Thursday, December 5, 2024
For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith; I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor had been in vain.
I Thessalonians 3:5
The letter to the Christians in Thessalonica is the earliest letter we have from Paul.
It’s believed to have been written before the year 50 of the common era to a church that Paul founded in what is now northern Greece. The Christians in Thessalonica, like others in the early church, believed that Christ would be returning soon. Yet here it was nearly 20 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and he hadn’t returned yet. So there was a certain level of anxiety as to when he would be coming.
Paul discusses Christ’s return quite a bit in this letter. I imagine, like many of those who predict the end of the world in our society today, Paul and the other of Jesus’ disciples had to do some backtracking when he didn’t come back as soon as they expected.
So this reading is a guide, more or less, as to how the Thessalonian Christians are to frame their daily tasks and responsibilities in a way that would ensure they would always be ready for his return. It also seeks to praise the Thessalonians for their faith and to encourage them to remain true even in the face of hardship.
It is human tendency to worry, to get ourselves stressed out, and frustrated to the point of quitting. And none of that is going to solve anything.
We may feel worn out by the needs of the world crying out from every corner of the globe: poverty, war, famine, genocide, disaster, homelessness, greed, and injustice; the political division of our nation.
Several years ago, I read a book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, entitled Who Needs God. I borrowed a quote from it which I’ve used several times. He writes that our faith is, “first and foremost a way of seeing. It can’t change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can often make a difference.”
No one can be sure exactly when the Second Coming will occur. But in the meantime, we keep moving. We keep working, and praying, and serving, and loving one another. Because who knows? Maybe the more we do, the greater the possibilities that God is able to do something through us.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts, to direct and rule us according to your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 107)
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Photo: Christus Pantocrator – Artistic representation of Jesus Christ, Cathedral of Cefalù, Italy