The mystery of our religion is (1 Timothy, Proper 20)

We hear barely anything of 1 Timothy in the Revised Common Lectionary cycle.  The letter begins and ends in three weeks time.  Most of what is skipped are instructions and qualitifcations for leadership/servanthood within the church.  These are valuable chapters indeed and should be studied by every congregation council and every incoming class of seminarians.  

Another remarkable segment is also left out of the lectionary and may be a fragment of an early Christian hymn.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, ¹⁵if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. ¹⁶Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great:
He was revealed in flesh,
   vindicated in spirit,
     seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles,
   believed in throughout the world,
     taken up in glory.    - 1 Timothy 3.14-16

Unlike the hymn Paul includes in Philippians 2 which follows a pattern of descent and ascent, this hymn seems to move outward and upward at the same time. The focus is not so much Christ's downward descent through his incarnation, crufixion, and death, but rather Christ's outward journey carried by the disciples throughout the world.  

In this hymn, Jesus birth, death, and resurrection are his revealation in flesh to the world.  His vindication comes by the power of his resurrection.  He is seen by angels not only in Bethlehem at his birth but also by those who greet the bewildered disciples at the empty tomb.  The hymn continue its outward and upward journey with Jesus' friends proclaiming him throughout the world, and the church living as his body in the world.  It is only after he is believed in throughout the world that he is taken up into glory.  Jesus' outward mission through the church is also his upward mission.  The church's mission, bearing Jesus' own humanity into the world, is also Jesus' mission of restoring the world to its original glory.

Perhaps this little hymn fragment is best summarized by the "Onward and Yonward!" of PBS hero, Nature Cat:

Art Attribution:	Tonkin, Mike and Liu, Anna. Singing, Ringing Tree (Panopticons), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54919 [retrieved September 29, 2019]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperpariah/4271795395/.
Record Number:	54919 Last Updated: 2013-10-29 13:55:51 Record Created: 2011-09-06 13:42:16
Institution:	Vanderbilt University Unit: Collection: Art in the Christian Tradition