11 Dec 2005

God's Unstoppable Purpose Restores!

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Byron Sherman wrote, "The Smiths were proud of their family tradition. Their ancestors had come to America on the Mayflower. Their line had included Senators, Pastors, & Wall Street wizards. Now they decided to compile a family history, a legacy for the children. They hired a well-known author. Only one problem arose: how to handle that great-uncle George who was executed in the electric chair. But the author said not to worry, he could handle that section of history tactfully. When the book appeared, the family turned to the section on Uncle George. There, they read "George Smith occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution, was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, & his death came as a real shock."

Tradition is very important. However, not every tradition, even our own family traditions, is always good. There are in fact, many traditions that hurt and oppress people. These traditions can be cultural and/or religious. I personally believe that every tradition has the potential to become harmful. For example, when tradition becomes more important than the Scriptures, then it has become harmful.

Having said that, however, we also need to continually analyze what is biblical and what is not. For example, Paul said to the Thessalonians on verse 5:26 "Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss" (v. 5:26). Now, some of us know what this holy kiss is. The holy kiss is a lip to lip kiss. The brothers will kiss each other on the lips with the holy kiss. And, the sisters will kiss each other in the same manner. Some of us might remember Mennonites or other Christians practicing the holy kiss a few decades ago. Now, is it biblical to kiss each other on the lips with the holy kiss? And if so, why are we not practicing it? I think we all have an opinion about the holy kiss. If not, you might be thinking of one right now. The reality is that for better of for worse (you decide), it is no longer acceptable in Western Christian behavior for males to kiss each other on the lips and for females to do the same. We do have to say that there are places in the world were this would still be a good Christian act.

So, tradition (whatever this tradition is) must be continually analyzed. We need to continually ask, is this traditional way of doing things biblical or not, is it helpful or is it not? In the same manner, what we consider to be biblical must also be continually analyzed.

Having said that, however, Paul gives us little room for interpretation in Thessalonians chapter five. In verses 12-22 we have a number of imperatives- as in things we must do. Imperatives are not recommendations. They are orders. Therefore, we must take them seriously. "Greet all the brothers and sister with a holy kiss," sounds more like "give a big holy hug to all the brothers and sisters in the church." In other words, we can translate the holy kiss to behavior suitable to our day, to what we might culturally feel more comfortable with. Well, that is not the case with the rest of the imperatives.

Let me just go over the imperatives to have an idea of what we are talking about. "But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves" (12, 13). Verse 12 and 13 simply say that they (the Thessalonians) must respect and esteem the ones who labor, have charge and admonish them and, to be at peace with each other. There a lot more we can say about these verses. For example, it is interesting to note that those who labor, have charge and admonish this particular congregation is a group of people, not a single person. It gives the impression that the early congregations had multiple pastors leading the congregation and not only one. Yet, what Paul is addressing is not the multiple leaders needed in a congregation, that is a given. He, instead, is addressing the lack of peace among them. There seems to be a need to remind them to respect and esteem their leaders and to keep the peace among them. Again, we can say more about these verses, but let us jump to the imperatives that follow.

One can ask the question: How is this congregation going to keep the peace? How are they going to resolve the problems they have? Paul answers these questions by saying, "we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idles, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all" (vv 14-15). To begin to resolve some of their conflicts they have and to keep the peace among them, Paul orders them to:

Admonish the idles

Encourage the faint hearted

Help the weak

Be Patient with all of them

See to it that no one pays evil for evil

Seek to do good to one another and to all.

Two questions come to my mind when I read the words of Paul. First, can we expect our own congregations to do what Paul is asking the Thessalonians to do? For example, we might not have any problems "encouraging the faint hearted," although I think we can do better at that. But, at least this is something we feel comfortable doing. "Help the weak," again this is something we probably feel we can do. Again, I think we can do better in this area at Houston Mennonite Church. "Be patient" with one another, well I wonder about that. On a number of occasions I have seen people lose their patience with another member of the congregation. How do we monitor that?

"Admonish the idles," well I do not see that happening at all. In fact that is little admonishing at all in our congregation. "Seek to it that no one pays evil for evil," well I'm not sure we know each other well enough to know who is paying evil for evil. I am not sure we know what anyone else does after the Sunday morning service. I know that in meetings feelings have been hurt, but we seem to hide things rather than talk about them. "Seek to do good to one another and to all," again it is hard to determine or monitor if we are doing this or not. There is a level of trust that must be built in order to be open to receive and give counsel. I wonder what would happen if we begin to encourage, help and be patient with one another more than what we are currently doing or feel comfortable doing. I wonder what would happen if we begin to admonish one another, see to it that no one pays evil for evil and see to it that everyone seeks to do good to all, including the nonmembers. It sounds to me like Paul is asking the congregation to do things we Westerners no longer feel like doing. We do not want to be in people's personal lives. And we do not want others to enter our private lives.

