Jamie Greening's Blog

Netflix has strongly pushed their new thriller: A House of Dynamite. This weekend, Mrs. Greenbean left me alone and unsurprised while she traveled with one of the sprouts. That meant Sunday night after all my work was completed, I had time to relax. How did I choose to spend my relaxation time?

Oh, of course. I decided to watch a movie about nuclear war. So relaxing.

I liked the movie overall, and rate it as an above average Netflix film, but you need to know that is a low bar. I mean, I remember Bird Box.

Kathryn Bigelow knows how to tell a story, and she moves AHOD along very well. There is no real violence on screen and zero sexual content. The only thing that gets in the way of this being a clean movie is the language. There is foul language throughout. To enjoy this movie, you have to have a certain taste for radar screens, situation rooms, and lots of beauty shots of Washington D.C. Most people seem to like it, for as I write this, it is pushing an upper 70s on Rotten Tomatoes, so, may people are feeling okay with the movie.

Without spoiling it — and basically following what you would get from any preview — the premise of AHOD is that a nuclear missile is headed toward the United States. The movie is the reaction to that situation.

I’ll build this review around my old trusted method — What I really liked, what was okay, and what was awful.

WHAT I LIKED

I liked the pacing. Bigelow builds the story around about forty minutes of action and then tells that same story from three different perspectives. The first is from the perspective of the field operations personnel, the nuts and bolts people doing the work. Then when that ends, it switches to the next level up, the leadership of our nation at intelligence, national security, and the military. The last vignette is that same forty minutes from the perspective of the President of the United States and those around him. This story telling methodology could be clunky and overwrought, but in was done just perfect in AHOD.

I also liked in this film the compete lack of politics. It would have been so easy and tempting to insert a political ideology into the characters, especially when so many of them would have been political in nature. However, that is not even something that comes out through any of this. These people could be republicans, democrats, or anything in between. Well done. Because in this kind of scenario, your views on taxation or immigration really doesn’t mean much.

I also liked the way the film portrays an undercurrent of something like, ‘once this trigger event starts, there is a cascading ordering of events that makes the next step inevitable.’ As a storyteller, I really appreciated that level energy.

WHAT WAS OKAY

The acting was okay. There are great actors in this movie, for sure but I was deeply annoyed by two accent issues. Rebecca Ferguson, who I really like, and Idris Elba, who I really like, both play Americans. Elba actually portrays POTUS. Each one of them fall into their British accent more than once. It was distracting and it made me wonder two things. Thing one — were no Americans available? Thing two — why not, when hearing that accent, did they not reshoot the image or edit it a little better.

But that aside, the acting was quite brilliant. I especially tip my hat to all those actors I had never seen or heard of before in the early scenes when things are just starting. They are portraying the various military personnel who monitor and watch. Those folks did great.

WHAT WAS AWFUL

Okay, all the cards on the table, nothing was that awful. But it was unfortunate that there were some threads of narrative that seemed to be developing, and then . . . nothing. There is a FEMA official who seems like something important is going to happen through her and . . . nothing. Same with a bomber wing flying out over the Pacific. It looks like a significant storyline but . . . nothing. There are about four or five of these hooks with no barb.

The second almost awful is the lack of range in the film. It is an almost two hour movie and I don’t remember laughing or chuckling even once. Yes, I know it is serious, but human beings are funny. The mounting pressure of the moment would have been intensified and made more stark had there been a clever use of humor, maybe once in each of the three vignettes.

One more thing in the ‘awful’ category that is not really awful but just off-putting. The first minute or so of the film is unnecessarily wordy. It has a prologue that is designed to sound like something from the real world that is informing the made up movie we are about watch, but it really isn’t. It is a primer to set us on edge before the action starts. The movie is good enough that doesn’t need this. Just roll the film.

SOME SUMMARY STATEMENTS

The feel of AHOD is at times like a Jack Ryan movie, or maybe the backdrop of a Mission Impossible film. It definitely has that vibe. I kept thinking of Dr. Strangelove but without the biting irony and sarcasm. There is a moment when Elba says to one of his advisors that the course of action being told to him is ‘insanity’ and I thought of that famous line, ‘You can’t fight in here, this is the war room.’ None of it makes any sense. Nuclear weapons don’t make sense. Neither does war.

If you check the chatter about AHOD, lots of folks seem to be puzzled by the ending. I was not. The ending made perfect sense to me in real time. I will not give it away, as I said, no spoilers, but if you’ve followed the way the movie is set up then the ending is really the one way it could end.

Speaking of the end, one of the things you walk away from is, how real is this? Could this happen. My take is, no way this could actually go down like this. It is thrilling and terrifying to think of, but there must be so many safeguards which would ruin an otherwise good film. If you’d like a deeper dive into the realism of the scenario, click here for a fun article from NPR that talks to national security experts.

He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.

Isaiah 61:1

These were the first thoughts I had when I saw the images and heard the news that a cease-fire had been agreed to between Hamas and Israel. The two-year war had come to an end. Finally, they can all go home.

I am very happy with these developments and proud of President Trump and the United States for being a big part of making it all happen. It seems to me he significantly leveraged the United States unique relationship with Israel along with an honest desire to end the suffering of the people in Gaza. We should celebrate this and be happy. Even if you are not a Trump supporter, Republican, or if you protested Israel or vehemently agreed with their prosecution of the war — regardless of your stance on things this is a huge deal that allows for things to get better.

From the beginning of this war, I have tried to look at it historically. One reality of history is Hamas brought this on themselves, and it is a culmination of generational hatred that goes back to the founding of the modern state of Israel. There is not time to repeat all the history here, but the way I read it, what we have seen for the last two years is primarily because the Palestinians refused to live side by side with Jews in 1948.

There was no way Hamas thought they could defeat Israel on October 7, 2023. Their hope, and their plan, was to initiate the tension with Israel and drag Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and other bad actors into the conflict into a regional war. It almost worked, but Israel withstood. One reason it withstood is Iran is incredibly weak now because it has overreached and its own population is near rebellion. Another reason it failed is because radical Islam is shrinking. People my age still stand in fear of damage that was done on September 11, 2001 and in many other terrorists activities for the last thirty years in places like Paris, the UK, and Copenhagen. And sure, they can still do some damage but they have no where near the power they had, say, in 2005, although I think they are in our head.

Hamas’ plan on October 7 was also to force something, anything, because Israel had been boxing them in, essentially putting all of Gaza in a giant open air prison. It caused desperation, and desperate people do desperate things.

