Sermon:(Re)CreatingChurch: the Work of Faith
May 3rd, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Today we turn for our scripture reading to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. This letter is believed to be the first of Paul’s letters, to one of the first churches. Paul traveledto the city of Thessalonica on his second missionary journey with Timothy and Silas. In the book of Acts, Luke reports that the 3 of them preached there for 3 consecutive Sabbath days, during which time some Jews, plus a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women of the city came to faith in Jesus. But others were afraid that this Christ-following movement was disrupting the usual power structures and divisions of society. They organized a protest against Paul, Silas and Timothy, shouting, “These people are turning the whole world upside down! And now they have come here.” Paul and his companions flee for their lives. Some of the new believers are dragged into the riot and start to be the targets of persecution. So Paul is understandably concerned for them. Hetries to travel back to visit Thessalonica but runs into roadblocks. So finally he writes them a letter to give the encouragement and teaching about their new faith that he can’t give in person.
On Wednesday I got a call from Pastor Mark in Wyocena, WI. He is the President of the Wisconsin chapter of the American Baptist Ministers Council and was calling to check onpastors. As we talked about the challenges of leading a congregation in this time of separation and the uncertainties of what the future holds for churches, Pastor Mark reminded me that the faith leader with possibly biggest impact on the churchwas Paul, who had to use letter-writing to guide and encourage congregations while being physically distant from them,on lockdown in prison or under house arrest. Just so none of you get your hopes up, I’m not aiming to be the next Paul, but it did give me hope that the Holy Spirit is not hampered by social distancing in building the church!
Hope. Paul mentions hope in the opening lines of this letter: “your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”The hope of Christ’s return gave the congregation in Thessalonica a vision for the future, despite their many challenges and despite great uncertainties. At the end of today’s passage Paul points again to the strength of their hope, saying that other believers marvel at how expectantly they await the arrival of God’s Son. For Christians, the most important thing to know about the future is that Jesus said he is coming back.The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope. Yet this belief about the future can be misconstrued in ways that result in inaction in the present. That is one of the reasons Paul is writing this letter.
The Thessalonian church has apparently been great at witnessing. Word has spread throughout the whole region about their faith. They are living out their faith in their actions; they have become a model for others. Yet Paul has gotten word that as a result of the difficulties they are facing, and as a result of a misunderstanding about when Jesus would return, some in the Thessalonian church are idle. Athinking has developed that says, ‘If Jesus is coming back any day now, then I’m just going to sit around and wait for that day. Why bother working or witnessing or serving? Why bother trying to change the world? Why bother trying to correct wrongs?’Paul corrects this misconception, getting right to the point in verse 3: “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul is prodding believers to live forward in joyful expectancy for what God will do next in Jesus by living fully into the present moment with faithful work and loving labor.
Believers in Jesus demonstrated the importance of putting faith into action right away, with those very first disciples in Jerusalem that Jesus commissioned to be his witnesses in the world. Their first priority was to share the Good News of Jesus as they studied and prayed. The second (as we looked at last week) was to share the power of Jesus in healing and caring for others. Their work of faith, their labor of love, was put into action as they cared for widows and for the poor who joined their faith community.
Acts 6 tells us that it didn’t take long for this work of faith, this mission work, to be more to do than the faith leaders alone could do. We’re also told it also didn’t take long for racial and ethnic differences to start causing inequities. People started complaining – and rightly so – that the Greek-speaking widows were being sidelined in the daily food distribution while those that spoke the local language were being served first.
Some things just don’t change! It brings to my mind the long lines we are seeing at food distribution centers. Those at the back of the line have had to leave empty-handed as food runs out. Complaints have been raised that big businesses with big voices are getting federal assistance for COVID relief while small businesses, especially those in rural areas and those owned by minorities, are being left out. This pandemic is exposing many inequities that our nation has refused to face – the lack of access to health care in rural areas, the higher rates of chronic illness that result from poverty and second-rate living conditions in the black and Spanish-speaking populations. We, in our congregation, are among the privileged in so many ways.
When the first disciples in Jerusalem realized the problem, they took action. They determined that the food program would be run by special team of people that all came from the minority community. They recognized the work of faith, the labor of love, should focus on those at the most risk of being left out.
Our task in these past few weeks has been to try to reimagine, to recreate what it looks like to be the church in our present circumstances. What does it look like for the people of First Baptist Delavan to be the church? The fact is that it has always been a priority of our congregation to do the work of faith, to engage in the labor of love. For some time we’ve described ourselves as “A friendly church with a heart for mission.” When Chuck Carman did an analysis at the beginning of the year of where our money was spent and where we invested our time, it was remarkable how much of that went to missions – to practicing discipleship by helping others. It’s seen in the loose coins we send to ministries that are caring for the poor and needy. It’s seen in the volunteer time invested in supporting the homeless shelter, the efforts to feed hungry children with food in backpacks or with breakfast in the park. The ABW ladies meet to hear about mission work, to send off their small but mighty checks, to create table favors so those in nursing homes know they are thought of and loved. It’s seen in the food that gets placed in the wagons for the food pantry.
But there’s a problem. Did you notice that all of the things I mentioned have come to a halt because of the changes in how we are doing and being church in these days? We would have been packing food into backpacks next week, but that is not happening. We would have been planning for Breakfast in the Park, but I spoke to LeRoy on Tuesday and he doesn’t feel he can keep volunteers safe. The AB Women’s group is not meeting. The food pantry wagons are locked in the church building.No tin cans are being passed around to collect loose coins.
So how can we (re)create our church’s work of faith, our labor of love, to fit this ‘Safer At Home’ time? Here is the good news: our heart for mission has not been completely neglected for we have already started adapting. A few of you have been sneaking food into the wagons and someone decided to mail a check for food pantries for the church to pass along. Praise the Lord! New opportunities have come to us – most recently, the opportunity to show love and support to the nurses at Lakeland Hospital by participating in a Card Campaign to shower them with expressions of appreciation during Nurses Week. Some of you have sent individual cards, but then Linda and Dar organized creating 50 cards with hand-written notes.Praise the Lord!There have been 4 or 5 of us sewing masks as a labor of love to protect our church family and other families. I thought our sewing 150 masks was a lot, but then I learned that Pat McNeely, Jean Baker’s daughter and part of our extended congregation, has been working with her quilting club to sew thousands of masks. Praise the Lord! Those of you who own businesses have been doing the work of faith of continuing to pay your employees even with the doors closed, or have been doing the work of faith to continue to serve in essential business despite the risks. Praise the Lord!Some have taken on a mission of keep the congregation connected with phone calls to express care and love – thank you to all who have reached, especially to Jeannie, Dar and Rocky! Praise the Lord!
But I believe this is just the beginning of how we will carry on the essential task of the church as people putting our faith into action, encouraging one another, caring for the needy. I hope this is an opportunity for us to do more of the work of faith that seeks the wellbeing of all people across racial and ethnic divides and corrects inequities, and perhaps in the processwe address the lack of diversity in our church. I hope this is an opportunity to find new ways to address homelessness and hunger in our community. I look forward to how the Holy Spirit will guide us and how each of you will respond!
We work on behalf of others because our faith calls us to that work. We are prompted by our love for Jesus. We persevere out of the hope we have in Christ as we wait, not passively but actively wait, for his return. We have the Holy Spirit to fill us, to feed us, to strengthen us for this work of the church.
Communion Song: “Fill My Cup, Lord” led by Chuck Carman
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