Priorities, Energy And Work
Sermon
When my father was dying. he started to give away all his possessions. None of us, including him, knew at the time that he was dying. In fact although we knew he was ill, we didn't realise quite how ill he was. He was always a tidy and methodical person, but around that time he began to sort out all his business and to give things away with a wild abandon which I found quite refreshing to witness. Of course I didn't know he was dying, so I really admired the way in which he seemed to be able to cut all reliance on material things as though they were no longer important to him, and to reorganise his priorities and his values.
Apparently this is a relatively common phenomenon. It's as though even if they don't know it consciously, people do know at some deep level that their life on this earth is coming to an end, and they have a sense of real urgency to get their affairs sorted out.
Perhaps there was something of this urgency about St Paul's missionary journeys. In today's gospel reading, Jesus predicts the coming of the end of the age, and after his resurrection appearances had ceased, people expected the end of the age at any moment, because all the signs predicted by Jesus had already occurred. And together with the end of the age, they expected the imminent return of Jesus to gather all the faithful together and whisk them off to heaven.
St Paul was no exception, and indeed in his early letters was constantly warning the Christian community to make sure they were ready for the return of Jesus. St Paul probably visited Thessalonica around the summer of AD 49, so only about 16 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and while it was still recent enough to be expecting Jesus in the flesh around any corner at any moment.
So although his expectations of the return of Jesus may have diminished a little since the earliest days when the letter to the Galatians was written, nonetheless there was still an urgency about St Paul's missionary work. Probably his sense of urgency was increased because of the violent opposition he encountered at Thessalonica. The hostility towards him was so great that he and Timothy and Silvanus, his co-workers, were forced to flee after only three weeks in the city.
No wonder he had to work so hard when he was there. I would find three weeks barely long enough to set up a desk, let alone to set up a church. But Paul did manage to start a church in Thessalonica, and in this first letter which he wrote to the Thessalonians a year or so later, he reminds them all of just how hard he did work. "You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day...while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God," he tells them.
He reminds them too, that he was still doing the day job at the time, presumably making tents as that was his occupation. So it's something of a miracle that he was able to covert anyone in Thessalonica, let alone start a Church there. Some of the Thessalonians must have been absolutely ripe for conversion, for Paul goes on to say, "We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers."
Current studies of evangelism have discovered that most people come to faith gradually, even when they receive the sort of blinding flash of light that St Paul received in his conversion on the road to Damascus. Even though the person concerned may be totally unaware of it, God has been working away inside them for years. Early experiences at Sunday School can have a profound effect on people years later, as can chance meetings, or unexpected kind remarks or deeds of generosity from unexpected people, or something seen on TV or heard on the radio or read in a book. It's as though everything works together for good, so that when the right moment comes, that person is absolutely ripe for conversion. It's also been discovered that most people are brought to faith by a friend, and that this experience is more likely to happen in a small group setting than in a church service.
So St. Paul had everything right. He himself had plenty of religious experience as a Pharisee prior to his conversion, and since the Thessalonian converts were both Jews and Gentiles, they would probably all have been worshipping in some way prior to St. Paul's visit. Paul managed to tap into that previous worshipping experience and show that Jesus Christ filled all the holes of longing which were left by less satisfactory worship experiences. Then he started Churches, which at that time were simply small groups of friends meeting together in each other's homes, and the churches spread. Friends brought along more friends and family members, and Paul saw his task as laying the groundwork and teaching the basics of Christianity. And at that time, teaching a new morality of Christian behaviour which was unlike anything most of them had known before. As he says in today's reading, he was "urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory."
It was a very exciting time in the life of the Church. Exciting, because the Church grew at a phenomenal rate, but also a very dangerous time, because the Church was regarded with deep suspicion and hostility by both the religious and the secular authorities. This hostility was expressed in viciousness and violence towards Christians, but since it was a young people's religion - different, new, creative and against the old ways, with a leader who died for his faith - the danger was probably a large ingredient in the very rapid expansion of the Church.
Things are not so very different now. Not that we can offer young people much in the way of physical danger (thank goodness!) but we in the UK are now living within a society which is hostile towards Christianity. Perhaps we need to follow in the footsteps of St Paul and set up small groups to meet in each other's homes and worship together and bring along their friends and relations. And perhaps we need to learn, as a Church, how to chat about our faith in an unthreatening and warm and welcoming way. Because you never know who might be ripe for conversion, and you never know what seeds your chance remarks might plant.
Christianity is still exciting, and most people still worship something, such as New Age deities or materialism or even vampires and the devil. We need to learn how to tap into these worship experiences and present Christianity in such a way that people can actually "hear" what we say. But if we ourselves find our religion boring or dull, and especially if we prefer it that way, then we won't attract anyone else. We need first to change our own priorities, almost with the same sense of urgency as St. Paul, and discover the excitement in our own spiritual lives.
