Epistle for April 30, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Peter 2:19-25
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Peter reflects on the example of Christ as a model for those who suffer unjustly because of persecution.  This suggests that the Christians to whom he writes are beginning to suffer discrimination and worse because of their faith.

First, Peter commends those who suffer pain unjustly because of conscience toward God.  He points out that suffering for sin or crimes committed is no virtue — but to suffer for the sake of God is commendable.  We are reminded that Peter heard these teachings first from Jesus himself:

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:10-12).

The key is that those who are commended are those who suffer unjustly for righteousness’ sake.

Second, Peter reminds his readers of the example of Christ:

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps…

Of course, Jesus is unique.  He is the sinless one, the Messiah, who is able to commit himself completely to his Father.  Peter tells us that Jesus:

did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree…

Peter is referencing the famous Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53 as he describes the sufferings of Jesus.  This illustrates the direct connection that the apostles believed existed between the Hebrew Scriptures and their fulfillment in Jesus.  He quotes Isaiah 53:9 directly.  The full text says:

They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

In addition, Peter’s allusion to Isaiah 53 includes his reference to the stripes, or scourging, of Jesus. This is the paradox of Christ’s atonement — that by his stripes we are healed.  Isaiah 53 also says that the sinners:

were going astray like sheep.

Peter has no doubt about the continuity of the Hebrew Scriptures with the Gospel.

And he applies Jesus’ suffering directly to himself and his readers — Jesus has borne our sins in his body on the tree, meaning that Jesus’ death is vicarious for those who believe in him.

And because of this vicarious death, there are superlative benefits to those who believe:

that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

These benefits are multi-layered.  Death to sin means that sin has been overcome by Jesus’ death on the cross.  Living to righteousness suggests that the believer begins to experience the grace of sanctification.  There is healing from sin, but also from other maladies.  And Peter uses a metaphor very common in Scripture — the sheep who were wandering have now returned to the Shepherd, who is Jesus.

APPLY:  

There are some passages of Scripture that Christians in the Western church struggle to understand.  1 Peter 2:19-25 is one of those passages.

Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Philippines, China, North Korea, India, and many other nations understand this passage perfectly well.  They, like our predecessors in the early church, know what it is to suffer unjustly because of conscience toward God.

In the West, we do profess our faith in Christ who suffered for us and bore our sins in his body on the tree with supreme gratitude.  And we know what it is to be delivered from our sins, and to be healed by his stripes.  All of us who claim the name of Christ are called upon to die to sins, live to righteousness and return to our Shepherd and Overseer.

RESPOND: 

Peter calls upon us to follow Christ’s example, and follow his steps. For those of us who live in relative safety and security, the cross that we take up may take the form of service.

Always, we are to remember that our salvation and righteousness are the gift of God.  Although I am not a Roman Catholic, I find Pope Francis’ example to be edifying.  According to Cardinal Cupich, in Francis’s first interview after being elected Pope, he said “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition.  It is not a figure of speech.”  The Cardinal goes on to say that before hearing confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica, he kneels in confession himself.

All of us as Christians can see ourselves in Peter’s words:

For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Incidentally, the word Overseer in Greek is episkopos, which can also be translated as guardian, superintendent, or bishop.  Jesus is always ultimately our true Bishop.

Lord, suffering is bound to come in our lives.  Deliver me from committing evil that deserves to be punished.  If I suffer unjustly, deliver me from resentment and grudges, but help me to forgive instead of seeking to retaliate.  Help me to look to your example as my guide.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Follow in His Steps” by Amydeanne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 30, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Sometimes when we read the Bible we begin to realize that we are walking into a flower garden — in which someone seems to have buried landmines!  What may seem clear on the surface actually becomes uncertain, and maybe even dangerous to one’s faith.

So it seems with Biblical commentaries, and with Lectionary Texts.  In the case of Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, there are disputes among scholars about its authorship and its date.  Historical-critical scholars in the late 18th century questioned whether Paul had actually written 2 Thessalonians because the language seems different than 1 Thessalonians. They also believed that there is a less urgent tone in 2 Thessalonians concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.  However, the traditional, orthodox view has maintained the Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians.

In the final analysis, even scholarly opinions are conjectures that cannot overshadow the fact that the books of the New Testament were completed no later than the early 2nd century. The Bible is ultimately the Church’s book, not a landmine in a flower garden.

Although formal canonization of all 27 of the New Testament books by the councils of bishops didn’t come for several centuries (Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa 393; the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419; Pope Damasus I’s Council of Rome in 382), 2 Thessalonians was one epistle whose authority was never in doubt.

Having said all of that, I assume that 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul.

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy had established a church in Thessalonica around 50 A.D., one of the very first churches in Macedonia after Philippi.  Thessalonica was a key port city on the Aegean Sea.  It was also situated on the Egnatian Way, a Roman highway which a traveler could take from Byzantium to the East, through Philippi, and all the way through Thessalonica to the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  From there a traveler could catch a ship at Dyrrachium and sail to Brundisium in the heel of Italy.  Needless to say, Thessalonica was a strategically located city.

Paul had already written a first letter to the Thessalonians, seeking to comfort them and to clarify Christian teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Although 2 Thessalonians is shorter, it addresses many of the same issues that the first letter does — with information about the Second Coming, and how they are to live in the meantime.

Paul writes in the name of himself and his co-workers, with a greeting that is somewhat typical of his letters:

 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of his thanksgiving for the church, and praises the growth of their faith and mutual love.  He tells them that he boasts of them wherever he goes:

we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Already, we are seeing the persecution of the church as a counter-cultural organization, although Paul doesn’t specify the source of the persecution.  From Acts 17 we learn that there was stringent resistance to Paul and his message by some of the members of the synagogue.   We also learn that these folks enlisted the help of a mob and accused Paul and his cohorts of sedition by seeking to promote the kingship of Jesus over Caesar.  Paul may be aware that though the church at Thessalonica has been successfully planted, they are still being falsely accused of acts that are:

contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus! (Acts 17:7).

