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Tuesday 25 January is one of the big days of the Church’s year. On that day we celebrate St Paul who was probably the most important figure in the early Christian Church (apart from Jesus of course!) Paul travelled thousands of miles telling people about Jesus and he wrote letters to help them to follow Jesus. Its easy to forget, though, that Paul didn’t do all that on his own and on the next day, 26 January, we celebrate two of his friends: Timothy and Titus. We don’t know much about them, but we do have letters that may be from Paul to them, giving them encouragement and advice. It looks like Paul sometimes left them behind when he moved on so they could look after the new church community that he had started. During the Covid pandemic we’ve discovered that some of the people we need the most are people who work in the background like Timothy and Titus; people who are not usually appreciated or praised: nurses, carers, truck drivers, shop workers, vaccinators and volunteers and so on. Who do you know who is an unsung hero like Timothy and Titus?
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Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:5-6
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“In our world of big names, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion…. The person of solid virtues; who can be admired for something more substantial than his ‘well-knownness’ often proves to be the unsung hero.” Daniel J Boorstin
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Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1 Timothy 4:11-16
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When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:5-7
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Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint[a] elders in every town, as I directed you.
Titus 1:1-5
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