Captives to Truth – Br. Lain Wilson

SSJE

Feast of Irenaeus of Lyons

2 Timothy 2:22-26

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim 2:24-25).

I’m not sure “gentle” is how I’d first characterize Irenaeus, the second-century theologian and bishop whom we remember today. In his great work Against Heresies, he sought to combat the heterodox versions of Christianity that surrounded him in a point-by-point refutation of their beliefs. At the same time, he laid out a Christian vision that affirmed the authority of the apostolic tradition and succession, the goodness of creation, and the relevance of the Hebrew Scriptures, a vision that would largely carry forward into the era of councils and creeds and orthodoxy of subsequent centuries.

The heresies Irenaeus faced are different than those that face us, but I think he speaks to us today in two important ways.

First, the truth matters, and it is worth arguing for and defending. We, like Irenaeus, live in an age of contested truth. Irenaeus makes clear his intent to address this head-on in the opening sentence of Against Heresies: “Inasmuch as certain men have set the truth aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies . . . and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and taken them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations].”

But why we argue for truth also matters. Irenaeus makes clear his purpose: that, turning heretics into “the haven of truth,” his work may “cause them to attain their salvation.” This closely echoes our reading this morning from 2 Timothy: “God may perhaps grant that [opponents] will repent and come to know the truth, and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Tim 2:25-26).

Irenaeus was relentless in his point by point, line by line refutation of the heresies he treats, and his defense of what he recognized as Christian truth. But, in his own words, the purpose was to free them from the captivity of false belief.

And this is important, because we are all captives, in some way or another. Maybe not captives to a heretical Christian sect, for sure, but captives to forces and narratives and patterns that largely lie outside our control, and therefore often beyond our awareness. We can too easily take these as given. We all have our own blinders and biases.

The lesson Irenaeus imparts to us is to be fearless in challenging these when we see them—but just as fearlessly to let ourselves be made aware of how susceptible we are to them. To be fearless in moving forward, together, into freedom and truth.

Amen.