Sermon Itching Ears Rev. Dr. Jeffrey M. Gallagher, Senior Pastor

United Congregational Church of Tolland, United Church of Christ October 16, 2016 Sermon—“Itching Ears”—Rev. Dr. Jeffrey M. Gallagher, Senior Pastor Pentecost XXII; Based on: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Did you know that whoever works on the Sabbath, according to scripture, is supposed to be put to death? Depending on what day you name as the Sabbath—which is up for debate—that could certainly put me in trouble! And as for those who play in the NFL, since touching pigskin is prohibited, that’s doubly bad!

Married men, according to the Bible, are allowed to take on concubines. And that marriage is not valid if the bride is found not to be a virgin at the time of her wedding. So if that is the case, she is to be stoned to death.

Anyone here have messy hair? Looking around, I’m going to say yes. No offense, of course. Anyone have a rip in their clothing? I’m guessing probably. Well, you may die because of that and wrath may come upon all of us. Tattoos anyone? Sorry, those are forbidden. Gossiping? Nope. So you might want to skip going to the Senior Center tomorrow. And bacon . . . . you can’t eat bacon. I know, I know, this just gets more and more depressing!

Women who are menstruating should be quarantined and have no contact with their families. And remember that after bearing a male child, a woman is considered unclean and cannot come into a house of worship for thirty-three days; if she has a daughter, that becomes sixty-six days. Let’s keep going with women here for a moment as I remind you that all women are supposed to learn in silence.

Slaves, don’t forget, are supposed to be submissive to their masters and not talk back. Not only that, but slave-masters need to be careful. If you hit your slave with a rod and he or she dies, you are to be punished, but if the slave lives a day or two, you’re all set.

Did anyone here marry a divorced woman? Well, you’ve committed adultery. Are any of you wearing clothing made of two different materials? Careful, that’s a sin, you might want to take it off!

Finally, anyone here have a stubborn or rebellious son—one who doesn’t listen to you all the time? Well, it’s actually permissible to ask the elders of the town to stone him. But please remember Town Hall is closed today, so no rushing over to line up outside. 1

Anyway I could go on, but I won’t. And let me say—if it isn’t already clear—that I don’t believe anything that I have just said this morning! I was trying to make a point by doing something called proof-texting. This is when someone takes a verse out of its context in the Bible and uses it to suit their own desires. This as you’ve no doubt surmised, is a dangerous practice. Yet it is something people have done, throughout the centuries, as justification to start wars, to condone violence, the subjugation of women, to condemn homosexuality, and to promote a host of other “agendas” to suit their particular needs.

1 Citations for the texts listed above are as follows: Exodus 35:2; Leviticus 11:7-8; 2 Samuel 5:13; Deuteronomy 22:13-21; Leviticus 10:6; Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 19:15; Leviticus 11:4; Leviticus 15:19-24; Leviticus 12:3-5; 1 Timothy 2:11; Titus 2:9; Exodus 21:20-21; Matthew 5:32; Leviticus 19:19; and Deuteronomy 21:18-21. 2

It’s been going on for so long, in fact, that Paul had some advice about this for Timothy, the recipient of the letter we just read. So let’s turn to those words now.

Now, in writing to his young protégé, you may recall that Paul says people will have itching ears. So what, you may be wondering, does that mean?

Well, itching ears was “a well-known image for the curiosity that [could] be relieved by scratching [ears] with interesting and spicy bits of information.”2 It refers to those who would seek out teachings to suit their own desires—teachings that would include taking the scriptures Timothy is preaching about, and using them to support those desires.

This practice, Paul argues, will cause people to miss hearing the truth—a truth that can be found in the very scriptures that have been used to propel these false and disingenuous agendas.

Now, hold on a second, you may be saying to yourselves. First we’re saying that people are reading into the Bible what they want to read and then Paul’s advice is to tell Timothy to turn to the Bible to teach, correct and train them? How does that work?

Well, it all comes down to how we read and interpret these texts and stories we turn to each week —in a way that doesn’t mean taking them out of context to suit our own desires. Which means it’s time for a little biblical interpretation 101—and I promise not to make it as snore-worthy as a couple of my seminary classes! Please don’t tell my professors I said that!

