09.06 | Shaken, Not Stirred
2 Thessalonians 1:1-2:12
‘Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.’
2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
In total, James Bond orders 19 vodka martinis throughout Ian Fleming's writings.
Most of us are familiar with how he preferred, in the movies, to drink it:
Shaken, not stirred.
We love it. It sounds classy. But, humans being as humans are, the fame of this line leads to a flurry of online conversation as to why it was important for James to have his drink shaken, and not stirred.
Let me give you a few highlights.
One option, commented on in the West Wing series,1 is that the act of shaking chips the ice. This gives a cloudier drink, that is more diluted than a stirred one, giving James a weaker drink and an advantage over his opponents. Cocktail connoisseurs argue that shaking ‘bruises’ the gin, giving a different flavour; the more scientifically-minded have noted that shaking oxidises the drink, making it a little healthier; pragmatists argue that it just gets the drink cold faster. You’ve got to love the internet sometimes!
The language fits well for the Thessalonians as we start on 2 Thessalonians today. Paul is writing to them, fairly soon after his first letter, and he’s writing to them into the midst of a specific concern.
Their concern is this. They are suffering. They are persecuted and opposed. Their lives are being shaken. And yet, they’ve heard some teaching that has suggested to them that the end has already come, and thus that either they have in some way missed out on this, or that things are not now going to get any better.
In Bond language, they are shaken, and they are stirred.
Paul is writing to encourage them. He wants to realign their hopes and their expectations. And while he cannot change the challenge of their circumstances, he wants to steady their stirred up hearts to the resilient hope of those who have their eyes set upon the return of Jesus. He knows that they are shaken, but he does not want them to be stirred.
His words come close to our experience. Because, as the Thessalonians looked at a world that was shaking, so too we can do the same. We can look around and see the shaking of politics, of economics, of competing ideologies. We can see the shaking of war and climate and mental wellbeing and community. We can see the shaking of our progressive expectations, as we crumble into the shouting tribalisms of a rudderless humanity.
We can see the shaking.
And we too can feel stirred.
What does Paul speak into this?
He says that this is all to be expected.
He describes the coming of this ‘man of lawlessness’. This language might confuse us. It confuses scholars too.2 But while we cannot be certain on what we do not know, we can gather the truths that are clear.
We know that both Old and New Testament apocalyptic passages describe the rising of Empires and rulers who oppose the work of God and were animated by the principles and power of hell itself. We know that multiple characters all acted in ways that fit Paul’s language.3 We know that the early Church seemed to particularly view Caesar Nero as an ‘antichrist’ figure, a character that Revelation 13 describes as a single character, and the apostle John describes as ‘many antichrists’.4 And we know that Judas Iscariot, on the night of his betrayal of Jesus, was also called ‘son of destruction’.5
None of this gives us an exact blueprint for Paul’s meaning. Maybe the Father’s intention was less for us to have theological precision here, and far more to be invited to a perspective of trusting certainty that helps us to stand firm in a world that will keep on shaking until its rightful King returns. Maybe His greater desire is to guard our hearts in the midst of many trials, that His Church through history, and whatever is left of it, may stand firm and focused, encouraged in every shaking, and unstirred in resilient hope.
Reflect:
What shakings most disturb my soul?
Return your eyes to Jesus. Remember how brief this shaking is. The pain of this moment is undoubtedly real. And yet, it exists only as the briefest moment on the spectrum of eternity. Ask the Father to settle your heart, unstirred, in the peace of hope today.
Pray:
Father,
When the world is shaking,
I often feel anxious.
And yet, Father,
Such anxiety and anger and fear
Can reveal something in me.
It can reveal that my heart has placed too much confidence
In all the rickety structures of this world,
Rather than in the only sure place of stability:
You;
Your promises;
Your coming reign of glory.
And so, Father,
In this moment of shaking,
Would you build me in resilient hope—
To set my heart and vision and gaze,
Not on the stability of my times,
But the stability of my God.
Keep me ready,
Keep me focused,
And Lord Jesus, I pray,
Come soon,
For your imminent arrival is the only place where all the fullest desires of this heart
Are perfectly met.
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
2 Kings 9-10 | Psalm 73:1-17
West Wing series 3, episode 17 if you’re interested. The Episode was called ‘Stirred’ in reference to Jed Bartlett’s critique of James Bond’s ‘snooty’ language around ordering what is essentially a watered down martini.
Who, if they’re united on anything here, is that they’re united on not being quite sure what this means! Paul is probably referring to texts that we do not have, and therefore assumes knowledge that the Thessalonians would have had, but has since been lost. See, for example, Leon Morris: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: An Introduction and Commentary, p.126
Such as Antiochus Epiphanes (who violently desecrated the temple), the Romany general Pompey (who entered the Holy of Holies in the temple), and the emperor Caligula (who wanted his statue put up in the temple).
1 John 2:18
John 17:12