06.11.05 Jill Northcott 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 Being Ready
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If there is one thing all the scholars agree on, it is that Paul really did write this letter to the Church in Thessalonica. One of the oldest of all the Christian writings which have come down to us, it gives us an intriguing insight into the life of this small, vulnerable community of believers. We don’t know a lot about this Church – only what we learn in Acts, which, some commentators have said, might be a little bit like someone in the future trying to piece together what actually went on in the Church from the minutes of the business meetings . So imagine, someone in the future attempting to reconstruct what went on here here at St James just from excerpts from the Vestry minutes. I had a look…and here’s an example
“Double Centre Doors Hinging Outwards Pending”. What would they make of that? Perhaps someone might even be tempted to construct a theology?
I’m not sure I totally agree with this viewpoint, however. From an ethnographic or an anthropological point of view, what we do have constitutes very rich data. Pictures of whole civilisations have been built up from less. What emerges from Acts, is this. Paul founded the Church in Thessalonica during what’s commonly known as his second missionary journey. According to Acts 17 he spent three Sabbaths in the synagogue arguing from the scriptures to explain and prove that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead. “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”
We learn that some of the Jews were persuaded by Paul’s arguments and also many devout Greeks and a few of the leading women in the city joined Paul and his companion, Silas. Paul, no stranger to beatings and imprisonment in Phillippi, had to leave the city in a hurry, accused of stirring up controversy as “one of those people who have been turning the world upside down”, threatening the status quo by proclaiming “King” Jesus. We learn that the peaceful new movement had been infiltrated by its opponents and with the help of those who were just looking for a fight, they managed to create mayhem in the city, knowing the blame would be laid at the feet of the followers of this new religious movement.
The Thessalonian city fathers had good reason to be worried and they bound some of the believers over to keep the peace, only releasing them on bail. Why should they be so worried? Well, Thessalonica was an important city for the Roman colonialists – a major port and gate for trade. It had recently been awarded “Free City” status which meant that no Roman soldiers were garrisoned there. They’d backed the right horse in the Second Roman Civil war and Octavian granted the city special status as a reward after the Battle of Phillippi. None of the powers to be would want to threaten that special position, which had brought prosperity to the city, and risk having the Roman troops marching into Thessalonica. And, incidentally, from our 21st Century post-Terror perspective, isn’t the behaviour of the authorities remarkably moderate? The Thessalonian magistrates had power of life and death over the city’s inhabitants but the believers weren’t “disappeared” as has happened in Latin America or sent to Guantanamo. Jason wasn’t even prosecuted for harbouring terrorist suspects - just released on bail.
Paul’s letter reads as an intimate communication, answering the concerns and questions of the believers he’d left prematurely, presumably before he’s had time to tell them everything he wanted them to know about the Way and encouraging them in their new lives of faith. Although some of Paul’s concerns reoccur in all the letters we have there’s no reason to assume he wasn’t addressing the particular concerns of the Thessalonian Church. Like all preachers, he also has his own particular pet themes which he’ll endeavour to get across regardless of the audience! The picture we get from this letter is of a new way of living in the world, based on relationships of love. Paul praises the love the Thessalonians have for each other and the wider Church. Thessalonica’s geographical location would mean people passed through so they would have had contacts with others who were following the new Way. A bit like Edinburgh perhaps? You know what they say –stand on the corner in Prince Street for long enough and you’ll meet everyone you’ve ever known. Paul speaks of his own love for these new believers:
“ So
deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you
not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have
become very dear to us”
Today’s excerpt from the letter addresses just one question: What about those who die before Jesus comes again? It’s clear that, at this stage anyway, Paul still believed he would see Christ’s return and had presumably taught that this was imminent. Paul’s concern here is to ensure that his friends do not grieve too much for their dead “as others do who have no hope” and he wants to reassure them that they are not caught up in nothingness but share in the future hope of life lived in intimate fellowship with Jesus. Not just unending existence – which surely we would all weary of if it’s no better than the present.
What can I say about this? These few verses, I’ve discovered, have spawned many volumes of theology.
But what if we read this, not for its possible doctrinal content, but as simple loving concern – a desire to comfort bereaved friends who are grieving too much? It’s clear from Verse 13 that this is Paul’s purpose.
The Thessalonians are not so very different or distant from us, I feel. I visited Thessalonica a few years ago and have memories of several very vivid days spent there. I’d been in hospital and was convalescing but had accepted an invitation to speak at a conference before I’ knew about this so went anyway, feeling somewhat fragile and with a heightened awareness of my own mortality. Fragments of my time there come back to me – the salt air, the dark evening streets contrasting with the ornate, rich interior of the Greek Orthodox Church where a wedding ceremony was in progress; the view from the balcony of a Greek colleague’s flat over to Mount Olympus, home of the ancient gods. I’d arrived in Greece to discover that I was speaking the next morning not the day after, as I had thought. (There was a poster advertising the Conference and myself, as plenary speaker, with the date and time in the window of my hotel). Why on earth did I agree to do this? I must have been delusional to think I’d be up to it ( a little like the thoughts going through my mind just now…) I still remember what seemed like a vast auditorium continuing to fill as people arrived for the conference whilst I struggled with the mike and the overhead projector….Anyway, the upside was that I had a day to see the city. If you live in Thessalonica you dread the discovery of a bit of forum or other ruin in the local Primary School playground – yet another archaelogical dig and years of disruption. But I was, quite frankly stunned by it all - the collections in the archaeological museum in particular – room after room, not just old ruins, but incredible statuary from this period – human figures in marble but with features, faces like ours. You might have seen some of these people in the streets of any British city - and with this also the recognition that so many of the values of our civilization have their origins in Graeco-Roman culture and ideas. I was struck by a strong sense of past and present intermingling.
So – perhaps as a result? - I don’t feel so distant from the Thessalonians, distraught at the deaths of their fellow believers - family members even perhaps – and with them am prepared to be comforted by Paul’s words. Since we believe that Jesus, who has the power to heal past, present and future - died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died “and so we will be with the Lord for ever” –
Therefore encourage one another with these words.