2 Timothy 3.14 – 4.5
3 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
But as for you. Paul is not going to let Timothy off the hook: his ministry matters. And Alasdair, your ministry matters too. As someone called to the leadership of a local church you hold a serious responsibility not only for yourself but for those committed to your care. So what has Paul got to say to Timothy and to us about how that care should be discharged?
I’m holding in my hand one of my most precious possessions, the Bible given to me at my baptism, and it is the Scriptures which Paul presents as the foundation of our ministry. My Bible is precious because it is the King James Version whose 400th anniversary we mark this year and to which our forebears here in Cambridge and the Diocese of Ely made a notable contribution. It is precious because it was the gift of a saintly godmother who even now in her old age is an example and inspiration to me. But it is precious most of all because its greatest gift to me is God’s Word, the Word written witnessing to the Living Word who is our salvation.
That of course is just the argument that Paul is using to inspire Timothy. He began this letter with a reminder of the sincere faith which first lived in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, and which Paul is now persuaded lives in Timothy too; and now he
urges him to “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it”.
It is no bad thing, and often a positive encouragement, to remember and honour those who have gone before us in the faith, as we remember and honour Mark and the many others who have led and helped us and this church on its journey of faith over the years. But they would be the first to remind us that our focus like Paul’s must swiftly turn back to the Scriptures themselves which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
This is the first major theme of Paul’s advice here, of the vision which is held at St Andrew the Great, and which I commend to you Alasdair for your ministry as I seek it also for mine. Stay rootly securely in the Scriptures and through them prayerfully in Christ. This way lies the joy of salvation, and the transformation of our lives.
Our roots then must be soundly and securely in Christ; but that is not the end of the matter. Paul writing to the Colossians reminds them that once rooted in Christ they must also be built up in him and strengthened in the faith. So – sound roots, but also strong shoots; and that is the theme which Paul now takes up here as well, as he goes on to tell Timothy that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
“Teaching, rebuking, correcting and training” – I think the best way of reading this powerful piling-up of verbs is to take the middle two together, and then – if we stay with the parallel picture of a growing plant – Paul is reminding Timothy that the Scriptures are relevant and powerful at every stage in our discipleship. They are the teaching that stimulates our growth, our feeding; they are the standard against which our growth is tested, our pruning; and they are the framework into which our growth is shaped, our training.
I am not very good at anecdotes, but I know a man who is, and I looked up William Barclay’s old commentary at this point, and his pages were full of stories of how the Bible had made an amazing and critical difference for people at all these points. A nursing sister on a night shift picking up a Gospel left for the patients, which in her words “shone and glowed with truth” and led her to salvation. A Brazilian nobleman pulling a Bible apart to try and burn it more easily, reading the words of the Sermon on the Mount, and reading on all night and into faith. You’ll have read such stories yourself and they may be your story too.
I know that when my faith came particularly alive for me at one point in my ministry I wore out a Bible in just a few years, and I hope I wear out a few more yet. This Lent I’m setting myself the challenge of reading through the whole book again: I’m calling it Round the Bible in 40 Days. There’s a special website you can go to; 40 people in the diocese have agreed to contribute reflections; and you might like join me.
And the point of it all? This is Paul’s second theme, and the second part of the vision here at StAG, and my second charge to you Alasdair: that we should all grow in our discipleship. Not to pass an exam in in Scripture Knowledge, but to grow in righteousness, to grow into the likeness and maturity of Christ. That’s what it’s all about. Not us, but Christ.
Finally, roots and shoots lead naturally to fruits, “so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” If we are in Christ, if more and more it is Christ in us not just we ourselves that matters and motivates our actions, then we are in a position where we can like Christ be about the Father’s business. We can pray to discern what the Father is doing, and make it what we do too.
This I think is the best way to approach the whole business of “good works”. They are a consequence of our holiness, rather than a cause of it, and they are God’s work before they are ours. Given those provisos, then we must give ourselves to such works without reserve, and Paul goes on to make sure that Timothy really has got the message too: in season and out of season, with patience and endurance, do the work, discharge the duties of your ministry.
The work – of an evangelist. It means here the whole gamut of gospel teaching and proclamation, but Paul also reminds Timothy that in an age then as now when there are plenty of alternatives around to satisfy itchy ears, there is work to do not only in teaching the faithful but also in with the public debate around us and letting the gospel be heard there too. So here is Paul’s final theme and the third part of the vision here, and so the third charge I want to give you Alasdair to share with me: reach out ever more strongly to the university and city around you here and especially to its young people and students and offer them the Word of life. If you are here today but have not let this amazing Word speak into your life, then look out for one of the bright red Gospels I’ve put at the back of church and pop it in your pocket to read at home. And if you have already been touched by this amazing book, then be a walking word of life as you leave church today, ready to share that life with others in who you are and what you say.
St Andrew’s has a good deep rooting in this Word of life; it has been greatly used by God in growing that life in generations of young people especially and equipping them for the work of their lives; and it is set strategically at the very heart of this humming city. Alasdair: there is work to do. Your ministry matters; this church matters; and because you and they matter to God, we can pray today with confidence that Christ whose life is in you will strengthen you and sustain you as you do his work. So be it. Amen.
Filed under: Christianity, Sermons and Talks
You can read the Art Newspaper article about this fascinating manuscript that I 

lots of Fun, a good deal of Funds were raised for CLIC Sargent and local good causes, and it was a powerful sign of a good Future for the village, which has seen some difficult times recently, especially Jean Adamson’s own 


