Stronger Through Sharing (1 Thessalonians 3)

       Tomorrow is 광복절 (Korea’s Liberation Day).  For more than forty years, the Korean people resisted Japanese colonization.  Sometimes, this resistance was public as in the March 1st, Declaration of Independence in 1919.  More often though, the resistance was through guerilla warfare, covert meetings, secret newspapers delivered at night, and hidden educational gatherings.  

Throughout the resistance movement, one thing remained constant.  The resistance became stronger when people bound together.  Isolation led to weakness, but communal sharing led to strength.  As long as people felt that they were alone in their desire to be free and alone in their faith that freedom is possible, then their courage to resist grew weak.  But when people realized that they are not alone, that others stand together with them, that others also share the faith that freedom is possible, then their courage to resist became stronger.  

Isolation leads to weakness.  Communal sharing leads to strength.  This is the message under the text of 1 Thessalonians 3.  Let’s read it now.

 ¹ Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, ² and we sent Timothy to visit you. He is our brother and God’s co-worker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ. We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, ³ and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles. ⁴ Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come—and they did, as you well know. ⁵ That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong. I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had been useless.

 ⁶ But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love. He reports that you always remember our visit with joy and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you. ⁷ So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. ⁸ It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord.

 ⁹ How we thank God for you! Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence. ¹⁰ Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.

 ¹¹ May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. ¹² And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. ¹³ May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.

Five different words or ideas are repeated again and again in this passage.  If we look at them one by one, that will give us a pretty good understanding of what is happening here.

First, Paul talks a lot about troubles.  Paul sent Timothy to keep the Thessalonians “from being shaken by the troubles” they were going through.  But “we are destined for such troubles,” and Paul warned them “that troubles would come” (3:3-4).  Even Paul, Silas, and Timothy are “in the midst of troubles and suffering” (3:7).  

When I was growing up, often on Sunday morning before we left for our church, our family’s TV would be tuned in to Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power - the televised worship service at the Crystal Cathedral in California.  One of my dad’s favorite books was Schuller’s Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do.  I’ve been reading this book recently, and some of it is cheesy and dated, but one part near the beginning really struck me as profound.  There was a section called, “The Myth of the Problem-Free Life.”  Schuller says we go through life thinking, “If I can just solve this problem, then I’ll be OK.  If I can just get past this problem, then my life will be easy going.”  That’s a myth.  We never get to the point in life where we don’t have problems.  Even success brings a new set of problems.  We will always have problems.  We will always have trouble.  The question is not: “How do I get rid of all my troubles?”  The question is: “How do I live well in the midst of trouble?”

Paul said, “We are destined for such troubles” but I want “keep you from being shaken by the troubles” (3:3).  Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Paul and Jesus are realistic but hopeful.  They know we will have trouble.  We are in a resistance movement against Evil.  This battle will cause pains and wounds.  That’s just how battles go.  But we are not alone.  We are not hopeless.  Paul gives us four other words that point to our hope.

Again and again, Paul uses the words like strength and encourage.  “We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith” (3:2).  “I sent Timothy to find out if your faith was still strong” (3:5).   “May he make your heart strong” (3:13).  

A very interesting thing happens in this passage, Paul sends Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians, and then the Thessalonians send Timothy to encourage Paul.  If you read under the text, you get the idea that Paul was starting to feel pretty discouraged.  Last week, we discussed the very uncomfortable chapter 2, where Paul’s leadership was being questioned.  This week, Paul says that he was “afraid that the Tempter had gotten the best of” the Thessalonians and that “our work had been useless” (3:5).  Even missionaries get discouraged.  Even apostles and pastors get discouraged.  

Then, in verse 6 Paul uses an amazing word.  Paul says, “But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love.”   That’s not just “good news” like “Oh, I have something good to tell you.”  Paul uses euangelizomai - the same word for preaching the good news of the gospel, for evangelism.  The Thessalonians’ faith and love had become part of Jesus’ Good News to Paul.  Paul says, “So we have been greatly encouraged ... because you have remained strong in your faith.  It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord” (3:7).  

Pastors need encouragement, too.  We do a lot of encouragement and hope giving, but sometimes we kind of run out of strength.  We need help from you to keep going.  Sometimes we wonder if what we’re doing is really working, if we’re really making a difference, if God is really working through us.  Nothing encourages a pastor’s heart like faith and love in the people he serves.  If you want to encourage your pastor, tell her how God is working in your life.  If you want to give strength to your pastor, tell him how God is giving you more love for others.  If you want to give new life to your pastors or Bible study leaders or worship leaders, let us know how we are helping you to stand firm in the Lord.

The next two words we need to look at are love and faith.  In a letter to the church in Galatia, Paul says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6).  For Paul, these two - faith and love - are the center of the Christian life.  He sent Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians in their faith (3:2) and to find out if their faith was still strong (3:5).  Timothy brought back the good news about their faith and love (3:6).  Paul prays night and day that he can return to Thessalonica so that he can “fill in the gaps” in their faith (3:10).  

Then, Paul’s prayer takes an interesting turn.  Paul prays that their “love for one another and for all people will grow and over flow” so that God may make their “hearts strong, blameless, and holy” (3:12-13).  For Paul, there is a definite cause and effect here.  More love leads to more strength.  More love leads to more holiness.  More love leads to more faith and more faithfulness.  Do you want more faith?  Practice more love.  Do you want more strength?  Develop your love.  Do you want more holiness and purity?  Cultivate relationships of love.  Love will strengthen you.  Love will change you, or, more correctly, love enables God to change you.

And that is the last word we need to see in this text: God.  For Paul, this is all about God.  Timothy is “God’s coworker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ” (3:2).  Paul has new life because they are “standing firm in the Lord” (3:8).  What is Paul’s response?  “How we thank God because of you!  Because of you, we have great joy as we enter God’s presence” (3:9).  He asks God to bring him to the Thessalonians.  He asks the Lord to make their love grow and to make their hearts strong and holy and blameless” (3:11-13).  

Paul is very clear that he sent Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians and that the Thessalonians have encouraged him.  But he is also clear that all of this is the work of God.  All of this sharing of faith and love and strength among God’s people is actually God’s work through the human beings who make up the Body of Christ.  When Paul sends Timothy to remind the Thessalonians of the Gospel of Christ, God is working through Timothy to strengthen their faith.  When Timothy comes back with the good news of the Thessalonians’ faith and love, God is working through that sharing to strengthen Paul.  God uses Paul and Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians.  Then, God uses the Thessalonians to encourage Paul and Timothy.  But it’s all God’s work.  