Historically, as well, we must look at Israel. I strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself, yet we all turn in horror at the bombing of hospitals thinking of the terrible brutality, only to shake our heads that Israeli intelligence was right, and there were tunnels and supplies and weapons underneath those hospitals. Before the west, especially places like the United States, England, and France judge too harshly the Israelis, it must remember Dresden, Hamburg, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima where indiscriminate bombings of civilian populations devastated untold numbers. Egypt shares a border with Gaza and could have welcomed the refugees with open arms. They, in large, did not.

The very difficult truth is the Palestinians have made, right or wrong, themselves so odious to the international community no one wants them.

Nevertheless, history will judge Israel harshly for its zealous over-prosecution of the war, just as it has judged George W. Bush harshly for his zealous invasion of Iraq. It was too much of a response. Israel over-reacted, and many of its people know this to be true, which is why Israel herself is still divided. They wasted much of the goodwill the world felt toward them with the desire for revenge. Likewise, Hamas wasted a lot of the world’s sentiment that they were being ill-treated when, a year ago, it stubbornly refused to release hostages and end the war.

And that is what I hope ended with this cease fire, revenge. It is not until each side stops seeking revenge for wrongs or perceived wrongs that actual peace will be achieved. It is not until fathers love their living children more than they love their dead brothers or dead children, or until politicians decide to care about their nation’s future more than the slights of the past, not until the future becomes more important than the past will there actually be peace.

And now I think on peace. A good friend of mine texted me about this development, and my response was, ‘is it really peace, though?’ It feels more like surrender, because Hamas is not able to wage war, fight, or even plot. Actually, when I see video of the destruction that has happened in Gaza, it reminds me of the old Latinism from my college days.

‘Carthago delenda est’ – Carthage must be destroyed.

The Elder Cato.

Israel has sown salt and now calls it peace.

Without a doubt, Gaza is destroyed. Hamas is gone. What happens now? Can it last, or will a new generation of young, angry, Palestinians seek revenge? Will it last, or will Israel bring in the bulldozers and take what she has long coveted? Does the future hold a Trump Hotel and Casino on the shores of the Mediterranean as he famously celebrated with a gold statue AI video?

Things have changed, and right now they seem better. History, though, makes me cynical, for I remember Clinton and the Oslo Accords where Rabin, Arafat, and Clinton supposedly fixed all this in 1993. It was perhaps the most awkward handshake in history.

History never goes away. It doesn’t repeat itself either. Nor does it rhyme. What happens is that people forget history and they just keep making the same mistakes. History wants to teach us. Will we learn?

And it was fun.

Travel is one of my favorite things, but I had never visited Alaska before. That has now been corrected.

The first question everyone asks is, ‘Did you take a cruise?’ The answer is no. I know many people love cruises, but that is not my preferred experience. We tackled the great big state in a car! A rented Chevy Equinox, to be exact.

We traveled with another couple, friends from church who likewise had never been to Alaska. I highly recommend traveling with people you love and respect, because it is close quarters and when things go wrong, as they always do at some point (like Fairbanks!) you need people you trust. We’ve always been blessed with outstanding travel companions.

Itinerary

Anchorage: Talkeetna: Denali: Fairbanks: Seward: Girdwood

We spent fourteen days in Alaska, landing on a Monday evening and leaving two weeks later on a Monday morning. Everything starts in Anchorage, but the best advice we received from those who have gone before is ‘get out of Anchorage as fast as possible.’ We spent one full day recovering from the day of travel and walked around a bit but I can tell you, Anchorage is nothing to write home (or write a blog) about. I feel like the biggest adventure in Anchorage was finding a good breakfast — which we did — and ate delicious reindeer sausage and chinook salmon scrambled eggs at the 817 Diner.

On the morning of our second full day we went back to the airport by Uber (which is only about fifteen minutes away) and rented a car, and drove to Talkeetna, about two hours up the road. Correction, we stopped at Wal-Mart first.

Talkeetna is a vibey hippy kind of place where there are some neat shops and decent eateries, but we spent most of our time hiking trails. There were lots of great trails. On one of them we saw a bear, at a distance, on the edge of pond. We were all armed with bear spray, but never did we use it.

We spent three nights in Talkeetna in a wonderful AirBnb. The most surprising serendipity in Talkeetna was the Alaska Birch Syrup tasting room. Birch syrup tastes to me like ribbon cane syrup from my childhood. If you know, you know.

On Saturday morning we turned north and drove through the snow to Denali National Park. A beautiful drive, although as the snow fell and collected on he roadway, I began to wonder if we made the right decision to come in September (short answer: we did — so many fewer people to deal with and the only thing we really missed was the train ride, which we thought was a good swap for the dazzling colors of the fall foliage). In Denali we saw a bull moose, in the snow, scraping against a tree. Very cool. we also saw grizzly bears, a mom and two cubs, again, at a safe distance through binoculars.

What we did not see that day was Mt. Denali, or Mt. McKinley, or whatever the name is now. It was hiding in the weather.

We did not stay overnight near the National Park, as there were really no available accommodations. Instead, we pressed further north and drove to Fairbanks. The drive from Talkeetna to Denali was about 2.5 hrs and the drive from Denali to Fairbanks was about 2.5 hours and the drive inside the park was about 2 hours. It as a long day of driving at slow speeds.

The VRBO we reserved was a horrible, unsafe, deceptive bit of devilry so we bailed on that and sought refuge at a local hotel. Fairbanks is very north, very cold, and the people are very hard edged. The city has a terrible mental health, addiction, and homeless problem which is very noticeable, very disturbing. It is not a pretty town. However, we did do some fun things, like visit the North Pole – a real place just north of Fairbanks. We also drove out to Chena Springs, which is a natural sulphur hot bath. On the Sunday we were there I went to church at the First Baptist Church of Fairbanks, and though small in number, about seventeen folks I counted, it was a very hospitable and kind congregation. A high point of Fairbanks was the Museum of the North on the campus of The University of Alaska.

We did see the Aurora, but it was a rainy, cloudy night so they were just kind of a puke green glow.

On our second Tuesday, we left Fairbanks and drove back to Anchorage, about a six hour journey. Another long day, but we were able to see most of Mt. Denali that day as the sun shone just a bit. We only stayed in Anchorage long enough to sleep and eat what was maybe the worst meal we experienced: the dreaded IHOP breakfast. The man who seated us spoke a language known only to himself.

