Nursing Mother

Note about our sermon series that we have been journeying through together If you haven't been with us, each week through this journey, or if you're new to us even today. We've been journeying through a time in which we are learning about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, also what it means to disciple others in the faith. For this journey. We have been journeying through. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. We've been in the second chapter and we've been carefully working our way through discovering, through Paul's making a defense of himself discovering what it looks like to be a disciple and what it looks like to help others grow in the faith. It's Paul's defense that allows us to get this insight. We're here now in our fourth week, the first week, we talked about our position that we are positioned. As children of God, that we've been welcomed into the throne room that God is our father that we been restored to the family. That is our position. The second week, we took time to talk about our motivation. Paul was having to defend his motivations. He's no longer with the church in thessalonica. He's moved on and now he's riding back because the church that young church is being attacked by those on the outside, who want that young Church to give up the faith and return back to the way life was returned back to worshipping the many Idols, the many gods and be part of the community once again, and so they've been attacking Paul, and Paul now is making a defense and he has to speak to his motivations. And in speaking to his motivations, he reveals to us something of our motivations that are ultimate motivation is to please God not to please others, but to please God, so we move from a opposition where we are now children of God And in God's presence and adopted, and can never be separated to a manner of living. A motivation. That is to please God. And last week. We began a three-part inner work in this discipleship discussion about the manor In which we live. The way we behave, The Manner. And we all know that manner can sometimes be misinterpreted. I want you to think today. If the technology we have we are living through an incredibly dramatic moment in history. You may have heard it. You may have heard those Scholars and professors talk of such a thing, but it's really true. We are living through an incredible shift in time in which we've taken technology and Communications and melded them together to get telecommunication. And now we communicate, we've leaped so far. That is has forever changed the world. That leap is as great a leap As it was when the printing press was first introduced and suddenly the printed page could be made available to the masses. Matter of fact, this leap of telecommunications is even greater. Think about it. Many here in this room, gathered In This Moment, know what it was like to have a telephone that was attached to the wall. Furthermore, you knew what it was like to have a telephone that was attached to the wall. That was a party line that you shared with 4 to 10 other households. Nowadays, it's no longer attached to the wall. But you can simply pull it out of your pocket and it's more than just a phone. It's a telecommunication device that can give us anything and everything. Our children are walking around with the equivalent of the Library of Congress in their pocket. That is an incredible shift. However, in this great telecommunication shift I can still text or email, And still be misunderstood.

Matter of fact, we are living in a time in business And otherwise where tone is lost. It's hard to understand. Just how did that person mean that? What does capital letters mean? Does that mean you're shouting? We've invented this whole world of emojis to kind of clarify? What the tone is and even that doesn't help and I still don't know why they call them emojis.

Tone is still lost in this great world of telecommunications the manner by which we communicate our self is still often in question. And Paul is dealing in a time and in a place where others have come along and are trying to undermine his very behaviors, trying to redefine what those behaviors were in order to say that Paul had nefarious means or motivations. And so last week in this three-week journey on the manner or the tone the way we communicate ourselves as Disciples of Jesus as ones who trained and disciple. Others, that manner. We've been discussing and last week. We were given the first of three images that Paul gives us three images are out there all family images. The first thing that you gave us last week was an image of an infant. And that image was meant to convey an innocence. That he was innocent of all the accusations that were being laid At His Feet, not by the church in thessalonica, but by all those around that church. This week we're giving this second image of our manner of behavior. That second image is of a nursing mother.

Let's journey through these two short verses from the letter to the Thessalonians. Let's pray. Almighty God. You know, precisely. What you want Each of us to hear this morning. Your spirit has been preparing us for this moment. Indeed, our worship of you all centers around your word, the good news of Jesus Christ. You're incredible Grace, that you've delivered to us. The Forgiveness of sins that is offered to us. Oh Lord, we praise you for this. And so we ask that. Now, your spirit would work Among Us that we might truly hear your words and not only hearing it, that you would also work in Us in such a way that we are changed.

This we pray almighty God, through your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

So 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 beginning at verse 7b, the second part of verse 7.

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children. So we cared for you because we loved you so much. We were delighted to share with you. Not only the gospel of God. But our lives as well.

Read it once more. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children. So we cared for you. Because we loved you so much. We were delighted to share with you. Not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, as I said last week's image was an image of an infant having to do with the manner, in which we live, as Disciples of Jesus Christ. The manner, the way we behave, our Behavior among others, is that of an infant or more importantly, the image is meant to convey to be innocent in our Manner. Not just to project innocence, but to truly behave with an innocent spirit that truly wants the best for others. Wants others to hear and embrace and experience the overwhelming love of God.

That image was a little surprising. It's hard to think of Paul who we often think is a strong and very willing to argue and convey and overwhelm people with the good news of Jesus Christ. It's hard to adjust to this image of an infant in innocence or as many translations. Have young children.

So, it's even more surprising, more startling when Paul shift to the second image of a nursing mother. A nursing mother. I want to just stop there for a moment. My wife asked me. So what are you going to put on the bulletin cover this week? What's that image going to look like?

