Sunday, December 1, 2024
/1 Advent
Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Psalm 25: 1-9; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21: 25-36
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
In my twenty years as a priest, I have preached many sermons, and I keep paper copies of most of them. When I perused my file for the first Sunday in Advent to see what I preached on the last time we had these readings three years ago, my sermon on the first Sunday in Advent 2021 was on Psalm 25. Since I know you all remember everything from that sermon three years ago, I did not want to be redundant and preach on the same reading this time. So, instead, I want to talk about our reading from 1 Thessalonians.
First some history. There was an ancient equivalent of I-10, the interstate freeway that runs east to west across the United States. I-10’s ancient forerunner was called the Via Egnatia, named after the Macedonian proconsul Gnaeus Egnatius. Like I-10, the Via Egnatia ran east west across the Balkan peninsula from Byzantium (modern day Constantinople in Turkey to the city of Apollonia on western coast of Greece on the Adriatic Sea. Regrettably, there were no Buc-ees along the Via Egnatia, but it was an important highway that linked many cities and insured the commercial prosperity of the cities on its path, including the city of Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the capital city of the Roman province of Macedonia, and was dedicated to following the Roman imperial cult, which was simply the practice of worshiping the Emperor as God. The emperor at this time was a man named Claudius.
Paul arrived in Thessalonica following a bad experience in nearby Philippi (another city that is on the Via Egnatia). Once in Thessalonica, he did what Paul does, which was to establish a church there. Following the establishment of this church in which those attending proclaimed Jesus as Lord and God rather than the Emperor, uproar and civil discord broke out in Thessalonica. You can read all about this in your Bibles in chapter 17 of the book of Acts.
Paul was forced to leave Thessalonica because of the controversy his church introduced there, which was simply elevating Christ over Claudius as the true Emperor and true king. Paul went south to Athens, and after some time passed, he sent his co-worker Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how things were going with the church he established there. While Timothy goes to Thessalonica, Paul goes to Corinth, and waits for Timothy there. Timothy returns to Corinth with good news about the church in Thessalonica, but also reports that that people in that church are a bit anxious that Paul has not returned to visit them.
This is the context for Paul’s writing his letter to the church in Thessalonica – a letter which is called “1 Thessalonians” in your Bible. We hear a small part of this letter today from its third chapter. In these verses, Paul writes that he has heard Timothy’s encouraging report of the status of the church. Our reading today is part of Paul’s response where he is writing to encourage this church as it professes love and worship of God in a city known for its loyalty to the imperial cult of emperor worship.
Even in the beginning of church life, churches needed an encouraging word. Not much has changed in two thousand years. We still need to be encouraged. I am reminded of words a Presbyterian minister and author, Frederick Buechner once said about preaching. He said that a good sermon should comfort the afflicted. But it should also afflict the comfortable. We are beginning a new year of church today. We are in Advent, which is a season that invites us into both comfort and affliction. Marie Curie, the Nobel Laureate award winner in Physics and in Chemistry, once said, and I quote, “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” For anyone who has ever tried to lose weight, learn a new language or musical instrument, Curie’s words should resonate.
Progress for most of us is often slow. So be encouraged this Advent. Things did not move quickly during Paul’s lifetime, either. We have so much to be grateful for, so much to be encouraged by, and so much to be patient for. AMEN.