You Don't Want to Miss This ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 ~ Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

No day for me is ever complete without at least one hour at the YMCA.  It’s the ideal stress-reliever and a fun way to keep myself healthy.

But one day, late last winter, a Saturday snowfall kept me home.  So I asked Elizabeth if I could join her as she did her daily DVD workout.

The DVD was entitled Boot Camp: Kick Butt Cardio Blast.  In spite of the name, I expected it to be an absolute cakewalk.  Now I’m no marathon runner, but I do consider myself to be “somewhat fit.”  If Elizabeth could do it, I could do it.  And it was only twenty minutes. 

So she presses play, and out comes this wide-eyed, bubbly instructor with granite abs.  As the music thumps rapidly, she’s encouraging me “to train like a athlete [sic.]”  so I can “look great in a bathing suit!” 

But after about fourteen minutes, my body turned to butter.  I was wasted.  My heart was pounding; I was out of breath; my muscles burned.  I couldn’t go on.  There was nothing left to do but to collapse in the chair like a rag doll.  The human body can only take so much—and contrary to what I believed, I was not invincible. 

And our faith in God is just as vulnerable to exhaustion as our bodies. 

When life gets really hard and you can’t see God answering your prayers, faith takes a beating.  When people hate you and mistreat you, faith takes a beating.  When you sin, make mistakes, and fail, your faith takes a beating. 

You turn on the news and see the horrific images of the biggest storm in recorded history obliterating an entire nation.  Seemingly every day now, someone’s walking into a school or a public place and murdering innocent people.   And people say, “how can a loving God let these things happen?”  In these times we’re living in, faith takes a beating. 

Paul writes the letter we know as 2 Thessalonians to early Christians who were living in times of bone-chilling fear.  They knew poverty.  They knew sickness.  They knew grief.  But that wasn’t the worst of it.  They were despised and harassed because they were Christian.  Some were even subjected to public beatings.  And then, they firmly believed Jesus was going to return in their day and make everything right that was wrong.  But that didn’t happen.  Their faith took a beating.  The result of this was that some became idle.  They burned out and gave up living Christian. 

The same thing is happening right now, in our time.  Generations are wandering away from the church.  More and more people are hiding their faith in their hearts, such that you’d never know they were a Christian unless you ask.  With all the other commitments and priorities pressing in on us, we’re struggling to give Jesus the first-fruits of our time and resources.  It has never been easier to say “no” to the life of discipleship because we don’t have the time or the energy; or because we believe nothing good will come out of it.

But Paul teaches us that a Christian cannot be idle—because God is not idle.  God is near and God is active.  God is present in the hurting places, with the hurting people.  Wherever there is evil, God is bringing righteousness.  Wherever there is death, God is bringing new life. 

The key to knowing and experiencing the power of an active God is in participating in the life of God. 

Do you believe in the power and the presence of living God?  Yes or no… 

For if you believe that to be true, there is your reason to be intentional about taking time for daily prayer and reading of Scripture.  There is your reason to be intentional in share the love of Jesus Christ by serving your neighbor. 

There is your reason to participate in the life and community of your sisters and brothers in Christ. 

How easy it is to forget what a gift it is to be a community in Christ—because yes, it takes a lot of time and work and resources to make it happen.  And yet we are a community so that we can be the presence of God for each other.  There is no more powerful a way to know God’s love than in a brother or sisters who prays for you or even with you, or who shares their gifts to meet your needs.  There is no more powerful way to give the gift of faith to another by inviting them to come with you to church and by sharing your story of God’s love at work in your life.  We have a responsibility to build up each other’s faith.  But with that responsibility comes a great joy of meeting God in each other.

There is no mistaking the discouraging times we’re living in right now.  It’s doubtful that the economy is going to recover anytime soon; or that our elected officials will fix all our nation’s problems.  The future will bring wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines, natural disasters, and the persecution of believers—just like Jesus said.  Some of these calamities will strike us personally.  That is why it is a very dangerous thing to say “no” to Jesus; “I can’t;” or, “I don’t have time.”  Fear will take over and run our lives.  And why should this be?

Yes, we’re tired.  Yes, we’re hurting.  Yes, we’re carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders.  But God does not call us into discipleship because we have time or because we have it all together.  Instead, God uses people like you and me, and a church like ours, to create new life in the world. 

The unfailing truth, amid all the turmoil and calamities of life, is that God will be with us, no matter what happens.  Death and evil and destruction are not winning the world.  God is—and the joy of being a disciple is participating in God’s victory.  And today we’re invited to fall into the loving hands of our God, so we can rise up in the strength and power of God, to heal as we are healed.  We’re invited to live and work together as one Body to worship, to serve, and to overcome.

Why would we want to miss out this?