St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

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Thessalonians:  What Are You Walking About?

1 Thessalonians 2:9-15

October 30, 2005

1. How many different kinds of walking are there? I can think of several, and I asked Mike to demonstrate these walks. One is the unconscious (or semi-conscious) of sleepwalking. Zombie-like, depicted in cartoons and movies like this [eyes closed, arms straight out in front]. A robot would walk this way–mechanical and with absolutely no thought involved. A second walk is more awake and alert, but not really going anywhere. We might call this "meandering." A stroll through the park on a beautiful, hand-in-hand with your significant other, or even all by yourself, with no thought but to enjoy the moment. Then there’s the "journey walk" where you are trying to get from point A to point B in a relaxed sort of way. Walking to your car in the parking lot, or from your office or classroom to the cafeteria, or walking from the other part of the church building into the Sanctuary for worship. As we crank up the intention and purpose of our walk, we finally reach the "focused walk." Head down, furrowed brow; brisk step. This is the walk of someone who has places to go and people to see. Don’t get in my way! There are others, of course – like the Church Lady’s "Superior Walk" and the "Down and Out Walk" or the "Controlled Walk" on the straight line that the police encourage when someone appears a bit wobbly.

2. The walk Paul describes in these verses is much bigger than the four letters we use to spell it in English. It one of those biiggggg words. And it takes nine pages in the dictionary just to define it. Walk means "go" and it means "come," all at the same time, as in "Go take the trash out" and "Come in from the rain." In the animal world, it’s the walk that lions and the tigers do when they search for their next meal. Figuratively, it means "to die," as in "Yea, though I walk through the valley of death." But it means more than come and go and search for food and die. In its broadest sense, "walk" is how we live. And that’s the walk Paul wants us to take – " the "walk that keeps us living," the "walk that pleases God."

3. Is the "walk that pleases God" like these walks Mike demonstrated? Well, "the walk that pleases God" is certainly not the zombie walk. We cannot use "Robots and zombies" and "living" in the same sentence with much meaning. The "meandering" walk could be in the same category, since meandering implies rest and relaxation, which God wants us to do one-seventh of our week. And the journey walk applies, since that implies working at something, which God wants us to do the remainder of our week. I’m not sure about the "focused walk" with head down and brow furrowed. That casts an image of worry, which, according to Jesus, is counter-productive. And it certainly doesn’t portray a picture of "loving God and enjoying him forever" which the Catechism teaches is our main goal.

4. No, these walks don’t quite portray the walk he’s talking about. The walk Paul has in mind is the very walk he and Silvanus and Timothy walked when they were in Thessalonica. It’s the walk of nurturing, the walk of bring new life. He wrote, "When we were among you, we dealt with you like a nursemaid dealing with her babies, like a father tending his children." Aren’t nursemaids and fathers the very one who teaches us how to walk in the first place? There are two snapshots in my baby book that I love – they are pictures of me learning how to walk. Both pictures show me tentatively taking my first steps; one picture has my father behind me, the other has my mother. Those two, who taught me how to walk, have their eyes glued to me, and their hands extended and poised, ready to walk toward me, ready to catch me if I should wobble and fall down (since I was a little girl and not a Webble – you know about Webbles, don’t you? "Webbles wobble but they don’t fall down!")

5. What were Paul and his friends walking about? They were walking about teaching and caring for and tending. In the most Christian sense, they were walking about being deacons! >From the earliest days of the Church, some of her members have walked like deacons. It wasn’t a key protruding from their backs that wound them up – it was the Heart of Christ imbedded within them. And ever since then, God has given the heart of a deacon to first one and then another, and taught them how to walk

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