Where are you from?

I grew up in Iowa.  And even though I was a city slicker (living in both Cedar Rapids and Des Moines), what most people know about Iowa is corn.  Every state is known for something.  Wisconsin has cheese or beer.  New Hampshire (where I served my first church) is known as the granite state...and having tried to dig a garden there I know full well why!  Idaho of course is linked to the potato.  Even though these images are a bit cliche and there is always more to a state than any one item, the item also points to a certain truth.

In the pages of Acts we see references to some of the places where Paul penned letters that are a part of the New Testament.

Acts 17 details Paul in Thessalonica...and to whom Paul will write 1 & 2 Thessalonians.

Acts 18 tells of Paul in Cornith...to whom Paul will write 1 & 2 Corinthians.

Acts 19 tells of Paul in Ephesus...to whom Paul will write Ephesians.

Within these chapters we hear hints of what was going on when Paul founded the communities that sought to follow Jesus as the Way and meet some of the same people who Paul will greet in letters to these house churches.  

Just as we have stereotype images of states...so too these cities are remembered most by what Paul wrote to them.

Thessalonians deals with the very real concern of what happens when people die before the kingdom of God  is fully established and Jesus return happens.  Paul is pastoral and reassures them.  This tells us just how much Paul and those who came to the church through him thought Jesus' return was imminent and what happened when it seemed that Jesus was delayed.

Corinthians argued about...EVERYTHING.  Food.  Who should talk.  Where you should sit.  You think your church has issues...Corinthians makes us all feel better about our community of faith.

Ephesians deals with people's relationships and how we live the Way when we bump elbows with each other.  

Where you are from makes a difference.  To say that another way, our geography leaves an impression upon our hearts.

For five years we lived in New England.  As one of the original colonies of the United States, there is a pride in the rich history.  In New Hampshire, people also inherited through DNA a self-reliance and distance.  There was a ruggedness that matched the rough rocky ground.  The different geography from living by the ocean to living in the mountains or in a valley or on some windy road that twists and turns like a roller coast meant that people where a bit more separated both physically and emotionally.

When I came back to the Midwest and remembered the ethic of 'you can't say anything nice...don't say anything at all!'  I thought about the open space...how a farm can be blocks away...yet in the winter you can still see your neighbor and remember him or her.  Our geography leaves an impression upon us.

So too in the places Paul knew.  Corinth was a sea side cosmopolitan city...so it had different issues than the smaller place of Thessalonica or Ephesus.  

I invite you to think about the places you've been.  How has the geography shaped the people who call that place home?  How does where you live now shape you?  

To be sure the traces of God's grace are woven into all geography and all creation.  Wherever you are, may you sense God's grace in a real way!

Blessings and peace!