Think about it for a moment. Think about Paul's world and what he's just said. Paul lives in a world that is dominated by men. Paul lives in a world where women are second-class figures, at best.

Paul lives in a time where men would not use the image of a woman to convey something of who they are. That just didn't fit culturally. That wasn't what one would expect.

But Paul takes a step even more than that, and he gives an image of a mother nursing her child. This is not an image that we expect for that time and certainly an image that would have caught them off-guard. It's a surprising image. Certainly, not the image if we dealt with some Macho image of today You wouldn't see them putting up an image of a nursing mother to represent themselves. And yet, Paul wants to convey something, very important to this young Church. Paul wants to convey, to the church, throughout something very important about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, what it means to help disciple others. What that looks like, what that manner of behavior is? He wants to convey an overwhelming sense of care and love.

The image of a nursing mother is so intimate delicate and full of love. I think we're challenged to find an image that conveys that more. Now, just a note about how the translators struggle with the Greek here. The image or the words are actually of a wet nurse. A wet nurse. Someone who is able to breastfeed and feed and care for children, but not necessarily the mother. Obviously wet nurses were employed in this time as well as throughout the generations to care for the young to help nourish the young to bring people forward in life. Paul uses this image of a wet nurse, but then conveys one more step in that image and the reason the translators translate it as a mother. Because he says that he's like a wet nurse with her own children. You see a wet nurse has the responsibility of Duty to the society or is employed for the the the work that she provides. But now that shifts that changes, when it's her very own children. When it's Those whom she truly loves. I'm a minister. I've done a fair number of funerals. I don't really like doing funerals. But I've done enough of them to know what I'm doing. But I want you to know that when I was asked to do my own grandmother's funeral. That's a whole different shift, isn't it? Now, it's someone who truly matters to me. And I've had to share with many here in recent years. You've made it much more difficult on me, because I've come to love you so much. That each time. We do one of these funerals, and it's getting harder and harder, because you matter so much to me. The image that Paul is conveying is a nurse a wet nurse, who cares for her own children? The love is so deep. So intimate. So purposeful. There's a Conveying of the, the nourishment of Life, what is needed for life? And there is also this incredible love vulnerable moment in which this is conveyed. Honestly men. We can't do this and we look with Envy at the moment that that is. It is amazing.

And Paul goes on to emphasize this point. And the NIV puts it this way. So we care for you. So we care for you, just as a nursing mother cares for her children. So we cared for you. And I've got to tell you that falls so far short of what Paul was saying, but I don't blame the translators. They're caught in a difficult position. So we care for you is a word that is so rare that Paul shows us the expanse of his vocabulary. It's a word used only once in the whole of the New Testament and on top of that used only once in the all the New Testament. It's a word that shows up only a handful of times literally four times in all of the Greek literature we have And that word. Means simply this in all four of those moments. It means too long for intimately with the deepest effort of longing. Is that desire to be deeply attached? The Love on the most deepest of levels. You know, maybe you're married and you've been married long enough, that you are able to finish one, another's sentences or maybe you even graduate to the point where someone says, you know, and the other one says yeah, I know. We kind of feel like you have a USB port hooked up to one end to the other end and it is just all conveyed. Paul is using a word similar to that a word that conveys, this deep intensive longing, like a mother who is looking in the eyes of a child.

This incredible deep longing and the NIV puts down, we cared for you. Care. That's a word that has a big expanse of meaning, isn't it? On the one hand, we can say how we care and will pray for you and forget to pray, right? And on the other hand of the Care spectrum, is that care? That is so deep. And so constant. That that person doesn't leave our thoughts. It's our every thought it happened in those intense moments of life. Where were deeply in love or where were were worried for one's health and it's all that's on her mind such that we can't think of other things. There's a deep divide between this end of the spectrum of care. And this end and Paul is trying to convey this and over here, this deep and intense effort of care.

As a wet nurse with her own child. So we cared for you. So we longed for you intimately were involved with you. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? It means to have a deep and abiding care for one another. Paul is drawing upon the very one, who's brought him to the Cross. He is drawing Upon Jesus Christ. Himself, the one who's come into this world walked with us, and emptied himself fully even going to the cross that he did not deserve. But going for our sake, to the Cross. Why did he do it? Because of a deep and intense, and passionate love for each one of us.

And so Paul is conveying that love. Paul is conveying that measure of intensity. Think about what Jesus said himself. The imagery that he gave to people to his fellow disciples as he was journeying to the Cross. Think of the imagery. The imagery of a Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go and find that one lost sheep. Think about the message that's in that talk about a cost analysis, the way of consumers society that we live in, the way We look at life and we always weigh the cost to cost analysis who leaves the 99 to go. Find the one. But someone, who is deeply intensely concerned and wants to care. For the other. That's what a disciple of Jesus looks like or Jesus gives us that other example of a of a Good Samaritan. He he tells that story that Parable in which he conveys that All Those whom you would expect might help the person beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. All those who you might expect to care for him, don't. But the one who does is the unexpected, the Samaritan, the one who's outside, the community, the one in whom, they actually have battles with. That Is the one who not only cares for the individual, the one who's been beaten and struck down. But bandages him up and gets him to a place of care and sets him in an inn and then says, Anything that he needs. Charge it to my account.