There is something deeply communal about this Christian life.  When we open ourselves to each other, that opens pathways for the Holy Spirit to work more deeply in us.  When we are honest about our struggles and pains and our victories and joys, somehow that opens us to more of God’s strength.  We are in this Christian life together.  We need each other.  We need each other deeply.  We need each other deeply to help us experience God fully.

This week, as I was researching strength through sharing, I stumbled onto a grief support network.  One article explained “Why We Tell Our Stories.”

  In the telling of our stories, we gain strength from each other.  First, the story teller gains a clearer understand of what her story actually is.  In the process of telling, we come to see more clearly what is actually going on inside of us.  Second, the listeners develop a shared sense of life.  They realize that they are not alone in their pain and that they are not alone in their hope.  The healing God has done in others can happen in them, too.  As Helen Steiner Rice explained, “Comfort comes from knowing that people have made the same journey.  And solace comes from understanding how others have learned to sing again.”

We become stronger through sharing.   Faith grows through love.  We experience more of God by experiencing more of each other.  Telling our stories opens us to more of God.  Sharing our lives with each other is one way God transforms us, strengthens us, and makes us more like Jesus.  

It’s a mystery, but it works.  It’s a mystery, but this is how God has been working for thousands of years.  We see it in Thessalonica.  We see it in a thousand different ways in our world today.  We see it here in our church.  

Lots of people said that one of the most powerful services they’ve experienced in our church was the Easter service this year, when five people told their stories of how God has transformed their lives.  Then, we took turns showing the two sides of our cards - showing how God has transformed us.  Telling our stories of how God has changed us made us all stronger.

Today, we’re going to practice this discipline of sharing.  First, we’re going to do some silent testimony.  

If you were baptized in our church, or if you are planning to be baptized in September, stand up.

We’ve actually baptized about twice this many people, but many of them have moved away to other cities and other churches.  Sometimes, we forget that people’s lives are being radically transformed here.  God is saving and changing people.  God is using our church to change people’s lives.  ... Thank you.  You can sit down.

Second, if God has done something significantly new in your life since you came to this church, please stand up.  Maybe you were already a Christian, but this church has been a big factor in helping you grow in Christ.  Maybe you aren’t yet a Christian, but you’re starting to think that is possible for you.  If any of that sounds like you, please stand up.

God is working among us.  Sometimes, that’s not always clear.  We don’t always see the results.  But God is working.  Be encouraged.  Be strengthened by what you see.  ... Thank you.  You can sit down.

Here’s the next thing we’re going to do.  In your bulletin, you have an insert called, “Share the Love!  Share the Faith!”  Right now, take some time and write down how God has been working in your life.  How have you grown in faith or love since you came to this church?  Write as much as you can.  Turn it over and write on the back if you need to.  How has God been working in you?  You can write in English or Korean.  Later, I’ll ask you to put these in the offering basket as a way to encourage our pastors.  Remember nothing encourages a pastor like hearing how God is working in you.  Please encourage us by telling your story.  Raise your hand if you need a pen or one of the cards.  

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Now, get into groups of two or three and tell part of your story to someone.  Tell someone in about one minute how God has been working in your life.  

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Now I want to ask a few brave people to come up to the front and tell us in a minute or less how God has been working in you.  I know you may feel uncomfortable, but remember that telling our stories is one way that God strengthens you and strengthens all of us.  Make us stronger by telling your story.

Questioning Our Leaders - 1 Thessalonians 2

My ministry here is not a failure.  You know that I have not been wasting my time and yours.  You may or may not know that sometimes I have been misunderstood, criticized, and treated unfairly.  Yet God has given me the strength to continue preaching God’s Good News boldly, in spite of those who may object.  

My teaching is not in error.  My motives are pure.  I’m not doing a bait-and-switch to catch people with a feel-good gospel.

I am called by God to be his messenger, his prophet.  God has entrusted me with his message, and you can be sure that I’m trying to please God not people.  God knows my heart.  God knows why I do this.

I’m not the kind of guy who flatters others or soft-pedals the truth or just says what you want to hear.  You certainly know that I haven’t taken it easy on you.  I’ve given you the truth even when the truth is difficult and unpopular.  Clearly, I’m not in this for the money or the glory.

As a pastor called and ordained by God and the Church, I could push my way.  I have that right, but I always try to side with gentleness.  I’ve cared for you like a mother nursing her own children.  And the truth is I haven’t just shared God’s Gospel, but I’ve been sharing my heart and soul with you.

Don’t you remember how I was bivocational - holding down two jobs so as not to be a burden to you?  Don’t you remember how I turned down pay raises to make room for more missional ministry?  You yourselves stand as witnesses - along with God - that I’ve been honest and faithful and above reproach here.

Like a father guiding the growth of his children, I’ve pleaded with you and encouraged you.  I’ve urged you - in every way I know how - to live in faithfulness to the God who calls you into his amazing Kingdom.  And I always thank God when you respond.  Somehow, mysteriously, God does speak through me.  Somehow, mysteriously, God uses me to work in you.  

It’s true that your faithful response has sometimes caused suffering for you, and some of that suffering comes from those who should love you best.  Unfortunately, that’s just how it goes.  When you suffer for following Jesus, you’re walking in the footsteps of the first Christians in Judea right up to the present time.  Some of the Jews rejected Jesus, just as they rejected the prophets before him and the apostles after him.  It seems that there are always those who try to protect God’s message but end up opposing God and everyone else.  Some will always stand in the way of God’s Good News moving out to everyone everywhere.

My brothers and sisters, I need you just as much as you need me, and I long for unity with you.  As much as I want for my heart to reach your heart, sometimes I feel like an orphan because I can’t speak through the mist.  The truth is we are in the midst of a larger struggle with the Evil One who wants to put divisions between us.

But in the end, what gives me hope and joy?  What gives me confidence that I’ll be able to stand with holy pride when Jesus comes back?  It’s you.  God’s transformation of your hearts and lives is my greatest reward.  God’s work in your life is the authentication of my life. 

