Firm in community
For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Childress's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.
Second Thessalonians is concerned with encouraging a struggling congregation to stand firm, endure and persevere. Wendell Berry refers to the "art of the commonplace," a phrase that for pastors brings to mind the art, craft and skills by which we cultivate the common everyday life our people are called to live and share--and which will enable them to stand firm. It is about the mundane and about community.
Growing community, the body of Christ, is an everyday task that takes constant teaching, reinforcement, paying attention and making connections, and plain old persistence in helping our people learn to share a common life. Since we all live in a hyper-individualized society, with its constant barrage of messages that everything revolves around me, growing Christians takes a lot of time over the long haul.