Wednesday morning, then, the second Wednesday, we drove around Turnagain Arm to Seward, which is located near Kenai Fyords National Park. I think if there were a place on our itinerary I would have liked more days, it was here. I loved it– the location, the marine wildlife, everything. The entire village is surrounded by amazing mountains. Our first day we walked the beach and watched salmon fishers snag what I think were Coho salmon. So many fish. Harbor seals and otters watched us as we watched them. The next day we sailed on a marine tour out into the National Park and saw a great many wildlife include eagles, dall’s porpoise, seal lions, seals, and mountain sheep. No whales, sadly, but we did see the Aialik Glacier up close and personal. The captain cut the engines and we could hear it calving, cratering off in large hunks crashing as peels of thunder into the cold gray sea. It felt as though we were at the end of the world, the very place where God drew the line.

The next day, as if it rival the others, our little party of four went on a white water rafting expedition with a tour guide. We did not get many pictures that day because we were so busy paddling! It was far from a lazy float, and more like a days labor, but oh my, the joy of the adventure. We saw so many bald eagles that I lost count.

Finally, we finished at Girdwood, a resort community in the mountains. Here we healed our sore muscles with an amazing Nordic spa experience at the Alyeska Resort. We also visited a wildlife conservatory for rescued animals where we saw all kinds of things, like a three legged porcupine. From Girdwood it was about an hour drive back to the airport, to return the filthy and well-used rental car and fly home.

People

We met many interesting people. More than I could include here. One was Shawna–in Fairbanks who told a riveting tale of her father being beaten up and severely injured by a moose attack in their driveway. I know it seems wrong, but the way she told it was actually hilarious, but ended in, ‘His shoulder has never been right since then.’ We also met a man in Fairbanks who had driven from California to the shores of THE ARTIC OCEAN sleeping mostly in his own tricked out truck. I was so jealous. What a man.

We also met Brandon, our river guide in Seward. He told us riveting tales of bear in the backcountry and fishing trips and drunken Czechoslovakians set loose in the Alaskan wild. He described ‘ice climbing’ frozen waterfalls and I have decided that is something I need to do.

Most of the people we met were not from Alaska. I think it was fewer than a handful of people who are from Alaska. Several people were from other countries, including a brilliant young scholar from Serbia. There were many people who were transplants from Minnesota and Washington State. The weather in September reminded me a lot of Western Washington.

Clothes And Weather

I think we hit the ideal ‘shoulder season’ for Alaska. Most of the restaurants were still open, shops were open, and all the tours were still for the most part available. It did rain just about every day we were there. I was glad I brought my Columbia Rain Coat and my puffy Eddie Bauer coat. My Tilley hat performed fantastic, and I wouldn’t have wanted to not have that rain protection on my head.

No one dresses nicely in Alaska, so jeans, t-shirts, heavy coats, and hats are a must. And gloves, especially in Fairbanks. My Merrell hiking shoes were fantastic, but they are bulky so I wore them on travel days, as we only use carry on suitcases and never check baggage. If you avail yourself of washing machines at hotels and AirBnB, then three jeans, five shirts, and a hoody or sweater should do. Bring one pair of shoes for non-hiking days.

Years ago I was all on board the Eddie Bauer bandwagon. Their products were durable and attractive. That sheen is gone, as the last three purchases I’ve made have been disappointing. I bought my puffy jacket three years ago for our trip to Iceland, and it has done nothing but shrink because feathers keep coming out of it. In Alaska, every day I wore it, I looked like a molting bird.

What I noticed was a lot of folks in Alaska wearing Patagonia outerwear. It is speedy, but seems to be worth it. I purchased a couple of items and will be field testing them over the next year.

I did hav to buy new gloves in Fairbanks because mine were insufficient. My fingers were freezing. How important are gloves in Fairbanks? The outfitter we visited had a wall from floor to ceiling that stretched out for at least fifty feet of nothing but gloves. I’ve never seen that many choices before in my entire life.

When I go again, I will get much better binoculars and maybe a digital camera. The iPhone camera is not sophisticated enough to get the kind of photos Alaska deserves. Plus, I saw several people with lenses that were the size of an umbrella and I think I might have committed the sin of envy in those moments.

Vehicles

One of the things I look at is vehicles people drive in places. For example, everyone in Lisbon I think drives a Toyota. In Alaska, there are few luxury vehicles, and there are many, many, older trucks — twenty, twenty-five-year-old trucks. Not a lot of newer vehicles in Alaska. People are functional, utilitarian, and not unimpressed by flashy. If a vehicle is sturdy and dependable, they tend to hold on to it. Very few electric vehicles, I think I only saw two cybertrucks in our twenty plus hours of driving around.

Food

Other than the unfortunate IHOP, we really never had a bad meal. Fairbanks was mostly brown food — deep fried deep fried and not a lot of seafood — although I had a delicious salmon at the swanky restaurant in Chena Springs. Elk and reindeer are very mild meats, and I enjoyed a delicious reindeer potato soup in Seward. Halibut, salmon, oysters, and cod were in abundance and delicious.

Was it fresh? You would think so, but one of the things we learned was that most Alaskan fish has worms, so none of it is fresh. It has to be frozen immediately, or smoked, or overcooked to kill the words. So, there really is no such thing as fresh Alaskan fish.

But there is so much of it and they really know how to prepare it.

The cost of the food is what as shocking. When we could, we we would buy from a grocery store, such as Safeway or the local IGA in Talkeetna, and even there it was really high. Meat wasn’t that much more expensive in the store, but everything else was exorbitant. At restaurants Mrs. Greenbean and I often split entrees and still it would be over $100 for two people.

Here are some notable restaurants you should visit if you go to Alaska. Orsos in Anchorage had a halibut dish which might be worth the flight up. The best breakfasts we had were The Cookie Jar in Fairbanks. Surprisingly the meal at the lodge in Chena Springs was very very good, as was the atmosphere, or maybe we were really, really hungry after soaking in sulphur hot springs for four hours.

Vying for top spot in our culinary adventures was a fantastic meal, and wonderful environment, was at Rays in Seward. We had the best seat in the house. But in truth, other than IHOP, we never had a bad meal. The food was all very delicious. Every restaurant seemed to carry a Philly cheesesteak, cheese curds, clam chowder, and salmon. I only saw oysters in Seward.

Change Anything?

No, I wouldn’t change anything for our fourteen day trip. However, if someone didn’t have that much time, say seven days or ten days, I think the journey to Fairbanks is something that could be eliminated. Talkeetna, too, though amazing and fun and quirky, offers trails and there are abundant trails in Girdwood, Seward, and just about everywhere in Alaska. Maybe three nights in Talkeetna with a day trip form there out to Denali and back.

