Over the last few weeks we’ve
been looking at parts of Paul’s 1st letter to the
Thessalonians. We’ve heard how Paul
probably spent only about 3 weeks in Thessalonica before being driven out by
jealous Jews. And we’ve seen that the
principal theme of this letter is the return of Jesus and how Christians are to live holy
lives in light of that. Two weeks ago
Liz Tilley unravelled for us some of the difficulties that modern Christians
have when it comes to understanding what the Bible has to say about the 2nd
coming of Christ – if you missed it, please queue up to see Margaret Slade
afterwards and borrow a copy of the tape of her sermon. It was so encouraging and warm hearted, and
yet there was a challenge in it for all of us as we work out how we should be
living as we await our Lord’s return. Today we’ve come to the final part of
this letter and I’m indebted to Colin (who was to have preached this sermon)
for the notes he prepared before he became ill.
As you listened to our reading,
perhaps following it in the pew Bibles, you may have been aware of all the
short sentences with their brief exhortations – be joyful always, pray
continually, and so on. There are nearly
20 of them altogether, rather like bullet points for
(1) Right attitude to
Church leaders. < v.12&13> So – we are to
respect our leaders. It’s likely that
Paul had not himself appointed these leaders – he wouldn’t have had time before
he had to leave. That means that it’s
highly likely that leaders had emerged naturally out of the congregation, but
evidently some in the church didn’t respect them. It’s also possible that some leaders may have
provoked this reaction by their heavy-handed or autocratic style. Paul rejects both attitudes and goes on to
give 3 attributes that a church leader should display: (i) they should be people
who work hard among you. I wonder if
there were people in Thessalonica, as there are in our society
today, who reckon that their clergy work only on Sundays and have the
rest of the week off! Of course, there are
lazy vicars (and lazy curates!!) but this wasn’t the case in Thessalonica. The Greek word for ‘work hard’ is normally
used for hard, physical labour and conjures up pictures of rippling muscles and
pouring sweat. Whether it is study and
sermon preparation, running Alpha courses, visiting the sick and bereaved,
preparing people for baptism, taking school assemblies, presiding at PCC
meetings or being faithful in prayer, these things are demanding of time and energy . Now there
are many others in our gifted church here in Wonersh,
in addition to the vicar, who also have positions of leadership – the wardens,
the ministry team, the Care team, the PCC, homegroup
leaders, the youth and children’s workers and countless others (the fact that I
haven’t mentioned them doesn’t mean that they are any less important). These
people too are working hard on our behalf, and therefore we are not to despise
them, nor are we to go to the other extreme and flatter them, but – as it says
here – we are to respect them.
Of course that respect has to be earned, there
is no automatic right to it. It’s not conferred by the title ‘Reverend’, ‘Very
Reverend’ or ‘Incredibly Reverend’! But
it comes as Christian leaders work hard on behalf of others, laying down their
lives for them. The response then to
this sort of leadership is that we hold them in the highest regard in
love because of their work. I wonder if we take that challenge
seriously.
(ii) Next Paul
describes church leaders as those who are over you in the Lord. But if that phrase makes us think that a
Christian minister is like the leader of a business, one who makes all the
decisions and tells everyone what they should be doing, then we’ve got it badly
wrong. The word minister means
someone who serves. If anyone was a
leader it was Jesus and yet he once said, The Son of Man came not be
served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many – not to
be served but to serve. John Stott
writes, The very first thing which needs to
be said about Christian ministers of all kinds is that they are under
people as their servants rather than over them as their leaders. And then he goes on to say, Nevertheless, authentic servant leadership still
carries an element of authority. I
guess that means that the leader has to have authority, to make difficult
decisions when they are needed, to develop and liberate the gifts that the rest
of the church have, and so there must be a balance – sometimes a very difficult
balance – which Christian ministers have to strike between servanthood
and leadership. They are to be like
parents in a family, loving their children, working hard on their behalf, but
also at times deciding what is best for them – directing them if you like. I’m sure we can see from this that in the
life of the church we need to be encouragers, not complainers, people who pray
for our clergy that they will be able to fulfil this difficult calling to be
both under us as servants and over us as leaders. How they need wisdom and
love, and above all to be filled with the Holy Spirit!
(iii) As we look at the 3rd
attribute of a church leader, we see at once that the task is even harder than
we may have thought. They are to work
hard, they are to be over you, and also they are to be those who admonish
you – and that means warning people and sometimes saying hard
things. What a combination of courage
and tact is needed to be able to do that.
In fact, the word used for ‘admonish’ is not a harsh word – the tone is
brotherly. Have we ever been on the
receiving end of an admonishing word from a vicar or church leader? I hope the one who spoke to us was loving and gentle, but I also hope that we didn’t react
petulantly or resolve never to raise our head above the parapet again.
