“OUR ‘TO DO’ LIST”

Scripture Lesson: I Thessalonians 5: 16-24

Dr. Matthew Brown

December 11, 2005

The melodious mall loudspeakers sing song the warning of the jolly jelly bellied home invader making a list and checking it twice, and though you are humming, or maybe even singing along, your harried mind does not assimilate the lyrics because you are so consumed by your own list. Checking it twice? Forget that. You just want to get through the line to that cashier so you can check out and check at least one thing off the list.

Is this the difficult gift for the person who has everything or the person who doesn’t like anything? You are not as concerned about bringing joy as you are about avoiding failure, for you remember the pained grin on your sister’s face when she unwrapped the present you offered her last year. The look on her face, the nerve connections in your brain, told you not to ask, but you just couldn’t stop the pleading inquiry from escaping your parted lips? “Do you like it?”

“It’s fine.” In our family that’s code language meaning, “Have you still got the receipt for this piece of junk?” The more times they repeat it, the more they dislike it. “It’s fine.” “It really is, it’s fine.” “It’s fine.”

O my lord, three “fines”! I am an abject failure!

So where are you on this year’s “to do” list? While the sickeningly efficient list conquerors in our midst marked the last item off their Christmas lists last July, knocked off their New Year’s Resolutions in October, and are now consumed with putting the finishing touches on their Easter Baskets, the rest of us are steering dangerously close to “Panic Land.”

What is left on your “to do” list? The gift exchange for the in-laws holiday reunion, the ornament swap for Bunko Night, the covered dish for the church dinner, a present for Junior’s teacher, peanut-free cookies for the class party, plane tickets for the ski trip, new tires for the minivan, delivering coats for the winter shelter, that “minor medical procedure” before the new year and its new deductible, black pants for the Middle School Band Concert, a year end report for the folks in Accounting, a Committee Planning session for 2006... 2006 - Are you kidding?

Nothing like the impending birth of a savior to bring a rush of frenetic, relationship-straining, billfold busting, mood-darkening, resentment breeding, traffic snarling, road-rage inducing activity. Just a suggestion. If you have one of those fish symbols on the back of your car - take it off. Because when people see that as they are witnessing how you drive, that whole “peace and goodwill” thang is sort of lost.

The list, the list, we must complete the list! The surgeon general may not have concluded that lists lead to lunacy, but you are certainly suspicious. And then we come to worship and what does the preacher have to offer us but another list!

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances...” Sounds like another list to me and mine is already so full.

Rejoice always? Obviously the author has not frequented 485 at 5:30 pm. Pray constantly? But, sometimes my language just doesn’t seem suited to prayer. Give thanks in all circumstances? Now, complain in all circumstances - that I can handle, and I get such pleasure from it.

In this season of lists, you would think the last thing I would put before you is another list. Just doesn’t seem very pastoral, does it?

Admittedly, it is another list, but it is a list that will reframe or reorganize all other lists. Our responsibilities will not recede, but our experience of life as we approach them will be redeemed/transformed.

1 Thessalonians is quite possibly the earliest composition in the NT. Written around 50 AD, Paul is getting in touch with a church that had just recently been formed in the city of Thessalonica, a large seaport on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea. And before we are tempted to draw the conclusion that these are prosaic words written in a different time and place that bear no relation to our context, let us consider Thessalonica.

As a seaport it was a thriving commercial center. It was also on the Via Egnatia, the main highway to Rome. And so, people from other regions were constantly passing through and often possibly choosing to settle there. Why there might have even been a suburban portion of the community where people from many different regions and backgrounds were trying to make a home and a living. While modern technology has changed our world immensely, in so many ways through the ages, people are people and therefore experience many of the same challenges, hopes, and fears. The wardrobe has changed but parents still worry about children; couples still wade through the issues of love and relationship; people still seek to earn a living; and beneath the surface people fret about their future and wrestle with questions of meaning. In addition, Paul’s letter seems to indicate that the Thessalonians were experiencing persecution. The people feared about their security. We share far more in common with the Thessalonians than we would be tempted to think.

Paul had told the Thessalonians that Christ would return and establish his kingdom, but people were dying, violence was threatening, and Jesus had not returned. So how were they to live in this in between time after Christ’s advent and before his return?