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That was a paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 2.  I fit this chapter into my life and our context to help us hear the depth of emotions and the depth of issues in this passage.  Listen to it again in Paul’s words.

 1 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. 3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.

 4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. 5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! 6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

 7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

 9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.

 13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.

 14 And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15 For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16 as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.

Timothy’s Good Report about the Church

 17 Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again. 18 We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. 19 After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! 20 Yes, you are our pride and joy.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy are on trial.  Paul’s leadership is in question.  And it tears into Paul’s heart.  

Remember the history of their trip to Thessalonica (Acts 17).  They had just come from Philippi where they were beaten and jailed.  In Thessalonica they preached boldly in the Jewish synagog.  This synagog had a lot of Gentile seekers.  They were non-Jews who recognized that there is only one true God.  A few of the Jews believed Paul’s message about Jesus, but many of the Gentile seekers believed.  This naturally created a lot of jealousy.  To the local Jewish leaders,Paul was stealing their converts.  So these jealous Jews started a riot in the city and eventually drove the missionaries out of town. 

You can imagine what happened after Paul’s missionary team left.  The local leaders - both Jewish and non-Jewish - started working to return things to normal.  They used every objection they could think of.  They discredited Paul as a fraudulent traveling preacher - something like a poofy-haired televangelist.  They said Paul was just using them.  They said the missionaries were just putting on a show, trying to raise a following of people, so they could feel good about themselves.  They said Paul was mistaken.  They said Paul was distorting the ancient Jewish faith.  They said Paul was immoral, rejecting the laws Jews had followed for generations.  They said you can’t trust someone who loves you and leaves you.  The whole time, their message was: “You can’t trust Paul.”

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul gives three defenses of his ministry.  In essence, Paul says, “You can trust me, and here’s why.”

First, Paul says, “Look at our life.”  Obviously, Paul wasn’t in this for the money.  His team paid their own way.  They worked a side job so that they wouldn’t have to ask for money.  

Also, Paul points to their loving relationships as proof of his ministry.  Paul says, we were gentle among you - innocent as babies (2:7).  In fact, we loved you like a wet-nurse holding her own child to her breast (2:7).  We guided you like a father with his own children.  We held your hands and encouraged you and urged you toward a godly life (2:11-12).  Verse 17 has one of the most unusual images in the Bible.  The English says, “we were separated from you,” but the Greek verb is aporphanizo, or “we were made orphans”   When the apostles were forced to leave Thessalonica, it was like they were orphaned - ripped out of their loving family.

But most importantly, Paul says that his first loyalty is to God not people.  If they were just in it for the the money or the praise, they would have quit after the first beating.  They didn’t hold back on the difficult topics.  They didn’t cheat or cut corners or sweet talk anyone.  They simple told God’s message with love and honesty.  Paul, Silas, and Timothy lived with honesty, hard work, gentleness, and love.  The Thessalonians themselves can remember this and silence the critics.

Second, Paul says, “Look at our message.”  Again and again and again, Paul says he declared “God’s Good News” and “God’s word.”  He wasn’t preaching his own invention.  He hadn’t cooked up something new.  Paul was carrying forward the work God began in Israel.  Paul was continuing God’s promise to Abraham to bless the whole world through Israel (Genesis 12:1-3).  

The problem was that Jesus was a reformer.  Jesus was re-forming God’s people according to the ancient mold, the original intentions.  Lots of human dust and mud had been packed onto God’s plan and God’s design for the people, so Jesus and the apostles had to break off all of that extra dirt to see the stark beauty of God’s love for all of humanity. 

We can be pretty hard on the Jews and the Jewish Christians who resisted change, but we need to remember that, to many of the Jews, Jesus’ Good News sounded like a rejection of everything they had ever known.  Jesus was so different from their teachers.  Paul’s message was so different from the message of their rabbis.  They had a hard time seeing the faults with their old view of the Bible and God’s people.  Maybe they felt like believing Paul’s message meant rejecting centuries of teachers who had come before, rejecting the whole system they had grown up in, rejecting their fathers and grandfathers. 

What was Paul’s answer?  In Acts 17, when Paul was in Thessalonica, “he used the Scriptures to reason with the people.  He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead.  He said, ‘This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah’” (17:2-3).  Paul’s answer was basically, “Go back to the heart of God’s word.  Go back to the heart of God’s action in the world.  You’ll find that, although this sounds new, it’s actually very old.  The Good News of Jesus that I’m preaching is actually the age-old message of God’s love for the whole world.”

Finally, Paul says, “Look at our results.”  When we preached, God worked in your hearts, and God is still working in your hearts (2:13).  You believed so deeply that you remained faithful despite persecution (2:14).  You yourselves are our reward.  You yourselves are our best argument for faithfulness.  God has used us to change your lives.  That is the final proof (2:19-20).

Paul’s leadership was questioned, and he gives an answer.  You can trust us because because we lived with honest and humble love, trying to please God not people.  You can trust us because we are preaching the ancient message of God.  You can trust us because God has worked in you through us.

Some things never change.  Leaders still get questioned.  We still wonder whether we can trust each other.  We still wonder whether our leaders are being faithful to God.  There are still false prophets in the world.  There are still teachers who lead people astray.  How do we know what is what?  How do we know who to trust?  We can start with Paul’s three basic arguments.

Look at their life.  Are they totally honest all the time?  Do they speak the truth even when it’s difficult?  Are they in it for the money?  Are they loving at all times?  Are they gentle and faithful?  Do they show genuine care for you?   Do they live what they preach?  Do you see evidence of Jesus in them?

Look at their message.  Are they faithful to the Word of God?  Are they proclaiming God’s Gospel and not their own?  Are they telling people what they want to hear, or are they preaching the truth boldly?  

Now this part can get really difficult because we humans have a bad habit of distorting the message over time.  In the Old Testament, God’s prophets often ran into trouble because they said justice and mercy are more important that orthodox sacrifices.  Jesus got into trouble because he said the religious leaders had misunderstood God and faithfulness.  Paul got into trouble because he said grace triumphs over law.  Luther got into trouble because he said we have to obey the Bible not the Pope.  Wesley got into trouble because he said God actually wants our day-to-day total loyalty not just Sunday attendance.  Bresee got into trouble because he followed Jesus to the poor instead of expecting the poor to clean up and come to Jesus.    The church is always in need of reform, and we have a bad habit of shooting our reformers.  

