On November 8th, Lila Hunt spoke to the lectionary passage of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 about what is to be our source of hope in this world.
Lila began her sermon with prayer, as we often do. She acknowledged the challenges of the past week following the election, as well as those of the past month, and year. She told of the difficulty of preparing for a sermon in light of the past week’s political tension. And so she began her sermon by inviting us into a few minutes of silence. (For video purposes, that time was reduced to less than 30 seconds, but feel free to pause and enjoy some restful meditation of your own.)
Closing with a blessing of peace, Lila referred to previous contexts that the Thessalonians passage has been used in — for example, feeding an escapist theology focusing on heaven vs. our lives on earth.
By contrast, PMC congregants may seem too invested in wanting to bring about God’s justice in this broken world. For us, this is a significant part of the Anabaptist way. We recognize that what happens in this world matters very much. Yet that can become an overwhelming burden — especially at times when it seems fruitless.
The good news is that there’s more that God is doing in the world than what we can see or understand from our limited perspective. Justice, righteousness and peace for the world are not our invention, or ultimately our responsibility alone. God is on a mission of transforming and redeeming this world, which started long before us and will continue after and beyond us. We are invited and called into that work, but ultimately, it’s God’s work.
Yet there are things we can draw from this passage that we need to hear today. Even when we lament and suffer in and with this world, we are called to do so differently — as those that have hope. We are to draw this hope from the life, death and ascension of Jesus. And we are to encourage one another in that hope.
God never gives up on the work of transforming this broken world through love and justice, and is infinitely more capable of that work than we are.
Coming back to the political tension of the past week — just how invested should we be? God’s way is bigger than our political solutions, and vastly more creative. No matter the election results, God is with us. Either way, Jesus is our hope, and our example. Either way, we are citizens of God’s kin-dom first and foremost, before we are citizens of any nation.
This is not to say that the troubles we are living through today are insignificant. We are not instructed in this passage not to mourn — but to mourn differently, as those who have hope.
We do not just long for another world, we recognize that the love of Jesus is invading this world.
Hear more in the video of Lila’s sermon linked below.
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Hear audio only:
Pasadena Mennonite Church 