He Gave Himself as a Ransom for All, a sermon based on 1 Timothy 2: 1-7, preached on September 21, 2025

After spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released. He’s quoted as saying, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Hatred is at work in our nation, my friends. Hatred is at work in our world. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. What is there to be done about it? For a moment this morning, let us put the world outside of our minds to focus on what is going on in our hearts. If we are to follow the example of Jesus Christ, I remind you that there are two primary kinds of people according to the Bible: neighbors and enemies, and Jesus commands us to love them both. Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, Jesus says, or risk remaining in a self-imposed prison of hatred, fear, and resentment. We’ve been singing since we were little that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, and such love echoes throughout the ideals of our nation, and so we grew up saying: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” How many times have you said it? I remember our daughter Lily, just three years old, proudly reciting those words that she learned in preschool. She’s now 16. How many times has she recited those words since then? Thousands of times, most likely. Every day it was for us that we said those words in school. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Then on Sunday, we sang, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” That word “all” matters. The question I have for you today is this: When you say “all” do you really mean “all?” When you say “all,” do you subconsciously mean “most” or “some” or “a few?” When it comes to Jesus, we know that He really loved all people, and that He loved them to such a degree that it made scribes and Pharisees uncomfortable. Listen to this: Last Sunday, I was with several members of the choir who were on tour in Scotland. During a worship service last Sunday, they sang in a beautiful cathedral in a breathtaking city called Inverness. There, we heard this beautiful sermon preached by a retired priest, who focused on the Gospel reading for the day. His accent, his delivery, his interpretation of Scripture was Scottish, so he was speaking English, but I had to work to understand him. His words were familiar and new at the same time. As he preached from the Gospel lesson for last Sunday, the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son, he referenced the Pharisees. You know how those parables start. The introduction to the parables goes: Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The priest in Scotland said, “Pharisees are not the bad people in this passage of Scripture. Don’t read this introduction thinking that the Pharisees are the bad guys. Instead, notice that the bad guys are the ones whom Jesus is eating with.” Jesus ate with the bad guys. How could He eat with them? The enemies of our people? The ones who drive us crazy and disrespect decency? Yet when Jesus said all people, He really meant all. All those people who needed correction, He began with grace. All those people rejected for good reason, Jesus ate with them for He lived as though God wanted all people to be welcomed at God’s table. Such love can be offensive, but it is important. 1st Timothy, tradition tells us, was written by Paul the Apostle to young Timothy, who is working hard to understand and comprehend what it means to be a leader in the Christian Church. Paul writes to Timothy: God our savior, desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That Christ Jesus, himself human, gave himself a ransom for all. When this Scripture lesson uses those words everyone and all, it means it. Likewise, we know that our country is built upon the virtue of liberty and justice for, not some, but all. Yet how often do we pray for all people? I know I’m supposed to, but I’m supposed to do all kinds of things that I don’t actually do. Are you the same way? I heard a story last week about a young Scottish minister, invited by a couple from the church to come and have dinner. The couple knew that their new minister didn’t receive much of a salary and so would likely be grateful for a free meal and a bit of warm hospitality. They polished the silver and laid out a linen tablecloth, yet when the meal was over they were missing one silver spoon. You can imagine the wife saying to her husband, “I knew he was poor, but stealing our silver is kind of desperate, isn’t it?” Over time, while they tried to forget about it, the missing spoon invaded her thoughts. She worried over it and how to