Their accusers were right about one thing, though.  These Christians had:

turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Now we come to a second problem with our epistle for this week — the lectionary editors skip from verse 4 to verse 11.  So when we read in verse 11, To this end we also pray always for you, we don’t know what Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy are praying for unless we connect the dots by reading verses 5 to 10.

There, we see Paul’s continuing argument from verse 4, that the persecutions are a sign of the coming judgment of God, and that God will requite those who afflict God’s people.  His language is quite dramatic:

it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,  giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,  who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is why Paul and company are praying so fervently, because of the persecutions that the Thessalonian church is suffering.  He is seeking to encourage them so that:

God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The goodness and faith and power of the persecuted church are a compelling witness to their character.

APPLY:  

I sometimes think that only Christians in the persecuted church around the world should be allowed to read the apocalyptic books in the New Testament, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and certain other books.  The reason I say that is that they understand these books better than those of us in the West whose Christianity is fairly easy.

All the more reason that the “un-persecuted church” must be even more faithful than we are now. When the world sees us, do they see that we are:

worthy of our calling, fulfilling every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power?

Or do they see a country club of congenial consumer Christians who conform the Gospel to their own lifestyles, rather than taking up the cross and being conformed to Christ?

RESPOND: 

I sometimes wonder how I would handle real persecution.  Not the imagined persecution that Christians sometimes become a little too hysterical about in the U.S. — “we can’t wish each other a Merry Christmas anymore!   Why can’t we have public invocations and prayers at ball games and graduations?” 

I have the feeling that Christians in Iraq and Syria and Egypt and Indonesia and China would gladly exchange the fear of beheading, desecration of their churches, and job discrimination with our petty concerns.

What I am hearing in my own American culture is that Christianity is becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Christians” don’t look or act particularly different than their non-Christian neighbors. Christians tend to divorce at the same rate, tend to have similar rates of alcoholism, tend to be just as materialistic, etc., etc., etc.

There is room for improvement.  How are we to be the leaven, the salt and the light in our secularized culture?  Perhaps we can do no better than seek to replicate the observation by pagan Romans as they described Christians in the early church:

See how these Christians love one another (Tertullian).

May our faith, our power and our love be our Christian witness!

Lord, give me the faith and power to be the witness you have called me to be.  Amen.  

 PHOTOS:
"Thessalonians" by Ian Wakefield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for May 8, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 7:9-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

There are so many different approaches to the interpretation of the Revelation that we may sometimes lose sight of its underlying purpose — to offer hope and encouragement to a persecuted church.

Once again in this passage we are introduced to a vast worship service in the courts of heaven.

Just prior to this passage, John has described the opening of six seals on the heavenly scroll by the Lamb of God.  And the 144,000 have been sealed as those who are set apart in advance of the disasters that are to come. Who the 144,000 are is a debatable point that is beyond our scope just now.

But it is very significant that John describes the myriad number of those who are gathered before the throne of God:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

Whatever the symbolic interpretation of the 144,000 who are sealed (and there are many conflicting interpretations), what is made clear is that those who are gathered here are beyond numbering.  Not in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but perhaps in the millions if not billions!

His description of the great multitude suggests that John sees a vision of the souls who are to be gathered at the end of time.  They are diverse nationally, ethnically, racially and linguistically.  This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus to:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

This vast crowd, dressed in white, are waving palm branches — typically a Biblical symbol heralding a festive occasion, and of course associated in the Gospels with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Now, these souls in heaven are praising the risen Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father with their uplifted palm branches!

Imagine the chorus of voices as they proclaim in unison:

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Then the angels and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures who have already been introduced in the heavenly court all join together in this massive worship experience:

they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Frequently in the Revelation of John, there are dialogues between John and members of the heavenly court.  Here, one of the elders asks John a question:

 “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

He is asking about the vast congregation who come from every nation and tribe.  John either doesn’t know, or he is too humble to answer:

 “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

This is reminiscent of the encounter between Ezekiel and the Lord in the Valley of the Dry Bones.  The Lord shows Ezekiel the bones and says:

“Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

This dialectal style of question and answer was fairly typical in the ancient world — we see it in Plato’s Dialogues when Socrates asks questions that eventually lead to discovery.

The elder does know the answer to the question he has asked:   

“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Are these all of the martyrs of the church? Is the great ordeal (also known as the tribulation in other translations) John’s description of the Roman persecution of his time, or a later more universal period of persecution?  We can’t be sure, because there are many opinions on this aspect of The Revelation.

What is clear is that those who have been martyred are honored as those who are gathered before the throne of God, where they:

worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

John describes the comforting shelter that God provides for them:

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Note the irony — the Lamb, who has been sacrificed for these martyrs, now becomes their shepherd.  Only now the Good Shepherd guides them to the water of life that flows through the Holy City.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has worshiped in a huge, packed church or attended a large Christian concert or outdoor festival, might have a faint appreciation for the kind of experience described in Revelation 7:9-17.

Except, of course, that the “special effects” and the distinguished guests — such as the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the vast crowds of the martyrs — are real in this scenario.

What we must not lose sight of is the message of shining hope that permeates the Book of Revelation, despite all of its descriptions of woe and judgment.  Those who have passed through the great ordeal will be in the very presence of God in the heavenly throne room.  And no matter what suffering they may have experienced, they will be comforted by the Lamb, they will drink from living water, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

Whatever else the great Apocalypse may bring, we know that the Lord will care for his own.

RESPOND: 

[Note from Celeste: Tom wrote this post in April, 2016. I do not know if the following statistics have changed in the last 6 years.]

This passage reminds me that we are living in a terrible age of Christian persecution — not in the United States, where I live, but in many nations around the world.

