Leading to Peace

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves (I Thessalonians 5:12-1 ESV).

In one of Paul’s earliest letters, he addresses the Thessalonian church about their life together.  It appears from the sources that he had spent a minimal amount of time with this believing community, yet he had developed a great bond of affection for them.  It is doubtful that the church has much of a formal structure at this point, probably lacking ordained elders or other official leaders.  

Yet, the church does have leadership, and Paul clarifies some basic practices crucial for developing a healthy life together.  These practices involve the behavior of leaders, and the attitude of the community towards them.  The context implies that a healthy understanding of these issues will lead a Christian community to peace.

This passage is interesting because it gives us a glimpse into how leadership emerged and was recognized in Paul’s early church plants.  So, assuming that these church leaders had no formal recognition, let us see what Paul prescribed for them.

1)  Leaders of the Christian community labor.   

Respect those who labor among you . . . and esteem them highly in love because of their work.  Not only do we respect leaders (literally ‘recognize’ in the Greek, from oida, to know or see), but we respect them because their labor makes them stand out.  They are esteemed because of their work.

In another very similar passage, Paul admonishes the Corinthians, Now I urge you, brothers —you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—  be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer (I Corinthians 16:15-16).  Here it seems service or labor is a function of leadership.

The household of Stephanus are those who ‘get their hands dirty’ in acts of service to others.  They are actively involved in the lives of the people and the broader purposes of the church.  Laboring is a pre-requisite, though not a guarantee, that one is qualified to lead.

In seeking to establish leadership, we do well to watch for those with a heart to labor.  The call of God can be recognized because these folks are often energized by their efforts rather than drained by them.  A refusal to get involved, to labor, is a failure to lead, and a clear disqualification for formal recognition.

2)  Leaders of the Christian community lead!  

This statement is not as silly as it sounds.  The ESV refers to those who ‘are over you in the Lord.’  The word is literally ‘those who stand before.’  These are ones who get out in front.  They are visible and they are willing to take responsibility – take the heat as it were.  It is said of great military leaders that their soldiers know they won’t be asked to do what their leader is unwilling to do himself.  This is true with spiritual leaders also.

While an overbearing demeanor is a drawback in almost any endeavor, excessive passivity is a formula for failure for the leader and the entire enterprise.  Pro-active, forward-looking leadership brings security and peace to a flock. A confident presence in the face of serious threats is contagious and gives a sense of well-being to a vulnerable community.  Psychologists refer to this leadership trait as a ‘non-anxious presence’ in the face of crisis. In the days of persecution, such as that experienced by the church in Thessalonica, this is what it meant to ‘stand before’ the community.

3)  Leaders of the Christian community have the courage and wisdom to communicate.

Those who labor, and are over the Thessalonians, are those who admonish.  This is, in fact, part of the labor that leaders perform.  The careful work of relating to the community, out of genuine concern, requires admonishing them.  

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.  See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone (I Thessalonians 5:14-15).

There’s a small catalogue of communication terms listed in the context of this passage.  The first is to admonish (Gk. noutheteo) which means “to impart understanding, to set right, to have a corrective influence on someone, describes an effect on the will and the disposition, and it presupposes an opposition which has to be overcome.  It seeks to correct the mind, to put right what is wrong, to improve the spiritual attitude. A word of admonition which is designed to correct while not provoking or embittering" (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament).  That is a daunting task.

In the context of admonishing the community, great care is to be taken to discern the emotional and spiritual state of each person approached.  In our ESV translation, they are the idle, the fainthearted, the weak.  There is a subtle but important distinction between each of these persons.  The leader who brings peace not only has the courage but also the wisdom to communicate in each nuanced situation.

The first is the idle (Gr. ataktos), meaning "disordered, without order or plan, to roam about in disorderly fashion, to evade one's obligations, to act irresponsibly" (TDNT).  I see here the moral culpability of the lazy or undisciplined person. (I know, the idea of moral culpability is totally out of vogue, politically incorrect, and, as a psychological term, antiquated – it is, nevertheless, accurate).  