I also think perhaps in hindsight that I could have saved some sore backs, although it would have increase costs, to have dropped off the rental car in Fairbanks and flown to Seward. But that is all hindsight. I wouldn’t change a thing about our fourteen days.

Juneau was on our list, but it was practically closed. If I ever go back, I will see Juneau, Kodiak Island, and Wrangler-Elias National Park for certain. That kind of an itinerary will require a lot of plane rides, but having just enjoyed this trip so much, I think I will be back, but I’ll bring more money.

Pictures

Here are some photos from our trip, although, I must say, pictures do not do it justice. The land is so vast, beautiful, bold, and there is a slight tinge of danger to every adventure.

KODAK Digital Still Camera KODAK Digital Still Camera

There are spoilers in this blog post, so if you are one of the three or four people who have not seen the new Superman movie and want to see it, then perhaps you shouldn’t read any farther. However, my spoilers aren’t any plot defying amazing twists you probably wouldn’t see coming because, there really aren’t any.

Let’s go old school in this review and start with what I liked and do what I didn’t like and then finish with what I absolutely hated. Oh, and bonus content.

What I Liked

I liked a lot of things, but the first thing I really liked was the acting. This cast is amazing. I am especially impressed with Rachel Brosnahan, who has made the leap from Mrs. Maisel extremely well. I knew she was great on the small screen, but to make the leap to a major summer movie and literally dominate in every scene she’s in, well, that is special. She has generational talent.

I also really liked Mr. Terrific, played by Edith Gathegi. In fact, the best scenes of the movie were when Lois and Mr. ‘I Am Annoyed With People’ Terrific are together. Quality, real quality. I want to see a movie where those two are the main characters and Superman just shows up for lunch.

I like the decision to start in the middle of Superman’s arc, and not rebuild the universe from scratch. I am not sure we even needed the prologue, just open with him falling to the ground, bleeding.

I like the ‘Justice Gang’, too. Them, along with the dog, made the whole thing feel so comic-booky that it elevated my enjoyment. Unlike so many other superhero things which run away from the comic book feel, this movie leans in. Good decision.

So, there is a lot in this movie I really liked. Now, for what I didn’t like.

What I Didn’t Like

The screenplay was atrocious. I mean, atrocious. There are moments of writing so bad I cringed. Let’s start at the beginning, for an example. Why is the robot telling the other robot out loud, ‘He likes to see the message from his parents. It soothes him.’ That is a perfect example of telling and not showing, and also of info dumping through weird dialogue that makes absolutely no sense situationally. In fact, almost everything those robots say is that way. It is lazy exposition. DC needs to HMU next time and I can help punch that thing up for them.

I didn’t like the special effects much. It was only a slight step above what you might get from Strange New Worlds on Paramount. At no point did I think the supposed ‘rift’ in the black whole pocket universe looked anything other than Microsoft Paint. And that ‘River of Anti-Protons’ or whatever looked like they swiped it from the old Mario Cart game on Nintendo 64.

I didn’t like the cursing. I never like cursing in these movies that are so clearly geared toward traditionally younger audiences. It is unnecessary. Before you label me as a prude here, even though I generally am against cursing, if it is narratively acceptable, if it fits the crowd and audience, okay I get it. But, Superman is where you take your nine-year-old.

I didn’t like the overall characterization of Superman’s Iowa parents. Hear me out — the actors were great, and the dialogue they gave and love and encouragement were very family friendly and I dig that a lot. But, and I am not being judgy, they are from Iowa not Arkansas. The slow cadence, the twang, and their dress looked more Appalachian than Midwest. Watch it again and listen to Clark Kent’s dialect — it sounds like Iowa. His Iowa parents, however, sound like they might be from rural Mississippi. I’m not dogging people from rural Mississippi at all. I am from very rural East Texas, and we have a definite drawl. I just don’t think James Gunn knows what Iowa sounds like so he played Deliverance. Gunn only knows city elites and hillbillies and it is one or the other for him, which is actually not the way it works.

What I Am Uncertain If I Liked Or Didn’t Like

There is a scene in which Superman comes to Lois Lane’s apartment in the midst of his existential crisis. Outside the window is a giant glowing space jellyfish or something and it looks amazing. But him, and Lois, are completely unconcerned. It was really hard to focus on this powerful relational moment and not think, ‘What is going on outside. Can I see just some of that battle up front? That looks amazing! Come on, man, there is a car chase scene here and you’re showing us two people talking at the coffee shop about their feelings!

But maybe that is the point. In this universe, something like that is just not unusual at all.

What I Hated

There is only one thing, and I will not beat it to death. I hated the timing. The release of this movie is so soon after the more recent Henry Cavil Superman movies that it makes the head spin. Let it cure a bit before you come out swinging.

BONUS COVERAGE: POLITICS AND RELIGION!

Before I ever saw this movie I read a lot of political chatter about it, claiming it was pro-immigrant or anti-Israel or pro-replacement theory or whatever. I have no doubt people making this movie had political baggage they were carrying, but honestly the conflict felt more like Ukraine V Russian than what is happening and has happened in Gaza. And who could be mad that Superman is keeping Russia out of Ukraine, huh? I mean, come on? Slava Ukraini!

Is Superman an undocumented immigrant. No, he is an alien. How exactly would an alien get documented? Is there a process for that in this universe? Besides, he lives as Clark Kent, decidedly not living as an immigrant. He was raised in Iowa. He never crossed a border, unless you count the ionosphere as a border. I felt this movie was more about adoption, which rings near to my heart. My father, the man who raised me, adopted me. I am instilled with the values he taught me — hard work, strong coffee, and then get back to work. I am not filled with the values of my biological father. Character and integrity is about choices, not genetics. But kudos to the makers of the movie, because they must have done something right to make everyone think they were hitting on their pet project. That is what good art does, it gets you thinking, which is something more than say, Jurassic World: Rebirth does even though it tried real hard.

I am far more interested in the religious overtones of the film. The last several versions of Superman have worked hard to paint him as a god figure surrounded by mere mortals. The Marvle universe has leaned hard into that as well, creating a virtual Greek pantheon of major and minor deities. At least in this DC Universe, for now, that is being eschewed. The most powerful moment, emotionally, is when Superman gives his, ‘I am a human’ speech to Lex Luthor. Superman doesn’t want to be god, he wants to be human.

And there it is, the meta narrative of all story-telling. Superman embodies the narrative timeline in this film of Jesus who is taken into custody willingly, and then descends into Hades, a pocket universe where souls are held captive by the digital devil Lex Luthor. He then escapes, and rescues those in bondage. It is one of my sincerest beliefs, and one of the reasons I love stories so much, that all stories are echoes of the One True Story — Jesus Christ, the God-man who was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and saves the world. You can’t tell the Superman story without Christian religious language. God Almighty should have gotten a writer’s credit and a tithe royalty should be split among the world’s Christian denominations.

