Faith, Hope, Love
NL Year 2 • Sermon • Submitted
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Today we move into the ministry of Paul and look at the things he went through to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. We find him in the city of Thessalonica with his missionary buddy Silas. They are met with both good and bad. On the one hand we see that some of the had faith in Jesus that day and so did a good number of Greeks as well as some leading women in the society. That was the good. Paul had this incredible ability to share the good news in a way that spoke to people’s core. The bad that happened was that a mob was created and everyone who had converted were taken to prison for causing unrest. The main reason they were jailed was this idea that there was someone who was competing for this king and ruler position which was reserved for Caesar alone. It’s one of the main reasons Jesus was crucified. The claim that he was on the same level as, competing for rulership with Caesar even though this king was already dead.
I admire the tenacity of Paul and all the work and effort he put into spreading the word of God. It was not easy in his time. It was not easy to go into all these cities that he probably had never been in before and stand in front of strangers and tell them all above the love of God as found in Christ Jesus. Ignoring the rest of the text for a moment, that in and of itself is a huge feat. I have asked people in the congregation to preach for me before and the comments I usually get is that it will bet he shortest sermon ever, or that there is no way that they would ever get up in front of people. Yet here is Paul doing it time and time again. And he’s not just doing it in front of people who believe the same thing he does. These are Jews and God fearing Greeks. These are people of different faiths that he’s trying to convince of another way.
It is never truly ‘easy,’ but preaching each week for all of you, in a way is easy. We all have faith in Jesus. My goal is to bring you messages of truth that will help you to think differently or more critically about your faith and help you grow in faith. As much as Paul loved going back and being with the churches he founded, his ministry was about starting new communities which meant bringing people into a new faith and teaching them from the very beginning. Paul was constantly starting from scratch.
As we can see from the mobs, the jails, and everything else we know Paul went through in other situations, it took a lot of work and was at times very painful emotionally, physically, and spiritually to start and keep a community of faith healthy. That is the whole reason why Paul wrote his letters. He wrote them because he missed being with them. He wrote to them to uplift them in their faith. He wrote them to correct them in their faith. Paul visited and wrote to these churches so that they would continue to grow in faith while he was both with them and away from them.
It is our other reading today that we see Paul writing back to the church in Thessalonica that we read in Acts he had founded. I love that these two texts are paired together to look at because of what it does to teach us about this community and about communities of faith. Paul faced all that hardship and being jailed in order to bring the good news as we just talked about. There was a MOB! It did not sound like a good beginning to the church there. There was turmoil in the synagogue and in the city over this. Yet here in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians we see what God through the Holy Spirit has done through them.
Paul praises them for their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in Jesus. If we take away all the other text and leave just the direct objects we are left with Paul rejoicing with them for their: faith, love and hope. Does that ring a scripture bell for you? What if we change the order and say faith, hope and love?
13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
In another letter Paul writes to the church in Corinth he speaks a lot about love, which is why it is referred to as the love chapter and I just read the end of it to you. And at the end, even though Paul says love is the greatest of the three, what he is also saying is that the three greatest qualities are faith, hope and love. I think sometimes we focus so much on the fact that he says love is the greatest that we don’t factor in that for Paul those are the three most important qualities to have. It’s almost like the Scribe from Mark 12:28 asking Jesus the greatest commandment. Love God and love neighbor Jesus says. Paul is saying faith, hope and love are the greatest parts of a life with Jesus and in a community.
The Thessalonians, Paul says, he remembers them for their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. It seems that he remembers and knows them for that, not because they were just good at doing it for themselves. It wasn’t something they kept to themselves, but Paul says that their faith and work in Christ Jesus became an example to all the believers in other parts of the world. Their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope has gone beyond themselves and their community all the way to Macedonia and Achaia, but not just those places. It is so well known in fact that no one has to talk about it they just know it.
It’s like when I played water polo in high school and every time we’d see Carlsbad High on our schedule we’d just say ‘aw crap’. Everyone knew we couldn’t beat them. They were the best and had been for a very long time. It didn’t matter what year it was they were just that good.
No one had to convince others that the Thessalonians were strong in their faith and examples for other bodies of believers. People just knew. They were the example of what it meant to be the body of Christ because they lived it out.
A church, a body of believers, born out of persecution and strife eventually became an example of what it meant to exhibit work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ. Through the mobs and the jailings and everything else they probably had to endure as people who lived in a society that hated them for having a king other than Caesar. They became a beacon of light within and outside of themselves.
We may not be going through a persecution, but we are going through a very trying and difficult time. One that we have never navigated before and some may feel like you are in jail. I pray that you hold fast to the faith that that is in you. I pray that you know that God chose you, chose us, and because of that we are blessed beyond all measure. God has placed the Holy Spirit in all of us and we have that same gift of faith, hope and love in each and every one of us. We in a time and a place where we will come out of this and we have a great opportunity, like the Thessalonians to shine our lights into the world and be examples of faith, hope and love for our congregation, our community, and beyond. Hold fast in your faith and know that we are all together, we are all the body of Christ even if we are not physically next to one another. Know that God is the one who brings us together in spite of hardship, through the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. And that nothing will change the love that God has for us. Amen.