Community Church Sermons

Year A

October 16, 2011

Pentecost 18

Remember

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

LISTEN IN!

Do you remember the first time you fell in love?

Do you remember the first time your fingers touched hers or his, and then intertwined, and you held hands with that special one?

Do you remember that first kiss – and how your heart was beating so fast you thought it was going to jump right out of your chest – and you hoped-beyond-hope you didn’t have bad breath?

It’s good to remember, isn’t it?

I was sitting in my office once with a couple who had lost the magic in their relationship. I didn’t have any magic pills I could offer them to cure their problems, nor did I have any real wisdom to offer. But somewhere in the middle of the conversation I just happened to ask how they met.

She told her version of it. Then he told his. They each filled in details the other forgot. At one point, he said to her, “Hey do you remember that time in Chicago when we went to the Cubs game and …?” She interrupted him with a laugh, saying, “When I spilled beer all over us? That was our second date, and I thought you’d never ask me out again being the klutz I am.” Then he laughed. “Really? I always thought I was the one who spilled the beer all over you and you’d never want to go out with me again!”

About that time, I think I could have just gotten up and left the room. They were laughing and at one point she reached out her hand, and their fingers touched, and then intertwined, and they held hands as they told the stories of how they used to be.

The problems they were facing in their marriage did not disappear as a result of this conversation, mind you. Life is far more complicated than that. In fact, I don’t even know how things eventually worked out for them because soon after that meeting, we moved.

But what I hope Larry and Jayne took from that conversation was a resource they could use to help them if they chose to address the challenges they faced. It’s a resource you and I need in our lives, too.

It is the power of REMEMBERING.

The apostle Paul knew about this power – the power of remembering. His letters to the churches repeatedly use variations of the verb “to remember”. I think it would be fair to say that Paul understood the act of “remembering” as one of the most powerful tools for spiritual and personal growth.

In today’s reading, Paul prompts the church at Thessalonica to remember three important things:

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually REMEMBER before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In telling the people what he remembers, Paul is prompting the Thessalonians to also REMEMBER where they came from and who they were.

You see, just like what happens in marriages, and families, and friendships, and careers, Christian people and churches sometimes lose the joy – the energy – the freshness – of what they experienced at the beginning. And Paul very cleverly points out some things he thinks we Christians ought to REMEMBER.

The first thing we are asked to remember is all the amazing stuff we’ve accomplished out of faith and faith alone.

For us as a church, we treasure the story of how eleven people had a worship service on Palm Sunday, 1988. They felt led to start an interdenominational church that was open to the whole community! There was no building, just the living room at Art and Iris Spurrier’s house. There was no budget – no by-laws – no choir – no organ – no mission statement – no creed – no nothing. They had few of the things we think are necessary to be a church, but they did have one very important thing. They had FAITH!

The Bible says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” In plain English, that means that faith is daring to move and work toward a goal you can’t see yet, but you believe will come to be because God has given you a vision for it.

And here today is what the faith of those 11 people produced 23 years later! And what this church will be 23 years from now is yet to be seen! But what the church becomes in the future will rest on your faith today!

Do we have the same faith today as we once had?

I once sat in the congregation of a great church – happened to be a Methodist church. A friend of mine was pastor. Like our church, it had very humble beginnings in a very small community. But one of the members of the church noticed something going on in the world around them. More and more people seemed to be moving out of the Boston area to settle in the small towns north of the city. And that gave him an idea. I think it was a God-given idea. What would happen if they devoted themselves to figuring out ways to serve all these families that were coming their way? They talked about it. And prayed about it. And a vision developed.

Stepping out in faith, this small group of people sold their too-small rickety church building and built a new modern church facility – handicapped accessible – conveniently located near the major travel roads – and extensively programmed with ministries designed to support young families. What they did not have in resources they made up for in faith and hard work. And in just a couple of years, that church was alive, teeming with young families, and over a thousand members! What an exciting time as they stepped out in faith and saw God’s vision come to life!

But…a number of years later, maybe ten years later or so, when I sat in the congregation of that great church, I noticed something about them - something that was almost palpable.

That congregation of people seemed to be bored to death.

There were no new dreams being dreamed. No thoughts of “what CAN be.” Every new idea that came along was knocked down either because it cost too much, it would take too much effort, or it would require change.

That church had forgotten where it came from, and what it was that got them to where they were.

They had all the accoutrements of a church.

But they had lost their faith.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.

“Remember,” the Bible tells us. “Remember what got you to where you are, and the days when all you had was faith, but you trusted God, and worked hard together and…miraculous things happened!”