When we look at our leaders’ message, we have to be careful not to get on the wrong side of the Holy Spirit.  Yes, of course, reformers can take things too far.  Yes, of course, we have to be cautious and make sure we are still being faithful.  But, yes, we also need to remember that God’s prophets of reformation always contradict the teachers who came before them.  God’s prophets of reformation always sound wrong at first.  So we need to be careful not to ask, “Does their message sound the same as the message we’ve always heard?”  Instead, we need to ask, “Is their message in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Are they going back to the heart of what God wants?”

Look at their results.  Are they “filled with power - with the Spirit of the Lord” (Micah 3:8)?  Is God saving and changing people through their ministry?  Where is the fruit?  Are people becoming more like Christ?  Are people who didn’t know God coming to put their life-trust in God’s amazing love?  Is the Church becoming more loving and more faithful?  Do you and others hear God’s voice, confirmation, and conviction in your own heart when the leader speaks?  

When Jesus was defending his ministry against criticism, he said, “Wisdom is proved right by all her children” (Luke 7:35).  In everyday English, we might say, the proof’s in the pudding.  Give it time, and you’ll usually see if someone is faithful or not simply by seeing the results.

So if you find yourself questioning your leaders, that’s OK.  Some things never change.  But make sure you judge them by the right standards.  It’s not how they make you feel.  It’s not if you like them or don’t like them.  It’s not if their style or vocabulary suits you.  It’s not if you feel comfortable or uncomfortable around them.  As Christians, we assess our leaders based on their lives, their message, and their results.  

But we aren’t done yet.  God never lets us off that easily.  Any time we start talking about evaluating or assessing others, we also have to judge ourselves.  “For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.  And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ... First get rid of the long in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye” (Matthew 7:2-5).  How can we check our own eyes?  Let me suggest a few questions.

• How is your own life?  Is it possible that you are ready to criticize someone else to get the attention off your own faults?
• Are you yourself practicing what you’re preaching?
• How is your own understanding of the message?  How much have you studied this topic?  Have you considered all sides of the topic?  Who have your teachers been?  Were they people with a balanced view of the world today?  Were they people committed to truth but open to change?
• What about your results?  If people follow you, will they become more like Jesus?  Are people drawing closer to God because of you?
• Who is fueling this criticism for you?  Remember, some of the biggest opponents to Jesus and the apostles were religious leaders who were resisting change.  Also remember that some of Paul’s biggest opponents came from the other extreme - advocating a total abandonment of all ethics.   Who is whispering in your ear?
• Are you really listening, or are you hearing a stereotype?  Is your leader “an old stick-in-the-mud” fundamentalist?   Is your leader a social-gospel liberal?  If you’re thinking in those categories, there is a high likelihood that you are actually listening to your own stereotypes instead of what the person is actually saying.
• What do you have to gain or lose through this conflict?  Are you trying to protect someone or something important to you?  Is that thing really at risk or does it just feel  like it is?
• Is this issue that offends you really at the heart of God’s message?  Or is it a side-issue and not all that important after all?
• Are there larger forces at work here?  Is it possible that this conflict is part of a larger social change or spiritual battle?  If so, do you really have all the information you need to understand these complex forces?

Paul says three times in this chapter that he preached “God’s Gospel.”  What is God’s Gospel, and what does it mean for us today?  God’s Gospel starts with God’s unchanging love for every person who has ever lived.  God made us, and God won’t abandon us.  God came to earth in Jesus and lived among us.  Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to set us free from sin and death and selfishness.  God raised Jesus from the dead and sent people around the world to share this Good News of freedom and grace.  God invites everyone everywhere into his kingdom and glory, into his new life of love and peace.  

As God forms us into “societies of mutual aid” (a.k.a. churches), he gives us leaders.  But even leaders God chooses are not without fault or error.  As God’s people, we are all invested with the same Spirit of God.  We are all mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and children to each other.  In the body of Christ no one is beyond accountability - even our highest leaders.  

So, as people called by God to live like God, we look honestly into each others lives and call each other to greater faithfulness and love.  Sometimes that involves difficult conversations or hard work to understand each other.  But we do the hard work of love because we are one family.  We do the hard work of love because God has already done the hardest work of love - dying to include us in one family.  We do the hard work of love - with love and grace - because this is the only way to have a loving community that changes our world.  We do the hard work of love because this is the best life possible.

Turning the World Upside Down (1 Thessalonians 1)

For the next five week’s we’ll be walking through a little New Testament book called 1 Thessalonians.  It’s pretty small - just five chapters and only about two pages in my Bible, but it was actually written to a really important city.

Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) is still the second largest city in Greece, but it is some 2,300 years old.  Around the New Testament times, it was the capital of Macedonia - the northern half of Greece.  And it was rich, very rich.  It had an excellent port, comfortably nestled into the northernmost port of a gulf.  It was also centrally located on the major Roman highway running east and west through the empire.  All of this led to lots of importing and exporting.  They worked hard, and they had lots of cash.

Thessalonians were also very religious.  Like most ancient Greeks and Romans, they worshiped a wide variety of gods.

• Of course, there were the traditional gods of Greek mythology, but the most prominent in Thessalonica were Dionysius and Artemis.  

• Dionysius was the god of wine and ecstasy.  His followers were famous for wild drunken party-parades which “freed” everyone from all their social inhibitions.
• Artemis was worshiped both as goddess of wild animals and goddess of fertility.  

• Thessalonians also adopted two Egyptian gods: Isis and Osiris.

• Isis was the goddess of motherhood, fertility, and magic.  Her statues often showed her nursing a son.  Also known as the Queen of Heaven, she offered salvation and eternal life to all in exchange for humility, confession, and repentance.
• Osiris was Isis’s brother and husband, and he was supposed to be the god of the afterlife and underworld.  Osiris was believed to die every year and be raised from the dead by Isis’s tears.

• Cabirus was a god who was murdered by his brothers.  People worshiped him with water baptism, confessing their sins, and being symbolically cleansed by his blood.  His worshipers also did an intense dance celebrating the male sexual organs.
•   Last but not least, the Thessalonians worshiped Caesar - the Roman Emperor.  They printed coins declaring Caesar to be a god.  Their down-town forum had statues of the current and past Caesars on prominent display.  Caesar was said to be the son of God and divine ruler of the world, the bringer of peace for all humanity.