So perhaps we should pray for St Paul's courage and his relentless energy, so that we too can introduce our friends and families to Jesus Christ.
Apparently this is a relatively common phenomenon. It's as though even if they don't know it consciously, people do know at some deep level that their life on this earth is coming to an end, and they have a sense of real urgency to get their affairs sorted out.
Perhaps there was something of this urgency about St Paul's missionary journeys. In today's gospel reading, Jesus predicts the coming of the end of the age, and after his resurrection appearances had ceased, people expected the end of the age at any moment, because all the signs predicted by Jesus had already occurred. And together with the end of the age, they expected the imminent return of Jesus to gather all the faithful together and whisk them off to heaven.
St Paul was no exception, and indeed in his early letters was constantly warning the Christian community to make sure they were ready for the return of Jesus. St Paul probably visited Thessalonica around the summer of AD 49, so only about 16 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and while it was still recent enough to be expecting Jesus in the flesh around any corner at any moment.
So although his expectations of the return of Jesus may have diminished a little since the earliest days when the letter to the Galatians was written, nonetheless there was still an urgency about St Paul's missionary work. Probably his sense of urgency was increased because of the violent opposition he encountered at Thessalonica. The hostility towards him was so great that he and Timothy and Silvanus, his co-workers, were forced to flee after only three weeks in the city.
No wonder he had to work so hard when he was there. I would find three weeks barely long enough to set up a desk, let alone to set up a church. But Paul did manage to start a church in Thessalonica, and in this first letter which he wrote to the Thessalonians a year or so later, he reminds them all of just how hard he did work. "You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day...while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God," he tells them.
He reminds them too, that he was still doing the day job at the time, presumably making tents as that was his occupation. So it's something of a miracle that he was able to covert anyone in Thessalonica, let alone start a Church there. Some of the Thessalonians must have been absolutely ripe for conversion, for Paul goes on to say, "We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers."
Current studies of evangelism have discovered that most people come to faith gradually, even when they receive the sort of blinding flash of light that St Paul received in his conversion on the road to Damascus. Even though the person concerned may be totally unaware of it, God has been working away inside them for years. Early experiences at Sunday School can have a profound effect on people years later, as can chance meetings, or unexpected kind remarks or deeds of generosity from unexpected people, or something seen on TV or heard on the radio or read in a book. It's as though everything works together for good, so that when the right moment comes, that person is absolutely ripe for conversion. It's also been discovered that most people are brought to faith by a friend, and that this experience is more likely to happen in a small group setting than in a church service.
So St. Paul had everything right. He himself had plenty of religious experience as a Pharisee prior to his conversion, and since the Thessalonian converts were both Jews and Gentiles, they would probably all have been worshipping in some way prior to St. Paul's visit. Paul managed to tap into that previous worshipping experience and show that Jesus Christ filled all the holes of longing which were left by less satisfactory worship experiences. Then he started Churches, which at that time were simply small groups of friends meeting together in each other's homes, and the churches spread. Friends brought along more friends and family members, and Paul saw his task as laying the groundwork and teaching the basics of Christianity. And at that time, teaching a new morality of Christian behaviour which was unlike anything most of them had known before. As he says in today's reading, he was "urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory."
It was a very exciting time in the life of the Church. Exciting, because the Church grew at a phenomenal rate, but also a very dangerous time, because the Church was regarded with deep suspicion and hostility by both the religious and the secular authorities. This hostility was expressed in viciousness and violence towards Christians, but since it was a young people's religion - different, new, creative and against the old ways, with a leader who died for his faith - the danger was probably a large ingredient in the very rapid expansion of the Church.
Things are not so very different now. Not that we can offer young people much in the way of physical danger (thank goodness!) but we in the UK are now living within a society which is hostile towards Christianity. Perhaps we need to follow in the footsteps of St Paul and set up small groups to meet in each other's homes and worship together and bring along their friends and relations. And perhaps we need to learn, as a Church, how to chat about our faith in an unthreatening and warm and welcoming way. Because you never know who might be ripe for conversion, and you never know what seeds your chance remarks might plant.
Christianity is still exciting, and most people still worship something, such as New Age deities or materialism or even vampires and the devil. We need to learn how to tap into these worship experiences and present Christianity in such a way that people can actually "hear" what we say. But if we ourselves find our religion boring or dull, and especially if we prefer it that way, then we won't attract anyone else. We need first to change our own priorities, almost with the same sense of urgency as St. Paul, and discover the excitement in our own spiritual lives.
So perhaps we should pray for St Paul's courage and his relentless energy, so that we too can introduce our friends and families to Jesus Christ.
