We pray:
Good Shepherd, watch over us today
In all we face and experience.
Never leave us or forsake us
And journey with us always.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Good Shepherd, you know us
As no-one else knows us.
Guard us and keep us,
As you guard and keep those whom we love.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Good Shepherd, we pray for the sick and the lonely;
For the anxious and the bereaved;
For those whose pain is beyond our comprehension.
We stand with them and commend them to your care.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Good Shepherd, we pray for the carers in hospitals and in homes
And for all who serve the needs of others.
May the example of living compassion
Inspire us in our care for others.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Good Shepherd, you know the depths of our heart
And the fears which are ours.
Speak into the depths of our heart
And calm our fears.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Good Shepherd, you know us by our name
And our identity is not hidden from you.
Gather us to yourself as a Shepherd gathers the sheep,
That we might know your Name.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Blog
1 Thessalonians 3: 1 – 8
MEDITATION 6
1 THESSALONIANS 3: 1 – 8
Good morning and welcome to the 6th of our lockdown meditations. Here we continue to work our way through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Today we start on chapter 3, a section that one person has labelled “a visit of consolation in hostile times” let us hear what Paul wrote.
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain.
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
If you remember, Paul and his group founded the church in Thessalonica, however due to opposition from the authorities they had to leave sooner than they wished. As a result, they had not been able to give as much training or instruction to the young church as they had wanted to give. They therefore had concerns about the young church and about how it would manage once they were gone. So, once they were able they sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how they were doing, continue the instruction and strengthen them in these hostile times.
There is much that we can learn about the stresses of leadership, the value of teamwork and the trials that can affect churches. One of the things that I find on holiday is that I can never totally switch off. If I am out for a walk, out on the bike or doing some other activity which is not preoccupying for my mind I will start thinking about the vulnerable people in the congregation, those who have been going through a tough time immediately before I left, those recently bereaved or those in hospital. It is the same during this lockdown. My mind is jumping around all over the place thinking about this person or that. How are they doing, how are they coping. So, it is with Paul Silvanus and his group. They could not stop thinking about the young church they had left behind, so as soon as it was practical they sent Timothy to check on them and encourage them. Paul sent Timothy because he knew Timothy would be a team player, that he would not use this as an opportunity to raise his own standing in the church but simply to encourage the young church and bring that encouragement back to the other leaders. That Timothy does this so effectively is a big credit to him. But it also shows how important teamwork is.
Never have we seen this as a church like we are today. I have urged the elders to really step up to the plate and be proactive with their districts, checking on them regularly and feeding back any information which is relevant to me to follow up. It has shown the real benefits of Presbyterianism and the elder’s district and it has enabled me to focus on the most vulnerable by following up on the calls I have received from the elders. In a time of crisis like this the value of a team is unquestionable and the Session is a team. I rely on the elders to give me information and they rely on me to follow up in an appropriate manner. I believe that this has led to a rejuvenation of our districts and will be a major blessing for the church as we move out of our lockdown status to whatever the new normal becomes.
The second thing of note from this passage is Paul’s mention of the tests and persecutions that the church in Thessalonica was undergoing. Most of us have not had to really suffer for our faith. Most of us have not had to face death threats or the possibility of losing our homes or our jobs because we attend a church. But that does not mean that we are not tested from time to time.
We can be tempted to ease up on our commitment. It does not matter if I miss this Sunday and anyway it has been raining all week and I have not managed out on the golf course.
We can be tempted to lose our convictions. These are very intellectual people who are playing down the divinity of Christ, maybe I should too.
We can be tempted to relax our morality because, if the media are anything to go by, everyone is doing this anyway and I do not want to be any odder than I am anyway!
One of the commentators that I was reading suggested that if you are not suffering because of your faith it is because you are succumbing too readily to your desires.
I wonder what tests you are struggling with during this time of lockdown? What is causing you the most spiritual angst? I would invite you to let me know your struggles. Email me your concerns, let me know so that I can be praying for you in your times of trouble. It is such a blessing to my own prayer life if I know specifics that I can pray for in relation to my congregation and friends. This is another aspect of teamwork and we should not forget it. Every blessing as you go through the rest of this week. I look forward to joining you again on Sunday as we look at what Jesus meant by saying he was not only the good shepherd but also the gate for the sheep.
1 THESSALONIANS 3: 1 – 8
Good morning and welcome to the 6th of our lockdown meditations. Here we continue to work our way through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Today we start on chapter 3, a section that one person has labelled “a visit of consolation in hostile times” let us hear what Paul wrote.