Thessalonians worshiped these gods at temples, at work-related banquets, at social parties, at sporting events, and at private altars in their homes.  Worshiping more than one god was no problem for them.  If you found another god who might be able to help you, then you just added that god to your worship mix.

So that’s Thessalonica, now let’s take a look at Paul, who wrote this letter.  Paul was one of the first Christian missionaries, and he always traveled with a team.  Acts 6-17 tells the story of Paul’s his second missionary journey when he took along Silas and Timothy.  As they began their journey to the northern part of Turkey, it seemed like God prevented them from going northward.  One night, Paul had a dream that a man from Macedonia was calling to them for help.  So they changed plans and went to Macedonia - northern Greece.  

First, they went to Philippi, and things went well at first - with a few converts.  But before long, there were riots in the streets because of these Christian preachers.  All three were arrested, “severely beaten with wooden rods,” and put into prison.  God miraculously busted them out of prison, converting a prison guard along the way, and the missionaries left town.  

When they arrived in Thessalonica, they first went to the Jewish synagog and started preaching.  That synagog had a lot of Gentile observers - kind of like seekers, where were interested in the Jewish religion.  When they heard that Jesus is the Messiah, they believed and joined in with Paul’s group.  The local Jewish leaders got jealous and started a riot.  They dragged some Christians downtown and appealed to the city rulers, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6).  The Jews turned the crowd against them by pointing out that Christians claimed there is only one God and one Lord Jesus.  

This was a dangerous and subversive belief.  What about all the other gods?  What about Dionysius and Cabirus?  If Artemis gets angry, will she stop our women from having children?  If Isis hears that our own people are denying her, will she still give us eternal life?  And what about Caesar?  Will Caesar crush us all because these fools reject him?  The city was in uproar.

Some of the Christians posted bail for Paul and his team, and they skipped town - basically running for their lives.  The same story was repeated in the next town - Berea.  Paul and his team were naturally very worried about the Thessalonian believers.   They knew it was going to be tough going for them.  They knew that others in Thessalonica would not understand and would try to make them give up on Jesus.  Would their faith withstand the struggle?  Would the church of the Thessalonians survive?

Finally, when Paul couldn’t stand the waiting any longer, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to bring him a report.  (Maybe it still wasn’t safe for Paul to go.)  In chapter 3 Paul says, “But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love ... So we have been greatly encouraged ...  It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord” (1 Thes. 3:6-8).  This encouraging news prompted Paul to write a letter of encouragement and advice to the church in Thessalonica.  

Keep all of this history in mind as we move through this letter.  Let’s read chapter 1 now.

 1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

   We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

   May God give you grace and peace.

 2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. 5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. 6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. 7 As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.

 8 And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, 9 for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. 10 And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.

So we need to ask a few questions.  First, why was Paul so happy?  And the short answer to that question is in verse 9.  The Thessalonians had “turned away from idols to serve the living and true God.”  They certainly had enough idols to choose from, and remember that their normal custom would be to add on rather than to turn away.  Normally, when they encountered a new and interesting god, they would add that god to the worship mix.  It was outrageous and almost unthinkable to completely turn away from all their old gods in favor of one new God, and yet, that is what Christianity is about.  

The false gods of Thessalonica offered lots of empty promises - forgiveness, cleansing, protection, pleasure, spiritual freedom, and eternal life.  When Paul was preaching, he must have pointed out that these empty promises become full in Jesus.  What the false gods promised but couldn’t deliver, Jesus gives in a way that passes understanding and outside circumstances.  So when Paul here’s back from Timothy, he is delighted to the depths of his heart to hear that the Thessalonians have left all the false gods to worship Jesus as the one true God.  

But then we need to ask another question.  How did Paul know that the Thessalonians had really turned to Jesus and were still living in Jesus’ way?  What was the evidence that they were still following Jesus?  Verse 3 gives us the answer there.  “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Faith, hope, and love - these are the classic traits of real Christians.  But for Paul these are not passive or hidden.  For Paul, faith is always active and working.  Love is not a mere emotion; it expresses itself in labor.  Hope is not an escapist longing for the future, but something that gives endurance in the right, steadfastness in times of struggle.   For Paul the Christian life is always lived out.  Faith, hope, and love can always be seen by others because they always fuel action.

We need to ask one last question about this text.  How did it all happen?  Paul went and preached, and the Thessalonians responded by changing their whole lives, but how did it happen?  Paul has no doubts about this.  It was God from start to finish.

• The church of the Thessalonians exists in God.  It lives and breathes in God (1:1).
• Paul thanks God for God’s work in the Thessalonians (1:2).
• All of this started with God’s love, and God chose the Thessalonians (1:4).
• When Paul, Timothy, and Silas preached, it wasn’t with mere human words.  God was working behind the scenes and in the hearts of the Thessalonians, confirming the truth of the message (1:5).
• The Thessalonians modeled their lives after Jesus, and the Holy Spirit filled them with joy despite their difficult circumstances (1:6).
• They were so faithful to God’s message that they became part of God’s message as it spread to other places (1:8).
• They recognized their true role as servants and slaves of the living God (1:9).
• They hope in Jesus as he begins their rescue even now (1:10).

The transformation of the Thessalonian Christians has one root cause - God’s amazing love.  God loves them and is working in their lives.  God has filled their hearts with grace and joy and strength to enable their faithful response.  Yes, they must respond.  Yes, they must remain steadfast in the midst of struggle.  Yes, they must do the hard work of faith and love.  But underneath and through it all is God.  God is our only hope.  

The critical factor of the Christian life is opening our hearts to God.  All of the turning and repenting and working falls flat if we don’t maintain an open dependance on God.  It is God who loves us.  It is God who calls us.  It is God who enables us to respond.  It is God who fuels our faith, hope, and love.  Everything we are is in God.  This is the key to life.

OK, so let’s bring this home.  How does this apply to us?  We actually move through the same kind of process that happens here in 1 Thessalonians 1.  

Like the Thessalonians, we also have idols.  They aren’t as obvious because we don’t usually have religious statues or openly religious ceremonies.  But we have all kinds of things that we worship.  The classic trifecta of modern idolatry is power, money, and pleasure.  But this plays out for us in different ways.  