So, our leaders are to be hard-working, they are to be over their flock and where necessary they must have the courage to admonish or warn against bad behaviour. In turn, the members are to respect their leaders and to hold them in the highest regard – phrases that imply appreciation and affection. There are 6 little words in v 13 that sum up this paragraph. Live in peace with one another. The trouble is that in too many churches the congregation and the clergy are at loggerheads with each other and this can seriously damage the church’s life and its mission, as well as its public image. You may know this John Betjeman poem:
When things go wrong it’s rather tame
To find we are ourselves to blame,
It gets the trouble over quicker,
To go and blame things on the Vicar,
The Vicar after all is paid,
To keep us
bright and undismayed.
How different it is when clergy
and people both recognise that God calls different believers to different
ministries and give others the love and respect that their God-appointed
ministry demands. May we at Wonersh take to heart Paul’s words here in 1 Thessalonians
and enjoy living at peace with one another.
(2) Right attitude to one
another. (Quote v 14, 15). Once again Paul addresses his readers as
‘brothers’ by which of course he means sisters as well! He clearly saw the church in Thessalonica as
a family and he’s writing to urge them to care for their family, to recognise
their needs and to be involved in meeting them.
He mentions three types of needy people.
The first are the idle, and in the context of the Thessalonian church, this probably refers to those who were
so sure that Jesus was coming imminently that they had given up their jobs and
were sponging off gullible Christians who were happy to feed and clothe
them. I’m not sure that this is our
problem here in Wonersh! But what we sometimes need encouraging to do
is to live out our Christian lives in our place of work – not to be like
chameleons who always blend into the cultural background; church goers at the
weekend, but invisible as Christians for the rest of the week.
Then there are
the timid. Perhaps these
are people who are easily shaken by trials and difficulties. They need gentle care and encouragement. And what about lonely people, those who live
alone – often too timid to go out and make friends. They need friendship and hospitality. Are there any like this that we know? Let’s encourage them, befriend them, maybe invite them for a meal. Help them to build their faith in the God who
can meet them in their difficulties and help them through. School teachers are very aware that children
in school need lots of encouragement, especially those who find school work
hard. It’s just the same with adults. We thrive on encouragement. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for
your encouragement. So let’s aim to be
encouragers.
The 3rd
group is the weak. In all
probability Paul had in mind those who struggle with sexual self-control.
(There’s a paragraph about them in chapter 4).
But it could be applied to any form of temptation which exposes our
weakness. It’s easy to condemn people, I’ve done it myself many times – writing people off
after one failure, when what is needed is help.
Above all, what
we need in dealing with our fellow Christians is patience and kindness. Be patient with everyone, Paul
says, and try to be kind to each other . It is so easy to get annoyed with someone
else in the church fellowship, who doesn’t share your convictions about some
issue or other, or who agrees to do something and then lets you down. Most of our problems with our fellow
Christians would be resolved if both parties resolved to be patient and kind in
their dealings with one another. Yet
from time to time, there is a disagreement – a dispute – in the church. What should happen when this occurs?
Let me start by
saying what shouldn’t happen. A doesn’t
like something that B has said or done.
So A tells C and D about it. C
and D tell E, F, G and H – in strictest confidence, of course, and soon I, J, K
know and so do L, M, N, O and P and so on.
Everyone’s talking and gossiping about it. Phone calls and emails are flying around and
the problem gets much worse. The message
gets distorted like Chinese whispers so that what’s being talked about bears
little resemblance to what happened. It
has two harmful effects. 1) It divides the church, 2) it deflects the church
from what it should be doing, sharing the love of Christ in the local community
and building the
So what should
happen when there are disputes and disagreements? Did you notice our gospel reading from
Matthew 18.
It’s important enough for me to read it to you again (p. 985). It doesn’t say, talk to everyone about it,
send an email, call a meeting. Instead it says If
your brother sins against you go and show him his fault just between the two of
you. Which of us hasn’t been
wronged by someone? Our first reaction
might be to write a stiff letter, saying things we might not feel able to say
face to face. The teaching of scripture
is that the first step should be to talk face to face and try to de-escalate
the problem – pouring oil on troubled waters.
As we do that, let’s think about the person we think has wronged
us. Churches, vicars and others have
been torn apart by criticism. We need
wisdom and sensitivity when we do this.
Sadly, though, it doesn’t always work, but at least we’ve tried. And Jesus realised that the first approach
may not solve the problem, so he goes on: If he will not listen take one
or two others along, so that the matter can be established by the testimony of
2 or 3 witnesses. Only if that
does not work should the church become involved and if it’s a really serious
case the person’s status as a church member might then need to be considered.
I’m conscious that I been talking
about things that you may have found painful and difficult to handle. I hope then that you’ll allow me to finish by
drawing your attention to one of the most encouraging statements in the Bible,
especially when we may be conscious of difficulties in our church
fellowship. It reminds us that God is
the one whose power and love will ultimately triumph in these areas. It comes back in 1 Thess
5 v. 24 The
one who called you is faithful and he will do it. (repeat). Do we feel at a loss to know what to do when
disputes arise? God is faithful and he
will do it.
Let’s end this time of thinking
about relationships in our church by turning Paul’s words into a prayer (p.
1188). V 23, 24. As we sit let’s look through those verses and
let’s change the you & your into us and our. Let’s pray it slowly together