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain.
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
If you remember, Paul and his group founded the church in Thessalonica, however due to opposition from the authorities they had to leave sooner than they wished. As a result, they had not been able to give as much training or instruction to the young church as they had wanted to give. They therefore had concerns about the young church and about how it would manage once they were gone. So, once they were able they sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how they were doing, continue the instruction and strengthen them in these hostile times.
There is much that we can learn about the stresses of leadership, the value of teamwork and the trials that can affect churches. One of the things that I find on holiday is that I can never totally switch off. If I am out for a walk, out on the bike or doing some other activity which is not preoccupying for my mind I will start thinking about the vulnerable people in the congregation, those who have been going through a tough time immediately before I left, those recently bereaved or those in hospital. It is the same during this lockdown. My mind is jumping around all over the place thinking about this person or that. How are they doing, how are they coping. So, it is with Paul Silvanus and his group. They could not stop thinking about the young church they had left behind, so as soon as it was practical they sent Timothy to check on them and encourage them. Paul sent Timothy because he knew Timothy would be a team player, that he would not use this as an opportunity to raise his own standing in the church but simply to encourage the young church and bring that encouragement back to the other leaders. That Timothy does this so effectively is a big credit to him. But it also shows how important teamwork is.
Never have we seen this as a church like we are today. I have urged the elders to really step up to the plate and be proactive with their districts, checking on them regularly and feeding back any information which is relevant to me to follow up. It has shown the real benefits of Presbyterianism and the elder’s district and it has enabled me to focus on the most vulnerable by following up on the calls I have received from the elders. In a time of crisis like this the value of a team is unquestionable and the Session is a team. I rely on the elders to give me information and they rely on me to follow up in an appropriate manner. I believe that this has led to a rejuvenation of our districts and will be a major blessing for the church as we move out of our lockdown status to whatever the new normal becomes.
The second thing of note from this passage is Paul’s mention of the tests and persecutions that the church in Thessalonica was undergoing. Most of us have not had to really suffer for our faith. Most of us have not had to face death threats or the possibility of losing our homes or our jobs because we attend a church. But that does not mean that we are not tested from time to time.
We can be tempted to ease up on our commitment. It does not matter if I miss this Sunday and anyway it has been raining all week and I have not managed out on the golf course.
We can be tempted to lose our convictions. These are very intellectual people who are playing down the divinity of Christ, maybe I should too.
We can be tempted to relax our morality because, if the media are anything to go by, everyone is doing this anyway and I do not want to be any odder than I am anyway!
One of the commentators that I was reading suggested that if you are not suffering because of your faith it is because you are succumbing too readily to your desires.
I wonder what tests you are struggling with during this time of lockdown? What is causing you the most spiritual angst? I would invite you to let me know your struggles. Email me your concerns, let me know so that I can be praying for you in your times of trouble. It is such a blessing to my own prayer life if I know specifics that I can pray for in relation to my congregation and friends. This is another aspect of teamwork and we should not forget it. Every blessing as you go through the rest of this week. I look forward to joining you again on Sunday as we look at what Jesus meant by saying he was not only the good shepherd but also the gate for the sheep.
Sunday Worship
In this unprecedented period we are always trying to improve the way we help you to worship at home on a Sunday. To this end, thanks to the help of Martin and Access AV’s Greig, we have linked up my laptop to the live stream equipment so that every Sunday now we can show the words to a hymn that David will play so that you can sing along in your home. We hope that you enjoy this opportunity. Tomorrow we will look at the disciples who in their lockdown decide to take a walk for their daily exercise and end up in Emmaus. We will sing “Thine Be The Glory.”
1 Thessalonians 2: 17 – 20
1 Thessalonians 2: 17 – 20
Marva Dawn, a Lutheran theologian once wrote that we all need to become s outherners, that is from the southern united States, in order to read the Bible correctly., because to inhabit its world is to speak about our lives as y’all (plural) instead of you, singular. Most of the descriptions and commissions in the Bible are in the plural not the singular. Be blessing those persecuting you, y’all, Y’all consider it all joy brothers and sisters, when y’all fall into diversified testing. Do not be thwarting the Spirit, y’all. And then of course there is my very favourite example which is the more correct version of Philippians 4:4 which we usually read as Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say Rejoice. It really should read, keep on rejoicing, y’all. It is difficult to always be full of joy, as an individual, but as a church collectively we can know that continual joy.
