“Good Endings”

“Good Endings” a sermon by Dr. William P. Wood First Presbyterian Church Charlotte, North Carolina January 2, 2005 Text: “…for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (II Timothy 4:10). There is a person in the New Testament, whose name is mentioned only three times, yet has held a fascination for me for some time. His name is Demas. In Paul’s letter to Philemon, we read this: “Demas and Luke, my fellow workers”(verse 24). In this instance Paul mentions Demas, because he and Luke had stood by Paul when he was in prison. A second mentioning of Demas occurs in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where we read: “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas” (Colossians 4:14). The third occurrence comes in his letter to Paul’s young friend Timothy, where we read: “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (II Timothy 4:10). If one were to plot the life of Demas on a graph, there would be these three points: Demas my fellow worker; Demas; Demas has deserted me”. There is something, I am convinced, about Demas that is close to all of us. His is the story of a person who made a fine beginning and a poor ending. I. The Scripture lesson that forms our text today is a passage from II Timothy, a letter that has been traditionally ascribed to the Apostle Paul (though some have questioned its authorship). It is generally regarded to represent one of the last letters Paul wrote. He is now imprisoned in Rome and he senses death is not far off. For that reason he summoned his friend Timothy for a visit. It was an occasion for Paul to remember those who had meant a great deal to him. It was also an occasion to note those who had left him. Demas was one of those. II. As one contemplates the life of Demas, it is obvious that the qualities that make for a fine beginning are not necessarily those that make for a great ending. Starting power and staying power are not the same thing. In fact, one of Demas’ friends, the evangelist Luke, wrote a parable about a man who was setting out to build a tower. He had not counted the full cost, and in the end he was not able to build it. One wonders if Luke had Demas in mind. He was obviously a person of fine impulses, generous reponses, great loyalties, and eager loves. But he lacked one thing: the power to see it through. One thinks of this experience not only because we are at the beginning of a new year, which is naturally a festival of new beginnings, but also because our generation, above every generation in history, has stressed the gospel of a good start. Those of us who are parents are particularly concerned that our children get a good start in life. We worry about our children’s social skills, their achievements in school, and their extra-curricular activities. We know how important a good start is. But a good start is not all there is to life. Many of us here today had a good start. We were raised in strong families. We attended good churches and good schools. But there are some here today that are a good bit like Demas and all of us know we could have been that. How many of us have already fallen from a faith that was once strong and a character that was once clean? We know Demas. The mirror reveals him to us. He lived and died almost two thousand years ago, and yet there is something powerful about those three verses: Demas, my fellow worker; Demas: Demas has deserted me. III. There is something else as well; namely that however beautiful one starts out in life, nothing matters much without a good ending. Now, by this I don’t mean that everything in life has to be a great success. There are many disappointments, heartaches, and tragedies that all of us 1st Presbyterian Church Page 2 January 2, 2005 experience in life. No, what I am talking about here is courage and strength to see a person to a worthy conclusion. One sees that in the life of Jesus. It could have turned out a lot differently for him if he had only trimmed his sails a bit. If, for example, in the Garden of Gethsemane he had not been willing to face the cross, he would have had a very different legacy. Had he not faced that cross I doubt that anyone would remember the Sermon on the Mount, his healings, his parables. Someone once said that the career of Jesus was like splitting a log. Every previous blow of the axe is indispensable, but it is the last blow that splits the log. So it was with Jesus. He saw it through to the end without flinching. Even on the cross he said, “It is finished.” And it was. So, on this first Sunday of a new year let us speak not about good beginnings, important as they are, but about staying power and what it is that enables a person to see life through. IV. For one thing, staying power is almost always associated with a certain amount of personal integrity. Several years ago, when I was visiting at Princeton Seminary, Bill Harris, the Seminary archivist showed me a painting that had belonged to Charles Hodge. The painted depicted Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation that brought the end to slavery in this country. Lincoln told William Seward, the Secretary of State that he had once promised the Almighty that if he ever had the opportunity to end slavery in this country, he would not let it pass. That is the kind of personal integrity we remember about Abraham Lincoln. When once asked about an unpopular piece of legislation he was about to sign, he responded by saying, “If I am to go down, let me go down linked to the truth.” Demas, however, was another sort of person. “Demas deserted me,” wrote Paul, “having loved this present age.” So that was it! Roman civilization was brilliant. To be sure it had its ugly side, but for agile minds and grasping hands, there were prizes to be gained, wealth to be obtained, power to be seized. You see, I am not really talking about Demas now, but about us. Reinhold Niebuhr once spoke of the “Hazards and Temptations of the Christian Ministry.” What I am talking about is not just ministers but all of us, no matter what profession in which we are engaged. We all know how easy it is to compromise on our ideals, to fudge on our integrity, to take the easy way out. Paul faced many kinds of failure, but he himself was not a failure. II Timothy contains his epitaph: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” It would be hard to imagine a finer ending than that. V. Then, too, the power to see it through is generally associated with the experience of being captured by something that is larger than oneself--an art, a vocation, a mission that one believes is more important than one’s self. That is what you see in the great figures of the New Testament. 1st Presbyterian Church Page 3 January 2, 2005 It was found in Jesus, in Peter, in Paul. All of them believed in something so strongly that they were willing to live for it, and if necessary, to die for it as well. That was not the case with Demas. Christ had never fully laid hold of him. There is a fascinating contrast between two phrases in the New Testament: the first, Paul’s description of Demas--having loved the present age;” the second is the description of a Christian in the Epistle to the Hebrews as one who has “tasted the powers of the age to come.” So, that is how the New Testament sees it. An apostate is a person who is in love with the status quo, this present age. The Christian is the one who has tasted the power of, and laid hold of the hope of the age to come. That is the problem for most of us, I suspect. We find it easy to love the present age. We make resolutions for a new year, but more often than not we settle into some comfortable corner of this present age and nestle down. If I were to accuse you of being Judas Iscariot, you would be indignant. You would never deliberately sell someone out. But Demas--how many of us have been that? There is a phrase in the Bible that says, “I would have fainted, unless I had believed.” That is what happens to all of us. The temptations, tragedies, and difficulties of human life are greater than we can imagine. But there is something even more powerful than these. There is our faith in God and our conviction that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.” That is what gives us the power to see it through, and that power will not fail us. Amen! 1st Presbyterian Church Page 4 January 2, 2005 .

Load more