Summary Judgment

I liked it. It was great summer movie popcorn fun. What more could you ask for?

II Timothy ends with strong declarative sentences. They are short and to the point, with the possible exceptions of verses 17 and 18 which posed a bit of a challenge in rendering.

II Timothy 4:10-22

10. Demas went to Thessalonica. He loved this present age and so abandoned me. Crescens went to Galatia. Titus went to Dalmatia.

11. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to my ministry.

12. I sent Tychichus to Ephesus.

13. When you come, bring the coat I left with Carpus on Troas, and the letters, but more than anything, the parchments.

14. Alexander the coppersmith did many bad things to me. The Lord will give to him according to his works.

15. You must keep away from him, for he strongly opposed our words.

16. At my first trial no one stood with me. Everyone abandoned me; may it not be held against them.

17. But the Lord stood with me, and he empowered me, so the gospel message might be fulfilled and should be heard by all nations. I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

18. The Lord will rescue me from all works of evil. He will save me in his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory ever and ever. Amen.

19. Greet Prisca and Aquila as well as the household of Onesiphorus.

20. Erastus stayed in Corinth and I left Trophimus in Miletus because he was weak.

21. Try hard to come before winter. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters say, ‘Hi.’

22. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Here is the good news – you’re a first century Christian and are mention by name in a positive context in the Bible. You made it into the Bible. Hooray for you! Now, the bad news. Your name is Pudens. How unfortunate to be named Pudens, which autocorrect keeps changing to pudding; the struggle is real.

I love a good names list in the Bible. Most people just blow right through those, like genealogies, but I find these sections to be the most intimate, especially a names list like this where it is very personal. My all-time favorite is the names Paul drops at the end of Romans. There is is homiletical gold in those closing thoughts.

Listing these names gives a personal touch to the letter that reminds us Paul is a real person and has real needs. I am reminded of reading Bonhoeffer’s prison letters and he asks for them to send him things like books, paper to write on, and laxative because he is terribly constipated. One gets a similar feeling here from Paul. This letter is theological and it is instructive for us, but it was also a personal communication about real needs in relationship with real people who had their own story. ‘Get my coat from Carpus, even if he says it is his and won’t give it up. It’s mine. Bring it to me. I need it.’

Let’s talk about the people. Two people are mentioned by name as being bad, and maybe three. Alexander did bad things to Paul and opposed his message. That seems clear enough, and Alexander seems to be in Ephesus where Timothy is. Compare this to Acts 19 and the silversmith Demetrius.

Demas flat out went apostate. He loved the world too much. He wanted the applause of people and a girlfriend on the side.

For me, the verdict is out on whether or not Trophimus in verse 20 is on Paul’s bad list. The text uses a word that can mean sick as in poor health or it may mean weak. Certainly, Paul may mean to say he was sick so he left him behind. Maybe. However, that doesn’t sound very Paul-like to me. I know this is my GenX cynicism creeping in, but I perceive there is an equal chance he is condemning Trophimus for being a weak person as in not strong enough to do the work of ministry. He was not, like Mark, useful so Paul just left him behind. Paul cut him from the team, terminated him, gave him the pink slip. He was weak.

I don’t think I could do that. I wish I could, that I could be strong enough and single-minded enough to cut those out of my life who are not strong enough to keep up. However, I just don’t think I could and my ministry probably suffers from it. I am guilty of enabling weakness. Kyrie eleison.

Crescens, Titus, Tychicus, and Erastus are not on Paul’s bad list but instead are where he wants them in Galatia, Dalmatia, Ephesus, and Corinth. The result is that he is ministerial speaking, alone. Luke is the only other minister who is part of his team with him. Yeah, there are others who say, ‘Hi’ like Linas, Claudia, and poor Pudens but they are not a part of the leadership team. They don’t preach, teach, exhort. It is this loneliness that probably makes him pine even more for Priscilla (here, Prisca) and Aquila who had been so much to him and in so many different places and ways. An interesting tidbit about these two is whenever they are mentioned, Priscilla is always mentioned first. She must have been a powerhouse of a woman. I can see her going toe to toe with Paul, and here, in prison, Paul misses that.

When he says no one came to stand with him at his trial, he probably means no one from the local congregation of believers came to vouch for him. That is how I understand it. It is impossible to think he is bitter at Titus or Erastus for not being there. He means the church in Rome. They, like Demas, abandoned him. He stood alone.

But not really alone, for the Lord was with him, and Paul compares himself to Daniel in the lion’s den but he might actually mean he was spared being thrown to lions. We know how horrible and bloodthirsty the Romans were. But Jesus saved him so that the gospel might flourish and be proclaimed.

Paul is ready to be poured out, but he’s not quite dead yet. Bring the coat, he says, you know the one. Winter is coming and it will be cold. And bring me something to read, particularly the parchments, for I’ve made some notes in the margins I’d like to expand on.

Timothy, time is running out. Do try hard to come before winter.

I know.

It’s only four verses. Four verses which are not very long.

I know.

It’s just these verses are unique and stand alone. The section before it was very much exhortation to Timothy, and the lines right after, and maybe even beginning with 9, are a kind of rundown on people and needs. But here, in these brief lines we see Paul the old man saying he is finished. It is up to Timothy now. That is why he has been so hard on the young man, because he needs him to keep going because Paul’s time is over.

So please understand why I am only giving you four brief verses in my translation.

II Timothy 4:6-9

6. For I am already poured out — empty. The time for my departure has come.

7. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

8. All I have left is the reserved crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on the day. Not only to me, but also all those who have loved his appearing.

9. Try hard to come to me quickly.

These verses sound so much to me like parts of Philippians. You can almost hear him mumble to himself, ‘to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ The language evokes a drink offering before the Lord himself. Paul is the offering, but not to be confused or mixed up with a salvific offering which only Jesus can make, but a freewill offering of praise and devotion. Like David pouring out the water out of respect. Like oil poured out on altar stones.

Yet, the evocative image in me conjures the Psalms and the imagery of ‘my cup overflows.’ Paul’s cup no longer overflows, not because he is no longer blessed, but because he has poured it all out. There is nothing left in reserve.