Marva Dawn goes on to say that it takes compelling training for church members to learn to read the scriptures in that way. It takes a long process to change the western individualised vocabulary that is ruining the church. If we could stop thinking about ourselves in individualistic terms and recognise that everything in faith is communal, contingent and corporate, we would find life and affliction and our work in the church much more bearable.
Of course, this makes this period of lockdown all the harder. When you are starting to get a sense of community, of shared life, work and witness and all of a sudden it is stripped away and we are having to be individualistic in our studies, prayers and even to an extent our worship, it goes against all that we are striving for in the church and as a church. How can we keep on rejoicing y’all when we cannot be together?
Joy is one of the topics that comes up in our reading from Thessalonians today and how we keep on rejoicing in these present times is key to our survival in this time. Let us hear what Paul wrote:-
1 Thessalonians 2: 17 – 20.
Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians
17 But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way. 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
Joy comes in a number of forms. Some works of visual art evoke joy, some sights evoke joy, some pieces of music evoke joy. I remember being in a small art gallery where the paintings were ok, but nothing had really inspired me. But then I turned a corner and there in front me was a work by Claude Monet. I felt the joy well up inside me, this was in a different class altogether from the others works we had seen. There is vantage point on Kinnoull Hill where I will always pause when walking the dog. The view is stunning, there is always a different interplay of light and shadow and I again feel a great joy. When I hear Judas Maccabeus, the tune for Thine be the glory, Beethoven’s Choral fantasia or on a different level, Rush’s Spirit of radio, I feel joy. Yet these are not the joys of which Paul speaks. For these are transient and can be removed by a loss of sight, a loss of hearing or nature’s destructive path. The joy of which Paul writes neither originates from , nor depends on transient forces. It can experienced by women and men who can claim it personally but it is not private, an isolated joy. It is both a hope for concrete benefits in the future as well as a present reality.
This is the joy that breaks through the gloomiest of lockdown days to cheer even the most disheartened. It is a joy that does not come from changing and changeable circumstances but by the presence in our lives of the Holy Spirit. It is a joy that can move a man to write such a great hymn as it is well with my soul even just after hearing that he had lost his whole family at sea. It is a joy that can transform incomprehensible sorrow through a tireless declaration of the believers peace in God.
Paul was desperate to have fellowship again with his friends in Thessalonica, just as I am desperate to share in fellowship with you, t be able to pray together, sing together, work together for the glory of God. Yet Paul was prevented as indeed I am prevented at this time. But that did not rob him and his companions of their joy, just as we must not let this period of lockdown rob us of our joy. We still enjoy the peace of God, we still hope for a time when we can fill the church once more we still know that we are loved just as we love him who died for us. No government restrictions, no microscopic virus, no fear of what might happen can remove that joy from us. So keep on rejoicing y’all, our glory and our joy.
Marva Dawn, a Lutheran theologian once wrote that we all need to become s outherners, that is from the southern united States, in order to read the Bible correctly., because to inhabit its world is to speak about our lives as y’all (plural) instead of you, singular. Most of the descriptions and commissions in the Bible are in the plural not the singular. Be blessing those persecuting you, y’all, Y’all consider it all joy brothers and sisters, when y’all fall into diversified testing. Do not be thwarting the Spirit, y’all. And then of course there is my very favourite example which is the more correct version of Philippians 4:4 which we usually read as Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say Rejoice. It really should read, keep on rejoicing, y’all. It is difficult to always be full of joy, as an individual, but as a church collectively we can know that continual joy.
Marva Dawn goes on to say that it takes compelling training for church members to learn to read the scriptures in that way. It takes a long process to change the western individualised vocabulary that is ruining the church. If we could stop thinking about ourselves in individualistic terms and recognise that everything in faith is communal, contingent and corporate, we would find life and affliction and our work in the church much more bearable.
Of course, this makes this period of lockdown all the harder. When you are starting to get a sense of community, of shared life, work and witness and all of a sudden it is stripped away and we are having to be individualistic in our studies, prayers and even to an extent our worship, it goes against all that we are striving for in the church and as a church. How can we keep on rejoicing y’all when we cannot be together?
