Good Job
For the majority of scriptures, there is normally something within those scriptures that points out a fault, or something that we could do better. So when our scripture for this morning ends by basically saying, “Keep doing what you’re doing” it kind of catches us off guard. Paul addresses the Thessalonians in a way that seems to me kind of tongue and cheek. Its almost like Paul took a passive-aggressive route to get his point across. It would be like me saying, “I don’t need to remind you about the Harvest Dinner tonight because you all will be there, right? I mean, you have known for a month so I don’t need to remind you the day of.” That is how Paul approached our scripture this morning. He starts chapter 5 off by saying, I don’t have to remind you about Jesus coming like a thief in the night because you already know this... But the funny thing is that Paul still goes on to write them a pleasant reminder anyway. It is almost like his overall message is saying keep up the good work but here are a few reminders.
It was this compliment and encouragement that Paul offered to the Thessalonians that caught my eye this week. As a parent, it is just as important to support good the behavior of a child with positive reinforcement as it is to correct poor behavior. As a teacher, the same holds true. So as a preacher, it hit me that I should also do the same. It is just as important to be complimented and encouraged with the things we do well as it is to be reminded of the areas where we can improve. So, this morning I want to tell you good job. I am so proud of each of you. We do not really understand what we have here because we are used to it, but the more I get to know more pastors and people of the region, the more I am able to appreciate what we have here. There are little, country churches just like us who are struggling and yet, here we are. There are churches that are barely holding on, yet we are thriving and alive. There are churches that when 15 people show up it is a good Sunday. The world is diminishing the role of the Church, yet you make the time to be here. These are all reasons to celebrate what we have here and there are many more. I am here this morning to tell you good job and keep up the good work.
On the other side of that coin, I do not want us to be content either. With the blessings that we do have here at Fairview, comes responsibility. This is why Paul continued to write his letter to the Thessalonians. He wrote to encourage them but he also wrote to remind them of the responsibility that they have. We can do so much with what we have been given. Scripture reminds us in Luke chapter 12 that “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” I encourage you to keep up the great things we have accomplished here over the years but also understand that much is still demanded from you. When we look at Jesus Christ we find Luke chapter 12 to hold true. Much was given to Him and much was demanded from Him.
When people talk about the Second Coming of Christ, it is spoken about with such devastation and ruin, death and destruction. For a lot of Christianity, the Second Coming was used as a scare tactic to get people to believe. But Paul speaks of it differently in our scripture this morning. He speaks of it, not to scare, but to comfort. This may seem different than how we have heard it approached in the past but this is exactly what Paul is doing. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians by calling them people “of day and light” instead of people of night and darkness. I would like to think that Paul could be writing this letter to Fairview. If Paul looked at our church, I think he could write a similar letter to us. He could say that we do not have worry about the Second Coming because we are children of the light. We will not be surprised by the coming of Christ because we do our best each day to walk in the light. But more than this, the Thessalonians made this apart of who they were, it was part of their identity. This means that the fear, uncertainty and insecurity of not knowing when Jesus will come again is free from our hearts and minds because we are already prepared. In this scripture, Paul reminds us that no Christian should be caught unaware of Christ’s Second Coming and by living a life as Christ-like as we possibly can, we should not be caught off guard. If the thought of Christ coming tomorrow scares you then it would do some good to explore for yourself why that may be.
We must also understand that being a person of light will come with some intensity attached to it. This is why Paul reminds the Thessalonians to put on the breastplate of love and the helmet of salvation and hope. These two pieces of armor protect the most vital organs, both metaphorically and physically. As a church, we are here today because we have fought to do so. There have been lean times in the past. There was a need for basement and a roof at a given time in our history with very little funds to make those things happen. Yet, it was accomplished because of the intensity and fight of the congregation made it happen. Faith is a battle. Faith is intense. It is not something that happens purely by accident. The process of faith means making difficult decisions and pursuing what is right with intensity. The intensity of one’s faith is something that we do not often talk about but it truly is something worth discussing.
Life, at times, can be very intense when it comes to all the things that this life can throw at you. There is pain, suffering, loss, and hurt that seem to have no end. If our faith is not, at the very least, as intense as the things that can happen to us, then we are not prepared. Paul complimented the Thessalonians on the their ability to be ready, but they weren’t just ready for the good times. They were equally ready for the possibilities of what this life may throw at them. We have to be intense, ready to go to battle for all that this life may throw at us. As Christians, we have hung onto the cliche that God will not give us more than we can handle. If you go to the online version of this sermon, you will find an article that I linked to talking about this. I am here to tell you, that this life will throw everything at you. There will be times that this life will bring the reality of pain and heartache with it and we have to be as prepared for that as we are coming here each Sunday. The article I was talking about was written by a pastor whose family was faced with a very difficult decision. It was discovered his wife’s pregnancy was ectopic and was life-threatening to his wife if they did not end the pregnancy. He asked the same questions that we all would: Why? Why doesn’t God intervene? Why me? He goes on to say that even as a pastor that he could not come up with the answers. He did not know the answers but he also says that he thinks there is something sacred and holy in being courageous enough to ask them. It is courageous because there is a good chance that these questions will not be answered. He says, “It is easy to spout trite Christian platitudes designed to make people feel better with bumper-sticker theology. But insipid axioms do little in the face of the actual brokenness of the world.” Wow. This is a man of God, a pastor to many, that is saying this and it should cause us to take note. Like Christ coming again as a thief in the night, as does life and we need to be prepared. Life brings with it intensity and situations that must be met with the same intensity found in faith. Passion, intensity, and fight are words normally reserved for some sort of athletic court or playing field but I am telling you today that these words must be a part of our faith as well. For if they aren’t, then life can quickly become overwhelming.
The phrase, or even anything remotely close to it, that says that God will not give us more than we can handle is not Biblical. On the other hand, this pastor provides scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 that speaks to the contrary: “For we do not want to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” This tells us that the same Almighty, powerful, eternal God that raised people from the dead loves us and has the power to heal and redeem. Until we get to the point where we are completely broken down, we rely on ourselves to get us through. Once we are so broken, we must realize that God is the only who can piece us back together.
In closing, I want to reiterate the great things we accomplish here. The ministries you provide for change lives so keep up the good work. Our faith must contain passion, intensity and fight because if it doesn’t, it has a possibility of falling short when we need it most. We stand tall for so many beliefs. Let’s start a political discussion and see just how passionate and heated those arguments can get. Do we have that same sort of strength when it comes to our faith? We must. We have too or the weight of this life will become too much. Everyday we must but on our breastplate of love and our helmet of salvation and hope. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment