1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

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“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley.” So wrote Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns. Translated from Scots into English, “The best-laid plans of mice and men Go oft awry.” Many of you may be familiar with these words. John Steinbeck used them for the title of his novel, Of Mice and Men, in which the best-laid plans of George and Lennie go awry. Burns wrote this line in his beloved poem To a Mouse. Not just any mouse; he wrote this to a very particular mouse, a “Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie.” To understand what happened to the best-laid plans of this mouse you’ll need to read the whole poem. Then this particular line will make a lot more sense.

Our best-laid plans have been turned upside down by a tiny virus. Events have moved at a dizzying pace: now that we are confined to home, the cancelation of the King City and Liberia trips last week seems rather mild! We are adjusting to this new normal and finding silver linings: the Chinese can hear the birds in Wuhan, the Italians are singing from their balconies, the Spanish in unison are applauding their medical workers every evening. And we are finding that we can continue in community thanks to the technology that some of you develop—thank you!

But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. (1 Thess 2:17 NIV)

I cannot see you, but you can see me. I thank those who have made every effort to make this possible, to allow us to continue to gather on Sunday mornings, now virtually.

This sentiment of intense longing is made by Paul, Silas and Timothy in the first of their two letters to the church of the Thessalonians. Today we begin a new series in these two letters. Compared to Paul’s other letters they receive relatively little attention, except for a few verses about the rapture and the man of lawlessness which generate much speculation. We will discover that there is so much more in these two gems.

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 21 are letters or epistles. Actually, the Book of Revelation is also a letter, so make that 22. Most are written to specific churches, some to specific individuals. They are written into specific situations. But we live in a very different time, place and situation. To understand why Robert Burns wrote a poem on a particular day to a particular mouse we need to know the circumstances of his encounter with that mouse. In the same way, we need to understand the circumstances into which Paul wrote his letters: particular letters written at particular times to particular churches or leaders dealing with particular matters. So why did Paul write his first letter to the Thessalonians? The background is given in Acts 16–17, which Brian preached through a couple of years ago.

The apostle Paul knew what it was to have plans overturned. On his second missionary journey, with Silas and Timothy, he had wanted to enter new territory to preach the gospel to those who had not heard. But they were “kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia” (Acts 16:6). They turned north, and “tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to” (16:7). They turned west again, and came to Troas on the northwest coast of what is today Turkey. Here Paul had a vision of a man begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (16:9). Paul saw a new plan in this Macedonian call: “we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (16:10). They sailed over to Macedonia, where they went first to Philippi.

Here Paul and Silas were dragged into the marketplace and brought before the magistrates under the charge of promoting an illegal religion: they “are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Ro