Grace, Mercy, and
Peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.
Imagine
if the IRSM existed during a time where there were no phones, or internet, and slow-moving
vehicles. Our community would have looked like Paul’s. Maybe a couple of times
a year, I’d make it to each of our parishes for a service and some visiting, but
all other pastoral care would have been through writing letters.
In
that sense, I feel a bit of a kindred spirit with Paul in that he would have been
a pastor to several churches, and he would have travelled many miles to visit
them. He was a circuit-riding preacher and his main form of communication was letter
writing. Because of the large distances between these communities, Paul didn’t
have the ability to go back and forth all the time, so he relied greatly on his
skill at writing pastoral letters as a way of mentoring his communities.
Paul
founded many Christian churches and wrote many letters, many of which were chiding
communities that he heard were going against what he had taught and trying to
set them once again on the right path. So, while it may strike us as odd that
what would be considered old pieces of mail from Paul would be important enough
that they are included in the scriptures, and that they would be studied and
commented upon, it is in these letters that we gain historical and theological
insights into the beginning of the Christian movement.
This
is especially the case with this letter to the Thessalonians. Scholars believe that
this letter was the first of Paul’s epistles, which would make these words very
old. And since these scholars are quite certain that the writing of the
epistles pre-dates the writing down of the Gospels by a good bit of time, 1
Thessalonians is thought to be the earliest document ever written about following
the ministry of Jesus Christ. In other words, this may be the first bit of
Christian writing and theological reflection ever.
The
purpose of the letter is pretty clear. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy had worked
in Thessalonica to successfully establish various house churches that were
united enough that he addressed his letter to “The Church of the Thessalonians.”
It appears that these three men were forced to flea Thessalonica, likely due to
local opposition, and very likely before they were ready to leave.
Paul’s
concern for this community is evident in the fact that he sent Timothy back
into the den, as it was, to check up on everyone. What he heard back must have
been really good because Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the opening of which
we heard today, is full of praise and thanksgiving. Because Timothy’s report
was reassuring, Paul transitions from his short greeting immediately to
expressions of gratitude for the community. He is especially encouraged by
their perseverance despite persecution in the “work of faith and labor of love
and steadfastness of hope.” You will hear this pattern of faith, love, and hope
again later in the letter.
One
of the most notable features of this section is Paul’s emphasis on the power
and presence of the living God who has been at work among the Thessalonians. He
does not seek to prove that God has acted powerfully in him and the community;
he takes it for granted. In fact, the experience of God’s powerful presence
serves as a key premise upon which Paul writes his thanksgiving and later
exhortations. And we should not dismiss this vibrant awareness of the nearness
of the living God as an outdated premise. Being aware of God’s power and presence
in our lives holds rich vitality for our spiritual life.
We
will never be able to fully understand the experiences of Paul, Silvanus, Timothy,
and the Thessalonian community. But we can remain prayerfully aware of the presence
and power of God who is constantly working in and around us. It is this
awareness that will allow us to be transformed by the experience of the living God.
On
the basis of such experience, Paul writes that the Thessalonians became
imitators of him, his colleagues, and of Christ, as well as examples and
messengers for others. Now it’s not that Paul feels people should copy their
lives after him because he thinks he’s “all that”. In Paul’s ancient
Greco-Roman context, imitation of models was the basis of education and moral
formation. In order to learn how to write, form arguments, and live a good
life, people would follow the examples of others who modeled how it should be
done. Paul bore the responsibility of providing such a model for the
communities he founded in the early Christ movement. What Paul was encouraging
the Thessalonians to do was to imitate his efforts to serve God in anticipation
of the return of the Messiah, which they all thought would happen in their lifetime.
So,
what does it mean for us to be aware of the God’s power and presence in our lives?
To imitate Paul and the Thessalonian community in imitating their servitude to
God?
It
means to turn, serve, and wait in faith, love, and hope. The Thessalonians
turned from idols, served God, and now wait for the return of the Messiah from
heaven. Paul’s practical advice is that they are to not wait idly by, that faith
and work are not mutually exclusive. He instructs the Thessalonians to continue
in their work, specifying even the tangibility of working with their hands, so
that need would not exist among the believers, and they would give a good
witness to others. They have been transformed by their belief in Christ, but
that does not mean that regular life has come to an end. They are still
responsible to be faithful in their vocations. For them to continue to grow
into their stellar reputation, work needs to be an element right along with
faith, hope, and love.
In
order for us to be imitators of Paul, we must have a faith that is active and
productive, building muscles of faith that requires going out on a limb for Jesus,
trusting him when all about us denies the wisdom of that trust.
In
order for us to be imitators of Paul, we must have a love that labours. The
very character of God is love so in imitation of God, we should also be love. Love
is a quality that should consume us and we should look to Jesus that this love
may grow in us as a gift of God's grace.
In
order for us to be imitators of Paul, we must have a hope that strengthens. Developing
strong hope in the coming of the Messiah gives us the ability to handle anything
that life throws at us. Hope is knowing that no matters what happens today, we
will have eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
In
his very first epistle, Paul wrote a glowing letter to the Thessalonian
community that was full of praise and thanksgiving. According to his opening
dialogue, he was glad for the work they were doing, for their desire to imitate
his servitude to God, and that they were doing so while full of faith, love,
and hope.
If
Paul were writing a letter to the IRSM, whether to an individual parish or the ministry
as a whole, what do you think he would have to say?
Amen.
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