What a Community Needs
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What a Community Needs
August 28, 2011
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
1 Thessalonians 5:12-22,27
12But 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; 13esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. 15See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. 16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise the words of prophets, 21but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22abstain from every form of evil.
27I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all of them.
I read that the fast food company Chick-fil-A is coming to Minnesota this last week. See there you go…exactly…exactly. Now I also heard that it is going to be a couple years before they get here, but they are, in fact, coming. If you are not familiar with them they are a fast food company that is owned by a private family, it is the Cathy family. They have made their fast food brand actually a nationally recognized icon across the country. Any community that actually has one of these Chick-fil-A’s in their community knows that they are closed on Sunday. They are closed on Sundays because of the Cathy family’s strong faith in Christ and their commitment to honor the Lord’s day.
While speaking at the University of Houston’s Leadership and Ethics Conference in 2007, Dan Cathy shared some of his convictions about his business. He said, “It is no secret, at Chick-fil-A we adhere to biblical principles, things like honesty and integrity and fairness. These are all timeless principles.” Then the Operations chief added, “Business doesn’t exist for itself. It never has. It exists to benefit humanity.” And that struck me. That struck me because if a true biblically functioning business can live for the benefit of humanity, to quote the words of Paul, “How much more,” how much more should the Church be doing that? The Church needs to exist for the benefit of humanity.
Today that is what we want to talk about. We want to talk about this notion of how can the Church as a community that is gathered here right now, how can it benefit humanity? I think one of the ways we can do it is how we live with each other. That is our focus today. That is our focus.
We are finishing our study in 1 Thessalonians today by looking at this idea of a community—what does a community need as it relates to each other? In this last half of the book as we have been working our way through it, Paul has been talking a lot about how we relate, how we treat each other as a community. He told us to love and comfort one another in Chapter 4. He told us to encourage each other in Chapter 5. And here in this last half of Chapter 5 he uses the word “brothers” five times. In our translation it is translated “brothers and sisters” or “beloved,” but it is the same word in Greek, “brothers.” In that Paul is laying out three things that help a community that it really needs. One is how pastors and the congregation are to relate to each other. Secondly, how are people in the community supposed to care for each other? And then thirdly, how we are to worship together as a community.
Well last year, or maybe a year or so ago, on a Sunday morning I walked into a Caribou Coffee to get some coffee. It was a Sunday morning on my way to work as I have often done. As I was sitting there waiting for my coffee and the young girl was kind of helping me, we were talking and she found out I was on my way to work, that I work in a church, and I am a pastor, at which point she said, “It must be nice to only have to work one day a week.” (Laughter) That’s the truth…because there are a lot of people outside the church, and even some within the church, honestly (I have run into that from time to time), that think that all we do is what you see, is what you see right here on Sunday morning for an hour or so. That everything else just kind of magically happens.
When I was ordained in this denomination, the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, one of the things they were telling pastors who were just ordained was that you should strive to work forty-four hours a week. The church researcher, George Barna, gives us the reality. He says that the majority of pastors work well, well over forty hours a week. Now I lay that out for you not because I am asking for pity, because I am not; I am not asking for a raise; I am blessed and very grateful for the compensation I receive; so thank you for that. But I say that because I want you to know that those of us who are on this side who are called to ministry, our mindset is to work hard for God and for you. That is our call and I think that is what Paul is getting at at the very beginning of our Scripture. Paul uses the word “labor” here and, the idea of laboring among you, there is this notion of striving and struggling for you. It is the image of exercising and using your muscles to the point that your muscles don’t work any more. That is how hard it is. You are to work for the people of God.
So what Paul is saying here is that ministry is hard. It is hard work and anyone who senses a call to be in full-time ministry I think needs a very strong sense that God is pushing them, directing them, shoving them in some cases, towards this ministry. Because the sad reality is that when I started seminary there were many people that I started with that honestly were a lot smarter than I was and a lot more gifted than I was. Yet, when they finished seminary and got into churches, after a few years it became too much for them and they left the ministry altogether. That is a shame. That breaks my heart and I have to believe it breaks God’s heart, as well, that the work of the kingdom is diminished; because to see gifted men and women become disillusioned with this ministry, working in a church, is just sad. It is just sad. So we work hard for you.
In addition Paul says that the pastors are to be over you. Anybody have the hair on the back of their neck standing up at this point? No one likes to be told that there is someone over you and here is what I think Paul has in mind. He is saying that pastors are over you just like Jesus is over all of us, that he or she is to be your servant in humility and gentleness, not with power and not with the kind of authority that we normally think of when we think of authority. But rather it is a different kind of authority, there is some, but it’s different. What I think about that is that I am responsible for you. I am here and called to protect you, to care for you and to lead you, as well.
I told you over the last couple of weeks as we kind of have been working through this series, that I believe I am accountable to God for your welfare. That God is going to review with me at some point in the future how I did in leading you, whether I was a good shepherd or not. I am responsible for you guys. I take that seriously.