Ok, so the book we read from each Sunday is an amazing text. It records thousands of years of the interaction and experience our ancestors had with God. Many of the stories told within these pages were originally begun in the oral tradition. That is, they were passed down from generation to generation, before they were written down.

And as such, they are the victims of exaggeration, misunderstanding, and distortions, both intentional and unintentional. Not to mention, once they were written down, they were written in a different language: Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. So the words we read in English are not always exactly what they meant in their original language— they are what an editor thinks the words might have meant.

And those words were also not necessarily intended to be read by people of faith for thousands of years. For when Paul wrote to Timothy I don’t think he envisioned us studying his words 2,000 years later. Given this, we need to look at this text through cultural, historical, literary, and religious lenses to understand what they mean. What did Paul mean in the context in which he wrote this? And then, with this in mind, we need to bring our own life experience, the tradition of the church, and basic human reason to the text. All that together is called exegesis (the fancy theological word for interpretation). It’s how we come to understand what the Bible means.

2 James D. G. Dunn, The First and Second Letters of Timothy and the Letter to Titus,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume XI, Ed. Leander E. Keck, et al (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 855. 3

Ok, so I’m guessing you’re still with me since I haven’t heard any snoring yet! Which is a good thing, because this has a very definite impact on us today.

For you have, no doubt, heard people say that the Bible is an antiquated book—out of touch with the world today. And the implication in that is that the church—which reads the Bible—is the same. And judging by where this sermon started, you can see how people might think that.

Which is why understanding how to read the Bible is so important. For when we read this text exegetically, we understand that the prohibition on eating bacon is because the Israelites knew that certain kinds of meat were unclean and could be dangerous to eat. A pig rolling around in mud certainly qualified as that.

We understand that the laws around women menstruating and having children were more about cleanliness than ethics or morals, and that we read them differently with different understandings of how the body works today. We understand that the laws about marrying a divorced woman were actually intended to protect the woman—because divorce was so easy in those days and left a woman in a very precarious predicament.

We understand that the prohibition about working on the Sabbath was intended to force people to take—and employers to give their workers—a day off.

And I think we also understand, that when we read the text this way—carefully, critically, and faithfully—we open the door for God to speak.

For you may recall that Paul says the Bible is inspired by God. Now, although the Greek word the author uses here is somewhat ambiguous, it basically means “God-breathed.” So what he is saying is that while these texts were not written by God, God is infused into the texts in a special way. Another way of saying this might be “not only that [the text] speaks of God, but that God speaks through [the text].”3

And you’ve experienced this before, right? One day you may read the text while grieving the loss of a loved one, and you may hear the words as ones of love and compassion. Read that same text another day, when you’re in a different place emotionally, and you might find it calling you to love others in the world.

That’s God speaking to us through the text. That’s carefully reading and interpreting a text that’s 2,000 years old, understanding what it meant in its day, and then hearing what God might be saying to us through it today. That’s a very different thing than us bringing our own wants and desires to the text.

And when we do that, it makes a book that may seem to have nothing to say, become very relevant to our lives.

3 Fred B. Craddock, et al, Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year C, (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press, 1994), 445. 4

And you know, while we may understand this, I’m not sure everyone outside these doors does. There are people who are driving by right now may not want to enter this place because what they know about the Bible may have come from simplistic Sunday School readings, or worse, what they’re reading from those who, very definitely, use the Bible to suit their own wants and desires on television or the internet.

And so, they may think we’re a church that reads a book that has nothing relevant to say to their lives. But we know differently, don’t we? In fact, we had six new members join today precisely because they believe that the church is relevant to their lives.

And so the world outside needs to hear that from us. They need to know that we welcome differences of opinion, that we encourage questions, that we take the Bible so seriously that we don’t take it literally, and that—as our mission statement says—we approach our faith and the Bible with open minds, believing that God can still have something relevant to say today.

They need to hear that from us, my friends—and so that’s my challenge to you today. Spend some time in thought and reflection about what we’ve talked about here today. Treat the Bible with care. Read critically. Keep an open mind. Ask questions. Listen for God’s still speaking voice.

And then spread the Good News about our church and this book—because I believe there’s a whole world out there whose itching ears would love to hear about it. Amen.