Listen to what Paul says to the Thessalonians at the end of chapter two.
“But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”
It is amazing how much interpretation that passage does not need. But I’ll give it a whack anyway!
In 1952, E.E. Cummings wrote a poem that famously begins like this:
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear
Cummings goes on – with his characteristic disregard for proper capitalization or punctuation – to talk about how deeply intertwined these two hearts are. No matter where he goes or what he does or what happens in the world, his heart is bound to the heart of his dear. “this is the secret that keeps the stars apart”
Paul felt just this way about the Thessalonians. While he was away from them in person, his heart was still close to them. As he was driven south through Greece, he carried them in his heart. Why? Well, it’s not for the same reason as E. E. Cummings – who seems to have been in love with whomever he wrote the poem for. Paul’s attachment to the Thessalonians was not romantic. It was bigger than that.
Look at that last line in there: “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”
Paul thinks that there will come a day when Jesus will come back a second time to complete the work of God’s Kingdom – think back to what we talked about yesterday. He writes with a certainty that Jesus’ work in this world was not done yet. When he thinks forward to what that will be like, when he sends his imagination forward to that far-off day, Paul anticipates that the most fun part of it all will be relationships like the ones he formed in Thessalonica – friends that he was not able to see for long stretches of time.
We don’t have time here to get into the whole “end of the world”’ bit. If you want to talk about that, take Biblical Ethics with me. Here’s what matters for us today.
If Paul is right, then it’s the relationships in our lives that matter supremely – even when we are distant from each other. Even if we are as far apart as the stars, as Cummings might say, we carry each other in our hearts. It’s true, surely, because it is God who, in Christ, carries us in his heart also.
Until tomorrow,
H