Richard Davenport

November 19, 2023 – Proper 28

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

            Last week I talked a lot about hope.  St. Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonians here as we come up on the end of the year.  He wants his readers to take this message to heart and make use of what he says. This won’t be the last time he interacts with the church in Thessalonica, after all, he does write them at least one more letter.   Still, it may be a while before they see or hear from him again and they’ll need something to focus on in the meantime, spiritual homework of a sort.

            As we come up on the end of the church year and we turn our attention, not to what Jesus has done but to what he will do, St. Paul’s words here become very important.  What are we to expect from God at this point?  The Apostles called all of this, the Last Days.  Jesus already died and rose again.  That part of the plan is already over and done with.  So what else is there to do?  Well, sin may be defeated.  Death’s power may be broken.  Satan may be on the run.  But none of them are entirely gone.  God isn’t finished yet.  Jesus will come back one day and then, finally, it will all be over.

            What does that look like?  The Apostles understood that any day could be the last one.  Some even seemed to think it would be in their own lifetime.  It hasn’t happened yet, so we’re still waiting.  But, waiting for what exactly?  St. Paul describes it as the Day of the Lord. It’s the day that’s all about him, his return, his victory.  It isn’t necessarily a good thing.  The prophet Zephaniah describes the Day of the Lord as a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom. That doesn’t sound so good, but how you receive that day depends largely on which side of God you’re standing. All of the wrath, distress and anguish is there for God’s enemies.  The Lord triumphs and all of his enemies are decisively and eternally defeated and cast out. If you’re counted an enemy of God, well, it won’t be a day to look forward to.  God’s enemies may be thinking they’re safe and secure in their lives, but nothing will protect them when the Lord suddenly arrives.  His victory will be total.

For the rest of us, it will be a day of rejoicing.  It will be the culmination of everything we’ve been waiting for, everything God’s people have been waiting for for thousands of years. The end of Satan’s influence, the end of sin, the end of death forever.  That sounds great!  So when do we put it on the calendar?  We’ll need to have the streamers, the confetti, and all of that ready to go to welcome Jesus when he returns!

St. Paul says to the Thessalonians, “Yeah, about that…we don’t actually know when that will happen.  It could be today.  It could be tomorrow.  It could be a hundred, a thousand, or even now two thousand years from now.  Don’t plan for some specific date.  You’ll never be able to anticipate it.  Instead, act as if any day could be the day, because any day really could be the day.”

It's at this point St. Paul starts talking about armor.  St. Paul has used the armor analogy before.  In Ephesians 6, he goes into this idea a little more extensively.  Here we have a breastplate and a helmet, protection for your two most vital areas. He doesn’t go into a lot of details, faith, love, salvation, all of the good things God gives us. 

It makes sense that if we want to be protected from things that can still harm us, we’d want armor, at least of a sort.  Spiritual armor for spiritual attacks.  Satan may be defeated but he still isn’t gone.  Our own sin still lives within us as well.  If these are allowed to run free, we might find ourselves on the wrong side of God when he returns and then it’s back to Zephaniah and wrath, distress, and anguish. 

It's a great comfort to know that God has provided these things to you.  He wants to keep you safe and secure until he returns.  There isn’t really much else to do as long as you have those things.  God has brought salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ.  He has shown his love to you through his sacrifice.  He has given you faith through the work of the Spirit.  If you have those things, then you’re pretty well set. 

Seems odd though.  I mean, St. Paul is giving them all of this as his last instructions for now.  If you were to ask, “What should I be doing while I wait for the day of the Lord?”  His answer then, “Nothing!”  That’s kind of weird.  I really just sit around and do nothing?  Sure, it’s a comfort that all of this is done.  Jesus has already won the victory and all of that.  It’s great to hear, but that doesn’t tell me a lot about what my life is supposed to look like.  I can’t just do nothing.  I mean that in a literal sense, I really can’t spend my life sitting around doing nothing.  I have a job. I have a family.  There’s stuff to do that’s just a basic part of life.  I have friends, family, people to visit, places to see, things to do.  There’s life going on and I’m a part of it whether I want to be or not.  What am I supposed to do while I wait for Jesus to return?

