I Thessalonians 5:16-24
3rd Sunday in Advent
December 11, 2005
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. [NIV]
In the Middle of J-O-Y is a Never-ending Circle
I. Follow God’s dotted plan.
II. God restores our broken circles of joy.
Grace and peace to you (I Thessalonians 1:1b). Amen.
In math, when you graph a line, you draw arrows on both ends of it to symbolize that the line goes in both directions for eternity. But there’s another line you can draw on a page, that goes on and on, but you don’t have to draw arrows, because you can see the whole line and it’s eternal continuation right there in front of you on your piece of paper. It’s the circle -- one of the first shapes that our children learn. A circle is a line that never ends.
When we teach our children the shapes, we show them how often those shapes are found around us. There are circles all over the place – the wheels on the bus, a person’s eyes, a glass bulb Christmas ornament. Today Paul reminds us that there is a circle in Christmas that we should always keep before us. Where is it? It’s in our very first verse: “Be joyful always.” In the Middle of JOY (J-O-Y) There Is A Never-Ending Circle. If we (I.) Follow God’s Dotted Plan, we will enjoy the never-ending circle of joy throughout our lives. And even when that circle of joy is broken (II.) God restores it for us.
Consider the Advent wreath. Some point to the symbolism of its circle as the promise of eternal -- never-ending life. The circle of Christian joy rests in the promise of God, that after death, we will be renewed. We will live. And once we enter that second life, the circle will never turn back to death.
As the Christmas season gets more hectic, it gets tougher acting on Paul’s command: “Be joyful always.” How do we do it, when the children don’t want to help anymore with the cookies, the cards, and the decorating? How do we maintain the ‘never-ending circle in the middle of joy’ when the flu hits, or someone is sent to the hospital, or God forbid, someone in the family dies. Where is the joy, when you are running all day long, and somehow you have to fit in the many church services of Wednesday and Sunday during Advent, and then Christmas and Christmas Eve programs?
I. Follow God’s dotted plan.
Well, if we go back to geometry and the simple concept of a circle, we are reminded that a circle is a set of points next to each other, forming a line that goes around and around. God gives us the points, the dotted path, of maintaining joy in our lives, even when outside circumstances want to stomp that joy to death. This was important to the Thessalonians, because in their new faith, they were being persecuted. They weren’t experiencing Christmas busyness – they were actually being mocked, threatened, and even thrown into prison for their faith. It’s to them that Paul gives God’s dotted plan to joy. Here they are:
“Be joyful always” – it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to maintain a sense of joy, even in difficulty.
“Pray continually” – You, yourselves are not Joy Generators. You can’t simply tell yourselves, “Today, I’m going to be happy.” Christ, himself prayed for our joy. In what is called his High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prayed to his Father, “I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:13-15). Jesus knew the hatred that Christians would experience for their convictions and trust in God. He prayed that God would protect them from losing their joy. Prayer is part of the circle with which we surround ourselves, so that pain, worry, and sorrow does not overwhelm and drown our joy.
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” At our last Pastor’s study group I talked with Pastor Zimmerman about Thanksgiving. He told me that one year, he changed the theme of Thanksgiving from giving thanks to God for the blessings we received, but for the things that didn’t happen: thank God for the nights that were not disturbed by a phone call, that a loved one was in an accident. Thank God that our doctors haven’t told us, “You have cancer,” or “The cancer has popped up again.” Thank God, that our home fire alarm never went off this year. There is so much to thank God for – in our blessings and in the many ways he has preserved our lives from harm. Thank God, he doesn’t give us more than we can bear.
“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” Each of us has faith. That is a fire within us, another gift from God. Knowing and trusting that Jesus is our Savior, reminds us that God has performed a miracle in our lives. We’ve been given a gift of the divine. God himself has adorned our hearts as the fireplace of his love.
But as Paul points out, we can be responsible for extinguishing that spiritual fire. We throw water on these flames, when we say, “I don’t want to.” The Spirit accompanies the fire of faith with gifts. We’ve been studying some of them in our Bible class on Romans (chap. 12). There’s teaching, serving, encouraging, contributing, leading, and showing mercy. We talked about examples in our congregation, how individuals act on the fire that is in their hearts by using the gifts of the Spirit. We also noted that not all gifts are evident, because they are used outside the church – in homes, nursing homes, hospital, food pantries. But some are not evident, because they simply aren’t being used.
Another way to douse the fire of the Spirit is described in the next verse:
“Do not treat prophesies with contempt.” Prophesy is the sharing of God’s Word. That is the one fuel that God gives us, which keeps the fire of faith burning. We receive God’s Word not only through Sunday worship, but also through the Sacraments, where God’s Word is connected with elements. That fuels our hope and consequently our joy. But if we treat prophesy, God’s word with contempt, we are denying that the Spirit is in it. We call it boring. And indeed, I apologize, some of my sermons may seem boring. I have a hard time telling, because I’m busy expounding God’s Word, which to me is exciting. But I’ve heard pastors, who really have a boring style, which is hard to listen to and remain attentive. But I still recognize that they are teaching God’s Word. When I listen to such a preacher, I work harder at paying attention. Because I want to hear God’s Word. I want to know what God has to say to me through this man expounding on holy truths.
We can use countless excuses for not listening to God’s Word, but in the end, God will hold us in contempt of his prophesies, if we don’t make the effort to hear and study his Word. Who do we think we are, when we go weeks without hearing or reading God’s Word? We’re like the person whose gas gauge is already past the red mark, and they think to themselves, oh, I can drive a bit further on that! If the fire of your faith goes out, what do you do? Just jump start it? If the Spirit leaves you, you can’t call him back. He has to come to you on his own, because we do not have a pilot light for faith. Scripture says, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (I Corinthians 12:3). If you show contempt for God’s Word, don’t be surprised that you don’t have joy in your life. If that flame dies within you, you will even lose the desire to come back to church. You will tell Christian friends and relatives, “Stop preaching to me.” And you may think that you believe, but when you look at your prayer life, and your desire to go to church, you realize that it seems BORING and you don’t want it.
We do have to practice discernment in what we listen to:
“Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.”
One of our members recently told the story, that when she was a teenager, for Christmas she really wanted a horse. When her parents brought in a big present for her, she was certain that it was a saddle… and that as soon as she opened it, they would take her to where they were keeping her horse. But when she opened the box, it was full of horse apples! That was as close as she was going to get to owning a horse. Her parents had the same sense of humor that she does.
In telling us to ‘test everything,’ Paul reminds us that not everything that is wrapped up in an appealing form is healthy or useful. The devil offers us a lot of stuff that looks good on the outside, but is only filled with horse apples on the inside. He can take the beautiful form of the human body and create lust in our hearts. He can take the gift of money, and make us slaves to gambling or materialism. Wrapped in comedy, he uses our evening programs to soften our hearts to accept ungodly lifestyles as something acceptable… even for us to practice (Sitcom Morality). He can even take the greatest gift we have, God’s Word, and twist it, so that we misplace our trust.
Last week I happened to turn on the local Christian Television network and the preacher was quoting Matthew 28:19: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He then proceeded to tell the people, you can replace the word ‘baptizing’ with the word ‘immersing.’ That isn’t true. The two words are not equal. Those who teach ‘immersion’ are the same who teach that baptism is a symbol, not a gift of God’s grace. Since they are so caught up in the symbolism, that they demand immersion and yet they forsake the promise. They do not believe that God saves through baptism. They deny that God works through baptism to bring an infant into his kingdom. They deny their children this gift, because baptism has become for them, something that we must do in our Christian walk, rather than something that God does to and for us. “Test everything...” even what other Christians tell you. And based on God’s Word, “hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” That which is good will be for you the true source of Christmas and Christian joy.
II. God restores our broken circles of joy.
Let’s again consider the Advent wreath. Normally we make it from evergreen branches, symbolizing life that does not end. Unlike the other trees, which lose their dead leaves in winter, the evergreen keeps its living green color. When Pastor Korth was a child, his family sold evergreens for Christmas. Since they did the trimming throughout the year, they could tell which tree was the fullest, and they would tag it, so that no one else would take the tree that they wanted.
If we were Christmas Trees, would God want to place his tag on us? Often we have broken that circle of Christmas JOY by sinning… by running after the worthless things of life. The guilt of such a life weighs down on us like the first heavy snow this winter. Our pine tree lost several branches because the weight was so great. Sometimes we feel like we are going to break apart from the weight of our sins. And we are not full trees to begin with. Spiritually, we probably resemble Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, rather than one that you would put in front of the Court House.
And yet God has tagged us. That’s what he did, when he placed his name on us at baptism. Though sin and guilt does press down heavy upon us, through the baby Jesus, we have forgiveness that sits on us as the lightest of snow. It covers the spots that don’t look full. Thanks to Jesus, in God’s eyes we are as desirable to have in his home as Jesus is. Because Jesus was willing to accept the curse of hanging on the tree of the cross, we have the joy of being made acceptable to God.
Since God tag is on us, no one can take us away from him. The devil can not come and cut us down. We are the Lord’s. Even though we have broken the circle that is in the middle of joy, though we have not continually given thanks or avoided evil, we’ve been granted forgiveness. Though we have held prophesy in contempt, the Spirit has graciously kept the fire alive, and encouraged us through this Word today. Our joy rests in the remaining words of Paul: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” Amen.
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you (II Thessalonians 3:16). Amen.
