For Sept. 29- I Tim. 6


I know few minsters who enjoy speaking about money, but we have a gold mine of resources for this Sunday. (Sorry this is so late, but will do better for first Sunday in October, I hope.)

I Tim 6 is a good place to start on money but also vices and virtues.

First, please note that the common expression on money is not what the letter says.

Second one may consider going back to v. 4 on vices t help frame our passage.

Third, tell me that v. 5 would not be a direct assault on many TV preachers and the health and wealth theology movement.

Words to consider-godliness-what does that mean in the first place in our time? Eusebia- the word could be translated as religion or piety. One could go far speaking of the corporate and individual aspects of religion in 2019. Autarkia=contentment but also self-sufficiency, the Stoic acceptance of what life brings to us, almost as a fate or destiny. One could contrast that with our hunger for more that rejects sufficiency or the notion of enough as enough. Depending on translation used- hupomone= not patience but endurance, the sense of perseverance, of keeping on, of not giving up or giving in.proateta=meekness/gentleness, but as the Sermon on the Mount, it may well have the Greek sense of being well-balanced, neither too aggressive nor too passive, as in a well-trained, tamed, animal.

One could speak of the craving for wealth as an addictive quality that includes the vices listed as part of that craving.

One could choose to go through the virtue list at v. 11 or draw on one or two to emphasize as virtues, Christian or not.

The concluding exhortation insists that being rich has real spiritual resources and follows the Lucan theme of wealth being there to be shared. After all, that seems to be the problem with the rich one and Lazarus, as the rich one seems to know Lazarus but did not share his opulent meal.