The description of the multitude of the martyrs who:

have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

is a reminder to me that I have suffered very little, relatively speaking, for my faith.

I am comforted that Revelation 19 seems to open the door for the rest of us who are believers, but not martyrs:

 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

But I am prompted to pray for and support those who are suffering for their faith even now.

Persecution Worldwide, which is a ministry of the Voice of the Martyrs, says that Christians are persecuted in at least forty countries today.  Another source says that as many as 60 nations practice discrimination against Christians.

Christianity seems to be undergoing systematic elimination in countries controlled by Muslim radicals like ISIS and the Taliban.

In Communist North Korea, Christians face detention in prison camps, torture, and possible execution for the practice of their faith.

An average of 180 Christians are killed every month for their faith around the world according to reports.  Some reports allege that the numbers are even higher, at 100,000 a year!

Most experts believe that the time in which we live far surpasses the early church in terms of the numbers of martyrs.

Ironically, while Christians in the Middle East and in Communist and authoritarian governments are dying for their faith, we in the United States seem to be scrambling to compromise with “this present age.”  Western Christians seem eager to accommodate the culture rather than to be light and leaven.

Perhaps that explains why the church in such areas of persecution seems to grow!

Tertullian, the early church Father, wrote:

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

A North Korean Christian is quoted as saying,

“We’re just like nails. The harder you hit us, the deeper you drive us; and the deeper you drive us, the more peaceful it becomes!”

Perhaps because there is a cost to their faith, it means something to follow Christ!  In the West, if there is a ball game at the same time as the church service — the ball game unfortunately becomes the priority.

To paraphrase Juan Luis Segundo, perhaps the church will flourish with a heroic minority rather than a consumer majority.  Paradoxically, the church under such circumstances becomes more muscular, and actually grows!

So — I pray for the persecuted church; and I pray that I might be more faithful and committed in my own faith.

Lord, your vision for your church is a vision of hope and comfort.  I pray for those who suffer for their faith.  And I pray for that day when suffering and tears and hunger and thirst are no more.  Amen. 

PHOTO:

"persecuted church" by Imagens Cristas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

First Reading for November 1, 2020 All Saints Day

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 7:9-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

There are so many different approaches to the interpretation of the Revelation that we may sometimes lose sight of its underlying purpose — to offer hope and encouragement to a persecuted church.

Once again in this passage we are introduced to a vast worship service in the courts of heaven.

Just prior to this passage, John has described the opening of six seals on the heavenly scroll by the Lamb of God.  And the 144,000 have been sealed as those who are set apart in advance of the disasters that are to come. Who the 144,000 are is a debatable point that is beyond our scope just now.

But it is very significant that John describes the myriad number of those who are gathered before the throne of God:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

Whatever the symbolic interpretation of the 144,000 who are sealed (and there are many conflicting interpretations), what is made clear is that those who are gathered here are beyond numbering.  Not in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but perhaps in the millions if not billions!

His description of the great multitude suggests that John sees a vision of the souls who are to be gathered at the end of time.  They are diverse nationally, ethnically, racially and linguistically.  This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus to:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

This vast crowd, dressed in white,  are waving palm branches — typically a Biblical symbol heralding a festive occasion, and of course associated in the Gospels with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Now, these souls in heaven are praising the risen Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father with their uplifted palm branches!

Imagine the chorus of voices as they proclaim in unison:

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Then the angels and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures who have already been introduced in the heavenly court all join together in this massive worship experience:

they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Frequently in the Revelation of John, there are dialogues between John and members of the heavenly court.  Here, one of the elders asks John a question:

 “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

He is asking about the vast congregation who come from every nation and tribe.  John either doesn’t know, or he is too humble to answer:

 “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

This is reminiscent of the encounter between Ezekiel and the Lord in the Valley of the Dry Bones.  The Lord shows Ezekiel the bones and says:

“Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

This dialectal style of question and answer was fairly typical in the ancient world — we see it in Plato’s Dialogues when Socrates asks questions that eventually lead to discovery.

The elder does know the answer to the question he has asked:   

“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Are these all of the martyrs of the church? Is the great ordeal (also known as the tribulation in other translations) John’s description of the Roman persecution of his time, or a later more universal period of persecution?  We can’t be sure, because there are many opinions on this aspect of The Revelation.

What is clear is that those who have been martyred are honored as those who are gathered before the throne of God, where they:

worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

John describes the comforting shelter that God provides for them:

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Note the irony — the Lamb, who has been sacrificed for these martyrs, now becomes their shepherd.  Only now the Good Shepherd guides them to the water of life that flows through the Holy City.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has worshiped in a huge, packed church or attended a large Christian concert or outdoor festival, might have a faint appreciation for the kind of experience described in Revelation 7:9-17.

Except, of course, that the “special effects” and the distinguished guests — such as the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the vast crowds of the martyrs — are real in this scenario.

What we must not lose sight of is the message of shining hope that permeates the Book of Revelation, despite all of its descriptions of woe and judgment.  Those who have passed through the great ordeal will be in the very presence of God in the heavenly throne room.  And no matter what suffering they may have experienced, they will be comforted by the Lamb, they will drink from living water, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

Whatever else the great Apocalypse may bring, we know that the Lord will care for his own.

RESPOND: 

[Note from Celeste: Tom wrote this post in April, 2016. I do not know if the following statistics have changed in the last 4.5 years.]

This passage reminds me that we are living in a terrible age of Christian persecution — not in the United States, where I live, but in many nations around the world.

The description of the multitude of the martyrs who:

have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

is a reminder to me that I have suffered very little, relatively speaking, for my faith.

I am comforted that Revelation 19 seems to open the door for the rest of us who are believers, but not martyrs:

 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

But I am prompted to pray for and support those who are suffering for their faith even now.

Persecution Worldwide, which is a ministry of the Voice of the Martyrs, says that Christians are persecuted in at least forty countries today.  Another source says that as many as 60 nations practice discrimination against Christians.