In our search for comfort, for a life of ease, we grab on to any excuse we can find to not have to do the hard work, the heavy lifting that life in this world requires, that a life of righteousness requires.  So, when we hear about something like this armor of God, we treat it the same way.  God gives it to you, it’s true.  His love is a gift.  The trust you have in him is also a gift.  The salvation you have was earned by Jesus, not by you.  He gives all of this to you.  It is there to protect you.  But this protection isn’t meant to be passive, just sitting there waiting for you to be attacked.  This armor only works properly when it is used. 

Faith that isn’t engaged, that isn’t fed, that isn’t supported, is a faith doomed to wither and fail.  A love that is focused inward will never serve the purpose it was intended for.  A salvation that is only about oneself and not also about the rest of the world is a salvation that is, at best, incomplete. More likely it shows a deep apathy toward everything that isn’t you.

God gives gifts that are meant to be used, to be put into action.  Even the armor he gives us only defends us when it is used properly.  God speaks His Word to the people of this world.  The Spirit works with us to trust that message, to believe what God says is true and that he will do what he says.  Then he gives us many tools and opportunities to help build up that faith. Continuing to hear his Word, to spend time in prayer, to be in worship with your brothers and sisters, to respond to his gifts with thanks and praise.  The sacraments of baptism and communion that show you what a life of faith looks like.  All of these there to strengthen the faith he has given us.  The time spent here in worship or reading his word means you are that much better prepared to withstand the temptations of the Evil One when he comes lurking, whispering the age old question, “Did God really say….?” You will be able to respond because you know what God says and how much he means it.  You will know what he has done and what he still plans to do and why he did all it to begin with.

God shares his love with, going hand in hand with his salvation, the ultimate demonstration of his love.  He gives these to you as well.  The world would know neither love nor salvation if God had not first given them to us. In going out and caring for our neighbors, both their physical and spiritual needs, God works in us and through us to push back the darkness just a little bit more.  One more person is freed from slavery to sin, one more person sees a bit of what God’s restored creation will look like.  One more person sees how much God loves him and how trusting him is always a good bet.  In short, God defends you, not by hiding you away, but by working with you and through you to do his will.

Next Sunday we celebrate the end of the church year.  It’s not a formal holiday per se, because it’s a celebration of something that hasn’t actually happened yet.  Still, it’s pretty significant and it represents another major part of Christ’s life.  We can celebrate it now, even though it hasn’t happened yet, because we know it will happen.  He told us it will.

Every Sunday we gather here to give thanks for what God has done.  He sent his Son to die for our sins.  He loves us enough to sacrifice himself on our behalf. He knows what the cost is and he gives it freely.  He has given you the salvation he has paid for with his own blood.  He has gotten you this far, but until he takes you out of this sinful world, either by his return or by your death, there is still danger, there is still sin, still evil, still Satan and all of his lies.

God wants to keep you safe.  He wants to keep all of us safe, the whole world safe until that day when we are finally free from sin forever.  To help with that, he gives us this protection, his faith, his love, his salvation.  But they are meant to be used, they are meant to be put into action.  He gives you the opportunity to see his work with your own eyes.  It may be your hands and feet that are in motion, but it is God directing them.  When you see what God wants to do, what he can do, you will also see how there is no other alternative.  There is no God except him.  There is no salvation except his.  There is no love outside of the One who is love.  In the seeing and in the doing, you will see your faith and trust made sure and certain because you will see what his love looks like.

God will return, just as he promised.  Everything Christ has done thus far has been to pay your debt, to wash your sins away, to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that you may be fit to live forever with God.  He does this because of his unfathomable love for you.  He wants you to stand firm in that faith and not to falter, lest you fall away and reject it all.  He gives you all of this to protect you and keep you safe, safety found not in hiding away in secret, but in being bold, confidently confronting the darkness, knowing you do not go alone.  God is with you.  God is protecting you.  God is guiding and directing you.  God loves you.  Living in that love, living with that love, you get to see, in some small way, what a world without sin looks like, and so does everyone who sees God in action through you.