1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10
Lauren J. McFeaters
July 2, 2023
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The Thessalonians feel smashed and pummeled.
Newly devoted to faith, there are pressures from all sides to return to the lives from which they had turned away. Fear and apprehension runs deep. Harassment and persecution is firing down from every side; fury and anger heaped upon this small band of Gentile believers.[i]
The Thessalonians feel forsaken and soul sick.
Some of their members, their dearest friends, have not only died, but died before the Lord has returned. Grieving; they feel lost, confused, abandoned. And in their hurt and emptiness they want only one thing: their pastor Paul. But instead of opening the door to Paul himself, the postal service knocks at the door with a letter. So grateful, they gather round the table, because they know, if Paul can’t get to them; if he can’t care for them in person, he’ll send them what they need.
And he does. He sends them vibrant words. Not doctrinal theories or blunt decrees, but words of hope and affection.[ii] And they read his letter for all they’re worth. They huddle round, take a deep cleansing breath, and dive into his phrases; they weigh the substance of his sentences.[iii] From their soul sickness they hear the very best of encouragement:
Grace to you and peace.
I give thanks to God for all of you.
My heart breaks because I care for each of you so deeply, and I miss you so much.
But you must hold onto this:
You are not at the mercy of your fears,
for you are imitators of the Lord,
for in spite of torment and distress,
you receive God’s Word with joy.
You may notice on the cover of our Order of Worship is a watercolor of a boat on the sea. Our staff member Sarah Finbow painted this, and it’s inspired by the logo for The Children’s Defense Fund. That logo is a drawing of a small boat on a churning, turbulent sea and inside the boat is a small child. Above the child are these words written out in a child’s hand:
Dear Lord, be good to me.
The sea is so wide,
and my boat is so small.
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund has said:
For almost 250 years, we as a nation have been dreaming of a time when we recognize that all of us are created equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And I believe that since the beginning of humankind, God has been dreaming, that we will understand each and every child (every person) is precious to God and finally cherish and protect everyone.[iv] It’s time to grow up.
Dear Lord, be good to me.
The sea is so wide
and my boat is so small.
It is time to grow up.
It’s hard to admit the road to maturity is a long one. A life-long long one. For too long, we have assumed Christian maturity is up to each individual, and it’s their responsibility. We can believe that all we want. But our faith tells us something very different. As Christians, we have to help one another grow up. It’s the same with our fears and hurts. For too long, we have assumed dealing with pain is up to each individual, and it’s their responsibility. We can believe that all we want. But our faith tells us something very different. We are created for community and as Christians, we have to help heal one another’s pain. [v]
It’s one of the things I love most about Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians; all his letters: his unrelenting compassion in the midst of his mission for us to grow-up in Christ; his dogged way of kicking us in the pants; his crushing, in-your-face evangelism that will stop at nothing until we can shout from the rooftops that “Jesus is Lord.”
I have to be honest though. It’s at this point that Paul and his letters usually lose me. In preparation for preaching we study and research the text. For instance, for today’s text, I explored 2nd Thessalonians and went onto look at references in Romans, 2 Timothy, and Philippians. But, no kidding, Paul’s letter writing is a non-stop hammering of systematic arguments and I get lost every time. I can’t keep track. Ten verses of anything Paul writes, let alone ten paragraphs, is usually too much for me.
Dear Lord, be good to me.
My brain is so small
and Paul’s epistles are so wide.
It’s not a good problem for a pastor. As reformed believers, Paul is all. But I have a brain and sensibility far removed from a 1st Century evangelist. He’s so intellectual, so cerebral, so logical, and utterly different to myself and dissimilar to the way my understanding functions.
My friend Jacq Lapsley once told me “Don’t worry,” just take Paul in sentences. And in my head I’m saying, “Thank you my sweet friend, but you’re a Biblical scholar and can read the Bible in a gazillion languages; chapters at a time. Sentences are just too much.” Anyway, Paul’s last name was probably Lapsley.
But I listened and worked on figuring out how Paul and I could be on the same page. And it turns out all I needed was to take Paul to the movies, the cinema, the big screen. Let me explain. Do you ever remember being at a movie (this is before digital film-making came into play) and did you ever notice every once in a while in the upper right corner of the screen came a series of black and white circles, dots? In the film world those are called “cue marks” or “changeover cues” and they’re printed right on the last celluloid frames of a film reel. They’re visual prompts for the projectionist.
Back in the day, in a projection booth, the projectionist waits for the signal to change the film reel. Two projectors sit side by side. One reel of film is showing the film while the other reel is cued up to go as soon as the projectionist sees those dots and circles.[vi]
That’s how Paul guides our understanding:
the Thessalonians and ourselves.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we move from
bite to bite, frame to frame, reel to reel.
And it works. As if on cue, Paul flashes circles on the text and dots onto our souls. The Holy Spirit speaks through a reel of epistle-ized film, and we are looped into understanding through smaller bites. Here are the cue marks for the Thessalonians:
- God chooses you. Dot.
- God is proud of you. Circle.
- Fear will come. Dot.
- God is greater than fear. Circle.
- All will grow up into Christ. Dot. Circle. Dot.
How the Thessalonians must have wept!
Through the page of the letter comes
sound bites of goodness and kindness and gratitude and hope,
all poured upon their scrapes and scratches, griefs and fears,
like a balm that cleanses and refreshes.
Dear Lord, you are so good to us.
Your love is so deep,
and your grace is so wondrous.
And then God’s Spirit tucks us under her wing, rummages around our hearts, is both kind-hearted and relentless, tender and unyielding, warm and dogged. And laid right at our feet is laid the Gospel Medicine: Come to this table. Break the bread or courage. Drink the cup of comfort. [vii]
You are not at the mercy of your fears,
You are followers of the Lord,
and by the power of the Holy Spirit,
receive this Word with joy & this meal with gratitude.
Thanks be to God.
ENDNOTES
[i] 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (NRSV) Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, siblings in Christ beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
[ii] The New Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV. Eds. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy. New York: Oxford University Press, 291, 1991.
[iii] M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock. The People’s New Testament Commentary, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, 644.
[iv] Mortimer Adler. How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940. As cited in Beverley Roberts Gaventa’s First and Second Thessalonians, from the series, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Preaching and Teaching. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1998.
[v] Adapted from “A Letter from Marian Wright Edelman” included in Shannon Daley-Harris’s “Precious in God’s Sight: Answering the Call to Cherish and Protect Every Child. The National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths® Celebration: A Multi-Faith Resource for Year-Round Child Advocacy, Volume 23, 3, 2104, childrensdefense.org.
[vi] Adapted from Vivek Murthy (United States Surgeon General) as broadcasted On Being with Krista Tippett, onbeing.org/programs, April 14, 2023.
[vii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_mark.
[viii] Elizabeth Barrington Forney. Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year C, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Proper 17 – Reign of Christ).
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