My second question is this, who does what? If the conjunction 'and' in verse 14 refers to the brothers and sisters in verse 12 ("We appeal to you, brothers and sisters" v. 12. "And we urge you (plural), beloved" v. 14), then the ones doing the admonishing, encouraging, helping, etc. are the members of the congregation. If not, it probably refers to the leaders of the church. However, every grammatical rule indicates that it is referring to the congregation itself. This means that the admonishing, encouraging, helping, etc. does not fall into the hands of the leaders of the congregation alone, but to every member of the congregation. In other words, we (you and I) are the ones asked to admonish, encourage and help one another, etc. The responsibility to make sure we all keep the peace is not only the problem of the Pastor or Congregational Life or Church Council. It is the responsibility of all of us. And again, how do we even begin to do this?

The third list of imperatives is even more complicated. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (vv. 16-18). Moving from the life of the congregation Paul begins to talk about the lives of the individuals. Do you catch the challenges? Paul is asking us to:

Rejoice always

Pray without ceasing

Give thanks in all circumstances

For us Westerners the questions that come into our minds are these: How can anyone rejoice always? For example, how can anyone rejoice when war breaks out? How can we pray without ceasing? How can anyone be praying all the time, when would we eat, when would we work, when would we sleep? How can we give thanks in all circumstances? How can we give thanks to God when we go through unjust, unfair circumstances? After all, we are humans.

It is indeed difficult to accept the words of Paul. And again, these are imperatives- as in they are not negotiable. There is one thing that helps us understand what Paul is asking us to do. Paul is not asking us to do this with our own human strength. It is humanly impossible to rejoice always. In fact, if someone is always happy, smiling and does not feel anything else but joy, we might say this person has psychological problems. This person is unable to face reality and his or her own crisis. We would say the same thing about the person that gives thanks in all circumstances. In our Western minds there is something wrong with people who can not feel angry and face the crude reality of life. If someone is always giving thanks, even in the midst of horrible circumstances, we might say this person is sick. We might call this denial. In our own Western understanding of what is a healthy human being, persons need to be able to get angry, get frustrated and cry. Hiding our own true feelings is not healthy.

And, I would say this is true. Rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances is humanly impossible. This is why Paul writes in verse 23 & 24, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this" (23, 24). In other words, we are not the ones who can rejoice always! But the Christ in us, the author of life, the one who created us, can bring joy to our lives in the midst of any situation. We will get angry and sad, but because of Jesus Christ, we will find joy. We can not pray without ceasing. But the Holy Spirit in us, the great intercessor between man and God, can continually pray on our behalf. We can not pray without ceasing. Our lives do not always show a worshipful, sacrificial act to God. Therefore we need God to intercede for us. We need the work of the Holy Spirit to speak for us. We can not give thanks in all circumstances. If we are real with one another, if we are true to ourselves, we would know it is difficult to give thanks in all circumstances. But the Christ in us, the one who is faithful, merciful, caring and loving, the one who has given us true life and true hope, can find thanksgiving in the midst of any circumstances. Because of Jesus Christ, Death and Sin has no power over us. The world and its problems can not steal us away from our Creator, can not steal from us the hope we have in Jesus Christ. We can allow ourselves to be human and feel the pain in our hearts, but as long as we have Jesus Christ, we will always have something to be thankful for.

Verses 23-24 also apply to the entire set of imperatives. How can we respect and esteem church leaders? By allowing Jesus Christ to work in our lives. How can we admonish, encourage, help, be patient with one another and seek to do good to one another and to all? By allowing Jesus Christ to work in our lives. How can we become the congregation God would want us to be? By allowing Jesus Christ to work in our lives. This is after all what the Messiah has come to do, to restore our lives. He has come to transform us. He has come to mend broken relationships. He has come so that we might become a different type of people, with different values, with different attitudes, with a different way of doing things than the world that does not know God. As long as we are on this side of the fullness of the kingdom of God, we will always struggle. However, we can begin to change. We can begin to allow our Lord, our King, our Savior to change our lives, to restore us, to transform us.

Let us therefore, continue to ask what is the will of God for us today. It might be what we have been doing or it might not.

Let us therefore,

respect those who labor, have charge and admonish us.

Esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace with one another.

Admonish the idles.

Encourage the faint hearted.

Help the weak.

Be Patient with all of them.

See to it that no one pays evil for evil.

Seek to do good to one another and to all.

Rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances

Let us therefore, continue to allow Jesus Christ, our Lord, our King, our Savior, to do for us what we can not do for ourselves.

The Messiah has also come to restore us, to transform us. Until his second coming, let us continue to seek restoration and transformation.

Amen.