Christianity seems to be undergoing systematic elimination in countries controlled by Muslim radicals like ISIS and the Taliban.

In Communist North Korea, Christians face detention in prison camps, torture, and possible execution for the practice of their faith.

An average of 180 Christians are killed every month for their faith around the world according to reports.  Some reports allege that the numbers are even higher, at 100,000 a year!

Most experts believe that the time in which we live far surpasses the early church in terms of the numbers of martyrs.

Ironically, while Christians in the Middle East and in Communist and authoritarian governments are dying for their faith, we in the United States seem to be scrambling to compromise with “this present age.”  Western Christians seem eager to accommodate the culture rather than to be light and leaven.

Perhaps that explains why the church in such areas of persecution seems to grow!

Tertullian, the early church Father, wrote:

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

A North Korean Christian is quoted as saying,

“We’re just like nails. The harder you hit us, the deeper you drive us; and the deeper you drive us, the more peaceful it becomes!”

Perhaps because there is a cost to their faith, it means something to follow Christ!  In the West, if there is a ball game at the same time as the church service — the ball game unfortunately becomes the priority.

To paraphrase Juan Luis Segundo, perhaps the church will flourish with a heroic minority rather than a consumer majority.  Paradoxically, the church under such circumstances becomes more muscular, and actually grows!

So — I pray for the persecuted church; and I pray that I might be more faithful and committed in my own faith.

Lord, your vision for your church is a vision of hope and comfort.  I pray for those who suffer for their faith.  And I pray for that day when suffering and tears and hunger and thirst are no more.  Amen. 

PHOTO:

"persecuted church" by Imagens Cristas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for May 3, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Peter 2:19-25
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Peter reflects on the example of Christ as a model for those who suffer unjustly because of persecution.  This suggests that the Christians to whom he writes are beginning to suffer discrimination and worse because of their faith.

First, Peter commends those who suffer pain unjustly because of conscience toward God.  He points out that suffering for sin or crimes committed is no virtue — but to suffer for the sake of God is commendable.  We are reminded that Peter heard these teachings first from Jesus himself:

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:10-12).

The key is that those who are commended are those who suffer unjustly for righteousness’ sake.

Second, Peter reminds his readers of the example of Christ:

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps….

Of course, Jesus is unique.  He is the sinless one, the Messiah, who is able to commit himself completely to his Father.  Peter tells us that Jesus:

did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously;  who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree….

Peter is referencing the famous Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53 as he describes the sufferings of Jesus.  This illustrates the direct connection that the apostles believed existed between the Hebrew Scriptures and their fulfillment in Jesus.  He quotes Isaiah 53:9 directly.  The full text says:

They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

In addition, Peter’s allusion to Isaiah 53 includes his reference to the stripes, or scourging, of Jesus. This is the paradox of Christ’s atonement — that by his stripes we are healed.  Isaiah 53 also says that the sinners:

were going astray like sheep.

Peter has no doubt about the continuity of the Hebrew Scriptures with the Gospel.

And he applies Jesus’ suffering directly to himself and his readers — Jesus has borne our sins in his body on the tree, meaning that Jesus’ death is vicarious for those who believe in him.

And because of this vicarious death, there are superlative benefits to those who believe:

that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

These benefits are multi-layered.  Death to sin means that sin has been overcome by Jesus’ death on the cross.  Living to righteousness suggests that the believer begins to experience the grace of sanctification.  There is healing from sin, but also from other maladies.  And Peter uses a metaphor very common in Scripture — the sheep who were wandering have now returned to the Shepherd, who is Jesus.

APPLY:  

There are some passages of Scripture that Christians in the Western church struggle to understand.  1 Peter 2:19-25 is one of those passages.

Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Philippines, China, North Korea, India, and many other nations understand this passage perfectly well.  They, like our predecessors in the early church, know what it is to suffer unjustly because of conscience toward God.

In the West, we do profess our faith in Christ who suffered for us and bore our sins in his body on the tree with supreme gratitude.  And we know what it is to be delivered from our sins, and to be healed by his stripes.  All of us who claim the name of Christ are called upon to die to sins, live to righteousness and return to our Shepherd and Overseer.

RESPOND: 

Peter calls upon us to follow Christ’s example, and follow his steps. For those of us who live in relative safety and security, the cross that we take up may take the form of service.

Always, we are to remember that our salvation and righteousness are the gift of God.  Although I am not a Roman Catholic, I find Pope Francis’ example to be edifying.  According to Cardinal Cupich, in Francis’s first interview after being elected Pope, he said “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition.  It is not a figure of speech.”  The Cardinal goes on to say that before hearing confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica, he kneels in confession himself.

All of us as Christians can see ourselves in Peter’s words:

For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Incidentally, the word Overseer in Greek is episkopos, which can also be translated as guardian, superintendent, or bishop.  Jesus is always ultimately our true Bishop.

Lord, suffering is bound to come in our lives.  Deliver me from committing evil that deserves to be punished.  If I suffer unjustly, deliver me from resentment and grudges, but help me to forgive instead of seeking to retaliate.  Help me to look to your example as my guide.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Follow in His Steps” by Amydeanne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for November 3, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Sometimes when we read the Bible we begin to realize that we are walking into a flower garden — in which someone seems to have buried landmines!  What may seem clear on the surface actually becomes uncertain, and maybe even dangerous to one’s faith.

So it seems with Biblical commentaries, and with Lectionary Texts.  In the case of Paul’s Second Letter to  the Thessalonians, there are disputes among scholars about its authorship and its date.  Historical-critical scholars in the late 18th century  questioned whether Paul had actually written 2 Thessalonians because the language seems different than 1 Thessalonians. They also believed that there is a less urgent tone in 2 Thessalonians concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.  However, the traditional, orthodox view has maintained the Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians.