A key motto of ministry for me is, ‘you must minister out of the overflow,’ which is to say as servants of God our ministry is literally what brims over from the nourishing of our own spiritual lives. We must study, read, pray, and serve apart from lesson preparation, church life, and ministry events. Burn out is real, and one of the biggest culprits is spiritual neglect. We let our our cup dry up, which is different than pouring it all out on purpose through a life invested in the kingdom of God. Please don’t confuse the two. Paul had kept his cup full, and that fullness gave him so much to pour out on purpose as an oblation.

Now I am thinking of the earlier metaphor Paul used of bowls – we are bowls in God’s house. His bowl is empty. Let the reader understand.

He then uses two athletic images, again conjuring his earlier metaphors of a soldier and athlete. He says he has fought the good fight. Although Paul certainly had his squabbles, (I’m looking at you, Barnabas!) I believe here he is speaking of the struggle in which we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but with powers unseen. He had engaged the enemy and did all he could. He did not retreat or surrender.

He also finished the race. This is the same verb Jesus used on the cross when he said, ‘It is finished.’ So, too, is Paul. Finished. Complete. Fulfilled. Lived.

If you are unable to crawl into the emotion behind these two verses, then I am uncertain I can help you. To think of a person who knows their life is over and hear her or him say, ‘I gave it all I had. I held nothing back. I used it all up. I did my best and fought hard for what mattered most. I lived my life completely and have finished everything that I was supposed to do. Nothing is left undone, and I never turned my back on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ and not grow a little teary-eyed is to not be able to feel this powerful testimony. These words are exactly how I want to reflect in my last moments. I pray God grants me enough time to be cognitive of the end that I may offer one more prayer and tell him, ‘Thank you!’

Maybe I have sat beside too many bedsides as people die who weren’t able to say these kinds of things. Instead they had regrets. Unresolved issues. Fear. It amazes me the way people are so afraid they pass up the best parts of living. Remember how Paul encouraged Timothy early, almost scolded him, in Chapter 1:7, ‘God didn’t give you a cowardly spirit’. How we die says more about our faith than just about anything else we could do.

There is a clunkiness to verse 8 that makes it almost untranslatable in English and still be faithful to the grammar. If I were to go full-on interpretative mode, then it would have to translate as, ‘The Lord is righteousness judge of the competition. He has set aside a victory crown of righteousness for me. He will give me the crown on the day I die. Now, this crown of righteousness on the day of death is not just for me, it is also for everyone who loved that Jesus has come into the world and is coming again.’

See, clunky, but persuasive all at the same time. The crown of course goes back to the athlete competing and being given this trophy. I will let you wrestle with whether or not we get a literal crown in the afternow (do you like that little pun I left there for you?) but I will tell you I come down as thinking no. No real crowns. This is all metaphor for victory. What we have in the afternow is victory in Jesus. More than conquerors.

And for what it is worth, I don’t think this is a participation trophy.

The last sentence I included, 9, could have been with the next, last section but I decided to include here because it might be, just might be, Paul is telling Timothy to come quickly because he thinks he will die soon, and he would like to see him one more time. Hurry, he says. I may not make it. If you’ve ever caught a midnight plane to try and make it before someone on death’s door dies, praying you get there so to see him one more time, to talk to him, and to squeeze his hand while blood still pulsed in those weak veins, then you maybe you can see why I included this here.

Hurry up, Timothy. I’ve been hard on you in this letter and I am leaving you a load of work to do. But come quickly, for my time is running out.

What is a servant of God to do when things are bad? When people won’t listen? When they prefer endless podcasts of foolish banter and speculation by people who only tell them what they want to hear? What do you do when they would rather watch a sporting event on television than worship Almighty God? What do you do when the deck is stacked against you?

Paul says keep at it and endure. That is the essence of my rendering of these powerful lines from the early part of Chapter Four of II Timothy.

II Timothy 4:1-5

1. I implore you before God and Messiah Jesus, who is destined to judge the living and the dead at the coming of his kingdom,

2. Preach the word! Take your stand in good times and bad times; you must advise, rebuke, and encourage. Patiently teach everyone.

3. There will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, they will desire to binge on ear tickling teachers.

4. They will turn their backs from the voice of the truth and turn toward myths.

5. But you must be clear headed about everything, endure hardships, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your obligations as a servant.

In verse 2, the word for preach is the root for kergyma, a fancy theological term that has come to mean the encapsulation of the gospel the early church preached — Jesus Christ and his atoning crucifixion, resurrected, and eventual return. Word here is ‘logos’, not ‘rhema’. Rhema is more of a grammatical idea of letters forming sounds that mean certain things. Logos is more of a philosophical idea made famous by The Fourth Gospel’s enthralling prologue where logos is used to describe Jesus himself. He is the word, the word made flesh.

Paul says keep preaching Jesus. That means to preach about the sin of immorality and excess and call people to repent. It means to preach about doing to the least of these and calling people to stand up for the weak. It means proclaiming life matters, whether that life is an unborn baby or an immigrant seeking refuge and a better way for his or her family. It means preaching Jesus not caesar. It means preaching Jesus not greed. It means preaching Jesus not comfort. It means preaching go and sin no more. It means preaching turn the other cheek. It means preaching our righteousness must exceed the pharisees. It means preaching the Good Samaritan. It means making everyone uncomfortable by proclaiming the truth that Jesus does not always agree with us.

When does this preaching need to happen? In good times and bad times. Again, not to get too deep, but the word for time is ‘kairos’ not ‘chronos’. Chronos is more a measurable time by watch or calendar. Kairos is all about the moment or as my daughter would say, vibe. My experience is people ‘vibe it’ and want preaching and pastoral care when they hurt, reflect, or want comfort. They do not want it when their job is good, stock portfolio is profiting, and health is A+.

Verses three and four remind me of conversations I’ve had with a lot of spiritual leaders of late regarding influence on the people we are trying to lead toward Jesus. We preachers have, at best, one, maybe two hours a week with folks. But left wing and right wing media that runs 24/7 combined with YouTubers, influencers, podcasters and TikTokers have limitless input into peoples behaviors.

Our current culture embodies the very definition of people who have turned away from sound teaching and instead just want to be filled with whatever echo-chamber they prefer. This is the very word-picture of ear tickling. All the while, this bad time, this bad season, preachers must not give up or give in. Paul says just preach the word. Even if they do turn their back on you and binge yet another podcast produced by someone who has no idea what he or she is talking about but really knows how to keep the clicks going and can titillate the imagination with raging conspiracy, unbelievable permissiveness, and what ifs.

