“REDNECKS, WHITE SOCKS, AND BLUE RIBBON BEER”

TITUS 1:10-16

Everyday we see grown, seemingly responsible, mature adults wearing jerseys with athletes’ names on them.  We see a lot of Chipper Jones jerseys on the backs of otherwise sane people, who, I hope, know that they’re not Chipper. 

 When Jackie Kennedy was in the White House, women started dressing as she dressed and the pillbox hat became a fashion statement.   

When Billy Graham came into the national spotlight, strange things began to happen in the ministry.  Preachers began to preach with that a Carolina drawl and, to top it off (no pun intended) they began to comb their hair like Billy Graham.  (I’ve often wondered what congregations in Massachusetts thought when their pastor, all of a sudden, started sounding like he was from Mayberry.) 

There was a highly popular TV show called “Candid Camera” in which those on the staff would rig circumstances in an unusual or outlandish way and then see how those who happened by would react.  One of the only “riggings” that I remember was the time they had everybody on an elevator face the back so that when it went down to the next floor to pick up an unsuspecting passenger, when the doors opened, he saw everybody standing facing the wrong way.  What would he do when he got on?  Everyone who got on faced the back of the elevator. 

All this just goes to show that people have an influence on other people.  There are people that you influence at work, at school, at home.  If you’re a parent, you have an influence which will last long after you’re gone.   Your influence runs the gamut from morals to meat, that is from ethics to what you eat.  Chances are that if the parents value an education the child will too.  If the parents are readers, the children just might turn out to be readers too.  If the father is skilled with his hands and if the mother is a great cook, the kids might be mechanics and love to give great dinner parties. 

All this is to say that on some level, you, yes you, are a leader.  And that’s what’s under discussion today in Titus 1—leadership.  As a follower of Christ, you want your leadership to be Christ-like at work, at school, at home. 

From what we’ve seen in Titus, there is good leadership—Titus 1:6-9.  We’ve seen that good church leaders aren’t administrators; they’re proclaimers of the Word and protectors of the flock.  When we talk about serving, that’s how leaders serve—they serve by proclaiming and protecting.

But we live in a fallen world.  There is such a thing as bad leadership.  Paul next warns Titus about bad leadership in the church and what to do about it. 

When I mentioned Billy, Jackie, and Chipper influence people, we see that if you’re famous, then the public grants you leadership status by default.  So we see famous people going public to try to influence us.  I got to thinking about how many famous people are so environmentally conscious about global warming and want to use their bully pulpit to get the little people like you and me to go green.

Former vice-president Al Gore really got me to thinking about global warming.  That’s the same Al Gore who lives in a 20 room, 8 bath house which consumes more electricity in a day than the average home does in a month.  I sometimes think my natural gas bill is high, but his is always higher--$1,000 a month.

I would think that John Travolta wants me to especially be careful about how I get myself to and fro and not waste gas and I really wanted to follow his leadership until I read that he has 5 private jets including a Boeing 707, three Gulfstreams, and a Learjet.  Well, being the capitalist I am, I figure that he earned it.  But I wondered why when he went on an international trip and landed in Ireland to refuel, reporters found that he was the only passenger aboard the plane that seated 150. 

Then there’s Madonna who always provides food for ecological thought.  She’s the one who owns 5 gas-guzzling cars (a Mercedes, two Range Rovers, an Audi among others) and on her last tour the carbon dioxide produced by her travel was 440 tons. 

Then there’s the soccer player and his wife, David and Victoria Beckham.  He, his wife and I own an average of five cars among us; I own one and they own 15. 

You know what a hypocrite is?  A hypocrite is someone who rants and raves against something he’s habitually doing.  I say, “habitually,” because none of us are perfect and we’re going to slip up now and then, but the hypocrite continually does what he raves against.  Like the governor of South Carolina who voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, yet he’s the same one who used taxpayer money to fly to Argentina to be with his girlfriend in 2008 while his wife tended the home fires. 

That’s bad leadership and the number one characteristic on Paul’s “Bad Leadership List.”  A bad leader is “rebellious.”  (vs. 10)  For the bad leader, the Bible isn’t his final authority.  Psychology may be or philosophy may be, but not the Bible.  He’s the elder who’s in the Word, but not under it.  The Bible isn’t going to tell him what to do.