Joy is one of the topics that comes up in our reading from Thessalonians today and how we keep on rejoicing in these present times is key to our survival in this time. Let us hear what Paul wrote:-
1 Thessalonians 2: 17 – 20.
Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians
17 But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way. 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
Joy comes in a number of forms. Some works of visual art evoke joy, some sights evoke joy, some pieces of music evoke joy. I remember being in a small art gallery where the paintings were ok, but nothing had really inspired me. But then I turned a corner and there in front me was a work by Claude Monet. I felt the joy well up inside me, this was in a different class altogether from the others works we had seen. There is vantage point on Kinnoull Hill where I will always pause when walking the dog. The view is stunning, there is always a different interplay of light and shadow and I again feel a great joy. When I hear Judas Maccabeus, the tune for Thine be the glory, Beethoven’s Choral fantasia or on a different level, Rush’s Spirit of radio, I feel joy. Yet these are not the joys of which Paul speaks. For these are transient and can be removed by a loss of sight, a loss of hearing or nature’s destructive path. The joy of which Paul writes neither originates from , nor depends on transient forces. It can experienced by women and men who can claim it personally but it is not private, an isolated joy. It is both a hope for concrete benefits in the future as well as a present reality.
This is the joy that breaks through the gloomiest of lockdown days to cheer even the most disheartened. It is a joy that does not come from changing and changeable circumstances but by the presence in our lives of the Holy Spirit. It is a joy that can move a man to write such a great hymn as it is well with my soul even just after hearing that he had lost his whole family at sea. It is a joy that can transform incomprehensible sorrow through a tireless declaration of the believers peace in God.
Paul was desperate to have fellowship again with his friends in Thessalonica, just as I am desperate to share in fellowship with you, t be able to pray together, sing together, work together for the glory of God. Yet Paul was prevented as indeed I am prevented at this time. But that did not rob him and his companions of their joy, just as we must not let this period of lockdown rob us of our joy. We still enjoy the peace of God, we still hope for a time when we can fill the church once more we still know that we are loved just as we love him who died for us. No government restrictions, no microscopic virus, no fear of what might happen can remove that joy from us. So keep on rejoicing y’all, our glory and our joy.
1 Thessalonians 2: 13 – 16
MEDITATION 4
1 Thessalonians 2: 13 – 16
Good morning and welcome to our fourth lockdown meditation on 1st Thessalonians. Today we look at 1 Thessalonians 2: 13 – 16
1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 New Living Translation (NLT)
13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
14 And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15 For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16 as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.
This is a passage of Paul that causes much consternation because of its seemingly anti-semitic overtones which since the holocaust obviously causes concern. However as my commentaries point out relentlessly the directive is not against all Jews but against those who participated in the death of Jesus and who opposed the church in its early years. Paul often faced opposition because his method of evangelism involved seeking out the Jewish communities in the towns he visited and often the leaders of the synagogues did not appreciate it. However, being Jewish himself he was not against Judaism but against those who in his mind opposed the promised Messiah and those who insisted he had come in the person of Jesus Christ. In these days I would liken it to those who make blanket statements about Muslims but whose real concern is with the Jihadist movement within Islam.
The opposition was not a surprise either. For when you are a minority living under the occupation of a more powerful force you will always be trying to keep a check on any seemingly rebellious forces within your ranks so as to avoid trouble with the authorities. Much of Thessalonica’s wealth came about because of a good relationship with the Roman authorities and the Jewish and Greek leaders would not want anything to upset that and thus harm the relative freedom that they enjoyed. A freedom that was allowing them to become a very wealthy city.
The sad part is that because so much attention is focused on the three verses at the end of this section there is nothing said about the first verse, which is actually for us probably the most significant verse. Let me remind you of Paul’s words:-
13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
This idea in Paul of the word continuing to work within us is a crucial idea which sadly has become diminished in the modern protestant church. Paul writes repeatedly in his letters of the need for salvation followed by a process. A process which in the older translations of scripture we read as sanctification. Now because of what protestants see as being erroneous theology regarding saints within the Roman tradition we have sadly downplayed this idea of sanctification, particularly within Scotland as we have a more than healthy distrust of anyone who seems to be getting above their station. Thankfully however the more modern translations of the Bible tend to use phrases like, growing into the likeness of Christ, growing in faith and maturing in our faith. This is very much the idea of the word of God working within us. It is the process that we all should be undergoing in order to develop as men and women in Christ and we should not shy away from it but embrace it and develop it. Any time we participate in Bible Study, an online meditation or listen to a sermon we should come away with something which deepens our understanding or changes our lives in some way. When Paul later wrote to Timothy he said this:-
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I am afraid that so often we have taken verse 16 on its own and not read the second half of the sentence. We have seen teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness as being our aim in the church. Yet these are simply tools in order that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In other words the Word of God working inside us teaches rebukes, corrects and train us so that we might mature in our faith, become more like Jesus and therefore fulfil the purposes God has for us in our lives doing the good works that he has planned for us from the beginning of time.