In the final analysis, even scholarly opinions are conjectures that cannot overshadow the fact that the books of the New Testament were completed no later than the early 2nd century. The Bible is ultimately the Church’s book, not a landmine in a flower garden.

Although formal canonization of all 27 of the New Testament books by the councils of bishops didn’t come for several centuries (Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa 393; the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419; Pope Damasus I’s Council of Rome in 382), 2 Thessalonians was one epistle whose authority was never in doubt.

Having said all of that, I assume that 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul.

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy had established a church in Thessalonica around 50 A.D., one of the very first churches in Macedonia after Philippi.  Thessalonica was a key port city on the Aegean Sea.  It was also situated on the Egnatian Way, a Roman highway which a traveler could take from Byzantium to the East, through Philippi, and all the way through Thessalonica to the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  From there a traveler could catch a ship at Dyrrachium and sail to Brundisium in the heel of Italy.  Needless to say, Thessalonica was a strategically located city.

Paul had already written a first letter to the Thessalonians, seeking to comfort them and to clarify Christian teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Although 2 Thessalonians is shorter, it addresses many of the same issues that the first letter does — with information about the Second Coming, and how they are to live in the meantime.

Paul writes in the name of himself and his co-workers, with a greeting that is somewhat typical of his letters:

 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of his thanksgiving for the church, and praises the growth of their faith and mutual love.  He tells them that he boasts of them wherever he goes:

we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Already, we are seeing the persecution of the church as a counter-cultural organization, although Paul doesn’t specify the source of the persecution.  From Acts 17 we learn that there was stringent resistance to Paul and his message by some of the members of the synagogue.   We also learn that these folks enlisted the help of a mob and accused Paul and his cohorts of sedition by seeking to promote the kingship of Jesus over Caesar.  Paul may be aware that though the church at Thessalonica has been successfully planted, they are still being falsely accused of  acts that are:

contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus! (Acts 17:7).

Their accusers were right about one thing, though.  These Christians had:

turned the world upside down  (Acts 17:6).

Now we come to a second problem with our epistle for this week — the lectionary editors skip from verse 4 to verse 11.  So when we read in verse 11,  To this end we also pray always for you, we don’t know what Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy are praying for unless we connect the dots by reading verses 5 to 10.

There, we see Paul’s continuing argument from verse 4, that the persecutions are a sign of the coming judgment of God, and that God will requite those who afflict God’s people.  His language is quite dramatic:

it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,  giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,  who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is why Paul and company are praying so fervently, because of the persecutions that the Thessalonian church is suffering.  He is seeking to encourage them so that:

God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The goodness and faith and power of the persecuted church are a compelling witness to their character.

APPLY:  

I sometimes think that only Christians in the persecuted church around the world should be allowed to read the apocalyptic  books in the New Testament, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and certain other books.  The reason I say that is that they understand these books better than those of us in the West whose Christianity is fairly easy.

All the more reason that the “un-persecuted church” must be even more faithful than we are now. When the world sees us, do they see that we are:

worthy of our calling, fulfilling every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power?

Or do they see a country club of congenial consumer Christians who conform the Gospel to their own lifestyles, rather than taking up the cross and being conformed to Christ?

RESPOND: 

I sometimes wonder how I would handle real persecution.  Not the imagined persecution that Christians sometimes become a little too hysterical about in the U.S. — “we can’t wish each other a Merry Christmas anymore!   Why can’t we have public invocations and prayers at ball games and graduations?” 

I have the feeling that Christians in Iraq and Syria and Egypt and Indonesia and China would gladly exchange the fear of beheading, desecration of their churches, and job discrimination with our petty concerns.

What I am hearing in my own American culture is that Christianity is becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Christians” don’t look or act particularly different than their non-Christian neighbors. Christians tend to divorce at the same rate, tend to have similar rates of alcoholism, tend to be just as materialistic, etc., etc., etc.

There is room for improvement.  How are we to be the leaven, the salt and the light in our secularized culture?  Perhaps we can do no better than seek to replicate the observation by pagan Romans as they described Christians in the early church:

See how these Christian love one another (Tertullian).

May our faith, our power and our love be our Christian witness!

Lord, give me the  faith and power  to be the witness you have called me to be.  Amen.  

 PHOTOS:
"Thessalonians" by Ian Wakefield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for May 12, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 7:9-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

There are so many different approaches to the interpretation of the Revelation that we may sometimes lose sight of its underlying purpose — to offer hope and encouragement to a persecuted church.

Once again in this passage we are introduced to a vast worship service in the courts of heaven.

Just prior to this passage, John has described the opening of six seals on the heavenly scroll by the Lamb of God.  And the 144,000 have been sealed as those who are set apart in advance of the disasters that are to come. Who the 144,000 are is a debatable point that is beyond our scope just now.

But it is very significant that John describes the myriad number of those who are gathered before the throne of God:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

Whatever the symbolic interpretation of the 144,000 who are sealed (and there are many conflicting interpretations), what is made clear is that those who are gathered here are beyond numbering.  Not in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but perhaps in the millions if not billions!

His description of the great multitude suggests that John sees a vision of the souls who are to be gathered at the end of time.  They are diverse nationally, ethnically, racially and linguistically.  This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus to:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

This vast crowd, dressed in white,  are waving palm branches — typically a Biblical symbol heralding a festive occasion, and of course associated in the Gospels with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Now, these souls in heaven are praising the risen Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father with their uplifted palm branches!

Imagine the chorus of voices as they proclaim in unison:

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Then the angels and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures who have already been introduced in the heavenly court all join together in this massive worship experience:

they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Frequently in the Revelation of John, there are dialogues between John and members of the heavenly court.  Here, one of the elders asks John a question:

 “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

He is asking about the vast congregation who come from every nation and tribe.  John either doesn’t know, or he is to humble to answer:

 “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

This is reminiscent of the encounter between Ezekiel and the Lord in the Valley of the Dry Bones.  The Lord shows Ezekiel the bones and says:

“Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

This dialectal style of question and answer was fairly typical in the ancient world — we see it in Plato’s Dialogues when Socrates asks questions that eventually lead to discovery.