confront the young pastor. What if he goes stealing from other people, and what of the money put in the offering plate? Does he just help himself to it? Finally, she spoke to her husband, and they decided to have him over for dinner again that at least the hard conversation would be had over a good meal. Perhaps that would soften the blow, so, “We’re missing a spoon,” they said after a couple glasses of wine. The pastor looked up, and said, “You haven’t found it? I left it inside your Bible.” Do not neglect the discipline of reading your Bible, for Scripture calls us to our higher virtues. Do not neglect the discipline of praying for your enemies, for in the words of that great Church Father, John Chrysostom, “No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.” Do you pray for your enemies? Do you pray for those who persecute you? Do you pray for those with whom you disagree? Love your enemies, Jesus said, for we know what happens when people are willing to hate. My friends, the battle lines have been drawn. Hatred lurks around every corner, yet may the darkness of hatred be cast out of this church. May hatred be cast out of your hearts by the bright light of love. Read your Bible. Observe the discipline of praying for your enemies. Let your children and grandchildren hear you do it. Teach them how. Let it begin simply, with simple words: “Lord, we pray for our neighbors, both the Smiths, who gave us cookies, and the Bryans, who let their dog poop in our grass.” “Lord, I pray for my coworkers, even my boss who takes credit for my good ideas and the woman who ate a tuna fish sandwich at her desk and stunk up the whole office. Make me more patient. Prepare me for tomorrow.” “Bless my sister-in-law, even though she is judgmental. Heal my friend, even though her most likely diagnosis is being a hypochondriac.” “Wrestle from my mind the idea that I need to control and judge when You call me to love.” Pray for your enemies. Don’t shoot them. Don’t fire them. Don’t resent them. Don’t vilify them. Pray for them. Let the enemy you really worry about be the one turning you against your neighbor, for God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, is pulling us together, reconciling us to one another rather than urging us to declare war with the other side. In Scotland, just before the choir started singing at that Cathedral in Inverness, a woman went up to Dr. Jeffrey Meeks, asking with an American accent, “Are you really from Marietta, Georgia?” Her mother had just died, and her mother’s dying wish was for her remains to be laid to rest in Scotland, so this woman we met had brought her mother’s remains all the way to Scotland and laid her mother’s remains to rest near a waterfall in that town, Inverness, the same town where we were visiting. It was a long way for this woman to journey with her mother’s remains, and it was an amazing coincidence that we would be there singing because her mother was from Marietta, Georgia. She traveled from her home, then all the way to Scotland, and met us there, for my friends, God is pulling us together. Do not give in to the power of hatred, which pulls us apart. Will Myers, our Director of Communication, and I took a side trip to London to visit little Harriet whom we baptized two summers ago. You may remember that Harriet and her family worship with us on-line. They’ll likely worship with us today all the way over in London. We walked through the door of their house in London, and Harriet read me a psalm out of the Bible that this church gave her. She made a welcome banner, which hung in the kitchen. Her aunt made us so much food; it was like a Thanksgiving dinner-sized meal. Around the table, I said a blessing, giving thanks to God for pulling us together, and after dinner, Will took out his violin and played a concert in their kitchen. Harriet’s aunt cried at the table. She was moved to tears. I was moved as well. How could I not be? Despite all the miles that divide us, there we were, for God brings people together while the enemy tears us apart. My friends, there won’t be a separate section for the Baptists up in Heaven. Nor will there be separate sections for the Democrats and the Republicans. There will be no wall between those who have a Green Card and those who do not. Nor will there be a line to separate the saints from the sinners. Therefore, we had better start getting along together now. Pray for each other, especially your enemies. May love stretch you towards acceptance of difference and may love push you towards reconciliation. While hatred lurks in our world, may an end to the hatred begin with you. May it begin with me. Amen.

