1Thessalonians 5:12-24 Final Exhortations, Greetings, and Benediction 
But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labour among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. 
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. ​

     I learned from a commentary by Dr. Carla Works that 1st Thessalonians is probably the first of the Apostle Paul’s letters. That makes it also probably the first book to be written out of all the New Testament. When we read it in our church today, we are reading a letter written to another church 1,973 years ago. I think that’s pretty cool. Also, today’s reading is from end of the letter where he is saying goodbye and offering some final words of wisdom. Given that we are celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer break for the choir, it seems appropriate to read a letter that offers closing words.

     In her commentary on this text, Dr. Works says, that she feels like this part of the letter sounds like the kind of thing she’d say to her kids “before dropping them off at a friend’s house.” She also lists some of the things that she reminds her kids: “Always be respectful. Listen closely. Pick up after yourself. Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Call me if you need anything. In fact, just call me period.” Has anyone here ever been reminded to make sure to do something by the grown-ups who take care of you? What kind of things did they say? (Don’t forget your lunch. Sit up straight. Tie your shoes. I love you.)

     Here are some of the things Paul tells his friends in Thessalonica: Be nice to the people who run things and support the church; don’t pick fights with each other; admonish those who aren’t helping out; offer encouragement to those who are discouraged; support those who are weak; and be patient with everyone. Ok. Let’s stop there for a moment. It seems like good advice not to pick fights with each other. But, it is always easy not to pick fights with each other? What about being nice to the people who are running things? Have you ever tried to talk to people who aren’t helping and try to get them to help? Are you able to be patient with everyone? So, we all can agree, this list is full of ways to be kind to each other but it’s not always easy to do. Paul finishes the first couple lines with these words: “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.” That means, don’t try to get people back when they do something wrong. Who here has ever wanted to get someone back when they do something wrong? See! This isn’t an easy list of stuff to remember!

     Dr. Works reminds us that that list of good things to do isn’t even the whole list of things that Paul hopes the church in Thessalonica will. There are two more sections of behaviors that Paul asks them to remember to do! This good-bye list is both kinda long and also kinda hard. But, Paul knows that Jesus can help us do hard things and do the right things. That first part of our reading is about how to treat each other. The second part is about how to connect with God together as a church. I had forgotten this, but I was reminded in Dr. Works’ commentary that this church was mourning the death of some church members. So, it seems like Paul was trying to help them remember how being a church could help them when they were sad. He says that some regular practices of the church... finding joy, praying, offering thanksgiving... will help you be strong and stay connected when things are hard.

     And, the third part of his hope-filled to-do list is the part where Paul reminds his friends that God is still at work in their lives. He said the Spirit was still moving in them and they should listen to Her! If the Spirit was leading them in a direction, they should follow! Don’t allow fear or despair to cut you off from the Holy Spirit. God will speak. These words from God might be called prophecies and the people who share them may be called prophets. In a world that is in despair, it can be difficult to hear new words leading you to follow God in a different way or return to an old way. Some might ignore anyone who seems to offer a new word from God. Paul says that we’ll miss out if we do that. So, he offers guidance to listen to prophets and examine what they offer. The Spirit will guide you and help you tell what good and worth holding onto and what is worth letting go. Hold fast to what is good. That means hold on to it real tight.
The last part of today’s reading is a blessing that Paul offers his friends. Dr. Wil Gafney translates it this way, “May the very God of Peace sanctify you all wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. The one who calls you and is faithful will do this.” I think this is a reminder that God will take care of every single part of your: your whole spirit... your whole soul... your whole body. Sometimes we need the reminder that God loves every part of us. Paul wanted to make sure his friends remembered that, too.