The elder does know the answer to the question he has asked:   

“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Are these all of the martyrs of the church? Is the great ordeal (also known as the tribulation in other translations) John’s description of the Roman persecution of his time, or a later more universal period of persecution?  We can’t be sure, because there are many opinions on this aspect of The Revelation.

What is clear is that those who have been martyred are honored as those who are gathered before the throne of God, where they:

worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

John describes the comforting shelter that God provides for them:

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Note the irony — the Lamb, who has been sacrificed for these martyrs,  now becomes their shepherd.  Only now the Good Shepherd guides them to the water of life that flows through the Holy City.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has worshiped in a huge, packed church or attended a large Christian concert or outdoor festival, might have a faint appreciation for the kind of experience described in Revelation 7:9-17.

Except, of course, that the “special effects” and the distinguished guests — such as the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the vast crowds of the martyrs — are real in this scenario.

What we must not lose sight of is the message of shining hope that permeates the Book of Revelation, despite all of its descriptions of woe and judgment.  Those who have passed through the great ordeal will be in the very presence of God in the heavenly throne room.  And no matter what suffering they may have experienced, they will be comforted by the Lamb, they will drink from living water, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

Whatever else the great Apocalypse may bring, we know that the Lord will care for his own.

RESPOND: 

[Note from Celeste: Tom wrote this post in April, 2016. I do not know if the following statistics have changed in the last three years.]

This passage reminds me that we are living in a terrible age of Christian persecution — not in the United States, where I live, but in many nations around the world.

The description of the multitude of the martyrs who:

have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

is a reminder to me that I have suffered very little, relatively speaking, for my faith.

I am comforted that Revelation 19 seems to open the door for the rest of us who are believers, but not martyrs:

 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

But I am prompted to pray for and support those who are suffering for their faith even now.

Persecution Worldwide, which is a ministry of the Voice of the Martyrs, says that Christians are persecuted in at least forty countries today.  Another source says that as many as 60 nations practice discrimination against Christians.

Christianity seems to be undergoing systematic elimination in countries controlled by Muslim radicals like ISIS and the Taliban.

In Communist North Korea, Christians face detention in prison camps, torture, and possible execution for the practice of their faith.

An average of 180 Christians are killed every month for their faith around the world according to reports.  Some reports allege that the numbers are even higher, at 100,000 a year!

Most experts believe that the time in which we live far surpasses the early church in terms of the numbers of martyrs.

Ironically, while Christians in the Middle East and in Communist and authoritarian governments are dying for their faith, we in the United States seem to be scrambling to compromise with “this present age.”  Western Christians seem eager to accommodate the culture rather than to be light and leaven.

Perhaps that explains why the church in such areas of persecution seems to grow!

Tertullian, the early church Father, wrote:

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

A North Korean Christian is quoted as saying,

“We’re just like nails. The harder you hit us, the deeper you drive us; and the deeper you drive us, the more peaceful it becomes!”

Perhaps because there is a cost to their faith, it means something to follow Christ!  In the West, if there is a ball game at the same time as the church service — the ball game unfortunately becomes the priority.

To paraphrase Juan Luis Segundo, perhaps the church will flourish with a heroic minority rather than a consumer majority.  Paradoxically, the church under such circumstances becomes more muscular, and actually grows!

So — I pray for the persecuted church; and I pray that I might be more faithful and committed in my own faith.

Lord, your vision for your church is a vision of hope and comfort.  I pray for those who suffer for their faith.  And I pray for that day when suffering and tears and hunger and thirst are no more.  Amen. 

PHOTO:

"persecuted church" by Imagens Cristas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for May 7, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

1 Peter 2:19-25

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Peter reflects on the example of Christ as a model for those who suffer unjustly because of persecution.  This suggests that the Christians to whom he writes are beginning to suffer discrimination and worse because of their faith.

First, Peter commends those who suffer pain unjustly because of conscience toward God.  He points out that suffering for sin or crimes committed is no virtue — but to suffer for the sake of God is commendable.  We are reminded that Peter heard these teachings first from Jesus himself:

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:10-12).

The key is that those who are commended are those who suffer unjustly for righteousness’ sake.

Second, Peter reminds his readers of the example of Christ:

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you  an example, that you should follow his steps….

Of course, Jesus is unique.  He is the sinless one, the Messiah, who is able to commit himself completely to his Father.  Peter tells us that Jesus:

did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously;  who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree….

Peter is referencing the famous Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53 as he describes the sufferings of Jesus.  This illustrates the direct connection that the apostles believed existed between the Hebrew Scriptures and their fulfillment in Jesus.  He quotes Isaiah 53:9 directly .  The full text says:

They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

In addition, Peter’s allusion to Isaiah 53 includes his reference to the stripes, or scourging, of Jesus. This is the paradox of Christ’s atonement — that by his stripes we are healed.  Isaiah 53 also says that the sinners:

were going astray like sheep.

Peter has no doubt about the continuity of the Hebrew Scriptures with the Gospel.

And he applies Jesus’ suffering directly to himself and his readers — Jesus has borne our sins in his body on the tree, meaning that Jesus’ death is vicarious for those who believe in him.

And because of this vicarious death, there are superlative benefits to those who believe:

that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

These benefits are multi-layered.  Death to sin means that sin has been overcome by Jesus’ death on the cross.  Living to righteousness suggests that the believer begins to experience the grace of sanctification.  There is healing from sin, but also from other maladies.  And Peter uses a metaphor very common in Scripture — the sheep who were wandering have now returned to the Shepherd, who is Jesus.

APPLY:  

There are some passages of Scripture that Christians in the Western church struggle to understand.  1 Peter 2:19-25 is one of those passages.

Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Philippines, China, North Korea, India, and many other nations understand this passage perfectly well.  They, like our predecessors in the early church, know what it is to suffer unjustly because of conscience toward God.

In the West, we do profess our faith in Christ who suffered for us and bore our sins in his body on the tree with supreme gratitude.  And we know what it is to be delivered from our sins, and to be healed by his stripes.  All of us who claim the name of Christ are called upon to die to sins, live to righteousness and return to our Shepherd and Overseer.

RESPOND: 

Peter calls upon us to follow Christ’s example, and follow his steps. For those of us who live in relative safety and security, the cross that we take up may take the form of service.

Always, we are to remember that our salvation and righteousness are the gift of God.  Although I am not a Roman Catholic, I find Pope Francis’ example to be edifying.  According to Cardinal Cupich, in  Francis’s first interview after being elected Pope, he said “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition.  It is not a figure of speech.”  The Cardinal goes on to say that before hearing confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica, he kneels in confession himself.

All of us as Christians can see ourselves in Peter’s words:

For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Incidentally, the word Overseer in Greek is episkopos, which can also be translated as guardian, superintendent, or bishop.  Jesus is always ultimately our true Bishop.

Lord, suffering is bound to come in our lives.  Deliver me from committing evil that deserves to be punished.  If I suffer unjustly, deliver me from resentment and grudges, but help me to forgive instead of seeking to retaliate.  Help me to look to your example as my guide.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Follow in His Steps” by Amydeanne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 30, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Sometimes when we read the Bible we begin to realize that we are walking into a flower garden — in which someone seems to have buried landmines!  What may seem clear on the surface actually becomes uncertain, and maybe even dangerous to one’s faith.

So it seems with Biblical commentaries, and with Lectionary Texts.  In the case of Paul’s Second Letter to  the Thessalonians, there are disputes among scholars about its authorship and its date.  Historical-critical scholars in the late 18th century  questioned whether Paul had actually written 2 Thessalonians because the language seems different than 1 Thessalonians. They also believed that there is a less urgent tone in 2 Thessalonians concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.  However, the traditional, orthodox view has maintained the Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians.

In the final analysis, even scholarly opinions are conjectures that cannot overshadow the fact that the books of the New Testament were completed no later than the early 2nd century. The Bible is ultimately the Church’s book, not a landmine in a flower garden.

Although formal canonization of all 27 of the New Testament books by the councils of bishops didn’t come for several centuries (Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa 393; the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419; Pope Damasus I’s Council of Rome in 382), 2 Thessalonians was one epistle whose authority was never in doubt.

Having said all of that, I assume that 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul.

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy had established a church in Thessalonica around 50 A.D., one of the very first churches in Macedonia after Philippi.  Thessalonica was a key port city on the Aegean Sea.  It was also situated on the Egnatian Way, a Roman highway which a traveler could take from Byzantium to the East, through Philippi, and all the way through Thessalonica to the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  From there a traveler could catch a ship at Dyrrachium and sail to Brundisium in the heel of Italy.  Needless to say, Thessalonica was a strategically located city.

Paul had already written a first letter to the Thessalonians, seeking to comfort them and to clarify Christian teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Although 2 Thessalonians is shorter, it addresses many of the same issues that the first letter does — with information about the Second Coming, and how they are to live in the meantime.

Paul writes in the name of himself and his co-workers, with a greeting that is somewhat typical of his letters:

 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of his thanksgiving for the church, and praises the growth of their faith and mutual love.  He tells them that he boasts of them wherever he goes:

we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Already, we are seeing the persecution of the church as a counter-cultural organization, although Paul doesn’t specify the source of the persecution.  From Acts 17 we learn that there was stringent resistance to Paul and his message by some of the members of the synagogue.   We also learn that these folks enlisted the help of a mob and accused Paul and his cohorts of sedition by seeking to promote the kingship of Jesus over Caesar.  Paul may be aware that though the church at Thessalonica has been successfully planted, they are still being falsely accused of  acts that are:

contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus! (Acts 17:7).

Their accusers were right about one thing, though.  These Christians had:

turned the world upside down  (Acts 17:6).

Now we come to a second problem with our epistle for this week — the lectionary editors skip from verse 4 to verse 11.  So when we read in verse 11,  To this end we also pray always for you, we don’t know what Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy are praying for unless we connect the dots by reading verses 5 to 10.

There, we see Paul’s continuing argument from verse 4, that the persecutions are a sign of the coming judgment of God, and that God will requite those who afflict God’s people.  His language is quite dramatic:

it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,  giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,  who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is why Paul and company are praying so fervently, because of the persecutions that the Thessalonian church is suffering.  He is seeking to encourage them so that:

God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The goodness and faith and power of the persecuted church are a compelling witness to their character.

APPLY:  

I sometimes think that only Christians in the persecuted church around the world should be allowed to read the apocalyptic  books in the New Testament, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and certain other books.  The reason I say that is that they understand these books better than those of us in the West whose Christianity is fairly easy.

All the more reason that the “un-persecuted church” must be even more faithful than we are now. When the world sees us, do they see that we are:

worthy of our calling, fulfilling every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power?

Or do they see a country club of congenial consumer Christians who conform the Gospel to their own lifestyles, rather than taking up the cross and being conformed to Christ?

RESPOND: 

I sometimes wonder how I would handle real persecution.  Not the imagined persecution that Christians sometimes become a little too hysterical about in the U.S. — “we can’t wish each other a Merry Christmas anymore!   Why can’t we have public invocations and prayers at ball games and graduations?” 

I have the feeling that Christians in Iraq and Syria and Egypt and Indonesia and China would gladly exchange the fear of beheading, desecration of their churches, and job discrimination with our petty concerns.

What I am hearing in my own American culture is that Christianity is becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Christians” don’t look or act particularly different than their non-Christian neighbors. Christians tend to divorce at the same rate, tend to have similar rates of alcoholism, tend to be just as materialistic, etc., etc., etc.

