How many of you have a thanksgiving to-do
list? Have you ever made a list for
yourself about things God wants us to do?
Do you ever ask yourself this question: What does God want me to do? There are lots of ways to answer this. Some
of us are called to go to the Ukraine or China* or to other places. But what if we’re not so clear? What do we do here and now?
This might have been a question the
Thessalonians were asking when Paul wrote them the letter we read from this
morning. Scholars think this is probably
the earliest part of the New Testament, written about 20 years after Jesus was
crucified and resurrected. The
Thessalonians, like most Christians in that time, had expected that Jesus would
have already come back by then, and he hadn’t, so now what?[2] What are we supposed to do now?
So Paul writes to encourage them – keep on
being faithful and hopeful, encourage one another, take care of one another, be
joyful, prayerful and thankful.
You might have been thinking, as we read the
scripture, that Paul is bossy. Isn’t
he? He’s always telling us what to do,
how to be, what not to do, how not to be.
Every single one of Paul’s letters has this. Why is Paul so bossy?
Paul wants to make it very clear that our faith
is not just about what we believe—it’s also about how we live. Not just about
giving thanks, but about living thanks…thanks-Living. Paul wants us to not just know Christ, but to live
Christ. Because Paul wants us most of
all to be effective missionaries – people who live the gospel are missionaries
to the world, whether we go to other countries or stay in our hometown, we have
opportunities to demonstrate God’s love to people.
In
the book Cold Mountain by Charles
Frazier, a story set in the time of the Civil War, there’s a man, a fiddler who
is a drunk. He only knows how to play six songs. His military unit camps near a
house where there's a powerful explosion. A young girl is severely burned and
is near death, and her father sends for a fiddler to help ease her way to
heaven. The fiddler enters the dark cabin where the young girl suffers in
excruciating pain. From her deathbed, she says, "Play me something."
He plays a tune. "Play me another." The fiddler plays his drinking
tunes slowly, thinking it more appropriate to the circumstances. Soon he has
exhausted his small repertoire. "Play me another," she says as she
struggles against the pain. "Don't know no more," he says.
"That's pitiful," she says, "what kind of a fiddler are you?
Make me up a tune then." He marvels at such a strange request. But he has
a go at it.
Soon
the girl passes away. Her father thanks the fiddler for lifting her to heaven
with his fiddle. A transformation takes place in the fiddler. . . "Time
and time again during the walk back to camp the fiddler stopped and looked at
his violin as if for the very first time. He had never before thought of trying
to improve his playing, but now it seemed worthwhile to go at every tune. . .
."[3]
The
fiddler found new life, new purpose, in using his gift to help someone. He didn’t have to go far or have a great
plan. He just said yes to a simple
request.
Each
of us has opportunities that are unique to us, unique to who we are and where
we are, unique ways to live out our thanks to God by using the gifts we’ve been
given, being comforting, helpful, patient, encouraging. The more we let the Holy Spirit work in us
and through us, the more we can be on a mission every day to show God’s love to
the world.
Paul
gives us some benchmarks for living out God’s love in our scripture today, and
I’ve broken them down for you into a to-do list. I invite you to spend some time talking to
God this week about this list. Let’s ask
God this week to help us make the most of the opportunities we have to show our
gratitude to him by how we interact with the people around us, so that through
us, they might know God’s great love, too.
That’s
thanks-living.
--
ThanksLiving
To-Do List
- Respect those who are working with you, leading you, and instructing you. Think of them highly with love because of their work.
- Live in peace with each other.
- Warn those who are disorderly.
- Comfort the discouraged.
- Help the weak.
- Be patient with everyone.
- Make sure no one repays a wrong with a wrong.
- Always pursue the good for each other and everyone else.
- Rejoice always.
- Pray continually.
- Give thanks in every situation.
Because .
. .this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians
5:12-18 CEB
[1] Rev. Melissa Krabbe, a
sermon preached on Sunday, November 19, 2017 at United Presbyterian Church,
Sterling, KS
[*] Before this sermon, Ginger Reed spoke about the Thank Offering and grants to various ministries (read more about PW here), and Christian Dashiel and Marisa & Brett Callan spoke about the mission trips the will be leading next year taking students from Sterling College to China and Ukraine.
[2] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Thessalonians
(John Knox Press)
[3]
Schnase,
Robert. Practicing Extravagant Generosity: Daily Readings on the Grace of
Giving (Kindle Locations 279-289). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition. Charles
Frazier, Cold Mountain (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997); pp. 231– 232.
No comments:
Post a Comment