Excerpt from I Timothy 1:3–4

"I urge you...to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine, and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies that promote speculations..."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

Not long ago, I was on a panel of religious leaders where we were all to talk briefly about our different churches and what we believed. Most of the panelists seemed to believe in searching. With considerable enthusiasm and no small certainty, one panelist proclaimed, "That's what our church is all about, the search." I wondered, "If someone actually found something, would they have to leave?"

We live in a world where there is a whole lot of religious speculation, questioning, and, to use Paul's word, "myth"-making going on. Of course, questioning and searching can be good and important. I like to think of the UCC as a church where we can ask hard and honest questions.

But some of it is hot air, smoke and mirrors, and flights of fancy that are full of ego and misleading to the vulnerable. So one of the tasks of faithful pastors, and churches, is to sift and sort, and to remind us what's at the heart of the matter. Paul urges Timothy to do that work in his time, to remind people of the heart and the center, and help people to be deeply centered in God.

While no one way of putting the heart of the matter will ever be completely adequate, I've come to this: the heart of it is not so much our search for an elusive God. The heart of the matter is God's search for us. In Jesus Christ, God has come in search of us. No matter where we've wandered off to or what awful place we've gotten ourselves lost in, God comes in search of us. God, in Christ, goes to the furthest lengths to find us and bring us home. 

Prayer

"Here I pause in my sojourning, giving thanks for having come;
come to trust at every turning, God will lead me safely home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God,
Came to rescue me from anger, blessed body, precious blood."
(Hymn # 459, NCH)

About the Author Tony Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His most recent book is Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts at www.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking on Weekly Reading.