Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Most of us remember, from some years ago, that silly, little poem (that was quoted too often at high school graduations and Kiwanis dinners):

The value in life is so simple;
Stay focused on life's precious goal.
Keep your eye upon the donut,
And not upon the hole.

We remember that poem in spite of itself. It "sticks," I suppose, because it sets before us, in everyday words, what is the greatest challenge to a moral life: to stay focused, to decide what is important and to stick with it, laying aside all other allures and distractions. To buy the "pearl of great price" and let all those other pearls go. Far easier said than done.

That is exactly the challenge Paul lays before Timothy, in the passage I just read, as he concludes his first letter to that devout young man. "Keep your eye upon the donut…" Actually, he speaks here (as elsewhere) of "fighting the good fight" (a reference to Greeko/Roman wrestling), and then he says - again, using wrestling terminology - take hold of (get a grip on, grab) - "take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession…." Paul, apparently, is referring to the confession Timothy would have made, as did all Christians, at his baptism. New believers would come up out of the water, after being dunked three times, and confess their new faith by saying, "Jesus Christ is Lord," or some such words. So Paul is reminding Timothy that he is under a vow.

But it's broader than that. Paul is also suggesting, very gently, that some Christians had made "the good confession" but not gone on to "fight the good fight," not grabbed hold of, gotten a good grip on, eternal life, had not begun to live eternal life right here and right now. In other words, some had said the right words, and been sincere about it at the time, but had not taken their commitments, their confessions seriously. "In the presence of God," Paul wrote, "who gives life to all things…I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." (In other words, "until Jesus returns.")

And what is it that distracts us? What prevents us from "keeping the commandment without spot or blame…? Paul says that, quite often, it is the love of money, which he calls "the root of all kinds of evil." We need to listen carefully here. It's not "money" but "the love of money," and that is not evil in itself but is "the root of all kinds of evil." In other words, the love of money is that from which all kinds of evil grow. Now we can go back to Paul's earlier words and understand them better, because now we know where he's going: The passage begins with Paul reminding us where true gain comes from: "…there is great gain in godliness…for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content…." It's not a call to poverty (That's for saints, like Francis), but to a simple, modest life: that we should be satisfied with the basics (food and clothing). Paul knew the words of Jesus: "Never worry where your next meal will come from, or if you'll have clothes enough to keep warm. Just look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. They don't work or worry. Yet God takes magnificent care of them." Paul tells us what happens to people when they don't listen to Jesus: "Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction."

This is not rich against poor. Paul is not concerned with inequality here. (In fact, the Bible never gets excited about the simple fact that some people have lots of money and some have little.) Paul is concerned with three things: first, that the love of money can too easily poison our souls, extinguish the God-spark in us, and, thus, ruin us. ("…in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.") And, second, that the love of money will keep us from pursuing the things that are of real value to Christians (and he lists them): "righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness." And, finally, third, that if we are wealthy we should not set our hopes on "the uncertainty of riches" (a timely warning in light of the recent Dow Jones), but, instead, that we should be "rich in good works," generous and ready to share.

An old Russian folk tale tells of a serf who had pleased his master, so the Master promised to give him all the land he could walk around in one day, from sunrise to sunset. The man begins in the early morning with a modest plan, walking at a relaxed pace, but before long he notices a beautiful little valley which he hadn't remembered, but which would be nice to own, so he enlarges his plan and walks a little faster. He no sooner gets around the valley than he sees an ice-blue lake, and decides to take that in, too. And then a little mountain, where (on the spur of the moment) he decides he will build himself a house. But by now he is far from his starting place, and the sun is going down. The man begins to run, but still adding a piece or two as he goes, and the more he adds the faster he has to run. Finally, in a panic, as the sun is setting, the man is running at full speed. He can see the starting place in the distance, but falls over dead of a heart attack. It is a good parable about the way we are with wealth. We always need just a little more. Until we destroy ourselves in greed.

"Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession." Take hold of it. Get a grip on it. Don't let it get away. Don't be distracted by riches, or by anything else, that will keep you from it, for it is "the life that really is life." God gives life, but it is our duty to take hold of it, and to hang on.

This is a time for recalculating our values. I've noticed that some things which seemed important to me three weeks ago, don't seem important any more. Some television shows, and some ads, that didn't used to offend me, offend me now. Not that they are fundamentally bad, but that they are often so shallow, and thus so inappropriate after the events of September 11. I can't return to business as usual. We need to return to life, but we shouldn't return to business as usual. For now we know how valuable other people are to us, and how quickly we can lose them. Now we know how wonderful people can be, and how easily we can take them for granted. Now we know how terrible people can be, and how easily we can be lulled into a false sense of security. The stakes have been raised in the game of life. How we play every card becomes very important. Maybe it's time to wrestle with the truth, to grapple with, to "take hold of," to "get a grip on," those things that lead to real life, and (necessarily) to leave other things beside the trail.