A bad leader is a “mere talker.”  What’s a “mere talker?”  It’s the leader who doesn’t proclaim the faithful Word as it has been taught.  He proclaims self-help, self-improvement as he mimics the motivational, success speakers of the culture.  Mere talk is a talk that isn’t Bible.  And, add to that, he may talk and talk about evangelism, but he doesn’t evangelize.  “Talk is cheap,” we say.    

The result of bad leadership is that families and churches are confused.  The way Paul says this is to say that bad leadership “ruins whole households.”  This is why we can say that we’re talking about bad leadership here: these leaders are leading families.  The idea of “ruin” is to disrupt, to upset.   This is a far cry from good leadership which “encourages” as the earlier verse held as a function of the cowboys.  Good leadership won’t disrupt the flock or confuse the flock.  Good leadership encourages the flock.  False doctrine is confusing. 

The words, “ruin whole families,” show us a truth that collides with our culture which says, “It makes no difference what you believe, as long as you believe it.”  There is truth and there is error.   It is important what you believe; if you believe false doctrine, you and your family can be “ruined.”

One of the marks of a disruptive leader is that he will issue commands that aren’t to be put on believers, which Paul calls “the commands of men.”  This is always and forever a mark of false teachers—to make up rules, find a pretext for them in the Bible, and then put them on their followers.  Bad leadership revels in the “don’ts.” 

This usually has to do with some form of works of self-denial, asceticism.  Paul confronted this in I Tim. 4:3 when he wrote against those who will depart from the faith; he predicted that they would be the type who will be involved in: “Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” 

The father of hypnotism is a man named Mesmer.  We made up a word from his name—to mesmerize.  In Greek they made up a verb to describe what a Cretan does—to “cretanize,” is to lie.  We still use it today when we call someone a “Cretin.”  If Paul were writing today, he might use another word, “redneck,” meaning an ignorant, stubborn, and uneducated person who’s proud of his ignorance, his white socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer. 

The Cretans were infamous liars who said that Jupiter, the king of the gods was dead and actually buried on Crete . Paul quotes one of their own authors (Epimenides)* who wrote that Cretans weren’t just liars, they were “always liars;” they weren’t just gluttons, they were “lazy gluttons;” they weren’t just brutes, they were “evil brutes.” 

Paul says, “This is true.”   The false teachers in Crete are truly “Cretins.”

What are the cowboys (the leaders of the congregation who are to proclaim and protect) to do about the “Cretins” who are disrupting families?  “Silence them,” “pay no attention to what they teach,” “rebuke them,” all with the purpose that they will “be sound in the faith.”  We’re not talking punishment, but persuading them of sound doctrine.  (He doesn’t say “try them” or “kill them.”  Capital punishment isn’t within the scope of the church’s powers. )  Such is the function of the cowboys, to protect the church from the Cretans. 

Enough, you get the gist of this.

Yet, we can’t leave this thinking this paragraph is only for the cowboys.  Remember when we began we saw that the qualifications for the cowboys are also marks of our maturity.  These characteristics don’t come through striving to attain them, but by asking God to develop them in you, agreeing by faith that these are characteristics are pleasing to God and those He wants to develop in you. 

Someone recently said that the way to get Congress to defeat any proposed universal, government health care plan is to make it so that if they pass it, they have to live under it too.  (I’m not trying to be political here, but only to make a point.)  The point is that in the minds of the Congressmen, the plan would be for good for everybody else, but not for them.  Is that good or bad leadership?

Who are the rednecks today?  He’s the parent who wants his children in SS, but he’s not; he drops them off.  He’s the parent who demands his children to watch their language, but you should hear him talk.  He’s the father who indulges his temper when he feels like it, but doesn’t allow anyone else to indulge theirs.   She’s the type who prides herself in being “honest” with others, but when someone is “honest” with her, she hates them for it.  As Paul said, “They claim to know God, but by their actions deny Him.” 

The rednecks aren’t under the Word, they distort the Word; they put people under their rules, they fill our ears with “do nots.”   There are bad leaders politically and spiritually, but our Truth to Take Home says it all:

TRUTH TO TAKE HOME: “Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst.”

*We would note here that Paul was familiar with the culture of his day, even to the point of knowing of a heathen poet who wrote hundreds of years prior to Paul.  Not only that, but we also note his familiarity with the Olympic games in his day; he often used the games as a metaphor for the Christian life and the future rewards of the believer.  Therefore it is proper for the Christian to enjoy watching the Dallas Cowboys!

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry