2 Thessalonians 2:1-17
Matthew 23:23-26
The great richness of our spiritual tradition means that we have a lot to spend time on in our personal reflections, meditations, and study. Our Lord, God incarnate, revealing the holy and blessed Trinity, and the great work of redemption he has wrought, opens up to us a field of spiritual study stretching back to where we have come from as a species, all the way to where will end up in the age to come.
Today we have heard two different ways that our thoughts can send us off down the wrong path. First, we heard St Paul writing to the Thessalonian church. They were a faithful church, but they had narrowed their focus onto one particular doctrine: that of the end times. It had caused no end of distress for the saints there, because now they were beginning to get worried. Hope was being lost.
The apostle brings them back on track by reminding them that all the Lord needs to do is to simply exhale and evil is banished. But in the meantime, they should remember the traditions that had been passed on to them. What he had in mind specifically is up for debate, but if we look at the rest of his writing across Holy Scripture, we find St Paul concerned primarily with the human heart, and how we can best give our heart to the Lord Jesus. And so if there is one doctrine above all that we should be concerned with, it must be our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus; everything flows from that. So let us fill our minds with him, to keep hope alive, and to be ready for when he returns.
Then we heard from our Lord himself. We heard a couple of his many “woes” pronounced upon the religious leaders of his time. In particular, we heard about their misplaced priorities. They were very good at tithing the material things, but sorely lacking in the spiritual. Note the three things Jesus focuses on: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
He might as well have been pointing to the cross. There, we see the justice of God against sin, as Christ drank dry the cup of God’s justice. We also see mercy, as he hung in our place, so that we may enjoy the blessing of Christ’s sinless perfection. And on the cross the faithfulness of God was fulfilled, as the many promises of God throughout history were vindicated, namely, that God himself would provide the means for our forgiveness.
Justice, mercy, faithfulness, and the traditions handed down to us: this is where we must place our focus, and discover God’s intended direction for our lives. It is in the cross of Christ, and all that that demands upon our lives today, that we find meaning for ourselves. We also discover the great mysteries of God revealed, the doctrines that should shape our lives, the sacrificial loving-kindness of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ giving us a pattern to follow and discipline to place ourselves under.
So let us indeed plumb the depths of the many doctrines that our religion uncovers, for it is the glory of God that we discover more about him every day. But let us always keep in mind the firm centre, the rock of Christ, so that in all our discoveries he may be worshipped and glorified.