     As we finish up our school year, Sunday school year, and choir season, I hope you can hear these same blessings as we look towards summer. Hold fast to the good that you learned this year. Know that the Spirit is still moving within you, even when you are sad or scared or mad. Take care of the people who need it. Ask the people who aren’t helping to help. And, know that God loves every part of you. I hope in this summer season, you get some respite and also have the chance to pay attention to what the prophets of our day are calling you to right now. May the Spirit guide your rest, your discernment, and your action.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Carla Works: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-advent-2/commentary-on-1-thessalonians-516-24-4
Wil Gafney, "Proper 1, " Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2022)

     Just for today, pretend that it’s Easter. Pretend that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary have just met the lightning angel and run into Jesus on the road. Imagine that you’ve heard that there are some people who are spreading the story that Jesus' disciples have taken his body from the tomb. Remember that the last time the eleven remaining disciples had seen Jesus, he was on the cross. Know that they got the message from Mary Magdalene and Mary: Go to Galilee. There you will meet Jesus. And they have gone to Galilee.

     Jesus appears to the eleven disciples, just as he has already appeared to the two Marys. They worship him but, as the scholar Eric Barreto notes in his commentary on this text, some have doubts. I love that the worship and the doubts are right next to one another... reminding us that to follow Jesus is often to both worship and have doubts. The ones who doubt aren't chastised for the doubts. The doubts are simply noted. To follow Jesus does not always mean you know exactly what to do or what to believe. As Barreto says, even when Jesus is right in front of your face, you may still have doubts. That doesn’t stop Jesus from giving all of them, doubters and doubtless, a job.

     Throughout the book of Matthew, people have been struggling to understand how to fit Jesus into their lives as their teacher. Jesus was a simple man, a former refugee, knowledgeable in the law but likely lacking formal education. He was a carpenter's son, so he was probably trained in building, not in interpreting Scripture and the law. And, yet, he became a wise teacher familiar with the law and confident in his understanding. Parts of Matthew, like the end of the Sermon on the Mount, confirm his good pedagogy for us. It says that as Jesus finished preaching, the crowds were astounded. They said that he preached as one having authority, as one who knew something deeper. This is why people believed him.

     In her commentary on this text, Susan Hylen notes that there is a through line in the Gospel of people recognizing Jesus’ surprising authority. When he healed people, they recognized his authority. When the disciples healed people, the people recognized Jesus’ authority. When he stood toe to toe with the most powerful members of his community, challenging oppressive practices, he did so with a deep authority that others could readily identify, even if they could not explain from where it came. Here, in the third line of today's reading, we get a little more explanation of what he was meant to do with this authority. He tells his followers that he has been granted all authority in heaven and on earth. And, this authority wasn't limited. Jesus could share this authority with the people he loved. And he loved and trusted these disciples.

     Jesus didn’t only empower them here, at the end, before he ascended into heaven. Working through the same Holy Spirit as he had, they had already been preaching and healing in his name. But this work was mostly in the communities from which they hailed. Now, after the resurrection, Jesus saw much greater potential for their shared ministry. Even though he would no longer be with them, they should continue to do the Gospel. But they would no longer be limited to the communities of their origin. God's love and mercy should be made clear much more broadly. Jesus tells them to take his authority and spread it around. He tells them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing people in a formula that we still use today, and teaching people lessons that are familiar to us.

     We should take a moment and be clear. Jesus never said to go coercing people into conversion. Somewhere along the line, that part got lost on some of his followers, and a lot of damage has been done and is being done right now under the auspices of making more disciples for Jesus. Jesus did not spend his time threatening people into conversion or destroying communities that didn't follow him. Whenever we Christians do those things, we're not following Christ, we're following our own ego and feelings of cultural superiority. When Jesus said to make disciples, baptize people, and teach them, he wasn’t talking about siccing CPS on parents who affirm their transgender kids or requiring hungry people to listen to Christian sermons before they are fed.

     So, when we are teaching about Jesus, what should we be teaching? I’d suggest that the Sermon on the Mount isn’t a bad place to start. That’s back in Matthew 5-7. Imagine what good could be done if we shared that the poor and meek are particularly beloved by God, and those who hunger, for both food and righteousness, will be filled. Imagine comforting those who mourn and offering mercy to those who need it and sharing that you’re doing it because it is what Jesus offered you. Right now, in a culture that seems hellbent on forcing many people to live according to a narrow understanding of Christian ideals, imagine choosing instead to embody purity in heart and become peacemakers in a culture too often bent on war.

