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Mark Wheeler
Titus 3:9-11
“Be a Polite Young Man”
02/16/2020
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Through the Written Word,
And the spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It was exactly 42-1/2 years ago today, August 16, 1977 – who here remembers what happened that day? I was 16-years old, and had a one-day job to help Mrs. Morrison pack up her house and move her to an apartment. She had a truck waiting for me, so I rode my bicycle the 5 or 6 miles to her house – but what I encountered was this elderly (probably less than my current 59 years), very heavy-set woman collapsing onto my 125-pound frame completely drenching me in tears.
I had not heard, but even if had heard I wouldn’t have been destroyed like Mrs. Morrison was – but her day was utterly demolished the day Elvis Presley died.
Before I left my house that Tuesday morning, my father reminded me to “be a polite young man”. I never asked what that meant, but now with 250 pounds of Mrs. Morrison enveloping me with her grief – I knew it meant I would not be loading up her rented U-Haul for a long while – and that I would be more than earning my day’s wage!
During this season between Christmas and Lent, January and February, we are looking at Paul’s letter to Titus, the Church Pastor on the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.
Titus is Paul’s spiritual son whom Paul assigned there to encourage these church members who were better at professing the Christian faith than they were at practicing it. They said they believed it, but they did not live like they believed it!
After this letter’s greeting, we learned that God expects/demands blamelessness and living in congruity with our words and with God’s Word. And then we saw that every generation of Christian has the responsibility of teaching “sound doctrine” to the next generation. So that in every way we will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive … to all people everywhere! And last week we listened to Paul instruct us that as followers of Christ, we owe it to God Himself to do our darned best to listen for His Word to guide our voting and our conscience, and to reflect His love and mercy by being loving and merciful in our political debates.
Today’s passage follows that instruction with a simple edict.
Hear the Word of God, Titus 3:9-11 …. —-
8 … These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.
In chapter 1 we read two main activities for the soon-to-be ordained leaders in the churches on Crete: 1) encourage others by sound doctrine and 2) refute those who oppose it. The beginning of chapter 2 instructs the family leaders to teach this same sound doctrine in their households. And we saw that every Christian leads someone somewhere and that this book is therefore meant for all of us. And chapter 3 suggests that we are not only members of our households but also citizens of communities in this world.
As members of his kind of civil arrangement, as mothers and fathers, as children, as brothers and sisters, we are given counsel about how to live together in these excellent and profitable ways.
Be a polite young man. My dad simply wanted me to be respectful, to say “please” and “thank you”. But, on that August day politeness also included patience practiced under pressure, grace given in her grief, mercy made more real than Mrs. Morrison’s mourning.
In our world of offense over difference, we find ourselves fighting anger against TV newscasters, sports commentators, and friends whose political opinions are not our own. You know what I’m saying, right? We all have friends who, it seems, cannot be happy if they are not offended by something, anything! They’re not happy if they’re not angry! (If you don’t have such a friend, that probably means you are that friend…)
I listened to a story on Friday about a small group of people with very different perspectives on the efficacy and success of our nation’s current presidential administration. But their conversation did not consist of any name-calling, there was no foolish controversy – they didn’t even really debate or argue. Their conversation consisted of asking questions and listening to answers.
What did they come away with? They realized that the others’ perspectives had value. No one changed their minds about anything – except that it was good to listen, without anger and without offense. That doesn’t mean they were being stupid or without strength of integrity or evidenced opinion or facts and figures to back their beliefs. It simply means they came to the table with respect for the other.
Paul says to warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time, but if mean-spirited divisive-offense is all he will offer, for your own sake, just let him be. That does not mean to “excommunicate” him, to shun him, to hate him. But, like the Father in Luke 15’s parable of the Prodigal Son, let him go – if he returns, that means peaceably – not necessarily in agreement with you – welcome him back.
Be a polite young man – a polite old coot – a polite young lady – a polite old biddy. Be polite!
The trouble for Crete was in their self-centered unwillingness to give others the respect they were due simply because they were humans – and the grace fills the instructions for how they were to live counter-culturally, demonstrating God’s grace which, Paul says in Romans 5:8, is given for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
In 2020, over Presidents’ Day weekend, in Spokane, WA, USA, our talk-shows and radio broadcasts and Twitter feeds demonstrate that we are no different than those Cretans were nearly 2000 years ago. But the Good News for them is also the Good News for us! The Father waits, patiently and gracefully and mercifully for us to come back to Him where He welcomes us into His arms with a party-at-the-ready.
The only reason I remember Elvis Presley’s death is that it was such a big day for Mrs. Morrison, it seemed as much as JFK’s death or MLK’s. The King of Rock and Roll had died – and I learned how to care for Mrs. Morrison the way Paul tells Titus to care for his Cretan church members.
Being Polite is more than merely showing respect, it includes reflecting God’s grace to the other, because God gives His grace to us. Amen.
Resources:
Johnson, Luke Timothy; 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus; John Knox Press; Atlanta, GA; 1987; Pp. 1-10, 136-139.
NIV Study Bible; www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/intro-to-titus/.
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