"Imitating the Master”

A Sermon by Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett

Pleasantville UCC, June 26, 2011

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

“You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy,
 the joy with the trouble.
(1 Thessalonians 1:5-6, The Message)

            A friend of mine sent me one of those links on the internet to a story that was just too good to pass up.  It was the tale of dueling church signs – on one side of the street, Our Lady of Martyrs Catholic Church and on the other side of the street, Beulah Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  It began with Our Lady of Martyrs, which posted the phrase:

ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

in big capital letters on their church sign.  You gotta’ wonder what that’s about – I suspect it was a sermon title or maybe a catchy way of calling people’s attention to the Feast of Saint Francis and the blessing of the animals which takes place in Catholic parishes in the fall.

            It could have been just that simple…but it wasn’t. Because Beulah Cumberland Presbyterian Church got their nickers in a knot about it and right across the street they responded in capital letters of their own on their church sign which read:

ONLY HUMANS GO TO
 HEAVEN READ THE BIBLE.

            Well, now the gloves were off because, you can’t really accuse the church across the street of not ‘reading the Bible’ without getting a response.  So Our Lady of Martyrs posted their reply:

GOD LOVES ALL HIS CREATIONS
DOGS INCLUDED

And Beulah Presbyterian Church responded:

DOGS DON’T HAVE SOULS
THIS IS NOT OPEN FOR
DEBATE

I gotta’ give those Catholics credit.  They came back with:

CATHOLIC DOGS GO TO HEAVEN
PRESBYTERIAN DOGS CAN TALK TO
THEIR PASTOR

To which Beaulah, replied:

CONVERTING TO
CATHOLICISM DOES NOT
 MAGICALLY GRANT YOUR
 DOG A SOUL

Not to be outdone, Our Lady of Martyrs shot back with:

FREE DOG SOULS
WITH CONVERSION

And the Presbyterians across the street replied:

DOGS ARE ANIMALS
THERE AREN’T ANY
ROCKS IN HEAVEN
EITHER

Our Lady of Martyrs fashioned an epic win with the final sign which read:

ALL ROCKS
GO TO HEAVEN

            Now, I’d be willing to accept that this series of church signs, photographed and posted on the internet, might be a hoax. And, I admit that I decided not to go to “snopes.com” to find out if it was – because it was just too good.  But whether it is or whether it isn’t a hoax, the truth is: it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.  Because, what people will do in the name of Jesus is a scary thing sometimes and relatively speaking – this is nothin’.  But I share it with you this morning because it points to a real challenge that has always existed in the Christian Church: sometimes it’s the behavior of Christians themselves that is the biggest threat to faith.

            It is the behavior of Christians that largely occupies the concern of the Apostle, Paul.  His letters to the churches are the earliest Christian documents we possess. They are a window into these communities of believers, allowing us to see the issues that early Christians were wrestling with and to hear Paul’s counsel, advice, encouragement and sometimes his admonishment.  This week and throughout most of the summer we will be studying the letters of Paul to see what they have to teach us about being the Church today.

            There are 27 books in the New Testament and 21 of them are not books at all but rather letters.  Of those 21 letters, 13 of them are from Paul or his missionary associates. Paul’s missionary travels extended the boundaries of the Christian faith from Jerusalem throughout the ancient world. And, he extended the invitation of Christ to those who were not born Jews.  This point is no small matter in the development of Christianity – and it is no small matter in the faithfulness of the Church today.

            It’s not easy to know the chronological order of the epistles. Christian scholars have debated everything about these texts – from their chronology to their authenticity.  But most New Testament scholars believe that “Paul wrote the letter we know as 1 Thessalonians around 51 C.E., which makes it the earliest Christian writing and, indeed, the earliest evidence we possess for the existence of Christianity.”[1]  “If our ancient predecessors in the Christian faith had arranged the New Testament writings according to their dates of composition, 1 Thessalonians would stand at the beginning in place of the Gospel of Matthew.”[2]

            By the time that Paul wrote this letter, Thessalonica had been under Roman rule for over two centuries.  It was the capital of the province of Macedonia and thus, as the seat of Roman administration, it had a certain political significance.  Because it was a port city and located on a major Roman highway, the Via Egnetia, “its residents would have been exposed to a wide variety of social and cultural influences.[3]

            The Thessalonians honored many deities, which was typical of the religious life of the period throughout most of the Roman Empire. “Among those most prominent were the Greek god Dionysus; the Egyptian deities Isis, Osiris, and Serapis; and the Phrygian god Abirus.  In other words, “the Thessalonians were hardly impoverished when it came to religious options.”[4]  When “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy [arrived on the scene, they] brought what many would have viewed as merely one more religious option into this bustling, cosmopolitan city.”[5]

            When we read early Christian letters we are, in fact, reading somebody else’s mail.  Sometimes what we read is easy to understand and the matters discussed relatively transparent.  Other times, because the immediate history is not ours, there will be a limit to how transparent the letters can be.  Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica is a kind of love letter – one in which he pours out his own love for these new believers, knowing that they love him as well. From his letter, we are also able to determine that Paul is writing to a community that is largely gentile. 