We all need to eat something every day. That food goes to replace cells that break down and build new ones, the food works inside us to do all of that. In the same way we need to ingest the word of God, daily that the Word can work within us, building us up, making us stronger, making us mature, equipping us to do what the Lord requires of us, each and every day. May the Lord bless you in this time of lockdown and use this time to reflect a little more on the Word of God within you.
1 Thessalonians 2: 13 – 16
Good morning and welcome to our fourth lockdown meditation on 1st Thessalonians. Today we look at 1 Thessalonians 2: 13 – 16
1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 New Living Translation (NLT)
13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
14 And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15 For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16 as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.
This is a passage of Paul that causes much consternation because of its seemingly anti-semitic overtones which since the holocaust obviously causes concern. However as my commentaries point out relentlessly the directive is not against all Jews but against those who participated in the death of Jesus and who opposed the church in its early years. Paul often faced opposition because his method of evangelism involved seeking out the Jewish communities in the towns he visited and often the leaders of the synagogues did not appreciate it. However, being Jewish himself he was not against Judaism but against those who in his mind opposed the promised Messiah and those who insisted he had come in the person of Jesus Christ. In these days I would liken it to those who make blanket statements about Muslims but whose real concern is with the Jihadist movement within Islam.
The opposition was not a surprise either. For when you are a minority living under the occupation of a more powerful force you will always be trying to keep a check on any seemingly rebellious forces within your ranks so as to avoid trouble with the authorities. Much of Thessalonica’s wealth came about because of a good relationship with the Roman authorities and the Jewish and Greek leaders would not want anything to upset that and thus harm the relative freedom that they enjoyed. A freedom that was allowing them to become a very wealthy city.
The sad part is that because so much attention is focused on the three verses at the end of this section there is nothing said about the first verse, which is actually for us probably the most significant verse. Let me remind you of Paul’s words:-
13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
This idea in Paul of the word continuing to work within us is a crucial idea which sadly has become diminished in the modern protestant church. Paul writes repeatedly in his letters of the need for salvation followed by a process. A process which in the older translations of scripture we read as sanctification. Now because of what protestants see as being erroneous theology regarding saints within the Roman tradition we have sadly downplayed this idea of sanctification, particularly within Scotland as we have a more than healthy distrust of anyone who seems to be getting above their station. Thankfully however the more modern translations of the Bible tend to use phrases like, growing into the likeness of Christ, growing in faith and maturing in our faith. This is very much the idea of the word of God working within us. It is the process that we all should be undergoing in order to develop as men and women in Christ and we should not shy away from it but embrace it and develop it. Any time we participate in Bible Study, an online meditation or listen to a sermon we should come away with something which deepens our understanding or changes our lives in some way. When Paul later wrote to Timothy he said this:-
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I am afraid that so often we have taken verse 16 on its own and not read the second half of the sentence. We have seen teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness as being our aim in the church. Yet these are simply tools in order that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In other words the Word of God working inside us teaches rebukes, corrects and train us so that we might mature in our faith, become more like Jesus and therefore fulfil the purposes God has for us in our lives doing the good works that he has planned for us from the beginning of time.
We all need to eat something every day. That food goes to replace cells that break down and build new ones, the food works inside us to do all of that. In the same way we need to ingest the word of God, daily that the Word can work within us, building us up, making us stronger, making us mature, equipping us to do what the Lord requires of us, each and every day. May the Lord bless you in this time of lockdown and use this time to reflect a little more on the Word of God within you.
1 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 12
1 Thessalonians 2: 1 – 12
Covid study 3
Welcome to this third study from Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians. Can I remind you that if you are joining us for the live stream worship, I will be celebrating Maundy Thursday at 7pm and I invite you to have ready your own elements of bread and wine that we might commune together in spite of being apart. There will also be a service on Good Friday.
Paul Remembers His Visit
2 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters,[a] that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. 3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. 5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! 6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children[b] among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
City centres in the days of Paul were very different to what you and I would recognise. They were usually bustling markets full of stalls selling all sorts of household goods, meat and vegetables. There would often be travelling philosophers as well. Folk who would go from town to town explaining their own particular take on life or the take favoured by their particular school of philosophy, be it Aristotelianism, cynicism, Platonism or even epicureanism. A bit like Speakers Corner at Hyde Park in London they would promote their particular theories on life and then they would head somewhere a little quieter with those who wished to learn more to do more serious teaching on their particular philosophy. So when Paul and his companions arrived in Thessalonica he was not unique in what he was doing. It was a common practice of the day. However in these opening verses of chapter 2 he tries to persuade the Thessalonians that his message and his methods were unique.