Rejoice always. Isn’t that easier said than done? Aren’t we deeply troubled about issues of war and peace, life and death? Aren’t we troubled by what the doctor may say, what our children may be tempted by, what our aging parents may require of us, where our jobs may lead us? Rejoice always, doesn’t that at first glance seem unrealistic?

Certainly, but listen to what Henri Nouwen has to say on the subject of joy. He says, joy “is something quite different from naive optimism. Optimism is that attitude that makes us believe that things will be better tomorrow. An optimist says: ‘The war will be over, your wounds will be healed, the depression will go away, the epidemic will be stopped . . . All will be better soon.’ The optimist may be right or wrong, but, whether right or wrong, the optimist does not control the circumstances.

Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives. Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world. Jesus says it loudly and clearly: ‘In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.’”

Thus, joy is not hindered by the ups and downs of life’s roller coaster. Truly, in life and in death we belong to God, and there are reasons for joy in every step of our journey, even in those dark days when death hangs heavy.

In the face of death it tends to be our custom to don dark suits or black dresses and sunglasses to convey that this is a heavy moment. We greet the visitors, we pray the prayers, we sing the songs of heaven, but when the benediction is offered there is another very important ritual, a healing ritual that takes place as the extended family gathers, usually surrounded by plates of chicken, dessert, and a cornucopia of casseroles brought in friends and church members.

It begins somberly as family members find a chair, kick off the shoes, relax on the couch, loosen the ties, and make other efforts to seek some sort of comfort. The conversation starts quietly as cousins, siblings, aunts, and childhood friends brought together at death try to pick up where they left off before the miles and years separated them.

And then, someone says those magical words again, “Do you remember when...?” Stories emerge about that dear friend, that family member, bringing forth smiles, laughter, and an unconscious proclamation that life on this earth, while mysteriously limited, is good and is to be celebrated.

Because God is faithful, because life itself is a gift newly opened each and every day, because of the promise of a time of glad reunion in a kingdom where Christ will wipe every tear from our eyes, we can rejoice throughout these in-between times. Rejoice always.

Pray constantly, Paul entreats us. But how can I go through the whole day with my head bowed. Seems rather dangerous, really.

Yes, Prayer is about finding a quiet contemplative place where we can listen for God and thoughtfully and respectfully lift our thanksgivings and concerns before God, but prayer is also a conversation that is carried on with God throughout all the activities of the day. With heads lifted, eyes open, and minds engaged in any number of activities and tasks, encounters and conversations, we approach the day, but we do not approach it alone.

The ancient spiritual guide Brother Lawrence dedicated his life to prayer in a monastery, but he also sought to experience the presence of God and carry on the conversation as he performed his tasks for the community, even during such mundane tasks as washing the dishes. If we never truly leave God’s presence; if God is aware of everything that is happening in our days; if God in Christ is Immanuel (God with us) we may as well enjoy the company and relish the continuing conversation.

Give thanks in all circumstances. Did that say “all” circumstances? ‘Cause Lord knows we all have our circumstances, and it seems we expend a whole lot of effort and exhale a whole lot of words in our attempt to display enough circumstantial evidence to prove to anyone who will listen that our lives are tougher than the next person’s. Give thanks in all circumstances? Why that would imply that life, that faith, that all we experience is a gift to be humbled by instead of a personal possession to be flaunted and that’s just not the American way. But there it is, folks - Give thanks in all circumstances, knowing that even when we struggle, even when we suffer, the blessing of Christ’s presence, the one who suffered for us, is with us. Thanks be to God that there is never a reason not to say thanks.

Rejoice always. Pray Constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances. This is our “to do” list. It is not so much a set of tasks as it is a way of life. This list does not direct what trip we will take in life but it deeply affects how we will travel. It is a grace filled journey if we’ll just open ourselves to its beauty and its glory.

And don’t tell me you are too busy, that you have too many things on your mind to add anything else to any lists. Let me put it this way, if you think you can talk on the cell phone and eat a sandwich while making a left hand turn, there’s no reason why you should think you can’t at least attempt this. If you will, one surprise may be that the people on your list will seem less of a burden and more of a delight. Amen.