In contrast, the servant of God must be clear headed. The word ‘clear headed’ is sometimes used for ‘sober’ but it is more than that. It also can mean ‘balanced.’ The servant of God is balanced. I use the word servant in verse 5, but the word could be translated as minister. A minister must be clear headed, balanced. I could not agree more. This is exactly what our world needs now more than anything else, clear headed, focused, servants of God who stay grounded in truth. This will bring hardships which must be endured. This will require hard work no one will understand. It will most definitely call a man or woman to find himself evangelizing even in the midst of the people who claim to follow Jesus. It will require a person who recognizes their obligation is to the Lord and not to an institution, a progressive movement, or a flag.

I am not a doomsayer, and my personality is generally one of optimism. God is always at work and he is always calling people to himself. But we cannot miss the point that these lines, combined with those of the first few verses of Chapter Three, seem like a self-portrait we’ve painted of culture in 2025. Powerless. Entertained. Stupid. Distracted. Greedy. Mean. Uncaring.

But you, if you choose to fulfill your obligation as a servant of God must be patient, teach, preach, and endure. Why? Because Jesus is coming, and he will judge the living and the dead. This is the hortatory end of II Timothy, as he will turn toward his own journey’s end and some last minute requests before he wraps it up. We will get to those in the next post.

This section of II Timothy contains what is likely the most quoted verse in the book, that being 3:16 and the famous describer of scripture. Notice as you read the verses how Paul really does put himself out there. I have inserted ‘my’ in front of each noun, although be advised in the Greek New Testament in only appears once, I front of teaching in verse 10. However, the way I understand the usage, the ‘my’ should be understood for each of them.

The biggest challenge in translating these was choosing the word ‘abide’ in verse 14. Abide is such a spiritualized word that I fear it has little actual impact on the reader. ‘Stay’, or ‘remain’ could work. But ultimately there is no word that means precisely what abide means. I almost rendered it as, ‘live in what you learned and trusted.’

II Timothy 3:10-17

10. But you, stick to my teaching, my way of life, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance,

11. my persecutions, my sufferings, such as what happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured, and the Lord rescued me from all of it.

12. Everyone desiring to live a godly life in Messiah Jesus will be persecuted.

13. But evil people and charlatans will grow worse and worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

14. You must abide in what you learned and trusted, knowing from whom you learned it.

15. For you’ve known the sacred writings since an infant; these are able to make you wise unto salvation in Messiah Jesus.

16. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, and for discipline in righteousness

17. so that a person of God may be capable, prepared for every good work.

Verse 12 jumps up and down and shouts to use while waving its arms. Yet we breeze right on by thinking surely it means someone else. Read it slowly: everyone desiring to live a godly life in Messiah Jesus will be persecuted. Who? Everyone. Doing what? Desiring to live for Jesus. What will happen? Persecution.

It is a negative proof; if there is no persecution can a person rightly claim to be living for Jesus? Regardless of how you answer it, Paul has already made up his mind.

In verse 10, I went with a colloquialism, ‘stick’ as in ‘stay near’ or ‘follow my lead.’ The New Testament word means to ‘follow closely.’ It is a different feel than watch or observe. It has the feeling of ‘put your feet in the same spot I put mine.’

The role of scripture in discipleship highlights the last part of the passage. Scripture is the key to everything. In verse 15 Paul calls them sacred writings (sacred or holy letters). In verse 16 he calls them scripture (writing). He is of course talking only about the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. He tells us it is God-breathed, a beautiful compound word that calls to mind God breathing life into Adam. Adam was just a form until God breathed into it. Words are just words and stories are just stories until God breathes it, and then they become alive! These living words are then key to wisdom.

These writings are useful, Paul says. Useful for four key things. The first is teaching. I’ve argued the Bible should be so familiar to us that the idioms, phrases, and vocabulary should flow out of our mouth. The second is rebuking, which has an apologetics character to it. It is as much about refutation as it is behavior. In other words, this is about bad ideas not just bad behavior. The third is correction, a word denoting ‘straightening out.’ This would be the use of the scripture as a moral guide. And finally, bring up children in the the right way. That fourth one is about discipleship, yes, but the language insinuates childhood instruction.

A word on that idea of teaching children the Bible. All the Bible is helpful, but not at the same stages of life. I am not certain an eight-year-old should be taught about David and Bathsheba in any context. A fifteen-year-old definitely should. Likewise, the destruction of Ai or the killing of the firstborn in Egypt should probably not be introduced to ten-year-olds. My point is the Bible is useful, but not all the Bible is useful at all stages of life. We have the whole Bible for the completion of our education, but just as a kindergartener should not be engaged in advanced calculus but rather outside playing with bugs, so too we must be wise in our use of the Bible in children’s discipleship. And yes, this includes at what ages we begin to teach them about a bloody cross and Jesus dying for our sins.

Are you sticking to Paul?

Are you experiencing or have you experienced persecution for your faith?

Is the Bible leading you into wisdom?

These are the lines that captivated me so much in Portugal and throughout our time on the Iberian Peninsula. The words carry an enigmatic aroma to them even though the actual translation of these verses was straightforward and among the easiest in II Timothy.

II Timothy 3:1-9

1. You should know this, that in the last days hard times will be imminent

2. because people will be selfish, greedy, self-promoters, arrogant, blasphemous, rebellious to their parents, ungrateful, and without religion.

3. They will be the kind of people who don’t care about doing what is good, callous, always unsatisfied, slanderous, violent, vicious,

4. traitors, reckless, conceited people who love pleasure more than they love God.

5. It will look like godliness, but they will deny its power. You must reject this.

6. For among them are people so covered in sins they slip into the homes of young women and lead them away with various desires.

7. Always learning, yet a knowledge of the truth is never able to come to them.

8. They are the same as Jannes and Jambres, who stood against Moses; these people stand against the truth and their corrupted minds fail to measure put up to faith.

9. But they will not get very far. Their stupidity will be evident to everyone, just as it happened to others.

Throughout most of my life I’ve understood the idea of things getting worse being the sign of all things come to a close as inevitably linked to a certain time that has already been pre-set. However, reading through this passage, and others, I’m coming more to sense less about a certain time and more about a certain disposition humanity will someday come to. It might not be now, and there is no set time we will arrive at, but it is inevitably coming as we will become the authors of our own destruction. Our rotten behavior will usher in the end.

It is the day, to summarize all of these horrific descriptions of Paul, that we completely abandon human affection and care and totally and completely pursue only what makes us happy in the moment.

A man or a woman does not have to be a very good preacher at all to draw lines here to every day life right now. From the blasphemous self-promoting politicians who lead us to the vicious and violent celebrities who entertain us to the godless intellectuals who claim to always pursue knowledge but they can’t affirm the truth right in front of them – ultimate truth like Jesus is Lord but also inherent truth like male is not female. Blinded by power, pleasure, and the praise of people we’ve become violent, blithering idiots.

