Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Text:  2 Timothy 4:1-5
Vicar Jason Zirbel
21 October 2007

The Harm of “Scratching that Itch”

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful; how crippling a simple itching sensation can be on your skin.  One little mosquito bite, one inadvertent brush up with poison ivy, or even that simple little itch that seemingly comes out of nowhere and hits you right between the shoulder blades—right in the one spot that you can’t reach—one little itch and the whole world stops until that almost crippling itching sensation can be remedied with a good, hard scratching.  Not all itches are created equal though, are they?  That simple little itch that comes out of nowhere can usually be dismissed with a couple of quick swipes of the fingers, and then that’s it—no more itching.  However, the itch of a mosquito bite can quickly turn into an open and bleeding wound if the overwhelming urge to scratch isn’t brought under control.  As a parent, I have seen this time and time again with my own kids, as I’m sure many of you have as well in your own lives.  The kids go outside to play, even with bug-spray on, and still come back with a bite or two in that one place that wasn’t quite protected.  My wife and I will then take the time to clean the area up and put the calamine lotion on the bite or give them a little Benadryl and tell them to try and not scratch at the irritation, but inevitably, they do, and without fail, they come around again seeking medical assistance, this time in the form of a band-aid, because they scratched everything away that itched, leaving a little round bleeding wound.   It may seem a bit far-fetched, given the day and age we live in today, but that little wound, left untended, could, in fact, easily become the gateway to deadly sickness and infection.  I know in speaking with a couple of my friends at the Seminary who have served as missionaries in the likes of Africa and Central America that this very scenario is, in fact, one of the culprits to this day that continue to contribute to the high child mortality rate in those regions.  Scratching some itches can kill you.

As we turn our ears to the epistle lesson this morning, we hear St. Paul warning about the “itching ears” of the people that Timothy would encounter in his future years in Holy Ministry.  What a fascinating image Paul paints here!  We always seem to picture evil as something easily recognizable and intelligible.  We’d know it when we see it and hear it!  The hate-filled orations of Adolf Hitler or Al-Qaeda leaders easily come to mind.  There is no doubt that these men and their messages are against Christ and the very fabric of Christianity.   However, do you honestly think that the devil is a one-trick pony in terms of trying to bring the Kingdom of God to ruin?  Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that the devil himself often disguises himself as an angel of light, and since he is able to do this, it should come as no surprise that those things and people the devil chooses to use as the means to carry out these evil deeds and actions can appear in much the same light. 

Think about that for a moment.  If all sinful temptations came with fire, brimstone, pitchforks, and hate-filled threats of death and destruction, the devil would be utterly powerless and foolish.  Who in their right mind would ever side with such terror and horror?  But the devil is smart enough to know this, isn’t he?  That’s why he uses a number of different tactics and ploys.  Just look at the very first temptation he used in speaking with Eve.  Did he come with all the fear and terrors of eternal damnation?   No!  He came and essentially whispered “sweet nothings” in her ear, asking her ever so innocently, “Did God really say this?”  Not a harsh pitchfork jab to the midsection; not a terror-laced curse against God; rather this temptation was just a simple little “itch” implanted in the ear of Eve.

Tragically, the devil is still using these same simple tactics in our day and age, and why not?  After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!  In fact, if anything, it’s probably safe to say that the devil has even improved and enhanced these deadly skills.  Right up until a few years ago, the Christian Church on earth, no matter what denomination you belonged to, recognized such behaviors as homosexuality, living together and engaging in premarital sex, adultery, and abortion as sin, and not just an “alternative, yet equally rewarding and acceptable lifestyle choice.”  Nowadays?  Now you hear all different opinions.  You hear the truth proclaimed that this is sin, as we do here today.  You hear a watered-down version that says, “Sin?  That’s such an ugly word.  Why don’t we just call it a “poor moral decision so as to not offend anybody?”   Of course, there is also the far-end of the spectrum from within the Christian Church that questions (with Satan), “Did God really say this for our ears today?  Does God really mean this to still stand in our enlightened and progressive world?   That’s not sin.  If anyone is committing sin, it’s you with your intolerance!”  In this way, you can see that the sinful, evil little itches that lead people astray don’t sound threatening at all.