     It is extraordinarily dangerous when privileged people begin to paint themselves as victims of culture wars. Right now, people are saying that their Christian faith is “under attack” when they are not allowed to call LGBTQ folks slurs in public or when LBGTQ folks are portrayed in media as regular people and not monsters. Just to be clear: that is not an attack on Christian faith. That is a false sense of persecution. In Matthew, Jesus warned his disciples that they might be persecuted for their faith. He was speaking to a minority within a minority in an Empire that regularly killed people to maintain power. He was warning them that siding with the oppressed would put them on the wrong side of the powerful. If you claim to be doing the Gospel in order to political power and not to love the people Jesus loved, you are not actually taking part in the Great Commission. You’re behaving more like Rome than Jesus.

     But, when you side with the hungry and imprisoned and mournful, you are acting like Jesus. Jesus says when you do so, you become like salt, preserving and heightening the sense of the Holy, and you become a light that could not be extinguished by the powerful and the violent. Jesus' own authority came with his willingness to be loyal to God's mission, even through the humiliation of the cross. Jesus needed his followers to show others that power could come from mercy, and not always from destruction. This is what he taught his disciples and what he hoped they would teach other people.

     The final verse of today’s reading assures the disciples that they can live and teach in this mercy because Jesus will be with them, through the Holy Spirit, to the end of the age. This man, who was once a child known as Emmanuel, “God is with us,” will still be with them, and us, through the end of each age. In each healing, feeding, long conversation, and welcoming meal, both the disciples and the people to whom they preached would have the opportunity to meet Jesus again and again and again. When you start to worry about the ways that it feels like we are living at the end of an age right, remember that Jesus is with us, right now, like he promised. And, we can still do the work he commissioned. And that work, the salty, merciful, healing work is exactly what the world needs right now.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Eric Barreto: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2422
I Love to Tell the Story: https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=613
Susan Hylen: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3268
Stanley Saunders: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2097
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     I always like a story with a good ruckus. Our reading for today, the day we call Pentecost, is certainly a reading with a ruckus. Let's walk through the story again to remind ourselves how wild it is. About 120 of Jesus' followers are gathered in one place in Jerusalem. It is the time of year when they celebrated Shavuot, or Pentecost, a festival that follows 40 days after Pentecost. What this means is that a lot of Jewish people from across the diaspora were in Jerusalem, including Jesus’ followers. The religious pilgrims spoke a variety of languages. The 120 followers of Jesus were all smooshed together in one space when, all of the sudden, a terrible wind kicked up.  It is wise for us to remember that the wind described here probably wasn't all that fun. If we were in a room, say, like this sanctuary, and a forceful, violent wind suddenly blew open our doors, rattled these stained-glass windows, made our papers fly everywhere, and knocked over the zoom camera, we'd more likely be frightened than amused. These disciples, all 120 of them, are probably more frightened than amused by what was happening.

     The next part of the story probably only adds to their confusion. You see, the people thought they saw fire... inside the room... in the air... leaping across their bodies. They knew the ancient stories. Scholars remind us was the disciples likely knew: in their religious tradition, fire in unexpected or strange places was often a sign of God. God once spoke to Moses through a burning bush.  Their people once followed a pillar of fire through the desert, trusting that God was leading the way. While seeing fire in a building is frightening, this fire is awe-inspiring because it is more like those Holy Fires than a forest fire.  As the wind whipped around them, the fire was on top of them, maybe even inside of them, and filling them up with the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit would soon spill out and do something none of them expected.

