A Sermon preached on Sunday, November 28, 2021 at St. Augustine’s and St. Christoph
Jeremiah 33:14-16, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, Luke 21:25-36
If I were to ask you what you were praying for at the moment, I suspect a lot of you would say it is for this pandemic to be finally over and for us to return to a more normal life again. especially now things are getting worse again and not better as we had hoped and expected. And on that theme, I should add that when Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, “prays most earnestly that we may see you face to face, he is not referring to him and them being able to take their masks off.
Joking apart, I do know at least what many of you pray for. From the intercessions on Sunday, and from the open prayer sessions that are a part of our Wednesday “Word and Worship” and Friday Compline: You pray for your friends and loved ones, you pray for their for relief and recovery from sickness and other difficulties, you pray for those who have died or who mourn, and you offer prayers of thanksgiving. You pray to God, and you share these prayers with us, your brothers and sisters in Christ, asking that we share in them – sharing in your joy and your sorrows and your concerns.
And that is just what Paul is doing in this extract from his letter: thanking God, praying for others, and sharing these prayers. We are given this reading in Advent, because Advent is all about preparation – both preparing to celebrate the first coming of “our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess. 3:13) and preparing ourselves for the waiting period before his second coming – and prayer is an important element of that preparation. What can we learn from Paul’s prayer?
It is – quoting theologian Tom Wright – “grounded in the life and work of God – the God we come to know, through Jesus, as the father.” Paul trusts in the “goodness, the generosity and the sovereign love of God.”[1] We know who God is through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection - his first coming – and Paul prays that we be fully prepared and equipped to encounter God and God’s Son in due time.
Paul begins this section of his letter with thanks and praise for all that God has done and is doing. Thanksgiving is of course the theme of this week and I know from attending Thanksgiving Day meals that there is a tradition of going round the table and naming things that each person is grateful for. It’s a good spiritual practice – not just once a year! For Paul saying thank you to God is “the central task and joy of his life!”
The next section, when Paul prays to see the Thessalonians soon and in person to “restore whatever is lacking in your faith” actually sounds more critical than I think it is meant to sound. It’s not that the Thessalonians faith is particularly wrong or lacking in fervour, but that simply that their faith needs to continue to grow, to enable them to face the challenges that will come, to make them even fitter for their future as a community of witnesses to Christ. His hope is that God will allow him to visit them – “direct our way to you” - to be able fill in any gaps, to supply whatever is needed – whether experience, explanations, or encouragement – to help them grow in faith. And thankfully Paul still does that for us today – not in person, but through his letters such as this one.
Growing in faith is, as Paul goes on to write, not an intellectual exercise. It expresses itself in concrete behaviour, “in love for one another and for all” and in “holiness.” Paul hopes that his own love for the Thessalonians will serve as a model for them. And the Greek word Paul uses, translated here as “increase and abound,” actually means "overflow" or "spill over the top." I am sure that we are supposed to connect this to Jesus’ saying in John’s Gospel (7:38) that “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” As our faith increases, so will our love – both for our fellow believers and everyone else. After all, love is, according to another one of Paul’s letters (to the Corinthians), the greatest quality of the Christian life. “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
The fulfilment of a Christian life is the theme of the next petition on holiness. Holy just means “set apart or dedicated,” in our case to God. To strengthen our hearts in holiness means strengthening our knowledge and awareness of the special purpose and role to which we have been called. It is that – God’s calling – that will make us blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul does not pray that the Thessalonians are sinless, that is simply not something we can ever fully attain in this life. Not even Paul – who has a high opinion of himself – considers himself sinless. In his first letter to Timothy (1:15), he writes: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” No, if we are blameless, it is because of what God in Christ already did for us, not because of what we do.
In the following chapter (4) of his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul still gives his readers a long list of instructions for a life lived in holiness and love. They are outward signs of our Christian life, a life dedicated to God and to the service of God’s people and all of God’s creation. Paul’s prayer is for our hearts to be strengthened, and in this context the "heart" stands for our whole inner life, our thoughts, feelings, and our will. We become “holy” and we live out our “holiness” not through outward conformity to rules and regulations and instructions, but through the growth and development of an inner or spiritual strength and stability, which is built on faith in God, hope for the future, and the love we receive and give.
Prayer
is of course not just for this Advent season and not just as part of our Advent
preparation. Regular prayer – personal and corporate – is a key component of
the Christian life, part of our holiness. It is good and right that we give
thanks in our prayers, as it is good and right, and an expression of that
overflowing love, that we pray for others and for their needs. But let’s not
forget to pray for ourselves – not for material things, but that God will work
in and through us, as expressed in the words of this morning’s psalm:
“Show me your ways, O LORD, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and
teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the
day long.” (25:3-4)
Amen.