• Through our job, we may worship money and power.  We may be addicted to success.    
• We might be people-pleasers.  We might never say NO to new work.  We might be addicted to being cool or beautiful.  Somehow deep inside we believe we will be worth more if others believe we are worth more.
• We may be pleasure-seekers.  That could play out with food, adventure, entertainment, sex, porn, whatever.
• We might be living our lives for or through our kids.  We might be putting all our hope in their success.  We might be worshiping the college entrance exam: “If the exam goes well, then everything will be OK.”
• We might even worship rightness - which leads us toward continually seeing how others are wrong.

Oh, we have our idols, too.  They are real, and they demand our loyalty like gods.

And, like the Thessalonians, the most common religious response is to add the new god to our household gods.  We accept Jesus.  We welcome him into our lives, but we don’t get rid of our old gods.  We put the cross on the altar right next to the TV and our wallet and our fashion magazines and our inflammatory emails.  Jesus becomes another of our household gods, who demands worship once a week and the occasional nod at morning or at mealtime.  

This is not enough, and deep inside we know it’s not enough.  But we find it hard to do anything differently.  Unlike the Thessalonians, we can’t cut all of our idols out of lives.  We still have to eat.  We still have to work.  We still have to wear clothes and study and find ways to relax.  The Thessalonians could stop going to the temple, but we can’t stop going to E-mart.  

So how do we give our heart’s loyalty only to Jesus in this mixed up crazy world, where idols seem to be hiding all around us?  In Matthew, Jesus says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s?”  Well, what is God’s?  On one hand, we are created in God’s image, so we should give God our very selves.  On the other hand, everything in this world belongs to God, so we should live in this world recognizing everything as a gift from our Creator.  

I think we can find a clue to all of this in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth: “What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short.  From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them.  For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).  We live in the world, but we aren’t swallowed up by the world.  We use things, but we don’t let the things take over.  Through it all, no matter what, we keep Christ first above all.

And what is the result of this kind of living?  What happens in our lives when we relentlessly pursue Christ?  We have an active faith, a laboring love, and a steadfast hope.  We trust Jesus so deeply that it changes the way we live.  We love other so much that we get involved in their lives.  Our hope in Jesus is so strong that we stand strong in the midst of life’s winds and waves.  

Maybe you like the way this sounds.  But maybe you think it’s impossible to live in this world without bowing down to the idols of this world.  Maybe you think that compromise is an unfortunate necessity.  

Or maybe you’re more like me.  Maybe you see this life of faith, hope, and love, and you want it, and you decide that you’re going to get it.  You decide that you’re going to buckle down and work hard and push yourself until you have the life you want, the life God calls you to.

If you think it’s impossible, or if you think it’s possible through your own hard work, you’re wrong.  This life of total surrender to Jesus, this life of faith, hope, and love - all of this - is only possible through the radical work of God in our lives.  Just like the Thessalonians, this can only happen if God does it.  People who are overcoming addictions know how this works.  First, we admit that we can’t do it.  We’ve lost control, and our lives have become unmanageable. Then, we entrust our lives to God who can do what we can’t.  We give our whole lives to this amazing God who can work a radical healing in us.  God makes it happen, and our job is to live in radical dependence and openness to God’s active presence in our lives.

This week, I’ve been thinking about our church.  Many of you are engaging this conversion process with your whole hearts.  Little by little, we are being transformed.  We are turning to God for help with your addictions.  We are asking for miracles in our personal, and God is answering in amazing ways.  We are standing against our culture of more and pleasure and power.  We are developing more hunger for God and more of God’s love in our lives.  It is a slow, up and down process, but it’s working.  God is working among us.  

When people leave here and move on to other places, many of them write back and say how significant this church has been for them.  Like the Thessalonians at the crossroads of the world, your faith in God is becoming known everywhere (1:8).  As you embrace the message, you are also becoming part of the message.

So today, I want to encourage you.  Continue on.  Hold to the faith.  Keep being converted.  Keep your eyes open for ways you might have embraced idols, and keep cleaning house.  Live with an active faith.  Love in physical tangible ways.  Hope in Christ no matter what - at all times.  And through it all remember that you can’t do it, but God can.  All of this depends on God.  Day by day, moment by moment, let’s open our hearts and lives to God, and let God turn the world upside down through us.

First and Last (Revelation 1:17-18)

[This is a children's sermon for Galilee Methodist Church Promise Land next Sunday.  They are going to be partnering with us on Cheonan Migrant Shelter, so I said yes when they asked me to preach for their kids' program. They assigned this text.]

Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the living one.  I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”

    Do I look fat?  Maybe not now, but when I was a kid, I was fat.  Some of the mean kids in my school sang a song about me when they passed me in the hall.  Have you ever heard the Batman song?  They changed it for me: “Fatman, na-na-na-na-na, Fat-man!” 
For some strange reason, I decided to be on the track team.  One week I heard that our team didn’t have enough guys to run the 800 meter race.  (That’s 2 times all the way around the big track at Cheonan Stadium.)  I volunteered.  My coach looked at me ... looked at my stomach ... and said, “800 meters?  Have you even run that far before?” 
I said, “Sure, sometimes I go jogging with my dad.”  I didn’t know that jogging with my 50 year old father is completely different from racing around a track with a bunch of fast, skinny kids. 
When I was stretching out for the race, the other guys on my team were giving me advice.  One of them said, “The thing about the half-mile is you have to go kind of slow around the track for the first time.  Then, the second time, you just run as fast as you can.  You feel like your heart is going to explode.  You feel like you’re going to die, but you just keep going as fast as you can.”  That should have been my first clue something was wrong.
We lined up for the race, and I was proud to be wearing my school’s red shirt.  There were 20 skinny kids - and me.  I waved to a few cute girls.  Then, the starting gun sounded, “BAM!”, and we started running.  I stayed with the group for about the first 200 meters, and I thought, “Man, this is easy.  I can do this.” 
As the first lap finished, I was definitely drifting toward the back of the pack, but I thought, “Hey, that’s no problem.  I knew I wasn’t going to win this thing.  I’m still doing all right.” 
On the second lap, all of the other runners started running as hard as they could.  But I just kept jogging, just hoping I could finish. 
As I rounded the last turn, I felt like a big gorilla had climbed onto my back.  I started slowing down and breathing heavier.  (Wheezing sounds.)  About that time, I felt like just slowing to a walk and drifting into the field where kids from different schools were walking around.  “No one would ever know,” I told myself.  I was afraid of being teased.  I was afraid of what the coaches would say.  I was afraid of what those cute girls would say.  I was afraid I would hear the mean kids singing, “Fatman, nanananana, Fatman!” 
Instead, I heard a strange sound.  I heard screaming, “Whooooooooo!”  Then, I heard something even stranger: “Whooooooooo! Josh!”  Then, I saw my Dad’s face. He was standing at the finish line.  He was screaming and clapping his hands like a wild man, like I had just won a gold medal in the Olympics.  “Whooooooo! Josh!  Whooooooooo!  Josh!”  When I finally crossed the finish line, my Dad said, “Josh, I’m so proud of you.” 
“Why?!” [wheezing sounds]  “I was dead last!”
My dad’s face was shining with pride, “Because you didn’t stop.  It would have been so easy to stop, to just give up, but you didn’t.  You finished, and I’m so proud of you!”