     We should remember that these 120 disciples are all Galileans. In their everyday life, scholars remind us that they likely spoke Aramaic or Greek. They probably understood a little Hebrew for religious purposes. They might know a smattering of Latin because Rome had conquered their home. I note the languages they likely spoke because the Holy Spirit would help this crowd of Galileans communicate in new and fantastical ways. In the story it says that a crowd of other people gathered around this group of Galileans when they heard the wind and fire. We don't know exactly who was in the crowd, whether it was Jewish pilgrims from across the Mediterranean who had settled in Jerusalem or Jewish pilgrims who had traveled to the city for religious observance. Whomever it was, the crowd suddenly realized they were hearing words in their own mother tongues. More than a dozen regions are named in the reading, and the scripture tells us that people from each of those dozen places understood the words the disciples were saying. And, the crowd was astonished... the confused and surprised and suspicious kind of astonished. Some even wondered if they weren’t really hearing their language and instead were the words just the almost-coherent ramblings of a bunch of morning drunks.

     Isn't this an arresting image of the church: people from wide ranges of regional identities, genders, social classes, and ages, all hearing something new and moving about God in a language that they could understand. Even if they didn't understand how it was happening (and it's pretty clear, no one understood how it was happening, at that moment), they heard and could understand something new about God. What an incredible story about God being so generous as to make sure that each one of them could hear something familiar, even as they would miles and miles away from home. They were bewildered, though, because none of this was expected. And, yet, it seems like this situation is just exactly what God intends. At least that's how Peter later explains what is going on.

     The book of Acts is the sequel to the book of Luke. So, themes and storytelling devices are carried from one work to the other. In Luke, Jesus rooted his own ministry in the works of the prophet Isaiah. In Acts, Peter explains this Pentecost moment as being an expression of the work of the prophet Joel. He tells the bewildered crowd that they will know that God has come close to them when the differences within humanity are no longer excuses for people to avoid coming together in community. Peter heard all these people speaking different languages and immediately understood that God will empower all kinds of people and bring them together across their differences. Peter said that God will allow people of all genders to prophecy, erasing the notion at women were not able to speak through the Holy Spirit. Peter said that youth will not be seen as incompatible with wisdom and also that advanced age will be linked with creativity. The enslaved with share a place of righteousness with the free and they will speak truth to all. Peter saw, through the prophecies of Joel, that our differences won’t stop us from being able to speak of God and that God will work through them to draw us together.

     I believe this Pentecost story sets a foundation for us to understand the differences in our life experiences and religious experiences as a gift from God, and as an asset to our faith. Without these varying testimonies of God... the variety of faith languages we speak... our faith becomes static and closed-off, just the opposite of this wild, rowdy, holy gathering presented in this part of Acts. This unruly and unexpected testimony is what allows faith in Jesus to spread, first through a diverse diaspora of Jewish people, and then through Gentile communities. And, all of the future mission is set in motion right here, by the Holy Spirit making sure everyone could hear a word of God that moved them and inspired them to live differently.

     A while ago, I read a commentary by the scholar Margaret Aymer who reminds we who have heard this story a million times and think of it as celebratory, that it was intended to be bewildering and confusing. That is a helpful reminder: the church is born, and likely reborn, in disruption and confusion. When we think about our own church life, we can’t always view disruption as a bad thing... even if it does feel bad and weird in the moment. The church was born in the midst of that which is unexpected and confounding and maybe frightening. And yet, even though there is chaos in this story, Aymer also says, "in the midst of the chaos of Pentecost rests an anchor...." That anchor is the legacy and ministry of Jesus Christ and his first followers. This story shows the disciples demonstrating the fact that anyone who calls upon Jesus’ name, from whatever language, in whatever age or gender or social class, can be saved.

     We know that Jesus continues to invite us to hear the Gospel through our own experience and listen to our neighbors interpret God through theirs. And, we know that this experience can be disconcerting and disruptive, like a wind whipping through a quiet room. But, this story reminds us that the Body of Christ will be strengthened by the varieties of gifts people bring when they feel truly welcomed into Jesus' community. We can be empowered by the testimonies we have heard so that, we, too, can dream dreams and serve our neighbors. May we be willing to be moved by what we learn from testimonies that surprise and rattle us. And, may the Holy Spirit still move within us in new and surprising ways.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Margaret Aymer: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3282
Mitzi Smith: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=823
Would you like to hear a recording of a bunch of people speaking different languages and reading the story of Pentecost? Here's a great one: http://alivenow.upperroom.org/2011/06/06/pentecost/
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