Paul says, rather comforting though, in verse 9 these people, especially those who prey upon young girls (v. 6 might be the Epstein list, no?) will not get very far because people will see their stupidity. Stupidity is my word, the New Testament here is ‘anoia’, which is the negative prefix ‘a’ with the noun ‘noia, nous’ which means mind. You might recognize ‘noia’ from words like ‘metanoia’ which means to change your mind and is often rendered as repent. You might also see it in the word ‘paranoia’ which is ‘other minded.’ Here, then, ‘anoia’ could then be translated as mindless, or without a mind, or brainless. I chose stupid. Their stupidity will be revealed and people will recognize them for what they are.

O Lord, open our eyes before it is too late.

It was verse 5, though, that sent me toward the world of II Timothy back in late April as we toured the beautiful European nation of Portugal. It was Sunday morning and we were in the town of Porto, scheduled to fly out that afternoon to Madrid. As is my custom, I went to church. I always go to church somehow some way. I found one within walking distance, and off I went in the rain.

To make a long story short, it was not a worship service, but an exhibit and before I knew what had happened I had been charged ten euros and was walking up toward the bell tower. I got lost, and, alone, I panicked. I couldn’t quite figure out the panic attack, for I am not prone to those. I could see below me the sanctuary, ornate, golden, pews, and artwork but I couldn’t reach it. Eventually I found my way down. But I was far from okay. Something was stirring within me.

It was Sunday. This was a church. There was a pulpit but no preacher. There was a choir but no singers. There was an altar but no chalice or wafer. There were people but no worshipers.

I found a pew and sat in it, alone except for one man with a camera taking pictures. After a few minutes a Korean man walked into the chapel and found a pew and I could see a kindred spirit. He too was looking for something more here on this Lord’s Day.

I sat and prayed and tried to focus. The Lord took my my mind to two thoughts. The first the farce of someone coming into a church seeking, but then panicked and unable to figure out what to do or where to go, confused. That is what has happened in American Christianity. The church is like that basilica in which people enter hungry for something meaningful but they get lost and panicked in our endless ‘corridors’ and ‘passageways’ and ‘o look at this neat thing’ that they eventually just get tired of it and find an exit.

We have let the world down by choosing to entertain them rather than feed them.

The second important thing that came to me was the deep impression of this verse, II Timothy 3:5. There as I sat in the chapel looking at the trappings of faith — even a giant crucifix — But he power was gone. The Holy Spirit had long removed the candlestick from this place (Revelation 2:5).

Again, I thought of projection screens, people singing songs they didn’t understand, and preachers peddling political movements and cliches rather than calls to repentance and justice. I committed there, in that place to do whatever I could to never settle for forms or appearances of godliness. It is the power of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, which I pursue. Anything less than that and the church will become a museum exhibit for people to take pictures on Sunday morning.

Often we talk about the people of God as being like a building. Paul double downs on this with the idea of not just a house, but what is in the house. See what he sees –there are bowls that have flour for bread, others with oil for dipping. Some have water for washing. Some bowls are made of wood and are used for serving grapes and figs yet other bowls are made of gold and exist only for beauty itself or of silver that perhaps hold precious objects like rings and jewelry. There is a jar, a bowl, a vessel that houses the special scrolls of scripture, and there is also a chamberpot which must be regularly emptied.

What, exactly, kind of bowl are you in the household of God? That is the question at the heart of these lines I have translated from II Timothy.

II Timothy 2:20-26

20. In a great house there are not only bowls of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some dishonor.

21. Now, therefore, if anyone should purify himself from these things, to be consecrated as an honorable bowl, useful to the homeowner, ready for every good work,

22. then flee youthful desires; pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those people who call upon the name of the Lord from a clean heart.

23. You must avoid foolish and ignorant speculation because it is a breeding ground for conflict.

24. Yet it is not necessary for a servant of the Lord to fight, but to be kind to everyone, a gifted teacher, and one who tolerates bad people.

25. Teaching those who are in opposition with gentleness, for God may give them repentance to know truth

26. and so come to their senses, away from the devil’s trap where they were held alive to do his will.

Verse 21 is an aorist subjective which indicates a mood that I might describe best as ‘iffy-ness’. Often translated with ‘should’ or ‘could’ but I’ve chosen ‘if’ in this instance. The idea is, I think, of a chamberpot filled with awful, odorous, unclean contents that wants to clean itself out, to purify itself, it can become more than a chamberpot. If it should so desire.

Paul is anthropomorphizing an inanimate object as if it had agency to describe us. We are like chamberpots, filled with pollutants called sin. But, we can change and become a vessel of gold that holds something precious.

Not only is the bowl purified, it is consecrated, made holy, honorable, and useful to the homeowner, who is clearly a representation of the Lord himself. This transformation is supernatural and comes from the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus, but it is also a discipline, as the chamberpot, you and me, take an active role in the process of cleaning ourselves up. There are actions we must take.

The first one he mentions here is to run away from youthful desire. It is easy to think of sexual sin here but that is too easy. Certainly that is part of it, but the emphasis upon ‘youthful’ might simply mean to be an honorable vessel requires maturity. Growing up is the first part of following Jesus. Stop acting like a spoiled, entitled, selfish child.

The second step would then to be to belong to a community who is pursuing the eternal biblical virtues of peace, love, faith, and righteousness. Transformation is not done alone. This kind of change only comes in the context of community. Grow up and join up seem to be what Paul is elucidating as necessary for us to stop being a stinking poopy pot and become a glowing golden goblet.

A third step is to live in this community without being odious and confrontational. You don’t have to fight. There is always an option. The servant of the Lord doesn’t have to fight, and indeed likely should not. Instead, he or she must teach and speak in a patient, kind, tolerating kind of way even to those who are foolish. The point is, God might through your work open their eyes to see and so be raised up out of the chamberpot themselves. The language of verse 26 calls the chamberpot a trap of the devil. People are trapped, captured, and kept alive in the cesspool of their own making. We can help them.

So, we grow up, join up, and raise up. This is the process for change, but it is not linear. I find I am always working at growing up for I am ever an eight-year old boy or a seventeen-year old hothead. The work of staying in community is very hard and the temptation to flee to the comforting destruction of isolation ever woos. I grow weary of repeating myself over and over to people about the right things and the wrong things. It is exhausting. I think that is why Paul is reminding Timothy of it. Timothy knows these things, but he must be reminded.

We do, as well.