God loves us like that!  Nothing – not even failure, not even coming in dead last, not falling flat on our faces in a dance recital, not getting an F on a test, not getting fired from our job, not being teased by our classmates – nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love that we see in Jesus.
Jesus is the First and the Last.  Jesus is the Beginning and the End.  Jesus has come in last.  He was killed on the cross.  He died like a criminal.  You can’t really get more last place than that.  But God raised him from the dead.  Now, he is first - at God’s right hand, the Living One, who is alive forever and ever. 
Don’t give up.  Don’t be afraid.  Jesus is the First and the Last.  No matter what, God loves us.  Jesus is the Beginning and the End.  From the beginning of your life to the end of your life, God loves you.  God always has loved you, and God always will love you - no matter what - forever and ever.  Hold onto Jesus.  He loves you, and he is the First and the Last.

Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the living one.  I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”

Blind Love - 1 Corinthians 13

    Just before she died in 1964, Flannery O’Connor wrote a brilliant short story called, “Revelation.”  O’Connor seemed to like symbolic names.  The lead character Mrs. Turpin - bringing to mind Turpentine, that cleaning chemical which is poisonous and stinky, and the other key character is an “ugly girl” named Mary Grace, who doesn’t like Mrs. Turpin and keeps giving her mean looking stares.  In an ironic way Mary Grace represents the disruptive grace of God. 

The Doctor’s waiting room, which was very small, was almost full when the Turpins entered and Mrs. Turpin, who was very large, made it look even smaller by her presence.  She stood looming at the head of the magazine table set in the center of it, a living demonstration that the room was inadequate and ridiculous.  Her little bright black eyes took in all the patients as she sized up the seating situation.  There was one vacant chair and a place on the sofa occupied by a blond child in a dirty blue romper who should have been told to move over and make room for the lady.  He was five or six, but Mrs. Turpin saw at once that no one was going to tell him to move over.  He was slumped down in the seat ... his nose ran unchecked. ... if that child belonged to me, he would have some manners and move over-there's plenty of room there for you and him too. ...
Next to her was a fat girl of eighteen or nineteen, scowling into a thick blue book which Mrs. Turpin saw was entitled Human Development. The girl raised her head and directed her scowl at Mrs. Turpin as if she did not like her looks. She appeared annoyed that anyone should speak while she tried to read. The poor girl's face was blue with acne and Mrs. Turpin thought how pitiful it was to have a face like that at that age. She gave the girl a friendly smile, but the girl only scowled the harder. Mrs. Turpin herself was fat, but she had always had good skin, and, though she was forty-seven years old, there was not a wrinkle in her face - except around her eyes from laughing too much.
Next to the ugly girl was the child, still in exactly the same position, and next to him was a thin leathery old woman in a cotton print dress. She and Claud had three sacks of chicken feed in their pump house that was in the same print. She had seen from the first that the child belonged with the old woman. She could tell by the way they sat- kind of vacant and white-trashy, as if they would sit there until Doomsday if nobody called and told them to get up. And at right angles but next to the well-dressed pleasant lady was a lank-faced woman who was certainly the child's mother. She had on a yellow sweatshirt and wine-colored slacks, both gritty-looking, and the rims of her lips were stained with snuff. Her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon. Worse than [black folk] any day, Mrs. Turpin thought.
The gospel hymn playing [on the radio] was "When I looked up and He looked down," and Mrs. Turpin, who knew it, supplied the last line mentally, "And wona these days I know I'll we-eara crown.  ...
Sometimes Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people. On the bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been one, but most of them; then next to them -- not above, just away from -- were the white-trash; then above them were the home-owners, and above them the home-and-land owners, to which she and Claud belonged.  Above she and Claud were people with a lot of money and much bigger houses and much more land. But here the complexity of it would begin to bear in on her, for some of the people with a lot of money were common and ought to be below she and Claud and some of the people who had good blood had lost their money and had to rent and then there some colored people who owned their homes and land as well. ...

-- Mrs. Turpin began a conversation with the pleasant looking lady. --

“If you want to make it farming now, you have to have a little of everything. We got a couple of acres of cotton and a few hogs and chickens and just enough white-face [cows] that Claud can look after them himself.”
"One thang I don't want," the white-trash woman said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Hogs. Nasty stinking things, a-gruntin and a-rootin all over the place."
Mrs. Turpin gave her the merest edge of her attention. "Our hogs are not dirty, and they don't stink," she said. "They're cleaner than some children I've seen. Their feet never touch the ground. We have a pig-parlor - that's where you raise them on concrete," she explained to the pleasant lady, "and Claud scoots them down with the hose every afternoon and washes off the floor." Cleaner by far than that child right there, she thought. Poor nasty little thing. ...
The woman turned her face away from Mrs. Turpin. "I know I wouldn't scoot down no hog with no hose," she said to the wall.
You wouldn't have no hog to scoot down, Mrs. Turpin said to herself.  ...
There was nothing you could tell her about [white-trash] people like them that she didn't know already. And it was not just that they didn't have anything. Because if you gave them everything, in two weeks it would all be broken or filthy or they would have chopped it up for [firewood]. She knew all this from her own experience. Help them you must, but help them you couldn't.
All at once the ugly girl turned her lips inside out again. Her eyes were fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin. This time there was no mistaking that there was something urgent behind them. ...
"If it's one thing I am," Mrs. Turpin said with feeling, "It's grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, 'Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is!' It could have been different!" For one thing, somebody else could have got Claud. At the thought of this, she was flooded with gratitude and a terrible pang of joy ran through her. "Oh thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!" she cried aloud.
The book struck her directly, over her left eye. It struck almost at the same instant that she realized [Mary Grace] was about to hurl it. Before she could utter a sound, the raw face came crashing across the table toward her, howling. The girl's fingers sank like clamps the soft flesh of her neck.  ...
Mrs. Turpin's head cleared and her power of motion returned. She leaned forward until she was looking directly into the fierce brilliant eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that the girl did know her, know her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition. "What you got to say to me?" she asked hoarsely and held her breath, waiting, as for a revelation.
The girl raised her head. Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin's. "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog," she whispered. Her voice was low but clear. Her eyes burned for a moment as if she saw with pleasure that her message had struck its target.

