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Living Lord, open now Your Word to our lives and our lives to Your Word - to Your praise and glory. Amen.
There's something I just have to tell you... we have a new member of the Barr household! He's a black and white kitten called Milo. He's just 8 weeks old and he's adorable. At least, all of us except our dog Tara think so!
When you or I have something on our minds - be that something exciting or something disturbing - we can't keep quiet about it. When we have news - whether it's good or bad - we naturally want to share it with others. And the Bible is like that. It's full of messages that cannot be kept secret; news that just cannot be suppressed.
That's particularly noticeable in the lectionary readings leading up to the major Christian festivals: Lent to Easter and the Ascension and Pentecost; Advent to Christmas and Epiphany. Even now, in these Sundays before Advent, the Bible passages set each week in lectionary seem to have an increasing sense of urgency about them: news that has to be shared, a message that those who received it are bursting to pass on to others.
It's there in that Gospel reading we've just heard: a real urgency, in this case with an impending sense of foreboding and warning. Jesus predicted the day when the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. That prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70, when the Romans took Jerusalem and burned the Temple. But our Lord's words also have a more general and long term reference to all times and places where His followers are persecuted for their faith, and to the troubled state of this world throughout the time between the first and the final comings of Christ. This is the context in which the message of the Christian Gospel is to be shared. This is why Jesus gives the urgent warning: "Watch out... Stand firm".
And then in today's Epistle, we can discern the urgency behind Paul's words to the church in Thessalonica:
Don't be idle or disruptive. Don't waste precious time - time that could be used in communicating the Christian message in word and action.
There's a real sense of urgency for many of the students at one of our local secondary schools at present. No - not so much about exams or course-work! It's about the Chase School production of West Side Story, which culminates this coming week. Rehearsals and preparations have been happening for weeks. The cast have been learning their lines; the dancers getting the choreography just right; the orchestra practising until they're almost playing the music in their sleep; the back-stage crew, the props-people, those working the lighting and sound systems - so many young folk and their teachers are giving of their skills and time and energy, to make this thing happen. It's the same whenever a group of people get together with the common aim of conveying something through words, music, drama. Yes, of course there are tensions and members of the company get tired and stroppy with each other. But there is a real excitement and urgency and enthusiasm to get it all together and produce something that communicates with others.
Now, that's a kind of parable of what happens, or should happen, in our church life. Three times in that extract from 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 that we heard just now, St Paul used a word which could be applied to soldiers who break ranks or to a dancer or an actor who loses concentration for a moment, and allows a foot to move just a little out of line. Our version translates this Greek word as 'idle' or 'idleness', but it can also mean 'disorderly', 'undisciplined', 'stepping out of line'. Watch out for those who 'step out of line', says Paul, in verse 6. We didn't step out of line when we were with you, he writes in verse 7. But, he says in verse 11, I hear that some are stepping out of line in your fellowship now. The dance is damaged because some of the dancers are disorderly. The flow of the drama of the enacting of the Gospel is interrupted by some undisciplined actors. The wonderful harmony of the music in the score is spoilt by musicians or singers who don't hit the right note. The spectators will notice that something is wrong.
The message that the entire performance seeks to convey might be lost or distorted because some of the cast are stepping out of line.
If this is a parable of church life, just think for a moment how it might apply to our worship and welcome and witness here at Malvern Priory - or, if you're a visitor, at whatever church to which you belong...
It can apply to every aspect of church life. Interestingly, the particular area to which Paul addresses his attention in today's epistle is a 'stepping out of line' by some church members in the financial resourcing of the Christian community in it's ministry and mission. In the New Testament there is frequent use of the image and terminology of family life to describe the church. Christians call one another 'brother' and 'sister'; churches are called the 'household' of God, and so on. One of the reasons for this is that in NT times (when there were no state benefits or handouts) a family had to be a community that lived together in mutual financial support. St Paul was firmly committed to the church putting into action a kind of family care and love which is not simply a matter of feeling warmly or kindly towards one another, but of practical concern for the day to day running of the church-family - including actual financial support. There is no evidence in St Paul's letters that he required, as the early church in Jerusalem had done, that believers should make over their income and property into a common purse. But Paul did require that every member of a church should be committed to sharing with one another according to the common need - just as would be the case in a Mediterranean extended-family of that time.
Now, of course, one problem with this is that it is very easy for some in such a community to become 'idle', 'disorderly', 'undisciplined', to 'step out of line'. The temptation is for some to rely on the efforts or generosity, the sacrificial giving, of others to 'keep the show on the road'. When Paul had visited the Thessalonian church in person, even though as an apostle he was entitled to have them pay for his upkeep, he did not make use of this right. We know from elsewhere in his letters (eg 1 Corinthians 9) that Paul taught that church leaders should be financially supported by their congregations; but in Thessalonica he saw the need to offer an alternative model for the church to imitate. He sensed the urgency of teaching that congregation by example that each member should work at whatever occupation they could, so as to contribute wholeheartedly to the welfare of all. For the church is a family where all should care for each. Obviously, there are always some who, through age or illness, simply cannot contribute. They can still support everyone else with their prayers; while in other respects, they need to be supported. But in every other instance, Paul knew that the church unit, like the family unit, simply would not survive unless every single member made a realistic contribution - including of money - to support the life and work of the whole.
Sadly that didn't seem to be happening sufficiently in the church of the Thessalonians. Just think for a moment about whether it is happening enough now in our church. How are we doing in the financial resourcing of our mission and ministry, and what might St Paul write to his brothers and sisters in Christ here in Malvern?
Just as in any household it is tempting for one member to wriggle out of helping with the chores, or contributing to the finances, while relying on others to be 'nice' and 'loving' and 'generous', so it can be in any church. But that isn't the way that the dance of God's love sweeps onto the stage and brings gasps of delight from the onlookers. That isn't the way that the drama of the Bible makes a positive impact on the watching world.
Paul's final word in this passage is a command he often gave: "Never tire of doing what is right".
Yes, it is easy to feel weary when you see all around people who are living in a different way - including some in your own community who are stepping out of line. But this dance must go on; this drama must communicate its
God-given message - as it did in Biblical times so also now, in our time and place. You and I have been entrusted with a message that cannot be kept secret - even in the face of ridicule or rejection; news for our troubled world that is too urgent and important to be side-tracked or suppressed.
So let us "watch out" that, even when we are tired, we don't lose our focus and 'step out of line'.
Let's allow the Holy Spirit to re-energise us as we listen to the music of love sweep through His church.
Let's open our minds and hearts to be re-inspired by the power of the Living Word of God as it is proclaimed in our midst.
And let's continue to work together in practical mutual support of our brothers and sisters in Christ, as together we enact the Good News of Jesus on the stage of this world.
Mary Barr
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