Devotional Thoughts: Doing Church

Am looking at 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2 this morning.

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

Scholars suggest that 2 Thessalonians was written shortly after 1 Thessalonians probably in response to the latest report Paul received from the church in regards to confusion about what happens to Christians who had died and "the day of the Lord" which he touched on in 1 Thessalonians 4-5. Paul will get to that right after this greeting.

But for the moment, I just want to reflect on the greeting.

Church. What is it today? What was it like back then?

The other day I was web surfing and I came across this item which is links to a series of articles about what we know of the early church. Unfortunately, one can only read excerpts of the articles unless you have a subscription. More searching yielded this item which is a full article not requiring a subscription.

In brief, the article mentions that a "typical" church in the olden day did the following things: prayer and fasting, baptism, greeting kiss, Lord Supper/Communion/Eucharist, provide assistance to the needy and indeed, they had a "sermon." Here is the excerpt in the article describing this part of the church meeting:

And on the day called Sunday there is a meeting in one place of those who live in cities or the country, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. When the reader has finished, the president in a discourse urges and invites [us] to the imitation of these noble things.

This picture started me thinking about the level of anticipation the Thessalonian believers must have had when news of a letter from Paul had arrived!

Imagine believers going about their daily lives running into other believers saying, "I heard a letter from Paul arrived yesterday! They are going to read it on Sunday!! Make sure you can be there!!!"

Think about the excitement of one of the literate members of the community being asked by the leader of the church, "I want you to write a copy of the latest letter from Paul! We need copies so we can pass them around to other churches so they can benefit!"

Perhaps one of the wealthier members of the church would say, "Here take some of this money so you can buy the best papyrus to make the copies!"


Image source: http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/exhibits/papyri_james/1_2.html

Imagine the sweat on the brow of the copywriter! He doesn't want any mistakes. He finishes the copy and asks another literate member of the congregation, "PLEASE look this over and check for any mistakes!"

What would it have been like as the believers packed into a home for a meeting and the leader stands up with the letter from Paul and starts reading it aloud?

For us today, we take for granted the Bible. I confess to occasionally yawning during the sermon and playing the game of "roast pastor" at lunch skewering the sermon. Lord, have mercy!

I suppose maybe I'm "romanticizing" how excited the early believers were.

But as I reflect this morning, I am struck by my own lack of anticipation.

Lord, you have assembled the church. It is made up of flawed people like me who are so often ungrateful, selfish and not fully focused on you. Yet, you in your grace, keep pursuing me and reminding me of who you are. Keep after all of us at the church I'm at. Help our church to be a light to the people around us. Increase our anticipation of what you will do. Give us courage to live for you. Amen.