Then he said in the end, “Pastors are to admonish you.” That speaks to this special or ethical dimension of warning you, warning you against bad behavior and the consequences that follow from that behavior. I think that also includes disciplining those who have done wrong. That’s hard; but again it is to be done in the spirit of Christ with humility and with grace.
But then Paul moves from me to you, to the congregation, and he says this is how you are to relate to your pastor; and he says, “Respond with love and affection,” and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (laughter) The keyword here I think is be at peace. You are to be at peace in the Church.
I have been told, and I actually can see most of you, that some of you fall asleep during my messages. I have seen the head bobbing going on. I know that what some pastors do is that they will take a tennis ball and they will set it on the pulpit so that everyone can see it. They don’t talk about it; they don’t reference it; they just let it sit there. Then, when they see a head bob, (The pastor gestures at grabbing the ball and throws it at the one who is head bobbing.) (laughter) I don’t know if that is going to create peace. I’m just going to tell, but I have heard that has been done. Because the reality is that when pastors and their people can’t get along, they can’t live in peace, the real tragedy in that among the wounding that takes place, beyond that in the larger scale and what Paul is thinking about, I think, in this passage, is the that the work of moving the gospel forward gets compromised. That was Paul’s focus. That is Paul’s mindset as he writes these letters is that the gospel would go forward, the people would come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. That is his motivation. When pastors and people can’t live together, that gets shut down. That gets shut down. The work goes for naught and we end up spinning our wheels.
We all know the troubles that come when pastors and congregations can’t get along. Either we have witnessed it over the years, maybe even recently, or we have at least heard of it in other churches. So a community needs to be about keeping their eyes on the important stuff, which is moving the gospel forward. We have to be about that. And that is done when pastors and members work together to live in peace. We have to be about that business.
Then Paul moves on to our second point and he says that if the congregations are supposed to be about moving the gospel forward then you know what? They need to take care of each other, as well. Paul here lays out three different groups that he calls the idlers and the timid and the weak. We have kind of referenced these over the course of our time together. The idlers are those if you remember who quit their jobs because they thought that Jesus was going to return any second so they were just going to take time and wait for Jesus to return. And Paul says that the congregation needs to correct them. The timid, those were those who were afraid that they would never see their loved ones again or their loved ones would not get to see Christ’s return or they were even worried about their own salvation and Jesus said to those, “Stand by them.” Stand by them, strengthen those guys. And then the weak, the weak were those that had a really hard time controlling their sexual desires. To those Paul says, help them, help them. Walk with them, don’t let them go. You will notice through all of those he says be patient. Be patient with all of them. We need to be long suffering with those who have a hard time walking faithfully, our brothers and our sisters, they need our help. That is what the Church is supposed to do.
I think that is why Stephen Ministry is such a critical ministry for any church because in Stephen Ministry it helps train people to walk alongside those who need help. I think our church does that really well and I am really grateful for our Stephen Ministry, for those who serve, for those who lead, I thank you. For that is the call of the church. The call of the church to help build an internal strength by caring for one another so they are able to withstand the storms that will come against them.
Then Paul, in this last part, was referencing this notion of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus talks about where it says “don’t repay evil for evil.” I think he has Jesus’ words in his mind from Matthew 5:39 where he says “turn the other cheek.” We are no longer about an eye for an eye here folks. Taking care of each other, showing compassion, demonstrating grace and love is critical in the life of our church.
Then he turns to our last part. As you look at these, they almost appear as if they are individual commands, don’t they? Rejoice, pray, give thanks, don’t quench, don’t despise, test, hold fast, abstain. Those are commands—technical term is imperatives. These are things we must do. We do not have an option. We must do these things. But what is interesting about these commands is they are not individual, they are not individual commands as in, you need to this or I need to do this. It is plural. It is you plural need to do this. All of us. It needs to be done together. What do we do together? Worship. That’s right, we worship together. Paul is saying that a community needs to gather to worship. Then he begins to lay out I think four major areas that need to be included in worship and they are in these right here.
He says first to rejoice, to rejoice. To rejoice is not simply to slap on a happy face when you come in to worship, because we all know that there are times when we are not happy. Rather it is a call to worship. It is a gathering emphasis, much like Paul says in Philippians 4:4 when he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Or as the Old Testament puts it in many places, “Come, let us sing to the Lord.” What Paul is getting at here is an invitation to come together, to come and worship and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. That is why when we were talking about what we thought worship should be we called this our Celebration Service, because that is what this is supposed to be, joyous and a celebration of who we in Jesus Christ.
