Tyrannical Leadership (Pentecost - Day 2)

(Based on 1 Timothy 1:1-17)

In the letter to Timothy, Paul encourages him to stay where he is because the message of Christ is getting diluted into fantasy stories, or what I like to call pontification. The teachers of the town Timothy is staying in are talking a lot and doing very little. They're giving fanciful stories, but challenging the hearers very little in the way of deepening faith. Paul encourages Tim to stay where he is so he can kind of be a peacekeeper, a buffer, a defender of the message that incorporates words into effective action. 

But Paul also warns Timothy about how to do this. He reminds Tim about the law code (Jewish Law, ten commandments, etc.) He says that the law code is for: the irresponsible, those who defy all authority, and those who are tyrannical about God, life, sex, and truth. He tells Tim that there is a right and a wrong way to go about using the law to counsel and give moral guidance, and that knowing what to say and who to say it to is just as important as saying it. 

I would like to point out Paul's definition for irresponsibility. I think it turns my definition on its heels. The irresponsible, according to him, are those who defy all authority and use the concepts of God, life, sex, and truth to catapult their hidden agendas of tyranny. Another word for this is close-mindedness. It's when a leader becomes so convinced that their ideas are the only right ones and uses them to override any other ideas that threaten theirs. Whether it's religious, political, educational, or historical, we know who these people are. They don't allow anyone else to threaten their "right ideas" with other ideas. 

I would like to argue for a moment that what was happening in the church during the time this letter was written is happening in the church today. Guidelines and counsel are needed in the church, but there is a right way and a wrong way to carry out these guidelines. The word tyranny gives us a visual of how these guidelines were being carried out in the time of the letter, and Paul's talking about tyranny inside the church. What made up this tyrannical defiance of authority? A few leaders controlling the whole ship, and remaining obstinate to the ideas and suggestions of the passengers of the ship. In my opinion, Paul was suggesting here that the law code was actually for the ones who were subliminally trying to gain more and more power in their maneuvering of the ship by presenting hard-lined ideas about God, life, sex, and truth. They created the "law" for the passengers without listening to the input of the passengers. That would probably equate to what was already going on in the Roman government, and it was infiltrating the way the church was functioning.

The difference between tyranny in the church and state is, one can freely remove him/herself from church tyranny. Just leave. It's a little harder to do that when it comes to political tyranny. One would have to remove him/herself from the country. Nevertheless, there are people who know that without the church, they will surely die whether that be emotionally, spiritually, or even physically. The church was created to be a hospital for the sick, not a government for the righteous. So, what can be done to do what Paul is talking about in this passage? What can be done to safeguard against religious tyranny and close-minded contempt against new and "threatening" ideas and suggestions? 

Open the steering of the ship to the passengers. Let the passengers play just as much part in guiding the ship. When a collective voice representing the whole load is invited into decision making and action-based ideas, there is very little chance for tyrannical leadership to occur. When the minds of the laypeople are brought together with the minds of the religiously educated, great things can happen. The whole idea of Church turns into an action-oriented, healing presence in the world. New spaces are opened up. Service and worship are no longer behind closed doors but out in the street, in the neighborhoods, and in the clubs. 

Today's Action: Pay attention to the ways we present our conceptions of God, life, sex, and truth. Are we using these conceptions to aid our own tyranny, or are we open-minded enough to listen to different angles?