May only truth be
spoken and truth heard. Amen.
Imagine
if the diocese 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, a priest would make it to each of the parishes on the
Island for a service and some visiting, but all other pastoral care would have
been through writing letters. Having come from a shared ministry spread over
hundreds of kilometers, I felt 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.
Paul
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 the 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, 1st 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 diocese, 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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