They were unique because they continued to teach in spite of opposition. Upheld by God they did not back down or give up, heading away to the next town or city. They endured the opposition and remained faithful to the message they were called to deliver.
Secondly they remained fixed on the highest motives and goals, aware that God was always testing their hearts to make sure that their motives were pure and true. Paul talks about others who were shams using deceit, trickery and impure motives in order to promote their viewpoint.
In the third section Paul commends his team for not seeking glory and flattery, as many of the travelling philosophers did, nor treating the students, those listening harshly. Certain philosophical schools, such as the cynics were accused of almost bullying those who were learning their ways. A bit like the hazing that still goes on in some colleges and universities by certain societies or in America in the fraternities or sororities. If you want to join us then prove you are worthy by being abused first as if it was a tremendous privilege to agree to that abuse n order to gain entry. Paul and his companions refused to sink to that level and instead treated those inquisitive about the faith with love and respect.
Fourthly he points out that they never sought any material reward for what they did. Instead they used their skills and craftsmanship, in his case being a tentmaker, to support themselves and were therefore not a burden on those who became followers.
Fundamental to all of this was the relationship between teacher and student. This was very much a two edged sword, as indeed it should be as Paul points out the character of the teachers which earned them respect and also that the teachers knew their students like a father knows his children. This meant of course that the teacher knew where the individual students were on their learning curve and were therefore able to teach them at their level. It worries me sometimes that we assume that everyone is at the same level and so we exclude those wanting an entry level study, who are only starting their journey while others drift away after a while wanting to go deeper and not being satisfied with what is on offer. One of my biggest concerns is how I can help everyone in the congregation grow spiritually and I believe that it involves trying to help people on their journey, no matter where they are on that journey which is one of our greatest challenges.
For the idea of being on a journey, of being on a walk with God, is another major theme of this section. This journey is a response to the calling of God, a walk defined neither by the individual nor by society. The walk worthy of God is a walk which pleases God, a walk in which God’s will rules rather than selfish passions or greed. This has nothing to do with the transient fashions of polite society but is all about pleasing God and not people, as Paul says in verse 4. We are not looking for the transient glory of others, but the eternal glory of God. When you are on this walk then the prestige of society and a measure of your worth is not based on the size of your house, the diversity of your portfolio, the colour of your skin, your gender or the school you attended. You have worth, you have prestige because of the call of God upon your life. For just as Muretus said, “call no-one worthless for whom Christ died,” we could also say look at the worth of everyone, for Christ died for us all. Surely there is no greater status that we can gain than that the son of God was prepared to go to the cross for you. As we approach Good Friday, surely there is no greater thought than this.
Covid study 3
Welcome to this third study from Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians. Can I remind you that if you are joining us for the live stream worship, I will be celebrating Maundy Thursday at 7pm and I invite you to have ready your own elements of bread and wine that we might commune together in spite of being apart. There will also be a service on Good Friday.
Paul Remembers His Visit
2 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters,[a] that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. 3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. 5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! 6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children[b] among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
City centres in the days of Paul were very different to what you and I would recognise. They were usually bustling markets full of stalls selling all sorts of household goods, meat and vegetables. There would often be travelling philosophers as well. Folk who would go from town to town explaining their own particular take on life or the take favoured by their particular school of philosophy, be it Aristotelianism, cynicism, Platonism or even epicureanism. A bit like Speakers Corner at Hyde Park in London they would promote their particular theories on life and then they would head somewhere a little quieter with those who wished to learn more to do more serious teaching on their particular philosophy. So when Paul and his companions arrived in Thessalonica he was not unique in what he was doing. It was a common practice of the day. However in these opening verses of chapter 2 he tries to persuade the Thessalonians that his message and his methods were unique.
They were unique because they continued to teach in spite of opposition. Upheld by God they did not back down or give up, heading away to the next town or city. They endured the opposition and remained faithful to the message they were called to deliver.
Secondly they remained fixed on the highest motives and goals, aware that God was always testing their hearts to make sure that their motives were pure and true. Paul talks about others who were shams using deceit, trickery and impure motives in order to promote their viewpoint.
