Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 3:14-18 (June 30, 2025)

June 30, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to 2 Thessalonians 3:14-18

In Name, and in the Love of Jesus Christ, Good morning my dear friends.

On this record heat day, please be mindful of how you spend your time away from home, and if necessary to travel, do so with adequate water for a possible breakdown.

And if it is possible for you as you travel around today, be a compassionate child of our Savior Jesus Christ. Keep the homeless (new politically correct word is unhoused or unsheltered.)  in your prayers, and given an opportunity to help someone, or to speak to them, take the time to do so. Too many of God's children are in difficult situations right now regarding their housing circumstances. Even working a full-time minimum wage job is not enough to provide for the needs of a couple or family for rent. This morning Melody and I were driving in town and saw a "deal" on an efficiency one room, $700.00 each month. A one bedroom at regular rent rates is $800.00 to $1000.00. Today, we would be unable to have the home that we bought 28 years ago here in Tucson. Our children, now in their mid to late forties, like every other average family, are having to deal with how unapproachable the "American Dream" of home owning has become. As Christians every one of us is faced with how respond to the needs of others. I pray that you will always be open to living compassionately, with a heart, prayers, and resources that are guided by the Spirit. Last night as it was getting dark, I was on Wilmot near Jim Click Ford. On the median was a sunburned man seeking donations for help. I stopped at the light and called out to Sean, that I had help for him. I gave him more than enough money to get a meal, and he immediately headed off to the Taco Bell that is near the corner. I pray that my gift blesses his life in some small way. For me this is what being a Christian is about, living with faith in Jesus Christ, called to be His child in every response, perhaps most especially for the least, the last, and the lost.

As enter the closing passage of Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, we find that Paul continues to direct the lives of the new Christians in that community. I think that we can assume that the faith community is small, but very tight in the relationships between the individual members of this new church. I know that in modern times, I have heard it said that using the term family for members is not the best thing to do. However, in small congregations we really do become family to one another. Yesterday at the Healing Service during worship, I was able to offer the general missal for healing, yet in many cases I was also able to name, and pray for, specific health issues for many of our family members. I think that in our passage for today, we can see how it is that Paul addresses the issue of discipline. There are apparently some in the "family" who are in personal lifestyles that move against the standards that Paul had given the Thessalonians when he was able to be with them, and then again, through his two letters to them. So, what was the young church to do? Within the Body of Christ, discipline is sometimes a necessary reality. In this circumstance we are probably not talking about removal from membership, but instead the actions out of Agape love, which helps that member to realize that their choices and decisions have caused others’ problems. What is the church to do? Were you ever sent from a meal to your room for less than wise words you may have spoken? Were you ever asked to take on extra chores in your family because you hadn't done the first ones that you were assigned? Did you ever use language that your family found offensive, requiring them to issue words of guidance for your understanding? In families there are all kinds of these things that happen, and they happen with lovingkindness offered for the benefit of the offender. When I was 16 driving my Dad's new Mercury, a big high-powered car, I drove it up the driveway one night hit the brakes too hard as I entered the dip into the garage and hit the concrete with the frame on the front of the car taking chunks out of the concrete!  I knew, and my Dad knew, and he never yelled at me, his discipline look was enough. The car was repaired, and I drove it with some new respect for my Dad who quietly and lovingly allowed me to continue to drive it. This is the kind of discipline that Paul is encouraging in the new church when it becomes necessary to be separated in some way from a perpetrator who brings danger to the whole community through their words and actions. For Paul this might include not offering communion to the individual, or not allowing them to speak in meetings, or preventing them from having leadership positions in the congregation or being allowed to speak as a representative of the Gospel as it was being brought to more and more people.  At the heart of his entire issue, is the action of Christian forgiveness, not just once, but time and again for the sake of the very soul of one who from time to time moves against the Gospel of Christ.  We all do it at some time! And if Christ forgives us, who are we in the church to fail in our own ability to find our model in the Lord, and instead to allow the Spirit her active role in transforming the hearts and minds of those who have moved astray from their community? 

May God bless each of us today, and always.

With the Grace of God in Jesus Christ, Pastor Kim