Richard Davenport
December 17, 2023 – 3rd Sunday in Advent
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 (longer reading)
Saints, as the Catholic Church talks about them, are rather interesting. We don’t talk about the saints much as Lutherans. We have the faithful men and women of the Old and New Testaments and we have their histories. There are noteworthy men and women we also pay attention to if you are interested in who lived after Biblical times. St. Augustine and St. Basil, for instance, were both theologians who made major contributions to the development of church teachings.
The Catholics get a lot more involved with the saints than we do. In large part, because they think the saints of old do a lot more for us, even today. There’s St. Apollonia, for instance, an early Christian martyr who they believe blesses dentists because she persevered through having all of her teeth removed. There’s St. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, who is the patron of fathers, families in general, and working people, since he himself was just a humble carpenter. There’s St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was a young girl in the 3rd century. She was a scholar who converted to Christianity and denounced the Roman emperor’s persecution of Christians and was brought to trial. She made a defense of her faith and managed to convert others at her trial. The emperor was going to torture her with a great, bladed wheel, but, according to tradition, the wheel broke when she touched it. So the emperor had to deal with her in a different way. Now she is the patron of scholars, Christians who make a defense of their faith, and knife-sharpeners.
In the case of each of these saints, and the many, many others have something noteworthy which sets them apart. They have each been exemplars of some godly virtue and now the Catholic church holds them up to give inspiration to others who are trying to develop that virtue themselves.
In that particular sense, studying the saints isn’t such a bad idea. If you want to learn about godly patience and trust, the early Christian martyrs would have a lot to teach you. Faced with some of the most gruesome tortures the sinful human mind could conceive of, these faithful ones stood firm and held fast to their faith to the blood, bitter end. If you want to see what it means to be a Christian father, Joseph isn’t a bad example either. Granted, we don’t have a whole lot of information on him, but we know he had to raise the Son of God as his own son. He had to put a lot of trust in God to care for him and his family. His fiancé was pregnant before they were married. He had to run to Egypt to keep his family safe. He had to provide for himself, his wife, Jesus, and Jesus’ other siblings out of his modest and humble means. I’m sure the same is true for many of the other saints listed in the large roster of saints the Catholic church keeps track of.
It’s unfortunate the Catholic church does so much more with them, so much that has no basis at all in Biblical teaching and ends up being detrimental to faith. But their use as examples of faith in life is a good one. Studying a particular saint might make us examine our own life to see how we measure up. These saints have their own claim to fame, something that has made them stand out in the life of the church. Can you say the same?
St. Paul’s closing instructions to the church in Thessalonica are a big list of various things they should try and do. Respect and esteem those who carry out the Lord’s work among them. Admonish the idle. Encourage the fainthearted. Help the weak. Be patient. Do not do evil to others. Instead to do good, even to evil people. Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. Do not quench the Spirit. Support prophets, but test their words. Stay away from evil.
It’s a rather general list, but one they can keep in mind and work on. Some of them can use their God-given gifts to help the weak. Others can rejoice. Still others will help those among them who prophesy and will test the words of prophesy to make sure no false prophets weasel their way into the flock. Everyone can pick a job, a task they are suited for.
If you’re focused on your task, whatever task that is, being thankful, praying, helping, encouraging or whatever other virtue you’re improving on, it won’t be long before you really start excelling at it. Those who excel at patience start making a name for themselves, maybe not intentionally, but it happens anyway. People start to take notice that you don’t get flustered and you manage to keep control of your temper and let things just wash over you. If you are active in prayer, people will start to notice that you’re always willing to offer a prayer when there’s a need. You won’t hesitate to take a moment and lift up someone’s concerns to the Lord in prayer. Someone who encourages can easily make a name for themselves as well. You’re the one who’s always staying positive. Others might be afraid or worried, but you remind them of God’s love and care. You help them to not despair.
It’s not really any different for us than it was for the Thessalonians. These virtues have always been good and God-pleasing. They have always been a part of life for the faithful. Which one do you see yourself exemplifying in your life? Are you the patient one? The joyful one? The one who keeps the idle on task? The one who is always active in prayer? Which one will you be known for? Which of the saints of old will you resemble?