Who of us might help someone who's on the road who doesn't have a home and set them up in the Red Roof and say, hey, anything they need.

Who of us would do that.

Jesus is conveying this incredible image of love this intense image of caring. This is what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus and we start the step. What? We can't imagine. And yet, Paul is having to make a defense because his character is under attack by those outside of the Church of thessalonica. In order to hopefully convince those people in the church to leave. What they found and come back to the way life was. And Paul is making a defense and you can see that he's almost smiling at this point as he's writing down in this letter, a letter in, which he's very purposeful. And he says, knowing full, well, knowing what they experienced from him. He says, you know, how I was with you. I was like, A wet nurse with her own child. I longingly cared for you. Intensely.

This is how we are called to care for one another. And care for the other whom we are helping to come to know Christ. Those early Believers that come to know Christ what might they expect from us, but this incredible manner of care.

Paul goes on to explain the two manners in which two, two ways in which you carried out this manner. The first is obvious. He says this care is so evident because I brought you the gospel. I brought you the good news of Jesus Christ. I bought you brought you God's message of love that he sent his son into the world to die for you to take away your sins to make you right with God.

I brought you that message that message of overwhelming, love that you are free.

by the grace of God, there's nothing you can do yourself that God himself, does it, and that you are now forgiven. And adopted into the family of God.

Paul says this alone, Could be a dramatic way of saying, that I care for you deeply. It all self expense, he came and brought that message of love to that Community starting first in the synagogue. And then when that started to be rejected, moving out into the community, and anyone, who would he have ears to hear who is willing to listen. He brought that message of Love at Great personal cost. He had enough experience to know that this might not go well. In fact of the church in thessalonica, we know that it didn't go well there also. That others came in and wanted to chase him out. And yet it was intensely important. It was a deep love for the God who loved him. To now, love others. That was the first matter, the first way he lived out that manner of behavior and they knew it. And the second one like I said as he's writing and you can just see the smile turning up on both ends of the lips as he wrote. Not only The gospel of God. Not only were we delighted to share the gospel of God, but our lives as well.

Our lives as well. The second component of that manner of behavior of caring of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus is to share our selves. To share with others. That's the part. That's probably the hardest. Sometimes we say our plate is too full. I can't take on anybody else. I can't handle anyone else's needs. I can't handle anyone else's problem. I don't have space or time for this. I'm willing to be in relationship with you. So long as it doesn't cost me anything more. And Paul says, I shared my very self, we shared ourselves with you. He was vulnerable. He was real. He was with them much like Christ came into this world. God didn't just snap his fingers from far above. God Came into this world, Christ was with us, Emmanuel, God, With Us, living, and breathing, and experiencing what hardship This life can be and Paul Journeyed with them as well. Think about it. A couple years ago, we read missionary stories together in order to get a common understanding of what it means to be missionaries here in our community. And as we read those stories for a common understanding, we found a universal theme involved in missionaries missionaries. Go and live with the people with whom they are in Mission. They live with them. They experience there, lives. Think of George Muller and entering in and and bringing in orphans.

He as his own father had rejected him.

Entering into their world. And caring and ministering to them. Such that more and more orphans came and they had to build more and more buildings and there he was with them, eating living and breathing with them. Or Gladys aylward who went and was a missionary to China who went and lived among them. Finding herself being thrust into a prison riot. And being with them in that Riot, helping them to stop and addressing their real needs or addressing the needs of all these young girls, whose feet were being bound and she became the one to go around the communities and get rid of that practice.

She earned the right to be heard as Jim Rayburn of young life, says, earning the right to be heard. She earned that by being with them.

Paul says, not only did I bring the gospel to you, but I shared our own lives as well. We cannot expect others to embrace the gospel. If we're not willing to be a Living testament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, we are full of hypocrisy. We could point it out in each other. We can put it on another but each time we need to dust ourselves off and try again to live with one another and to live with others, to live out the gospel. We need to have someone to practice it on.

When we talked about what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We're good in the church about listing off different characteristics. but in this journey, we're using a letter that he wrote to the church in thessalonica. And we're seeing just in his communication a window into what it was and how it was that he lived with them conveying in the gospel. And it becomes an example for us. To explore our own manner, our own behavior so that we too might grow as Disciples of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine going forth this day? With your neighbor or family member a friend, or even a fellow Church worker. Can you imagine going forward and loving that other person? So intensely? As a mother loves her child. Can you imagine that? Can you live that out?

Paul is calling upon the church of Thessalanica to remember just how he lived with them.

Trusting that they know the difference. And believe me if you live that way with others. They will know the difference that Jesus Christ makes. To God, be the glory. Amen. Let's pray.