There is room for improvement.  How are we to be the leaven, the salt and the light in our secularized culture?  Perhaps we can do no better than seek to replicate the observation by pagan Romans as they described Christians in the early church:

See how these Christian love one another (Tertullian).

May our faith, our power and our love be our Christian witness!

Lord, give me the  faith and power  to be the witness you have called me to be.  Amen.  

 PHOTOS:
"Thessalonians" by Ian Wakefield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for April 17, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Revelation 7:9-17

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

There are so many different approaches to the interpretation of the Revelation that we may sometimes lose sight of its underlying purpose — to offer hope and encouragement to a persecuted church.

Once again in this passage we are introduced to a vast worship service in the courts of heaven.

Just prior to this passage, John has described the opening of six seals on the heavenly scroll by the Lamb of God.  And the 144,000 have been sealed as those who are set apart in advance of the disasters that are to come. Who the 144,000 are is a debatable point that is beyond our scope just now.

But it is very significant that John describes the myriad number of those who are gathered before the throne of God:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

Whatever the symbolic interpretation of the 144,000 who are sealed (and there are many conflicting interpretations), what is made clear is that those who are gathered here are beyond numbering.  Not in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but perhaps in the millions if not billions!

His description of the great multitude suggests that John sees a vision of the souls who are to be gathered at the end of time.  They are diverse nationally, ethnically, racially and linguistically.  This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus to:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

This vast crowd, dressed in white,  are waving palm branches — typically a Biblical symbol heralding a festive occasion, and of course associated in the Gospels with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Now, these souls in heaven are praising the risen Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father with their uplifted palm branches!

Imagine the chorus of voices as they proclaim in unison:

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Then the angels and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures who have already been introduced in the heavenly court all join together in this massive worship experience:

they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Frequently in the Revelation of John, there are dialogues between John and members of the heavenly court.  Here, one of the elders asks John a question:

 “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

He is asking about the vast congregation who come from every nation and tribe.  John either doesn’t know, or he is to humble to answer:

 “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

This is reminiscent of the encounter between Ezekiel and the Lord in the Valley of the Dry Bones.  The Lord shows Ezekiel the bones and says

“Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

This dialectal style of question and answer was fairly typical in the ancient world — we see it in Plato’s Dialogues when Socrates asks questions that eventually lead to discovery.

The elder does know the answer to the question he has asked:   

“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Are these all of the martyrs of the church? Is the great ordeal (also known as the tribulation in other translations) John’s description of the Roman persecution of his time, or a later more universal period of persecution?  We can’t be sure, because there are many opinions on this aspect of The Revelation.

What is clear is that those who have been martyred are honored as those who are gathered before the throne of God, where they:

worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

John describes the comforting shelter that God provides for them:

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Note the irony — the Lamb, who has been sacrificed for these martyrs,  now becomes their shepherd.  Only now the Good Shepherd guides them to the water of life that flows through the Holy City.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has worshiped in a huge, packed church or attended a large Christian concert or outdoor festival, might have a faint appreciation for the kind of experience described in Revelation 7:9-17.

Except, of course, that the “special effects” and the distinguished guests — such as the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the vast crowds of the martyrs — are real in this scenario.

What we must not lose sight of is the message of shining hope that permeates the Book of Revelation, despite all of its descriptions of woe and judgment.  Those who have passed through the great ordeal will be in the very presence of God in the heavenly throne room.  And no matter what suffering they may have experienced, they will be comforted by the Lamb, they will drink from living water, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

Whatever else the great Apocalypse may bring, we know that the Lord will care for his own.

RESPOND: 

This passage reminds me that we are living in a terrible age of Christian persecution — not in the United States, where I live, but in many nations around the world.

The description of the multitude of the martyrs who:

have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

is a reminder to me that I have suffered very little, relatively speaking, for my faith.

I am comforted that Revelation 19 seems to open the door for the rest of us who are believers, but not martyrs:

 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

But I am prompted to pray for and support those who are suffering for their faith even now.

Persecution Worldwide, which is a ministry of the Voice of the Martyrs, says that Christians are persecuted in at least forty countries today.  Another source says that as many as 60 nations practice discrimination against Christians.

Christianity seems to be undergoing systematic elimination in countries controlled by Muslim radicals like ISIS and the Taliban.

In Communist North Korea, Christians face detention in prison camps, torture, and possible execution for the practice of their faith.

An average of 180 Christians are killed every month for their faith around the world according to reports.  Some reports allege that the numbers are even higher, at 100,000 a year!

Most experts believe that the time in which we live far surpasses the early church in terms of the numbers of martyrs.

Ironically, while Christians in the Middle East and in Communist and authoritarian governments are dying for their faith, we in the United States seem to be scrambling to compromise with “this present age.”  Western Christians seem eager to accommodate the culture rather than to be light and leaven.

Perhaps that explains why the church in such areas of persecution seems to grow!

Tertullian, the early church Father, wrote:

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

A North Korean Christian is quoted as saying,

“We’re just like nails. The harder you hit us, the deeper you drive us; and the deeper you drive us, the more peaceful it becomes!”

Perhaps because there is a cost to their faith, it means something to follow Christ!  In the West, if there is a ball game at the same time as the church service — the ball game unfortunately becomes the priority.

To paraphrase Juan Luis Segundo, perhaps the church will flourish with a heroic minority rather than a consumer majority.  Paradoxically, the church under such circumstances becomes more muscular, and actually grows!

So — I pray for the persecuted church; and I pray that I might be more faithful and committed in my own faith.

Lord, your vision for your church is a vision of hope and comfort.  I pray for those who suffer for their faith.  And I pray for that day when suffering and tears and hunger and thirst are no more.  Amen. 

PHOTO:

"persecuted church" by Imagens Cristas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.