Being compared to one of the saints is a noble thing, a compliment. Even though the lives of many of these saints has been exaggerated, if someone sees a resemblance between you and one of the saints, that’s not something to take lightly. Sure, pride is an ever present danger in situations like this. The Pharisees were all too eager to take compliments for their various virtues and when they weren’t getting compliments they’d make sure to pat themselves on the back. Their pride turned what would have been a good and noble virtue and turned it into a vice, something they had to be sure they were famous for or they weren’t doing something right.
But that’s not the only problem with a big list like this. It’s very easy to look at a list like this and pull out one particular task and say, “I’m going to do that.” Actually working to improve at it may be hard, but at least there’s a goal there. You’re going to be more patient. You’re going to pray more. You’re going to be more thankful, or whatever you’ve chosen. You can look back after a while and see how you’ve improved at it. Maybe someday you’ll even look at it and decide it’s time to rest. You can’t realistically make any more progress at it. You’ve gone as far as you can go. People already talk about you like they do the saints of old. You are the go-to person when it comes to that particular virtue. You are the most patient, you are the most thankful, you are the most prayerful, or you are the most encouraging person around.
What about all of those other things on the list? If you are trying to be the most patient, what about respecting those who do the Lord’s work among you. Do you just let that slide? Do you come back to it later after you’ve done all you can with patience? You’re trying your best with the patience thing, there isn’t enough time in one life to do all of that, much less one day. God can’t expect you to get it all. It’s good enough to even get one down.
Except it isn’t. It isn’t a list you get to pick and choose from. You can’t decide you’re going to do one and not worry about the rest. A true saint does every one of these and does them all perfectly. The Pharisees chose to pick from the list and were quite happy to let other things slide, but a faithful Christian doesn’t have that option. Each item on Paul’s list is a requirement for every Christian. No free passes. Even the saints of old who were renowned for their scholarship, their perseverance, their trust, or their love and care, still failed on numerous other counts. They are all sinners. Every one of them. For each thing you get right, there’s a whole list of things you’re getting wrong at the same time. You’ll never master it all. You’ll never even master one. To be a true saint, the requirement isn’t to be good at a particular godly virtue, or even to master it, it’s to be completely perfect. A goal we fall far short of.
While the effort to be better people is a good and noble one, the notion that we can ever reach that goal is our pride thinking more highly of ourselves than we have a right to claim. That is the way of the Pharisees and those who would see themselves as god and ultimately be responsible for their own destruction. When you think about the people you know, or when you’re reflecting on yourself, and you think, “My friends are good people. Most of the folks in my family are good too. I’m a pretty good person myself,” how we judge good by the really bad people out there, the Stalins, the Hitlers, the Saddam Husseins, the Osama Bin Ladens, the mass murderers, the corrupt, all of those we consider evil and destructive. It allows us to overlook our own flaws, our own evil. We end up setting the bar for what we consider “good” pretty low, because it’s the only bar we can reach.
Christ shows us what good truly looks like. Christ never makes a mistake. Christ never insults people. He never tears anyone down. He is never rude. He lets his anger get the best of him. He is never nosy, never lazy, never wishing bad things to happen to anyone. Instead he is patient. He encourages. He prays. He gives thanks. He admonishes the idle. He rejoices.
Christ’s death on the cross is the death mandated for those who don’t measure up. Only perfect people can live in God’s perfect world, and we are anything but perfect. Since we don’t have it within ourselves to be perfect, the only hope we have is to be made perfect. Paul says not to quench the Spirit. God forgives you for not measuring up. The Spirit trades our sinful imperfection and gives us Christ’s perfection instead. The God of peace sanctifies you, makes you whole and pure again. He purifies you spirit, soul, and body and keeps you blameless. The bar you are aiming for isn’t there anymore. It no longer matters.
Paul gives this list to those who have already been made pure by God. He is not telling you to try and be perfect. He is telling them to simply do these things as a reflection of what God has made you. There is no need to try and be perfect. There is just doing what God has given you to do. So be patient. Help the weak. Admonish the idle. Respect those who work for God’s kingdom. Pray. Rejoice. Give thanks. For God has forgiven you, purified you, and made you holy. Hold fast to the Spirit and he will keep you pure and blameless and at peace with the Lord so you will always have a place in his perfect kingdom.