As the letter unfolds, we learn that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy together made an initial visit to Thessalonica, where they preached and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some Thessalonians (we have no way of ascertaining how many) “turned to God from idols” and joined these apostles in their expectation of the return of God’s son, Jesus Christ.  Following the apostles’ departure, Paul found himself unable to go back to Thessalonica and sent Timothy to learn how the Thessalonian believers were faring.  He has now returned to Paul and Silvanus, and it is Timothy’s news that appears to prompt the writing of the letter.[6]

            This morning I want to look at just the first ten verses of this earliest Christian document – this time, from the perspective of Eugene Petersen’s translation called, The Message.  The name, “Silas” is a shortened form of “Silvanus,” and in this version of the text you will hear the name “Silas” instead of “Silvanus.”

¹I, Paul, together here with Silas and Timothy, send greetings to the church at Thessalonica, Christians assembled by God the Father and by the Master, Jesus Christ. God's amazing grace be with you! God's robust peace!

The greeting of an ancient letter is important. It tells us who the letter is from, to whom the letter is addressed, and under what circumstances the letter is written. From the very first line of this letter it is clear that Paul is part of a team.  The presence of all three names in the greeting makes that apparent: “Paul, together…with Silas and Timothy.”   It’s possible that all three of them took part in writing the letter – though later in the letter it seems that Paul’s is the strongest voice.  Whatever the facts of composition, it is clear that the introduction of the gospel in Thessalonica was not the work of a single individual but of a team.  Not only do all three join in sending the letter, but they joined together in the initial work in Thessalonica, and they continue to share a profound concern for the ongoing life of the Christian community in that place.[7]  The letter continues:

^2-5Every time we think of you, we thank God for you.  Day and night you're in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.

There are plenty of occasions when Paul must write to correct the early Christian communities; times when the saints fail to live out the gospel and end up treating one another so badly as to risk driving people away from the church rather than extending its mission field.  But this letter to the Thessalonians is not one of those times.  He continues:

^5-6You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.

These new Christians were so devoted to Christ, that the very way they lived became the greatest kind of proclamation of faith. They did not need to preach Christ from the street corners.  They did not need to Lord it over their neighbors.  They did not need to shout about having turned from idols, because “they LIVED in a way that proclaimed God's lordship in their lives.”[8]

^7-10Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master's Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore—you're the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.

             Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is all of five brief chapters; less than 1,500 words. And in those five chapters Paul seeks to build up this young congregation and to encourage them to hold fast to the gospel in the midst of a world that is unfriendly to their faith. He reminds them to treat each other with respect and love, and to continue the good work that they have begun together.  And because he knows that the community is greatly worried about the fact that some of their members have died, before the return of Christ, he addresses their concern in this way:

We can tell you with complete confidence…that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they'll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command…He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.

            “Reassure one another”

                        “Get along with one another”

                                    “love one another”

                                                “Your lives are echoing the Master’s word”

For Paul there is no distinction between belief and behavior.  If you are “in Christ” be in Christ.

            The life of discipleship is a life of imitation – imitation not in the sense of being phony or a poor substitute.  But imitation in the best sense of the word – such as when a child is growing and learning, she imitates her mother and feeds her baby doll, or he imitates his father and “cooks” in his own little kitchen. Children learn by imitation all the time.  So do adults.

¹⁰Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master's Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore—you're the message!

“We don't even have to say anything anymore—you're the message!”

            In the Christian community, Paul reminds us that we are all imitating the Master.  We all look to Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, so that we may live in a way that proclaims God’s lordship in our lives. And as we imitate Christ, we hope and trust that our lives will become the message; that those who are in our care, those who may be patterning their lives on us, will also imitate the Master.

            Let it be said of us, as it was also said of those first century converts in the port city of Thessalonica: “We don't even have to say anything anymore—you're the message!”

You’re the message!  Go, be the message!

Amen.