they are! That is, if we put our hope in dollars! The time is not hopeless, however, if we remember that “our hope is based on nothing less than Jesus Christ and [his] righteousness.” Money comes and money goes! The market goes up and the market goes down! But our faith is secure if it is based on Jesus who is our hope – who is God!

Father, it is so easy for us to look at circumstances all around us and begin to sink into deep depression, into a sense of hopelessness! Thank you for this wonderful greeting of Paul to Timothy that reminds us that you are our Savior and you are our hope! That really puts Christmas into right perspective! Amen

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.