In the third section Paul commends his team for not seeking glory and flattery, as many of the travelling philosophers did, nor treating the students, those listening harshly. Certain philosophical schools, such as the cynics were accused of almost bullying those who were learning their ways. A bit like the hazing that still goes on in some colleges and universities by certain societies or in America in the fraternities or sororities. If you want to join us then prove you are worthy by being abused first as if it was a tremendous privilege to agree to that abuse n order to gain entry. Paul and his companions refused to sink to that level and instead treated those inquisitive about the faith with love and respect.
Fourthly he points out that they never sought any material reward for what they did. Instead they used their skills and craftsmanship, in his case being a tentmaker, to support themselves and were therefore not a burden on those who became followers.
Fundamental to all of this was the relationship between teacher and student. This was very much a two edged sword, as indeed it should be as Paul points out the character of the teachers which earned them respect and also that the teachers knew their students like a father knows his children. This meant of course that the teacher knew where the individual students were on their learning curve and were therefore able to teach them at their level. It worries me sometimes that we assume that everyone is at the same level and so we exclude those wanting an entry level study, who are only starting their journey while others drift away after a while wanting to go deeper and not being satisfied with what is on offer. One of my biggest concerns is how I can help everyone in the congregation grow spiritually and I believe that it involves trying to help people on their journey, no matter where they are on that journey which is one of our greatest challenges.
For the idea of being on a journey, of being on a walk with God, is another major theme of this section. This journey is a response to the calling of God, a walk defined neither by the individual nor by society. The walk worthy of God is a walk which pleases God, a walk in which God’s will rules rather than selfish passions or greed. This has nothing to do with the transient fashions of polite society but is all about pleasing God and not people, as Paul says in verse 4. We are not looking for the transient glory of others, but the eternal glory of God. When you are on this walk then the prestige of society and a measure of your worth is not based on the size of your house, the diversity of your portfolio, the colour of your skin, your gender or the school you attended. You have worth, you have prestige because of the call of God upon your life. For just as Muretus said, “call no-one worthless for whom Christ died,” we could also say look at the worth of everyone, for Christ died for us all. Surely there is no greater status that we can gain than that the son of God was prepared to go to the cross for you. As we approach Good Friday, surely there is no greater thought than this.
1 Thessalonians study 2
1 Thessalonians 1: 6 – 10
1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
One of the refrains I keep hearing, even this early in the crisis that was also taken up by The Herald Newspaper on Monday is that things will never or even can never be the same again. As people are scrambling to work in this foreign environment, as churches struggle to keep in touch with their members and support its members. As communities rediscover what it means to be a good neighbour let us indeed hope that the good things, the positive things that are coming out of this crisis remain once it is behind us. This sense that the world has changed was very real after the first world war which caused W B Yeats to write the poem second coming. Here is what he wrote:-
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
In the poem he is writing of the crumbling of certainties on which people had grounded their lives. The centre that doesn’t hold. As you face the uncertainty that lies ahead and as you reimagine what life will be like when this is all over, have you got a centre that will hold? That will be crucial as we move forward or we will be like the poet Danii Damned who wrote the poem all is lost.
The heartless voice clouds my mind
telling me dark truths
teasing my heart with pain
The tears gather in my eyes
bleeding away my happiness
and my suffering begins
and I realize the cynical truth
We are all victims of the suffering world
and all is lost
If we are going to have meaningful lives during this crisis and once it is all over we need to have reliable resources to live by. Not a round of fads or fashions, not a bunch of sugary sweet soundbites that do not hold up under the heat of struggle. It is very sad that so many people rest their fortunes and their lives on things that cannot hold in the heat of struggle. Beauty that fades, antiquated perceptions, supposed truths that do not hold water. When our lives are built on the shifting sands of popularity and fashion and those things fall apart consistency is hard to maintain, the centre fails and the end result is disillusionment and the death of the Spirit.
So what was it that kept the young church in Thessalonica stable? What was it that helped move them from being imitators of Paul to being examples of faith? What buoyed them up and encouraged them so that in spite of all that was afflicting them, in spite of opposition and persecution they continued to serve God and wait on their deliverance? It was the unstoppable and immutable Word of God. It was the Word of God that was a stable and reliable resource for them. This is why the teacher in Proverbs could write of a noble wife that charm was deceptive, beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Fear of the Lord, standing on his promises, adhering to his word is what got the Thessalonians through the tough times they faced and it will get us through these times that we face. The word of God provides a centre for us which does not fail and around which we can build our future, even if it is very different to what went before this crisis.
