20th Sunday after Pentecost

What we heard in the second reading today was the salutation and thanksgiving of the first letter we have written by the apostle Paul, the oldest letter in the New Testament canon. We believe the letter was written about 51 CE, nearly twenty years after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

First-century disciples remained confident and expectant that Jesus would return in their lifetimes, but they suffered ridicule and persecution for confessing faith in one God, and not participating in the poly-theistic religion of Thessalōn′ica where culture reflected Roman and Greek politics and thought.

While Paul was on his second missionary journey and working in Corinth, his helper Timothy visited the church in Thessalōn′ica and this letter was written by Timothy, Paul and Silvanus to encourage the community they knew there. It comes as encouragement to us, also, nearly two thousand years later.

Despite the physical distance between the communities of faith – the ekklesias or churches – in Corinth and those to the north, a relationship was forged between them because of the common faith that they shared.

This is what we talk about today when we talk about being “Church Together”; everything we do in ministry is connected back to the Church, with a capital C, because we are working not for ourselves, but for God. Sometimes, that looks like financially supporting the young adults in global mission or hurricane relief efforts; sometimes, it is participating in an ordination of a new pastor, like I had the opportunity to do last weekend in Charlotte; and other times, it is holding communities in prayer, like we have for Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Florida and the Gulf Coast.

With thanksgiving, Paul names how God has been made visible in the Church. First, he names “the work of faith”, that is, the work that, by faith, God has accomplished in us already. This is the work of the cross where Christ takes on all that is ours and gives us all that is his, and we are adopted as sons and daughters, co-heirs to God’s Kingdom with Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit calling us together as a worshiping community, giving us God’s Word and making us holy.

Then he names “the labor of love”, that is, all those ways in which we demonstrate faith in action, responding to God’s grace and the abundant love that we have first experienced, by serving others.

And finally, he names the “steadfastness of hope”, that is, an endurance which hope inspires and the expectation that God accompanies us and will fulfill God’s promises to us, in God’s own time.

This is the first time in Paul’s writing that we encounter this triad of faith, love and hope, but as we approach our own season of thanksgiving, I’m struck by the ways in which they remain visible, and the ways in which our communities of faith continue to be bound together by our common faith.

This Wednesday night, we will be gathering with brothers and sisters at Shelby Presbyterian Church for dinner and a program to mark the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, but did you know that we are bound with the Presbyterians by more than the work that Luther and Calvin began in the 16^th century? Nearly a hundred years ago, the congregation of Shelby Presbyterian provided a meeting place for the thirteen people who later signed a charter to form our congregation, and for the last twenty years, our denominations have been in full communion –which means we agree that we share a common calling,

a desire to bear visible witness to the unity of the church

and a need to engage together in God’s mission.

Last week, I attended the ribbon cutting for the West End Reach Transit, a collaboration between churches in West Shelby, including Hopper’s Chapel and Living Waters’ Ministries, the hospital’s foundation and the city to establish a bus route that residents can ride for free. Three days a week, a transit bus now goes to Cleco and the hospital, the grocery story, Walmart and the library, helping connect people to the places and services they need to meet their basic needs of food and medical care.

And a month from today, on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, neighbors across our community will be breaking bread together for community Thanksgiving meals at Graham School, Jefferson Park and on South Lafayette Street.  For a second year, Feeding Kids Cleveland County is organizing sponsors and cooks and again asking neighbors to come out and sit together so that we can listen to each other’s stories and learn each other’s names.

While posting on social media and sending texts or emails have mostly replaced letter-writing, Paul’s letter reminds us to look for encouragement in the stories of where God is working in oru communities. Hearing stories across the synod and the Church, in conversations between local ministers and congregations, and through the witness that each of us bears into the world in our daily lives, we continue to be bound together by a common faith, strengthened to face the world we live in and to persevere against the powers and principalities that would distract us or discourage us.

Let us pray…

Holy God,

We give you thanks for your abundant grace,

for the gift of faith that you provide,

for our teachers and mentors,

and for the bond that is forged between people of faith.

Remind us of the work of faith that you have already begun in each one of us;

Give us courage to labor in love for all of your children;

And assure us of the steadfastness of hope that we have in You.

We pray in the name of our Savior Jesus,

Amen.