Thursday, December 5, 2024
Selected readings from the daily lectionary: Is 26:1-6; Ps 118:19-24; 1Th 3:1-13; Mt 7:21-27
I Thessalonians 3: 1-13.
It feels as if we are in the Book of Acts: Paul is speaking to people he had met and evangelised on earlier journeys, and he is now sending Timothy to Thessalonica to see how the believers are doing. Trudging along the busy Roman roads that united populations and centres of commerce was one of only two ways to get around. You either walked, or you took a short cut by ship down the coast, perhaps cutting the corner of the Mediterranean from Greece to Asia or from Asia to Palestine. It was expensive and arduous, but how else could you reach people and keep in touch with them.Today using zoom you can look into people’s faces from anywhere in the world, and long before that we could hear each other’s voices in real time. Lacking all means of communication other than snail mail and travel at a snail’s pace,
Paul found it unbearably hard to be apart from the people whom he had preached and loved and exhorted into the kingdom. Twice he uses the phrase “when we could stand it no longer” — language we might use if we are out of touch with our loved-ones. There is no indication that Paul or Timothy were married and had children. But new believers in each place they visited were their children.
As their spiritual father Paul worries about them, longs for them and would always risk his life for them. What a challenging way to think of our role in the church. Our fellow believers are brothers and sisters in Christ, but eventually we shall become older brothers and sisters, having a feeling of responsibility towards younger Christians, and perhaps in some cases also a sense of parenthood, with all the anguish that comes with such a position.
Paul found it unbearably hard to be apart from the people whom he had preached and loved and exhorted into the kingdom. Twice he uses the phrase “when we could stand it no longer” — language we might use if we are out of touch with our loved-ones. There is no indication that Paul or Timothy were married and had children. But new believers in each place they visited were their children.
As their spiritual father Paul worries about them, longs for them and would always risk his life for them. What a challenging way to think of our role in the church. Our fellow believers are brothers and sisters in Christ, but eventually we shall become older brothers and sisters, having a feeling of responsibility towards younger Christians, and perhaps in some cases also a sense of parenthood, with all the anguish that comes with such a position.
While Paul was a prolific letter writer, his children didn’t always write back. So, often, he sent someone to see how they were doing and to bring back a first-hand report. Amidst the persecution that had driven Paul himself out of Thessalonica and which his spiritual family were still enduring, what Paul most longs to hear each of his Thessalonian family say is: “Here in the power of Christ I stand.” The message that Timothy returned with was indeed this. Thrilled, Paul responds with “Now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you!”
by Tim and Patricia Pope
"In Christ Alone" by Keith and Kristyn Getty
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