Now, does all this itching always come from outside of ourselves?  Is all this sinful temptation simply outside forces acting upon our “morally neutral” souls?  Absolutely not!  Sometimes that sinful itching that Paul talked about, like that crazy itch that comes out of nowhere and hits you between the shoulder blades, comes from within your own sinful self (Psalm 51—“In sin did my mother conceive me…”.  As Christians who still live in this world and wear sinful flesh, we do have a sinful itching that is produced from within.  Rather than lean completely on God and His Word, we instead scratch our sinful itches that come from within and begin to rationalize and justify the sins committed; sins committed by us or by our loved ones.  “I’d say something, but somebody might call me a hypocrite.”  So what!  I can admit to you that I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.  Does this mean that I can never talk to my kids about not smoking in their lives?  If I took that approach to parenting, you would have every right, and I hope that you would exercise that right as responsible and loving friends and neighbors, to come to me and tell me what an irresponsible fool I am!  Yes, I did it, and it was most assuredly wrong and sinful of me to do so, and I tell them because I love them and I don’t want them to fall into the same sinful footsteps and pitfalls that I have in my life.  Other self-justifying itches begging to be scratched—“My child or grandchild is a good kid and not like those “real” sinners.  He’s just trying to see if this girl would make a good wife, and what better way to do that than to live like husband and wife?”  “My daughter is the most loving and gentle person I know, and so is her life-partner.   Surely God wouldn’t condemn such a pure and loving relationship.  All that prohibition against homosexuality was meant for those crude barbarians who didn’t know the truly committed relationships we do today.”  Folks:  God’s view of sin, God’s condemnation of sin has never changed or wavered, nor will it ever.  Sin is sin, whether it’s a little white lie, a hurtful feeling or grudge, a loving homosexual relationship, or mass murder, and all sin damns, kills, and needs forgiveness; forgiveness found only in the blood of Christ. 

This is why God, speaking through St. Paul, tells Timothy, and all of us today for that matter, to stay firm in the Word of God and preach and speak the Word of God alone.  It is this Word of God alone that is able to cut and score the hardness of our sinful hearts, laying them completely open and prepared to hear and receive the life-giving promise of the Gospel of Christ that all mankind is completely forgiven solely because of the vicarious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Is this easy to do in our lives?  No.  Nobody ever said it would be.  In fact, we’re told flat-out that such faithfulness involves enduring of suffering; long suffering that can easily cause some to say “forget it.” 

This is also what Jesus gets at in the last sentence of the Gospel lesson for today when He asks the question about being able to find faith or not on earth.   Like the widow in the text, we cry and wail to God, seeking justice for all the wrongs we endure as Christians living in a fallen and sinful world.  However, all too often, we tend to put Almighty and Eternal God on our timelines.  When things don’t happen how and when we want them to, we step in and either attempt to help things along or simply say “forget it” altogether and seek out an entirely different route with more immediate results.  Rather than sit back and listen to our Heavenly Father and let the sweet balm of God and His Word work in our lives on His timeline and according to His good and gracious will, much like the Benadryl or the Calamine lotion I give to my kids, we instead get impatient and start scratching away, invariably causing more and more harm and creating more and more of a chance for even greater sickness and disease to seep in and bring infection and death.

Thanks be to God, our Father, that He has granted to us the gift of His Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, AND KEEPS us in the one true faith; the one true saving faith within us; the true and saving faith that looks to and embraces His Son, Jesus Christ, as the only source of life, forgiveness, and salvation.  May this sweet and eternal Gospel promise completely fill your ears, your hearts, and your souls, that you may be able to ever stand firm in Christ and not be shaken or seduced by the sinful itches and irritations that constantly seek to steal us away from the glory, joy, and peace found only in the pierced hands, feet, and sides of our risen and victorious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.