There's More Than Meets the Eye, a sermon based on Jeremiah 18: 1-11 and Philemon, preached on September 7, 2025

Up until his funeral last Thursday, I’d only really gotten to know Dr. Nelson Price from reading what he wrote in the Marietta Daily Journal, but reading what he wrote in the paper was one thing. Hearing the eulogies given by friends, colleagues, and family members was another that gave me a fuller appreciation for this man who served the Lord at Roswell Street Baptist Church for 35 years. My favorite was the first eulogy given by the Rev. Dr. Ike Richard of Piedmont Church and CEO of MUST Ministries. You may have read what he said; it was reprinted in the paper last Friday. Ike began his remarks saying, “Dr. Nelson Price called me on the darkest day of my life. On March 1, 1983, I watched my wife and my child die in front of me during childbirth at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. I have no earthly idea how he found out in so short a space of time, but he called me at the hospital, and he said these words to me, “Brother Ike, Cindy is now with the only One who loves her more than you do.” This is 2025, but when Ike told this story about a phone call he received in 1983 at the funeral of the man who took the time to call, the memory was fresh. The difference that call made to him was obvious. Are there phone calls or letters that you received at just the right time that you’ll always remember? Today, our Scripture lesson is a letter sent by Paul to a man named Philemon: a letter that meant so much to him that he never threw it out. If he hadn’t saved it, we wouldn’t have it to read today. While it’s now a book of the Bible, know what we’ve just read was a personal note written from Paul to Philemon about a man named Onesimus, who is the subject of the letter. It’s the well-being of Onesimus that gave Paul a reason to write. You see, Paul knew that Philemon saw Onesimus from one perspective, while Philemon saw Onesimus from another. Knowing that there’s always more than meets the eye when it comes to people, notice verse 11 and see that Paul viewed Onesimus as useful, while Philemon viewed Onesimus as useless. Philemon saw Onesimus as a useless runaway slave, a disobedient headache, while Paul saw Onesimus as his son, his own heart. This difference in perspective reminds me of something we mortal human beings often do. Despite our limited viewpoint, we sometimes mistake our opinion of a person for the truth about a person. Sometimes, we boldly believe that our narrow judgement has authority. We imagine that we know, yet when it comes to people, there is almost always more than meets the eye. Sometimes, parents learn that lesson the hard way at the parent teacher conference. I’ve been to parent teacher conferences where the teacher spoke so glowingly about my children, saying things like, “She’s a delight in class. She’s always smiling and following directions the first time I give them, so I never have to tell her twice.” “Teacher, maybe you’d like to see how she cleans her room after I’ve asked her to clean it four or five times.” You may have had the same experience. We all get so used to seeing people in the light we’ve always seen them in that we can’t see them for who they truly are. Philemon called Onesimus useless, yet Paul called him useful. Why? Maybe because Philemon knew him as his slave, his property, while Paul knew him as his son, his own heart. This is the way it often is. There’s always more to people than meets the eye, even if it’s your husband of 40 years that we’re talking about, or your children, or the guy who cuts your grass. Later today, I’m presenting research for my doctorate, but I still remember the sting of a woman’s words when I was her lawn maintenance man. I was bagging up grass clippings in the driveway of her Buckhead mansion, and I overheard her addressing her children, “Do you see what that man is doing? That’s why you go to college kids, so you don’t have to do that for a living.” I’d like to invite her to my graduation, but there’s no need for that, for while some people in this world may not see me clearly, God always does. God sees me and knows me. He is the Potter, and I am the clay. While I may have at times been nothing more than a lump, I know that God is at work in my life, shaping me towards my infinite potential. God is at work in your life, shaping you towards your infinite potential. God is at work in your neighbor’s life, shaping him towards his infinite potential, so don’t you dare limit him with your understanding of what he is capable of. Has anyone here ever been the victim of some narrowminded assumption? Who here has ever been damaged by a judgmental word? If you know how it hurts to be judged by someone else, then give up judging your neighbor. With all God’s people, there is always more than meets the eye. Take, for example, the crew I worked with cutting grass. In another life, one had been a ballroom dance instructor; another had been a dentist. The circumstances that led to them crossing the border and taking a job cutting grass were stories seldom heard. To many of those we worked for, we were hardly more than Onesimus was to Philemon. Immigrant is a derogatory word in the mouths of some people these days. It carries with it all sorts of misunderstanding and false assumption. Likewise, to Philemon, Onesimus was an enslaved man, useless and disobedient. However, Paul saw Onesimus as a beloved child of God, and so he wrote, “I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you,” and “I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.” Paul doesn’t tell Philemon what to do or how to act. He doesn’t demand that Philemon set Onesimus free, but he does tell him how to decide what to do. In a time when slavery was legal, and Philemon had every right under the law to discipline Onesimus through corporal punishment; in a time when the law allowed for Philemon to sell him or have him thrown in prison, Paul writes to Philemon and to us, urging us to believe that the path to the right decision is informed by love. I appeal to you on the basis of love. Not on the basis of the law, but on the basis of love. While it may be that compassion and empathy sometimes need to be pushed aside by logic, reason, lucidity, and cold hard facts, Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love. While we live in a world of law and order, politics and policy, do not forget that ultimately, we will be judged by the only One who loves us more than those who love us most. Grant your neighbors the same grace that you have received in Christ Jesus our Lord, and may the world become a better place through your love. Amen.