For the time is coming
when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will
turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. (II Timothy
4:3-4)
Paul is writing to young pastor Timothy, who we think lived
and ministered in Lystra, a Roman colony in what is now Anatolia in
Turkey. It was in Lystra that Paul had
once been stoned and left for dead.[1] Now Paul is writing from prison in Rome, and
the advice he offers Timothy might just as well apply in the 21st
century. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine,
but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander
away to myths.
So Paul identifies the perennial and obstinate religious affliction
he calls Itching Ears. Just around the
corner, or down the road, or coming to town soon, is some new and exciting
evangelist or keynote speaker or christian pop idol, complete with electronics,
who is much more entertaining than the stodge we get at the parish church. But then, most of us at some time have found
some teacher, some writer, some preacher, who we think, or thought at the time,
holds the key to it all… when the truth is, more likely, that this person shed
some light for us in our circumstances at that time. Hopefully wisdom has taught us to receive
with thanks what is meaningful from that, and move on.
Of course, curiosity leads us to venture beyond the
boundaries… which is good… but when we do, it is as well to have first a
grounding in what Paul calls sound doctrine.
I would be more inclined to call it sensible doctrine, grown-up faith. We are pilgrims, often keen to see what’s
around the next corner, over the next hill… but the best pilgrims have a place
where they belong and return, wiser, refreshed and renewed. Jesus certainly pushed the boundaries. He boldly restated Jewish faith and the
teachings of scripture with newness and freshness – but he remained a Jew. St Benedict was scathingly critical of monks
who shopped around, and Benedictines require the vow of stability, which means
there is somewhere you belong.
An essential part of growing up in faith is discovering that
in spiritual growth there are in fact few dramatics, no silver bullets – but
rather the daily work of attention and obeying, of learning to let go, learning
from each other as we become humble enough to welcome God’s Spirit, the Spirit
of Jesus, the real teacher. We grow, as
Benedictines put it, by falling down and getting up again. We find the joy hiding even in pain. We are becoming free to say Yes to silence
and to simplicity, to mercy, truth and grace… and Yes to mortality, the final
handing over of self. We don’t need
Itching Ears.
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