Then Paul continues. He says we are to pray. Prayer is to be a part of what we do here together as a community; and, in particular, I think Paul is referencing intercession, praying for something or someone. When I think about that, I think of Jesus’ words from Matthew 18 where he says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name and agree on anything, it will be done for them.” The last time I checked there are more than two or three of us here. Let’s ask. Let’s ask and see what God will do with that, huh? Because, I wonder, you know as I stand up here and I give our prayers, I wonder what would happen if we prayed the prayers that are not on the blue card, the prayers that are here [in the heart]. Have you ever noticed that the blue cards—and we need to pray for the things on the blue cards—but have you ever noticed that they are kind of at arms length? They are the things that are safe to pray for. What would happen if we prayed for the things maybe that were a little more dangerous, the things that are a little closer to home? Lord, my child is going back to college and I am really scared for him or her. Or, man, my job is a mess, and I am on my last leg. What if we prayed for those things as a church? What might happen? Or, even take it another level, what would happen if we became more consistent around praying that the world would come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior? If we were to do that consistently here, what would happen at Faith? What would happen in the world? That is what we need to be about, folks.
You may not know, I hope you do, but on our website I have been kind of listing some prayers for us to pray for at Faith. I invite you to go to our website and just check those out and begin to pray those with me that God might begin to do a mighty work in our midst.
Just as we are to pray, we are also to give thanks, “…give thanks in all circumstances,” Paul says. Thankfulness needs to be a part of our DNA, of who we are, our default, if you will. We see that attitude in the beginning of Psalm 103, don’t we? We say “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me. Bless his glorious name.” You know, when we have communion here we call it communion, but other places call it “the Eucharist.” You know what “the Eucharist” means? It means thanksgiving. It means thanksgiving. We are to have that kind of attitude. Whenever I think of thanksgiving—not the meal—but the heart of thanksgiving, I always think of a phrase, and I think I first read this phrase from the author Frederick Buechner who said, “We have much to be thankful for.” …and that thankfulness begins right there (pointing to the cross). Our thankfulness begins at the cross and Jesus who died for our sins so that we might be acceptable to God, so that we might be adopted into his family, not because of what we do or who we are but because of Jesus and his sacrifice and his blood shed. He paid the penalty, so you and I don’t have to, from God. This cross is the starting point of the Spirit, giving us the Spirit that we might learn to walk with Christ. This is the thankfulness that we start with. These are the things that we should always resonate with and just go “Thank you Lord!” …because we do have much to be thankful for. We may not always be able to give thanks for every circumstance but we can give thanks in every circumstance. Then Paul adds “…this is the will of God.” This is God’s will for us. God knows what’s best even though we think he doesn’t.
Finally, this last part of worship is to listen to the word. You see that in verse 27 as well as his command to listen to the prophets. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:20 that the prophets and the apostles (of which Paul was one) are the foundation of the Church. He knew they spoke the words of God. Paul believed he spoke the words from God. That is a foundation that we cannot stray from, that we must live in and live on, for Paul, just as we do, lived in a post-Pentecost period. We live in a time when God gives his Spirit freely to all who claim Christ as Lord. And as such, the gift of prophecy is still in effect. It is still alive and well and that is why I think Paul says that we need to test what we hear from the prophets in our midst. The word “test” is really this idea of sifting it, of weighing it. What do we do when someone comes into the church and goes, “I have a word from the Lord!” Have you ever been in a place like that? What do you do in those kinds of situations? How do you sift it? How do you weigh it to determine is this of God or is it not? There are lots of ways to do that. I want to just rifle through some fairly quickly here. One, we just need to lay it against Scripture. How does this prophecy fit with Scripture? God is never going to give a prophecy that goes against what we know in his word. Secondly, what does it do with Jesus Christ? Does this prophecy lift up Jesus as Lord or just as maybe just as maybe a prophet or moral teacher? If it doesn’t encourage and strengthen his divinity, 1 John tells us then “this is the spirit of the anti-Christ.” It is a false prophet and we must dismiss it. Thirdly, is a test of grace. Where’s grace in the prophecy? Are there requirements that are needed before life can be received? Fourthly, what is the character of the prophet? Jesus says, “We will know a tree by its fruit.” What kind of fruit does this person have in their life? Have we seen prophecies from this person fulfilled before? Then finally, does the prophecy build up the Church? Prophecy is a spiritual gift, like all spiritual gifts that every one of you have, you have a spiritual gift, believe it or not. All spiritual gifts are to be used for the building up of the body of Christ and prophecy is no different. Does the prophecy build up the body? If it doesn’t, then there may be a problem.
Worship is part of our life together and Paul concludes “don’t quench the Spirit.” Don’t put it out. Let the Spirit lead us in worship and give us the freedom for how we are to respond in the context of the form and the design that we have, because God is not a God of chaos. He is a God of order.
Well, there we have it. The Church is a community where God intends for us to be a place of mutual affection, of caring, and joy, and of worship; and, in that, we are a witness to the world of the power of the resurrected Christ and in doing that we are benefitting humanity. Amen.
Let’s pray.
Mighty and holy God, thank you. Thank you that you are Lord over all and you are Lord over your Church. Lord I pray that we would be so in tune with you that the things of the Church would be the things that would excite you. So Lord I pray that through this all that we might be your people, a people together to serve you, to love you and to give ourselves for your cause. We ask it because of Jesus. Amen.