2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, 2 Not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?
13 But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 For this purpose he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, 17 comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.
I hope the celebration of your loved ones and friends who were just shared was helpful and hopeful; I hope returning to the font to choose a memento of your loved one and/or your own baptism was helpful and hopeful; I hope celebrating and being celebrated and honored for your long-standing faithful membership was helpful and hopeful; I hope this special rousing anthem was helpful and a hopeful reminder of what we will all do when in our day to meet the Lord arrives. But what do we do in the meantime, because I don't want any of you going anywhere anytime soon.
Thessalonians scholar Abraham Smith says of today's text, in short, “Do not be shaken up.” Well, that's easy for him to say. He wrote this commentary decades before Covid rocked our world and significantly altered our psyches and our sense of security, likely forever. But even before Covid-- decades before Covid and Smith’s scholarship--we were not strangers to anxiety. I mean even Elvis struggled. “I'm All Shook Up! Mmmmmuh” It's before my time. I'm not really an Elvis fan, but it came to mind.
The fact is that worry and anxiety have been a part of the short term. Now short-term anxiety and worry is helpful, because it helps us get in gear and helps us be prepared, be more organized, focused, on time even. But we all know that if worry and anxiety are not kept in check, things go south very quickly and even chronically.
The Thessalonians were even more anxious, because on any given day they thought that Parousia, the coming of Christ, was about to happen. The Judgment was about to happen, like literally around the corner. First and Second Thessalonians was written probably in the year 39, well before even the Gospels were written. They literally thought the coming of Christ was going to come at any minute. Can you imagine living like that? Maybe you do. But talk about anxiety—gosh! But if the Rapture is coming and Judgment Day is around the corner, I wonder what thoughts and behaviors and actions of ours we would change. Would we, could we, trust and hold fast to God's promises? Are we still being led astray by the desires of the ego and messages that make us feel better about ourselves? What thoughts, actions and reactions are driven by our fears instead of our faith?
If we're honest—well, I'm just going to speak for myself, I'd like a little more time to get myself and my faith back on track before a judgment day comes. How about you? Maybe you think you're good to go. But on bad days, I still think I need a little more time.
So what does this text say about that? Let's look at it again. It's right here in print: Do not be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by the spirit or words spoken or in the letter. In short, let no one deceive you. False prophets, deceptive people and even lawlessness will proceed the day of the Lord and some or many believers have already fallen away. The faithful will be tested.
All of you who have been long-standing members of this church and short-term-standing members of this church know that our faith is tested on a daily, sometimes an hourly basis. But as believers we can be confident in God's love. We can be confident in God's choice to sanctify and holy us. We can be confident in God's truth no matter what the world or another person is saying about us. So, friends, stay steadfast to your faithful practices, to studying and sharing scripture, shoring up relationships that are built and fed by the Spirit. The apocalyptic text here is quite terrifying and it's hard to get around, because we all got work to do. But regardless of how good or bad we are on any one day, we know that God's love covers over even that.
In difficult texts, I often like to go back to the version of The Message to see what Eugene Peterson says and how he translates. And this text is one I thought was particularly rich. His translation is: So, friends, take a firm stand with your feet on the ground; your head held high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of un ending hope and help and confidence put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work and enliven your words and your worlds.
May it be so. Amen.