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December 11, 2005

Anne Jensen - Dec. 11, 2005

Advent 3 B 1Thes.5:12-28

Audio Version Here

“When is the Lord coming? Why haven’t we heard something?”

I can just imagine the members of the young church at Thessalonica asking St. Paul these questions. The disciples themselves asked Jesus when he would appear again. Jesus’ answer included a description of a time of overwhelming violence, yet he continues with this warning, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.”

No one knows; Jesus didn’t know and Paul didn’t know.

Paul wrote this letter in 50 AD about 20 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Scholars generally believe that this is the earliest of the letters in the New Testament. Thessalonica was a free city in Greece with a significant Jewish population living among the people who worshiped many different gods. The congregation was made up of both Jews and gentiles and included women. Paul preached in the synagogues three times and then under pressure left for Athens. The Christian community faced persecution from both the city officials and the Jews. Once Paul was in Athens, and again when he was in Corinth, he wrote for Timothy and Silas to come visit him. We believe that this letter is in response to the report that Timothy gave to Paul in Corinth. Paul obviously has great affection for this young church.

Very early in its history the church had to deal with the delay of the paroursia, the Greek word for the “arrival” or “coming” of the Son of Man. When is this coming of the Lord? How long must we wait?

We are still asking the same questions, especially when things are not going well. I can tell when I am under stress because when I get to that part of the Eucharistic Prayer that goes “And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom,” I pray with special fervor. We have a longing for the Kingdom and for the restoration of shalom, God’s peace.

The problem St. Paul addresses in his letter to the church in Thessalonica is the same problem we face. How are we to live in the “in-between times?” While the Thessalonians were struggling under persecution, we are struggling in an environment that is often hostile to faith, especially if it is critical of the materialism and self-centered individualism of the culture at large.

This morning we heard his exhortation to the community, giving them the basics for how to live in community. He is giving instructions and encouragement to the church SO THAT THEY WILL BE READY FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD.

Paul encourages the people to love and care for one another and for all people, and he prays that God will strengthen their hearts. The good people of the church in Thessalonica have embraced the gospel and are filled with the Holy Spirit, so he is not criticizing them; he’s encouraging them and giving them advice.

BE AT PEACE AMONG YOURSELVES. Living and working with others is hard; we are willful people. Peace here means more than absence of violence, both physical and emotional; it means establishing right relationships with each other, and that often means first getting in right relationship with God and ourselves, so that we can see ourselves honestly. Christ’s purpose on earth is reconciliation: with God, with our neighbors and within ourselves.

I witnessed a poignant moment of reconciliation between two women; I don’t remember the cause of the breach, if I ever knew. Their friendship was strained, and they didn’t know what to say to each other, so they avoided one another for about a month. One Sunday morning at the end of the service, during the last hymn Nancy went up to her friend, not knowing what to say, and just gently touched her arm. She said, “Kate.” Kate turned toward her, saw who it was, and with a great wave of relief, said, “Nancy!” and threw her arms around her.

Usually when there is brokenness between people, there is hurt on both sides, and that brokenness affects the whole community because we do not live in isolation. We have a need for reconciliation here at Trinity.. The events of the last several years have caused strains in the fabric of our lives. The listening meetings are a part of the process of coming together. You as individuals know better than I do where there are strains. Advent is a good time to begin our reconciliation because we are particularly aware of Christ’s coming again in glory? Are we ready?

Paul is very direct. He counsels patience. He also says, “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always pursue the good for one another.” That’s a fairly straight-forward lesson in ethics. It’s the next part that hangs over us, or at least hangs over me. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” How am I going to do that? That’s quite a prescription! But what if Paul is really describing how it is to “live in Christ,” his language for the new and transformed life one experiences through the grace of God?

REJOICE ALWAYS. This requires stepping back and imagining life without knowing God through Jesus, estranged and burdened with guilt. My spiritual director more than 20 years ago asked me to imagine just such a condition when I was having trouble connecting to Jesus, so I tried to. The sense of loss was awful. Sometimes we don’t know what we have until we don’t have it anymore, or we imagine we don’t have it. By comparison, everyday annoyances are just that, and I have to remind myself of that. The gift of new life in Christ and the movement of the Holy Spirit are so great, that we are drawn to joy, at least in the larger scheme of things.

PRAY ALWAYS. No, this doesn’t mean constantly muttering memorized prayers when we are trying to live our lives. The Outline of Faith, which you can find in the back of the prayer book, says “Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.”

In prayer God really wants a relationship with our true selves, the selves we are in our hearts. One minister writes, “On our own we really don’t have much wholeness to present to God on a daily basis. Instead we are invited to lay the pieces of our life on the altar, assured that God will accept us. But that daily offering must include our entire selves. Our incompleteness. Our scattered-ness. Our impetuous-ness. Our humanity. Our failures.” In this kind of prayer we get stirred up; we open ourselves to receive God’s word for us, which can be a word to change, along with God’s love, grace and mercy, which strengthen us and renew us to prayer-full actions.

Another way to imagine this piece of instruction is to think of “praying always” as living in a way in which you are always in relationship to God; that your words and your deeds are grounded in that relationship, whether or not you are conscious of it, because it is your customary way of being.

There are many books written on prayer and how to pray, and there are many ways to pray. Jesus always went away to pray before the major moments of his ministry. If you do not have a practice of prayer, then now is a good time to begin, even with just a short prayer in the morning or evening. Many people pray in the shower, others while they are walking the dog. Maybe it has been years since you have said bed-time prayers, but now is a good time to restart them. Just listening for God is a kind of prayer. Advent is a time to pray…we await the coming of Christ in power and glory. Are we ready?

GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. This is closely related to rejoice always. It’s a stretch to pray, “I thank you for all the difficult people and situations in my life,” but in reality, we grow through the hard times. Our character and our spirit expand as we face our true selves in the midst of trouble and turn to God. In true humility we can see that we need God and each other. We can and do receive help, and give thanks. And we can become more the people God wants us to be. Even when life is bleak, we can give thanks for the birth of Jesus, for God becoming human and dwelling among us, and for making a new kind of life possible for us, not just as individuals, but for us as a community, and for the world. We look for his coming again in great glory. Are we ready?

And Paul says: DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT. Stay open; listen, think; stay away from what is evil. Let the Spirit live and move within you, personally and collectively. Be ready!

St. Paul closes his letter with a benediction that is as is as comforting and supportive today as it was the day he wrote it. Eugene Peterson in The Message says it this way, “May the God [of Peace] who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.”

There is one who is to come. Our waiting is not passive. It IS something. It is mixed up with preparing, with being stirred up and opened up. Our waiting is highly significant, because people tend to be shaped by whatever it is they are waiting for.