Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon - 1 Thessalonians 5 16-24 The Gift of Holiness
December 17, 2017
Here we are at the third Sunday of Advent. Just one more week and we arrive at Jesus’ birthday. We have already started opening our presents. Remember the first one? The gift of God’s Grace in Jesus Christ. With this gift, we receive knowledge about God through Jesus Christ, the ability to share our testimony of what Jesus is doing in our lives, and the spiritual power to do what God wants us to do. The second present we opened was The Gift of a New Heaven and a New Earth. We learned the Jesus is waiting for us to act before he returns. He wants everyone to come to faith. And so we are distributing pamphlets to people we meet inviting them to come here on Christmas Eve. And we a contributing to the Presbyterian Joy Offering to provide racial/ethnic pastors for immigrant congregations and missionary service around the world.
Today we open our third gift. And this is the Gift of Holiness. The Apostle Paul put it this way, (1 Thessalonians 5:23) “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since we don’t know when Jesus will return, shouldn’t we live our lives as if Jesus is already here? We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
What do you want for Christmas? This is a common question during the holiday season. Friends and relatives, who know that you already have everything you need, ask you for hints about what to get you this year. So we make a Christmas lists of things we want. This is easy to do because we have been practicing making Christmas lists since we started writing lists for Santa. The Christmas list is as common as the trip to the Mall or shopping on Amazon.
Let’s start by looking a Santa’s Christmas list. Santa Claus has a list and he checks it twice. He’s going to find out if you are naughty or nice. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I am telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town. He carries a whole bag of gifts but if you are not a good little girl or boy you might receive a just lump of coal in your stocking. Everything depends on your behavior so “be good for goodness sake.” That’s Santa’s Christmas list. Now let’s turn to God’s Christmas list.
God wrote a Christmas list so that we will know what he wants this Christmas season. God has given us so much in our lives. It is good for us to give God a Christmas present. So here is God’s Christmas list.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances;
So God wants us to be joyful, pray and give thanks. That seems easy enough. We should have no problem satisfying this request. But, did you notice the adverbs?
We are to be joyful - always. Always? How could we always be joyful? Sometimes life circumstances bring sadness into our lives. In the last six weeks, I have attended four memorial services for church members or their families. We have several people in the church looking for new jobs. We have people leaving church and friends to enter retirement facilities. How could we be joyful in difficult times like these? It just doesn’t seem possible.
The second item on God’s Christmas list is that we should pray. No problem there. We pray at church and during Bible studies. We pray before meals, in the morning and before going to bed. All of this is good. But God is asking for more. God wants us to pray continually. Continually? How can we do that? We are very busy people. We have things to do and places to go. We can spare a few minutes every day to come to God in prayer. But there is no way we can pray continually. This too seems impossible.
So God’s Christmas list seems pretty demanding so far. Let’s look at the third item on the list to see if it is any easier. We are to give thanks. And we do. We are so thankful for everything God does for us. We thank God for the world we live in. We thank God for family, friends, and church. We thank God for our health and the health of loved one. Thanksgiving is our favorite thing to do. But God wants us to be thankful in all circumstances. All circumstances? We certainly can’t do that. We can be thankful for everything. How could we be thankful when a spouse or a child dies? How could we be thankful when we lose a job or lose a house? How could we be thankful when the doctor gives us bad news. We just can’t be thankful in all circumstances.
So, sorry God. We cannot give you what you have asked for at Christmas. Maybe you would like a Barbie Doll instead? We can’t be joyful always. We can’t pray continually. And we certainly can’t be thankful in all circumstances.
God’s knows that we can’t satisfy his Christmas wishes unless he helps us. And the good news is that he does help us. Let’s listen to the Apostle Paul.
18b for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
With the Spirit of Jesus in us, these things are possible.
God has blessed us with joy. We come to church at Christ to express our joy in worship. But for some of us, grief crowds out our joy. And so when we find ourselves unable to experience joy all the time, but in Christ, there is a remedy. Our joy in Christ can overcome our grief and our sorrows. When we experience the loss of joy all we have to do is turn to Jesus, remember his promises of life after death, and his joy will replace our sense of loss. The Holy Spirit allows us to be joyful always by comforting us in our grief and pain.
One practical way of dealing with grief and sorrow is through prayer. But how can we pray without ceasing? We still have to go to work. The vacuum cleaner needs to be run. We need to visit a cousin. We lead busy lives. There is a lot to do. We can’t spend all day in prayer. But we must set aside some time for prayer in our busy lives. And as we go through the rest of the day we can be aware of God’s presence with us. To pray continually means to be conscious of the fact the God is always with you in whatever you are doing. We are always in fellowship with Jesus. We are always filled with a sense of dependence on God. And then, from time to time, we use specific thoughts and words that we recognize as prayer.
God wants us to be always joyful. And he has blessed us with his presence so that we can continually pray whenever we experience pain and loss. But God also wants us to be thankful in all things. And there we must draw the line. There is evil in the world, and we cannot be thankful for it because this would be contrary to God’s will. So God cannot be telling us to be thankful for the terrorist who exploded a pipe bomb in New York City this week. We must not be thankful for all the women who have been sexually abused by powerful men. So how can we be thankful for all things? If we believe that “God works all things together for good for those who love him….” (Romans 8:28) then we can be thankful for a God who uses evil for his own good purposes. We can be thankful that even today God is working toward a New Heaven and New Earth when his good creation will be restored. So even if we are unable to be thankful for everything today, we can be filled with hope that everything will turn out right when Jesus returns.
God wants us to be joyful all the time. And when we are not joyful he gives us Jesus. God wants us to pray all the time and has given us Jesus to be with us always. And God wants us to be thankful that all things will ultimately be used for God’s good purposes. Let’s go back to Paul.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Santa expects us to be “good for goodness sake”. If not, we receive a lump of coal in our Christmas stockings. God knows what we are going through and by his great power allows us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks for everything. Which one will you worship this Christmas?
So God will fill his own Christmas list. By the power of the Holy Spirit and the ongoing presence of Christ, we will always rejoice being filled with his spirit whenever joy seems far away. We are enabled to pray all the time aware the Jesus is always with us. And we can be thankful for everything because God will use everything for his good purposes. Paul calls all of this holiness. We are made holy, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And as Holy People, we always rejoice, continually pray and give thanks for everything.
Let us pray. Holy God, we thank you for your Spirit that comforts us in our grief and sorrow so that we may always rejoice. We thank you for your Son, Jesus, who is always with us so that we may pray continually. We thank you for your transformative power that can use evil for good. And so with joyful prayer, we thank you for the Christmas blessing we have received.
Sermon adapted from http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/advent-3b/?type=lectionary_epistle
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