Encourage the fainthearted, or timid (Gr. oligopsuchos).  This is a great word which means to be of several minds, to be a confused and irresolute soul.  It carries the idea of being confused, or directionless.  It might apply to a member of the community who is in mourning, or transition, or who has lost their place in their family or society.  Perhaps they have lost a job and their status in society.  Or through the death of a loved one, the break-up of a marriage, maybe by the fact of being newly retired they have lost their sense of place and purpose in the community.  These must be approached differently than the irresponsibly disordered, or idle.

Then there are the weak or sick (Gr. asthenos – without strength).  We are to stand by the sick -- those without the strength to fulfill their obligations or take care of themselves.  They are deserving of the support of the community and its leaders.  Leaders must know the difference and then communicate and act accordingly.

Toward everyone, we are to show patience, prayerfully exercising our ministry without strife, expecting that our efforts will produce the good fruit of faithful discipleship in the long run.  As the passage states, this work requires patience.  To be patient is to show the endurance of a physician treating a stubborn ailment, or a soldier on a difficult deployment, or a swimmer against a contrary current (TDNT).  Sometimes ministry feels like swimming against the current for a long time.

The exhortation to patience implies that all ministry is to be exercised without quick temper, hasty decisions, or a tendency toward retribution.  To exercise patience, however, does not mean to exercise an unhealthy, enabling indulgence.

In short, leaders of the Christian community know and respect their flock and its foibles and determine to seek the best interest of everyone in their church family.

4)  Leaders in the Christian community deserve recognition and respect.

The clear implication of this message to Thessalonica is that leaders deserve the respect of those they lead – respect for their work and their role in the community, and respect for their position.  Recognition and respect are a decision of the mind as well as an attitude of the heart.  

We struggle today with the idea of honoring one for the sake of their position out of fear of enabling the overbearing.  But truth be told, honor to whom honor is due, simply by virtue of one’s position, is a biblical principle.  Exceptions to this rule are more rare than we want to believe.  To honor the leadership of the community is to help insure its peace.  To hold leaders in disdain is to disdain the order and peace of the community, to place our own concerns or perceptions above the well-being of the wider community.

So the exhortation to “be patient toward all” applies to those who “stand before” as well as those who follow behind.  A healthy respect is the honor due those who “devote themselves to the service of the saints.”

 No doubt these practices will take any believing community a long way toward enjoying the peace God intends.

Grace for Glitches

Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us.  Let us go the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.’ And he answered, ‘Go.’ Then one of them said, ‘Be pleased to go with your servants.’ And he answered, ‘I will go.’ So he went with them.  And when they came to the Jordan they cut down trees.  But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water and he cried out, ‘Alas, my master! It was borrowed.’  Then the man of God said, ‘Where did it fall?’  When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float.  And he said, ‘Take it up.’  And he reached out his hand and took it (II Kings 6:1-7).

‘Alas, my master! It was borrowed!’  An iron axe-head seems a small matter to us today, but in Elisha’s time an iron axe-head was a prime possession.  The man’s dilemma would be similar to borrowing a friend’s computer today only to drop it down the stairs shattering it.  The miracle performed by Elisha, one of many recorded in scripture, seems almost a gimmick – an entertaining magic trick.  Yet, I see something deeper here.

Miracles in scripture always point to something more.  Sometimes they confirm the supernatural origin of the prophet’s message, other times to the graciousness of our God.  In the New Testament they serve to confirm the message of the ultimate miracle, the resurrection of Christ. But in this instance I see something simple, yet crucial to the happiness of every community of God’s people.

The dream of harmonious community life seems etched in the human psyche.  Many of us remember the heady, yet misguided days of the 60’s counter-culture.  There was a cherished myth of love and peace to be found in gatherings of young adults living in communal harmony.  In the words of songwriter Joni Mitchell, ‘We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden!’ Few of these experiments, often situated in a rural paradise, actually survived long.  Many who participated were scarred by the excesses they embraced.

There is a persistent desire, though, rooted in a deep human need for companionship.  We are social creatures searching for a sense of family.  We carry an almost desperate need for love, acceptance, and grace.  I think this is because we are made in the image of the Triune God who is a perfect community united in perfect, unfathomable love.  God is love the apostle tells us.

This desire is constantly reflected in literature and art.  We even see it in current business thought.    There is much use of the term ‘team’ in business literature.  A well-known book on this issue is entitled, Managing the Dream.  The dream of a harmonious and productive workplace reflects a desire to live out the mandate of the garden, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis 3:15).   The Hebrew word, to keep (shamar) means ‘to exercise great care over’ (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament).

