1 Corinthians 9.19-27

DEMAS BUG

(1 Corinthians 9.19-27)

Have you got the Demas bug? Have you ever had the Demas bug? Perhaps you don't know what the Demas bug is - maybe I should explain.

The name Demas occurs three times in the New Testament. It is mentioned in Paul's letters to Philemon, the Church at Colossae and to Timothy. In the first letter he says "Demas my fellow worker". In the second letter he just says "Demas" and in the third letter he concludes "Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world".

And that, my friends, is the story of Demas' life of discipleship. "Demas my fellow worker". "Demas" and "Demas has forsaken me". What an epitaph to have on one's gravestone!

Demas made a good and enthusiastic start to his life of discipleship, but a poor finish.

We do not know how Demas came to be attracted to the Christian faith. All we know is that he worked for a time with St. Paul and was his companion or "fellow worker" in the faith in turmoil and in prison.

However, although Demas was still in prison with Paul either at Ephesus or in Rome when Paul writes to the Christians at Collossae, he refers to him only as "Demas". It is interesting to note that among all the names to which Paul makes reference only Demas has no word of praise or appreciation appropriated to him,

Reading between the lines we can say that Demas was slipping and by the time Paul comes to write from his prison cell in Rome to Timothy, Demas has completely slipped. "Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world".

Tradition has it that Demas ended his life as a priest in a pagan temple.

But why did Demas drift away from the life of the Christian Church? Why did he lose that enthusiasm he once had? We do not know. We can only guess.

Maybe Demas was swept into the church on a wave of emotional evangelism which did not reveal the cost and so when unpopularity, persecution and imprisonment came along he was unprepared for it.

Maybe Demas loved comfort more than he loved Christ and preferred to be a prosperous man of the world rather than a poor man of the kingdom.

Maybe Demas just got weary as the years rolled on. The passing of time has an uncanny way of making us less and less satisfied and of lowering our standards.

Maybe Demas had been carried forward into the Christian life with another person’s faith - someone, for instance, like St. Luke with whom he is mentioned twice. Thus, it could well be that when he was left to stand alone on his own faith, it proved too shallow for the demands of the time.

Or maybe, he just fell out with the leaders of the church when he could not have his own way.

Whatever the reason for his good start and poor finish we must nevertheless be on our guard against condemning him, for we too could be like him.

You see, my friends, although the Demas bug may be 2,000 years old it is far from dormant. In fact it is very much alive in the Christian Church today as it was in the days of St. Paul.

For instance, Pauline was 18 years old when I first met her in Liverpool. She had been brought up to go to church Sunday by Sunday and had eventually been confirmed. By the time I knew her, she was a bellringer, a Sunday School Teacher, a deliverer of the Parish Magazine besides caring for two elderly parishioners on a regular basis. In fact, she was seriously thinking about testing her vocation to become a nun.

Three years later she moved out of the parish to a new housing development on the outskirts of the city. For a while she continued to come back to the church for worship. Eventually she gave up her bellringing, and soon the Parish Magazines were not being delivered. The two elderly people found they could no longer rely upon her to do their shopping and the Sunday School was forced to appoint a replacement.

When I left the parish in 1969 she had completely disappeared from the life of the Christian Church. She had caught the Demas bug.

And the bug is not confined to the north of England. I have seen it also in the south even here in North Mymms. I can recall a handful of parishioners immediately who were once quite active in the life of this church and fairly regular in their attendance but who today are seldom seen in church. They too have caught the bug.

Week by week I meet people, either at the Parish Office when they come seeking baptism or to be married, or in their homes, who once had strong connections with the life of the church, but have now drifted away.

"I was baptised at St. Mary's. I was confirmed at St. Mary's. I was married at St. Mary's". - but where are they today? Certainly not at St. Mary's on a Sunday.

Now you may well ask, what is the cure of this illness? I cannot say. After all the problem of the lapse has been with the church ever since its early days.

However, although I cannot give you a prescription for the cure, I can give you a prescription to prevent you catching the Demas bug. After all, I am not talking with the lapsed - they are still at home in bed or doing their shopping or in their garden communing with nature - I am talking to the committed and my concern is that you should not catch the bug and join the army of the lapsed.

As I look through the pages of history and the lives of individual Christians, I note that it has been their life of discipline which has enabled them to endure all the attacks of despondency, despair and dryness. Discipline has enabled them to endure all those human crises which can challenge belief in a good and loving God.

St. Paul recognised this in today’s epistle reading when he likens the Christian life to that of an athlete. He says "every athlete in training submits to a strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last, but we do it for one that will last for ever" (1 Corinthians 9.25)

This brings me to the need for every Christian to have a simple Rule of Life as a means of keeping us up to scratch when we might otherwise be tempted to slacken or give up altogether.

As I have said before, a Rule of Life is like a stake beside the standard rose. The stake is there to give support to enable that rose to grow and bloom. Likewise a Rule of Life is there to enable our spiritual lives to grow and bloom.

A Rule of Life is not a hindrance but a help; it is not restrictive but liberating; it is not burdensome but expansive. It seeks to keep us up to the mark when our emotions and feelings might otherwise get the better of us and lead us astray.

Time does not permit me to develop this much further. Frankly, I cannot do better than remind you of the Short Guide to Duties of Church Membership published many years ago by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and which some of you may well find printed in the books you were given when you were confirmed.

They write:

“All baptised and confirmed members of the church must play their full part in its life and witness. That you may fulfil this duty we call upon you:

To follow the example of Christ in home and daily life, and to bear personal witness to him.

To be regular in private prayer day by day.

To read the bible carefully.

To come to church every Sunday.

To receive the Holy Communion faithfully and regularly.

To give personal service to the church, neighbours and the community.

To give money for the work of the parish and diocese and for the work of the church at home and overseas.

To uphold the standard of marriage entrusted by Christ to his church.

To care that children are brought up to love and serve the Lord".

If you have not had the Demas bug be thankful. But be on your guard for it can attack you at any time when you least expect it. The best preventative medicine you can take is that of a simple Rule of Life else your epitaph too could read "Demas my fellow worker". "Demas". "Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world".

Let me conclude with the prayer of Sir Francis Drake.

"O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory, through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life for us, our redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen.”