-- Later in the day, after all the drama was over, Mrs. Turpin, lay down in her own bed to rest, and she started talking to God.  She knew that somehow Mary Grace had given her a message from God. ---

The ... image of a razor-backed hog with warts on its face and horns coming out behind its ears snorted into her head. She moaned, a low quiet moan.
"I am not," she said tearfully, "a wart hog. From hell." But the denial had no force. The girl's eyes and her words, even the tone of her voice, low but clear, directed only to her, brooked no repudiation. She had been singled out for the message ...  The message had been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hardworking, church-going woman. ...
"What do you send me a message like that for?" she said in a low fierce voice, barely above a whisper but with the force of a shout in its concentrated fury. "How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?" ...
"Why me?" she rumbled. "It's no trash around here, black or white, that I haven't given to.  And break my back to the bone every day working.  And do for the church.” ...
"How am I a hog?" she demanded. "Exactly how am I like them? ...  There was plenty of trash there. It didn't have to be me.” ...
A final surge of fury shook her and she roared, "Who do you think you are?"
The color of everything, field and crimson sky, burned for a moment with a transparent intensity. The question carried over the pasture and across the highway and the cotton field and returned to her clearly, like an answer from beyond the wood.  ["Who do you think you are?"]
She opened her mouth but no sound came out of it. ...
A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw ...  a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were tumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [folk] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They, alone were [singing] on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away.  [To read the full text of "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor, click here.]

1 Corinthians 13
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

    Once upon a time, there were a group of cooks who never ate.  They met together to cook.  They made the most incredible dishes - adding just the right spices and holding the pan over the heat just so.  But each week after they finished cooking their masterpieces, they tossed them into the trash bins and returned home.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was a Manchester United fan club.  They all had the Man-U shirts and hats.  They knew all of the players’ names and statistics.  They had autographed balls and photos. Their fan club met every week, but they never talked about soccer, and they never watched any Manchester games - ever.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was an artists’ guild that didn’t do art.  Artists from around the city met together to talk about the art of art.  They discussed brush strokes and the tools for chiseling marble.  They had heated debates about the best kind of paper to use when painting with water colors.  However, the curious thing was that none of these artists ever did any art.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was a book club that met every week even though nobody ever read the books.  They would talk about this and that and have a cup of coffee, while the books sat on the coffee table unopened - with fresh, uncracked spines.  They missed the point.
   
    Once upon a time, there was a church that talked about God’s love.  They sang about God’s love.  They preached about God’s love and had careful theological definitions about the extent of God’s love.  But they were impatient and rude.  They were selfish and difficult to work with.  They were overly critical and liked to exclude others.  They were great at talking about love, but not so good about actually loving.  They missed the point.

    What is the point?  Fundamentally, what is the point of church?  Jesus answers that question for us pretty clearly. 


Matthew 22
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”


    The point of the church is simple - love.  This is the first and most important part of our church’s vision: Being renewed by God’s love to love God, ourselves, and others.  That is why we are here.  The point ... is ... love.

    In the 1945 movie The Enchanted Cottage, a former pilot rents a home in the countryside.  One arm is useless and his face is deeply scarred from burns when his plan crashed.  He hires a shy, homely maid to look after the house.  At first, they endure each other’s company because of their mutual need.  Then, they begin to open up and share their true selves.  Slowly, they fall in love.  And slowly, mysteriously, the begin to change.  His scars begin to fade.  She becomes more attractive.  Their clothes become more stylish, and they develop a walk of confidence and poise. 
    To other people who do not share their love, they are still they same old, scarred and homely people.  But to each other, and to their blind neighbor next door, they are transformed.  Seen through the eyes of blind love, and growing in the light of love, they have become deeply beautiful people.  Love has transformed them.

    Let me suggest three venues for us to pursue the transforming power of love.

    First, within the church.  Most of us came here from another church.  We have our own sets of tastes and personal preferences.  Maybe you want more hymns or harder-edged music.  Maybe you want more discussion or more traditional theology.  Maybe you keep thinking of the churches you left behind.  Maybe, God has a message for us in the old Crosby, Stills and Nash song, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, then love the one you’re with.”  If your church isn’t what you want it to be ... then love it until both you and your church are transformed by God’s love.

    Second, within your home.  Maybe your spouse works too much.  Maybe your kids are disrespectful.  Maybe your mother-in-law gives you headaches.  Maybe your husband or your wife is not a Christian.  Maybe you and your neighbor just can’t get along.  If your family or home aren’t what you want them to be ... Love them until it both you and your family are transformed.  Love them until both you and your neighbors are transformed by God’s love. 

    Finally, within yourself.  Maybe you feel like you just don’t measure up.  No matter what you do there’s always a nagging sense that you’re not good enough.  Maybe you have an addiction that you are ashamed of.  Maybe you’ve beaten it; maybe it’s beating you.  Maybe it’s on days like today, when the discussion is about love, when you love yourself the least because you see how unloving you are most of the time.  If you are not who you want to be ... let God love you and love God the best that you can until you are transformed by God’s love. 

    The beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God loves us no matter what.  No person and no problem are beyond God’s healing love.  Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and to fill us with his love.  God raised Jesus from the dead, and he can raise us with new life and new love through his Holy Spirit.  Let God love you and be transformed by his love. 

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths, its flow
May richer, fuller be.