 

Our yearning to get ‘back to the garden’ is a yearning to express ourselves in meaningful work and loving relationships.  Few things bring a sense of community like productive, creative work.  Every community, family, church, or business must embrace an ethic of productive work in order to achieve its highest beauty and purpose.  

Our community life in Jesus Christ must be rooted in grace.  This means the grace God extends to us by accepting us in His Son, and the grace we extend to one another as those who share in the same gift.  Worldly communities break down because they are rooted in a false premise – that it is actually possible to ‘get back to the garden.’  The garden is gone.  Only a vestige of it remains.  This vestige is still strong enough to provoke the fondest and most compelling dreams, but dreams that cannot be fulfilled apart from the grace of God.  Every deceptive utopian scheme promotes this idea.

As C.S. Lewis writes, “If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon” (Learning in War Time, p. 63).

Likewise, we are often disillusioned by unfulfilled dreams of Christian community that we find unsatisfying, uncreative, or graceless.  Church-life just isn’t what we expected. If we hold no illusions, we cannot become disillusioned.  Let’s let go of our illusions without letting go of the dream.

In our pilgrimage we can taste of the beauty and power of Christ’s kingdom.  We can experience the joy of genuine community.  We can rejoice in creative and productive service to God together, but not without an abundance of grace.  Grace (charis as in charismatic) is that power of Christ’s presence that makes possible what is impossible – that we may together catch a glimpse of that city whose builder and maker is God, and in which stands the tree of life and the river of the water of life.  We cannot get back to the garden, but we can pursue the celestial city.

We crave community. However, the constant change introduced by the ‘creative destruction’ (to borrow a phrase from Joseph Shumpeter) of modern economies make a sense of rootedness and community an ever more elusive dream.  Yet, that is precisely what Christ calls us to – a community of the faithful.  A community which works together will see special challenges, especially when things go wrong – even little things.

Which brings us back to our story.

In the vignette above, community life is growing. There’s no room to contain the earnest seekers who want to join themselves to Elisha’s prophetic band.  A work party is formed to expand the living quarters. Then something goes wrong – the lost axe-head.  I see a few simple points here for us to remember. 

The miracle Elisha performs shows us that God gives grace for the challenges of community life.

The life of this community was marked by growth.  Life brings growth.  Growth brings challenges.  In turn, growth must be met by industry to be sustained. Industry, to be effective must be marked by humility.  Humility is expressed here by acts of service and by Elisha’s willingness to accompany the work party.  Jesus perfectly expressed this kind of humility when he washed his disciples’ feet.

Nevertheless, community life is often marked by frustrating glitches. Here is the key to overcoming a prime destroyer of the joy of community.  When frustrating hindrances come up, watch for the outcome.  Do we respond with criticism, belligerence, abuse? or grace, and an expectation of divine power?  One response is typically carnal or human, the other is divine, a fruit of the Spirit.

This is when the doubts and accusing questions arise.  ‘Why are we doing this project anyway?’ ‘You are always creating problems for the rest of us.’  ‘Why are we working with borrowed materials?’ The atmosphere becomes toxic, the common well of goodwill dries up, or becomes bitter.  When this exercise of blame and recrimination is oft-repeated in a community, what goodwill we have slowly slips away.  Recovery becomes very difficult. Without grace, the garden becomes infested with weeds, pests, and predators.  Thus it is that worldly utopias always break down.

Every endeavor has its messy period.   As Rosabeth Moss Kanter observes:  “Troubles are ubiquitous. Surprises can fall from the sky like volcanic ash and appear to change everything. New ventures can begin with great promise and still face unexpected obstacles, unanticipated delays, and critics that pop up at the wrong moment. That’s why I coined Kanter’s Law: “Anything can look like a failure in the middle” (Cultivate a Culture of Confidence, Harvard Business Review online, April 2011).

For a Christian community, there is a source of power in the grace of God, flowing from Christ’s sacrificial gift of His life for us.  He overcomes nature’s corruption, even the power of death.  He makes the axe-head float, and He redeems even critical mistakes.  In short, He extends grace and gives a beautiful glimpse of His city.  A community which reflects the beauty and productivity of the Triune God must find in Him the ability to extend grace for glitches.