Remember – and recover - your faith!

Then a second thing Paul tells us to remember: remember the days when you labored out of no other motivation than love!

I’m so proud of the people who comprise our Prayer Shawl ministry. Every stitch in every shawl is made for no other reason than someone who loves to knit wants to touch someone else with their faith and love. Isn’t that great? That is such a “Jesus thing” to do! And this is one of those ministries where it is very unlikely that those who lovingly labor over these shawls will ever get anything in return except maybe all of us here today telling you we love and appreciate you for your labor of love!

Love for no other reason than loving!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about dogs. We had our annual Blessing of the Animals service at WednesdayChurch! a few weeks ago. What a blessed and beautiful time as a huge group of people brought their pets to be blessed. Then, this past Wednesday, I talked a little about our family dog, Walter J. Singley, the dumbest dog that ever lived. Walter – by the way - was a female. And then, just a few days ago, I received a letter from a church member whose 8-year old granddaughter had been upset by a teacher at her school – a Christian school, mind you – who told her that the doggie she loved did not go to heaven when it died because dogs don’t have souls. So I spent some time writing back to say, “OF COURSE, dogs go to heaven when they die!” What kind of heaven would heaven be if there weren’t dogs and cats and parakeets and iguanas and guinea pigs?

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about dogs.

You do know, don’t you, that “dog” spelled backwards is …. what? And what is it that is most godly about dogs? It is that they love us unconditionally, for no other reason than the joy of loving! No dog ever says, “I’ll love you so long as you do things my way or send me a thank you note to appreciate all I do for you.” Cats might say that, but not dogs. Dogs come as close as you can come to pure, unbounded love – love for the sake of loving.

Can you imagine what would happen if there was a church where all the people loved like that? Where, when they saw each other on Sunday, their tails started wagging and they bounded over to smother them with love just for showing up? Love for the sake of loving – never expecting anything in return – just happy to give their love away? Can you imagine what would happen if you loved your spouse that way – your kids – and grandkids – and neighbors – and the world all around you?

Oh, what a church that would be! What a great Christ-like person YOU would be!

So, the Bible says, remember those times in your life when you labored over someone or something for no other reason than love. Remember what a blessing that was to you, and to the one you loved! And remember what a glory that was to God!

Remember that kind of love, and – if you have lost it – take it up again. Today. There is someone in your life who needs your love right now!

And finally in this passage, we are called to remember that we have endured some pretty tough times in our lives - times when we had no strength of our own – when we endured only because we clung to hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I recently read a blog written by a fellow whose family was shattered because of an automobile accident that took the life of his wife. A few days later, he also lost his little child who had been in the accident because of a hospital induced medical error.

He lost everything he loved. And the only resource he had to begin the journey back into life was Christ, and God’s promises that those he loved were safe in God’s love, and that God is the God of new beginnings. He had nothing else to rely on but God’s promises. When he had no one else – or nothing else – to trust or believe in, he took hold of the hope Jesus preached about to people whose lives were shattered by the hurts of life.

So he placed his hope in Jesus Christ, and then he put one foot ahead of the other, stepped forward, and reengaged life. Today, on the other side of the tragedy where God’s promises to him have been fulfilled, he writes, “Hope is the belief that tomorrow is worth getting up for.” And what makes tomorrow worth getting up for is that God will make all things new.

What a wonderful thought! That is a Jesus thought!

Like this man, and many of us today, the Thessalonians were facing difficult times. So Paul reminds them that to endure these hard times, they need to remember their hope in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Savior of the world and the Savior of US through all life’s challenges. Tomorrow IS worth getting up for!

The work of faith. The labor of love. Hope in Jesus Christ.

These are powerful tools that you can use to help you in your personal journey, in your marriage, in your family, in your neighborhood – and right here, in our own church.

Even as we continue in our Trails through Tellico stewardship campaign, I urge you to generously commit your financial support to our ministry. But I want to tell you that we need more than just money to make this church a church.

We need people of FAITH who dream dreams and grasp the vision of what more God can do with us and through us, and who are willing to work hard to make it happen.

Are you a person like that? We need you!

We need people who LOVE selflessly and who will give themselves away without expecting anything in return but the praise of God when we meet the Lord.

Are you a person like that? We need you!

And we need people who believe in Jesus Christ as the One who will guide us, and transform us, and empower us to overcome all the challenges that come along the way.

Are you a person like that? We need you!

We need people who REMEMBER who they are and whose they are!

Are you a person like that?

We need YOU!