Cliff Loesch September 30, 2007 1 Timothy 6:11-16 The Good Fight      Bernard of Clairvaux was an interesting fellow.  He lived in the early 1100s in France and was an abbot, or that is, the head of a monastery.  He was a very dominant figure in the church-influential and gifted.  My first acquaintance with Bernard, I believe, was through the writings of Richard Foster.  Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, was published about the time Foster became a professor at Friends University--and the book has become a Christian classic.  Richard Foster introduced me-and introduced a lot of people I'm sure-to devotional writers throughout the ages, including Bernard of Clairvaux.  And Bernard wrote some beautiful things.  Foster shared some things he wrote about the life of service.  And then later I began to notice that some of the hymns we find in most hymnals were written by Bernard of Clairvaux: Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee, and O Sacred Head Now Wounded, and Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts.  And they are all beautiful, thoughtful, contemplative hymns.  But when I was a student in a church history class in seminary I was very surprised to find that Bernard of Clairvaux is remembered for more than his devotional and contemplative writings.  He also preached a sermon that launched the Second Crusade.  When I heard this, I thought, "What?!  How can this be?"  This is the man who wrote words like these: Jesus, the very thought of Thee, with sweetness fills my breast; and O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek, To those who fall how kind Thou art!  How good to those who seek!  So how do you go from writing "Jesus, the very thought of Thee" to "Go out and kill for Jesus?"  To be fair, I guess I should say that apparently the Second Crusade was not Bernard's idea alone.  The pope told him to preach it.  But he obviously agreed with the campaign and took it to heart, because his sermon was very effective.  I tried to find the text of his sermon on the internet but didn't find it.  What I did find, however, is that there's no dispute among historians that Bernard's sermon is what launched the Crusade.  In fact, his call to arms even inspired kings and other royalty to get into the act and go fight.      This week I've been looking at First Timothy 6:11-16 where it says among other things, "Fight the good fight of the faith."  And I've been thinking about what that might mean.  I can tell you without any hesitation whatsoever that when Paul wrote those words he did not have in mind the kind of fighting preached by Bernard of Clairvaux.  Almost everyone sees the Crusades as a black mark on Christian history.  We look back on them with a sense of disbelief.  And Paul, I'm sure, would have been shocked by them.  Certainly he would have been mortified if any of his own words were used to justify them.  And as I think about Paul's injunction to "Fight the good fight of the faith," what I'm saying is that Bernard's actions to stir up people to go start a war in no way relates to what Paul was teaching in 1 Timothy 6 about fighting the good fight.       There's another idea I've thought of that is also not an example of what Paul meant when he wrote these words.  And I need to be a little careful with what I say here, but there are some Christians that when they speak publicly on some things, they tend to inflame everyone's passions.  And it sort of seems like that is their goal-to make people mad.  Rather than simply trying to explain their point of view or even to persuade others, they take a more in-your-face approach that seems to win them more enemies than friends.  I guess I could say that a couple of churches come to mind that kind of regularly take this approach-and there is one pastor who will be on trial next month.  I'm not sure of the exact charges, but he refused to move his protest 50 feet away when the police asked him to.  Now I do think there is a place in this world for civil disobedience.  Sometimes it is the right thing to do.  Sometimes it is about the only thing to do.  But the thing of it is-I'm not really clear on what the purpose of this particular protest was.  And I'm even more unclear about how his protest was supposed to bring glory to Jesus Christ.  But that's enough about this specific case.  You know what I mean-sometimes Christians seem to stir up more of a fight with the world than is really necessary or helpful.       But having said all that-and criticizing the approach of some-I just can't go on without wondering and without saying that perhaps there are some problems in this world that we ought to be more vocal about.  Are there times that we are simply too silent about a matter?  Are there issues where our voice is truly needed?      This phrase, "Fight the good fight"-I've given a couple of examples of what I do not think it means.  We think we know what fighting is.  We've all been in arguments before-even arguments that seem perpetual.  And we know about wars and strife.  So "fight the good fight," this text tells us.  But we cannot just rip it right out of context and think we understand what he means.  I mean, look at the verse that comes right before it: Paul tells us to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness."  When he then goes on to say to fight the good fight-he is not saying, "Just forget about what I said in the previous sentence about gentleness, love, godliness, and all those other things-no, instead go out there and sock it to them."  No.  The two phrases have to fit together.  The one about love impacts the one about fighting the good fight.  And after all, he calls it a good fight-of the faith.  He's not talking about the bad fights here-but the good fight; the good fight that has some relationship to our faith.  Strengthens our faith, perhaps?  Enhances the faith?  Grows faith?  Encourages faith?       You know there are a lot of fights in life that if you win them it's a really good thing.  Sometimes we fight with discouragement.  Or it seems like a fight.  And it can sure be a struggle to stay positive sometimes.  The negative is all around us; and we face many discouraging things every day.  What about showing patience?  There's another good fight-to try to help patience win.  And forgiveness.  I don't know who we're fighting against when it comes to forgiving but there are times that it seems really hard to forgive some people-and sometimes it's hard to forgive ourselves.  Taming the tongue can be a struggle-but that's a struggle worth winning.  You can see that I'm looking at this idea of fighting the good fight in terms of struggle.  To continue shining the Light can be a struggle.  And what about this?-laying aside our need to be right all the time, or even our desire for everyone to agree with us.  Yes, those are struggles.  What about these good struggles: to build community, to welcome the stranger, to see the good in others, to see Christ in others.  What about working to find common ground?  Or the difficult work of managing conflict?  Yes, all these can be struggles, or can seem like struggles.  But they're good work; the good fights that strengthen the faith.  As I thought about this, more things kept coming to mind: dealing with change is another one.  That can be a struggle.  Indeed, many of the things I have mentioned here can overwhelm us if we let them.  Fight these good fights of the faith.      Now here is what I think I've done this morning.  I've taken that sentence from 1 Timothy 6-"Fight the good fight of the faith"-and instead of pulling it out of the text like some people do as if it can be understood apart from the larger passage-I have basically stuck it back into the verse that came before so that you cannot read, "Fight the good fight" without also reading simultaneously what Paul said about pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.  And I've tried to think about some of those good fights that we're involved in. I admit that most of the things I have mentioned are the inward struggles that we face.  What about outward struggles?  I hinted a while ago that we also need to find the courage to raise our voices when being silent (or when doing nothing) would be so much easier.  Indeed there are some problems in this world that we ought to be more vocal about.  Sometimes we are too silent about a matter.  There issues where our voice is truly needed.  Over the summer I led a Sunday school class about the Underground Railroad-and specifically about the involvement that Quakers had in it.  They risked everything to help free the slaves.  They were breaking the law; they risked their freedom and their property; and they risked hateful responses from their neighbors.  But they fought the good fight.  What are the issues or problems God calls us to do something about today?      Yet even when it's outward, it's still mostly inward.  To find the courage to speak or the courage to act-first of all you have to win that inward struggle.  And then if there is opposition by others, even still the fight is largely inward.  How will you respond?  Will you let anger take over at this point?  Or will you continue to make reasonable yet firm arguments about your actions or your position?  And will you give up as soon as opposition comes?  Or will you hang in there?      "Fight the good fight of the faith" seems like kind of a strange thing to hear from the Bible.  Yet as we examine it we recognize the many struggles we face in life and we see the good that comes from not giving up and from winning those struggles.  As we face our challenges, may the Lord fill us with all the courage and wisdom and strength we need.