"Dying on Third"

II Timothy 4:8-11

Twenty –First Sunday after Pentecost + October 17, 2010

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

Barbara and I enjoy very much watching baseball games on television. We are fans of the Philadelphia “Phillies” and we are delighted that they are now in the National League Championship Series. Naturally, we hope they will go on to the World Series and win. But baseball is a game where strange things happen. In a World Series years ago the Cleveland Indians set an infamous record. When it was all over Cleveland had more men left on base than had ever been left before in a World Series. The Indians had shown great ability to get players on base but they couldn’t bring them home to score and that is the whole point of the game. The players had made a good start but had a poor finish. In baseball jargon, a number of their players had died on third.

Demas could have been a member of the Cleveland team. Do you remember him? He is mentioned in our scripture lesson this morning; this second letter to Timothy said to have been written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison. This is not the first time we have heard of Demas. He is mentioned favorably by Paul in the undoubtedly genuine Letters to the Christian congregation at Colossae and also to Philemon, a member of that church. In both these letters Paul sends the greetings of Demas as well as Luke and other members of Paul’s missionary “team” who are with him in that Roman prison. Demas is clearly a valued co-worker. But something happened and we have this cryptic phrase in II Timothy: “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” (II Timothy 4:10A) That’s it. We don’t have a clue why Demas decided to leave Paul behind and go on about his business. But down through the Christian centuries, Demas had been offered as an example of those who begin well but end poorly. In his “Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan depicts Demas as that sort of half-way Christian who goes part of the way and then turns back.

There is an analogy here to everyday life. I heard a story years ago about a reporter who found a “down-and-out” drunk in the skid row section of a metropolitan city. He picked the man up out of the gutter after the man had been thrown out of a tavern. When the reporter had won the man’s confidence sufficiently, the man allowed him to take him back to his room in a “flophouse” hotel. There the reporter saw among the collection of odds and ends on the man’s desk a Phi Beta Kappa key. The man had made an excellent start in college but then he came to a poor finish. That man’s name is legion. There are so many people who have had a similar history. My father liked to say that the saddest thing that could be written on someone’s tombstone is “He/She Had Great Potential.”

All of us have seen a reproduction of Leonardo daVinci’s masterpiece, “The Last Supper.” There is a story that while daVinci was working on the painting (which is found on the dining room wall in a monastery in Milan), he would go into the streets of the city to select individuals to sit as models for particular disciples within this magnificent portrayal. He found a rather handsome fellow to pose for the disciple John. He carefully selected others from time to time. The painting took some months to finish. After several months, daVinci sent his helpers out to find someone who would be the model for Judas. A man was found and brought back to sit for the painting. While he sat there, the man continually focused his eyes on one figure in the painting. DaVinci saw the man was looking at the disciple John. When daVinci asked his reason for this, the man told him he was the same man who had previously sat to be painted as John. In the intervening months, this man who had made a good start in life came to a poor finish.

Why does this happen? Why did this happen to Demas? We have no explanation in scripture but, perhaps, a clue can be found in his name. In Greek, “Demas” means “Popular.” Names can sometimes be our destiny, can’t they? I remember a boy in my high school class named Bernard Schwartz, but his family and all the rest of us called him “Bunny” and he remained “Bunny” for the rest of his life, an immature and childish fellow. I sometimes wish parents would think of the unintended consequences of the “cute” names they give their children. A name can be our destiny.

Of course, there is more to the story of life than that. Life is a matter of making choices, thousands of them. Most of them are so small we don’t even notice them while only a few are of major importance. But all these choices work together to define our lives. As I said in last week’s “Ponderings,” “More and more we become the people we were.” If that is true – and I truly believe it is – then how can we direct our lives whether we are young, middle-aged, or old so that we can have a good finish and not end up like Demas, dying on third?

I believe there are three choices we can make if we want our lives not simply to have a good beginning but also a great ending. And, believe me, it is never too late to make these choices. The first is this: we can choose to have the courage of a great conviction. What is the guiding principle of your life and mine? What are the basic values and beliefs we hold so dear that we would never give them up? Though we may not achieve all the high goals we set for ourselves, one thing is sure: if we aim lower than our best we will always regret it. Worst of all, if we live just for ourselves and our own happiness, we will be a very sorry person, indeed. Paul said that Demas’ problem was that he was “in love with this present world.” He lived for the fads and fancies of the moment. He followed the crowd. I’m sure he was popular but he had no great convictions. He probably was like a certain movie star who said of herself, “Deep down, I’m shallow.” Shallow people don’t do well when the waters of life get deep. If we know who we are, people of great convictions who hold to them strongly, we will come to the end of our lives with a great sense of accomplishment. Maybe as a P.S., a “Pastor’s Suggestion,” I might suggest that sometime soon you take a piece of paper and write down the guiding principles of your life. If you don’t like what you have written, remember, it’s never too late to change.

The second choice we can make in life if we want to have a great ending is this: we can be captured by a great cause. Look at it this way: what is the guiding path that you and I have decided to follow? Obviously, I mean something more than a job or even a career. In the old-fashioned way of putting it, what is your and my vocation? What do we feel “called” to do? A calling is something that may or may not be blessed by human success or popular acclaim, but it is blessed by God because it fulfills the basic purpose of your life and mine. Think of it this way. We are now in the midst of a tremendously important national political campaign. I think that all of those running for office would like to believe that what they will do after they are elected will leave people remembering them as statesmen, stateswomen, people who put principle ahead of party and their state and nation ahead of petty, partisan politics. Sadly – and you and I know this and should fear it – too many of those who are elected may have a good beginning but a poor ending and will simply be labeled as “politicians.” They will fail to live for a great cause and will live only for momentary popularity.

There is a third choice we can make in life if we don’t want to end up like Demas, dying on third: we can commit ourselves to a great faith. I will be very unkind and say there are many puny little faiths running around today inviting us to give our allegiance to them. Too many of these faiths ask nothing of us but promise everything. We don’t have to change a thing. We can keep all our prejudices, all our selfish desires, all our lame lives. All we have to do is “Come to Jesus” (whatever that means!), join some successful church, give our money, and all will be right in heaven and on earth for us. What nonsense! Whatever happened to “Take up your cross and follow me?”

It is reported that the great American novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, left among his writings at the time of his death, the plot of a play. It was just an outline, never completed. As I remember it the plot was simple: Five members of a family, living in scattered parts of the world, find that they have inherited together a wonderful house. They can have the house, or any part of it, if the five of them will come back and live under the same roof. Does this plot remind you of our situation as one human family in today’s world? How can we find the means, out of the varied and diverse cultures and backgrounds of the family of humankind, to live together in peace and justice and love “under one roof” as God’s children?

There is only one way I can imagine that happening. More and more of us must have great convictions, greater than many have today. More and more of us must have great causes, greater than many have today. More and more of us must have a great faith, greater than many have today. We must be guided, led, and inspired to be more than we have been before. If not, we will end up like Demas, dying on third, people who failed ourselves and failed our moment in history, with words on our collective tombstone: “They Had Such Great Potential.” I can’t speak for you but I sure know this: I want to go to the World Series and win, and this is the year to do it! Amen.