As I read this week:- “For us today, the unfailing truth of God’s promises still provides us with a centre that holds. When wells dry up, when famine comes, when disaster ruins all that is around us, the word of God provides a ready and reliable resource. It is both a ballast and a buffer – a ballast bringing security to otherwise insecure lives and a buffer to shield us from self-destruction. By the living word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God.”
1 Thessalonians Study
1st Thessalonians
One of the things my father would always say as he headed out the door to something that was going to be difficult or contentious was, 1st Thessalonians 5 and 25. Now to save you looking it up, it is a short verse that just says, “Brethren, pray for us.” In these difficult times it is more necessary than ever that we pray for each other and I would hope that you are praying, for leaders trying to get the country through this crisis, for health care workers trying to help the sick and for other frontline workers such as grocery store employees who are trying to keep us provisioned at this time. Then there are those who we know are vulnerable and our Elders who are trying to keep in touch with their districts and help those who are struggling. From a purely selfish perspective I hope you are also praying for me as I try to encourage you to be the church when we cannot be in church. We are in effect being forced to be the church without walls while actually having more walls divide us than ever before as we self-isolate.
However because 1 Thessalonians 5:25 comes so readily to mind because of my father’s persistent quoting of that reference it has led me to look afresh at Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians and I thought I would share these thoughts with you through this facebook live feature. I hope you find them a blessing as we try to find new ways of being church.
Thessalonica was an interesting city in Macedonia. It was a port on the major east to west trading route from Rome. As such it was wealthy and cosmopolitan. It was within the Roman empire yet it had a degree of autonomy unknown in other cities and their support for the Emperor was crucial to their relative freedom. It is important to know that context as we go through the letter as inevitably it led to conflict between the new Christians who worshipped God in Christ and those who worshipped Caesar and whose wealth depended on keeping Rome happy.
The letter is an early one, dating from only 50 – 55AD so it is actually one of the earliest Christian documents we have, predating even the written record of the Gospels. So, it gives a wonderful glimpse of life in the very early church. It was written by Paul after he had spent about a year in Thessalonica to encourage the young, yet vibrant church. It is a very encouraging letter which is why I believe we should study it today as I think we all need a little encouragement.
Paul opens his letter by giving thanks to God. The thanksgiving is for the faith of the new converts and the evidence of the fruitfulness of their faith. Is that where we focus our thanksgiving in our churches? Unfortunately, because of the incessant desire for statistics we often more focus on numbers, average attendance, membership and even financial status. Yet that is the way of our consumerist culture and is not really where we should concentrate our efforts. If we focus on spiritual growth, I am sure that numerical growth will follow, but the reverse is definitely not the case. That is why Paul’s focus is not on the good life, but on the life that is good.
Paul focuses in the first five verses on three indicators of the life that is good in the Thessalonian believers.
First of all their response to the initiative of God. God, in his grace, has blessed them and they have responded by believing. Paul is thankful that even before we searched for God, God was already searching fur us.
Secondly he is thankful that the people accepted their leadership which had brought them the good news and had then monitored and encouraged their spiritual growth. A great amount of the ills in the church today could be avoided if we focused more on the spiritual growth of our members than just keeping the plates spinning. It may well be that one of the results of this lockdown is that we see the value of meeting together for prayer and spiritual growth as well as fellowship as we go forward. It is only when we grow in the spirit that we develop the endurance to deal with life under pressure. So my major encouragement to you today is that during this time when the pace of life is slowed and you are spending so much time indoors, use it profitably to read and study the scriptures, spend more time in prayer that when Kinnoull comes out of lockdown it does so as a transformed church, transformed by the Word of God.
Thirdly Paul gives thanks for the qualitative distinction in the lives of believers. Paul does not commend their work, but their work of faith, not just their labour, but their labour of love, not just their steadfastness but their steadfastness in the hope of the Lord. Their routines of life had been transformed by their faith in Jesus just as our routines have been transformed but those routines now had a purpose that had not existed before as they worked for the building of the kingdom even in trying circumstances. The same can be true for us.
I, like Paul, give thanks to God for all of you. Join me not in the good life but in trying to live the life that is good, the life of purpose, the life that glorifies Jesus Christ even in these difficult times.
I have started posting a video midweek thought on the church facebook page. I will be going through Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians so head over to Facebook and check it out.
Magazine
Due to the coronavirus we cannot distribute the parish magazine. However it is now available to read on the church’s website so please read it there. Thank you to Malcolm and Martin for organising this.
To view there is a link on the home page, or its available under the information tab on the website.