Valois United Church

1 Timothy 2:1-7

What a day, the writer sighs as he sits down to compose his letter the next part of his letter. Days like this certainly get him in the right frame of mind to write in the name of his great hero in faith, Paul.

Ah, yes, Paul. Persecution, shipwreck, imprisonment...
all that he endured for the faith.
And now, prison was not such a distant possibility for our author, either.

News travels rapidly by the wonderful Roman transportation network. News of arrests again in Rome of faithful Christians, emerging from worship, being challenged to line up before the Roman guard and to declare, one by one, that “Caesar is lord.” One by one they refused, and were arrested on the spot as treasonous.

This morning, in their own worship, his little congregation had prayed for those faithful who waited in prison for their fate to be decided - release, or punishment, or death. Prayed that they might be strong in faith. Prayed that if they were executed, that they would be welcomed into heaven to be with God and God’s angels.

It was a hard morning. He thinks of his friend who present this morning, whose cousin had been arrested... full of anger, even full of hatred for the Roman troops and for each person in the wretched government. And yet the Gospel message from the Gospel of Matthew (5:43-48) that was read to the little congregation this morning, quoting Jesus:
43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.....”

Yes, Jesus would have us love.
Even love the murderous soldiers,
carrying out their vile orders that came down from Caesar.
Even love Caesar.

Of course, he remembers, Jesus’ command to love did not mean wanting to sit down for supper with these people and have them marry into the family.

Loving them means having an active, positive concern for them.
Loving them means
yes, loving them means praying for them.

Yes, he thinks, as he picks up his pen and smooths out the scroll:
yes, this was a hard morning, but I know what to write about today:

2:1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,

Well, he thinks, why not. Pray for everyone, even those soldiers, because if they can have a little bit of God’s wisdom and vision, things might go better for my friend’s cousin.
And all the others in prison today.
And for the little congregation here in this city.

If we did not have to fear being arrested....
So: ...prayers .... for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

But wait.... That is not good enough. We can’t just pray for them for our own good. That’s not up to Jesus’ standard. It is certainly not what Paul would right.

The standard of love: positive concern for them. Not just concern for us. So:

2:3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

There – that makes it clear that we’re going to pray for Caesar and all those soldiers because we want the best for them, too. And what better thing could we pray for, than that they have God’s truth and wisdom?

And with satisfaction that he has written God’s words, words that Paul would have wanted to write, he turns to other subjects as the scroll seeks to receive letters, words, wisdom.

And today? In 2007?

We don’t live under Roman rule.

We’re not likely to be arrested because we went to church this morning.
I’m not even going to get arrested for leading a church service this morning –
even if the sermon does go a little long....

What a wonderful thing.
We can think about those in the world who are still persecuted for their faith.

A couple of years ago I had to testify to a refugee hearing on behalf of a delightful young woman who could not return to her homeland and her family because she had whole-heartedly embraced Christianity. If she had gone back to her homeland, she would have been arrested and possibly killed.

Because I had baptized her.

But the writer of the letter to Timothy encourages her to pray
and encourages us to pray for the leadership of Iran.

We do not have to fear being arrested today.
But the author was confronted by Jesus call to show concern for “the enemy.”

Rowland, a preacher in Kenya, writes:
Can we really ask those in Darfur to pray for
those in Khartoum? Not only can we do so but we
must do so. Chrstians are told to pray for those
who persecute them and to love their enemies. This
is not normal, it is not natural, but it is
Christian and what makes Christ the only one who
can save us from ourselves.

Well, if those in Darfur are going to pray for those in Khartoum
then who are we going to pray for today?

I guess we’re going to have to pray for the neighbour who is hard to get along with.
I guess we’re going to have to pray for the yahoo who cut us off in traffic.

I guess we have to go even a little bigger, and pray for the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran. And for their leaders. We’re even going to have to pray for members and leaders of Al Queda.

Why?
For two reasons, just like our author today....
Because
we’re called to have an active positive concern, a love, for all people. Even the enemy. Not praying that they succeed in their goals. Far from it. But praying that they, too come to wisdom, understanding, and a recognition that God is a God of love.

And because we, like the author,
“wish that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

Oh, and one more thing. We need to pray for our governments, just like he did.

We’re going to have to pray for the people in municipal government.
And provincial government - leaders from all the parties....
And federal as well.

If I asked
“.... those who like the current government, stand on that side....
Those who don’t, stand over there
and those in between, stand in between according to how much you like or dislike....

“Now, those who are standing over here, who like the government:
pray for your leaders.

“And those who are away over there - or just beyond the wall - Pray even more!”

Pray.... Just as the early Christians were challenged to pray.
And on this day, following World Peace Day, we pray for all nations: we pray for peace.