Shipwreck: Introduction
Shipwreck, Introduction
“I am giving this charge to you, Timothy, my dear son, in keeping with the prophecies that were said over you earlier, so that you may fight the good fight, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and made a shipwreck of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are among them, and I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18-20).
Using the meanings of the Greek words in this passage, it could be paraphrased this way:
My dear child Timothy, as someone who is closely alongside you, I am entrusting these instructions to you which are based on God’s special messages that were given concerning you earlier, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, clinging tightly to your faithful trust and your God-empowered conscience that joins together a mature moral and spiritual awareness. Two men in the church, for example, Hymenaeus and Alexander by name, have thrown their convictions overboard and caused a shipwreck of their trust, leaving their faith in ruins. I have expelled them from the church, handing them over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to slander God or speak profanely of sacred things.
If anyone can speak with authority about shipwrecks, it’s St. Paul. He survived four shipwrecks during his missionary travels on the Mediterranean Sea. The first three wrecks were mentioned by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (11:25), and the fourth was described in detail by Paul’s partner Luke, in Acts 27-28. He even had to endure the harrowing experience of hanging on to some piece of wreckage in the open sea for a full night and a day! Somehow, I imagine Paul floating in the middle of nowhere in the waters, singing hymns and praising God, like he did with Silas while shackled in the deepest dungeon cell (Acts 16).
Yes, Paul was all too familiar with what it means to have one’s ship veer dangerously off course in the midst of a severe storm, smash against the rocks in shallow waters, or run aground on a sand bar. So this was an unforgettable image for him as he sought to describe what it looks like when someone makes a shipwreck of his faithful trust in God. He couldn’t think of a better picture of what some of his church members were doing to their faith. Paul wanted us to see this image of a believer making a ruin of his faith and having nothing but pieces of their trust in the Lord floating in the wreckage.
In this theme of spiritual shipwreck, I will discuss what these two men in particular did to smash their faith to pieces, as well as what could cause us to suffer a shipwreck of our own faith. We will also look at rebuilding a wrecked faith, weathering the storms on our voyage, who we choose to have as our crew on the ship, and who the captain of the ship should and shouldn’t be.
This beautiful Celtic folk song by the Waterboys, composed by Mike Scott, gives us a picture of life as a difficult and unpredictable journey of discovery sailing toward a wondrous shore, during which we experience a spiritual transformation, “turning flesh and body into soul.” During the journey, we are “blown by a strange wind,” which to my mind is a powerful nod to the Holy Spirit. I believe the word “strange” in this song is meant to be understood as unfamiliar, unexpected, mysterious, different than what we were anticipating. Mike Scott wrote this song while living in a coastal Irish cottage, and his song is spiritually compelling without being a sermonette. I love that fact about much of Mike Scott’s songs, and this song in particular.