I overheard a conversation between a Dad and his fourteen-year-old curious son, where the son was asking his Dad, “can he get to the driver’s seat and drive his car at the big car park, where there is no traffic?” For which the Dad replied, “My dear son, never try to go ahead of time, nor go behind the time, always go along with time. When you are eighteen years old, you will be legal to drive a car and then you can get to the driver’s seat and drive the car. Till then observe driving and get to know the rules of the road.” “Going ahead of time” is one of the catch words today in this post-modern world, where everyone wants to be ‘ahead of time’ and do things at an early stage. Many people are eager to get to know the future well ahead, but it is important for us to understand that living the present moment and living in and with our times is essential in the journey of life. By trying to be ahead of time, we lose to live the present fully and miss out to live a life in all its fullness, for we get busy predicting the future, trying to take everything into our control, thinking we can tame the future according to our whims and fancies.
In the reading for this Sunday from I Thessalonians 5:1-11, we see that the church at Thessalonica was very eager to know the future time, particularly the return of Jesus Christ, and in a way were trying to take everything in to their control. They have given up their works and jobs, and have been curious to know well ahead about the return of Jesus Christ, which was the ultimate event of the future. To such a congregation, Paul writes, “now concerning the times (chronos = chronological time) and seasons (Kairos = appointed time), brothers and sisters you do not need to have anything written to you.” (1v) Paul was encouraging this Thessalonian church to live the present truthfully, to live the moment faithfully and to live in Jesus Christ meaningfully. By saying that ‘you do not need to have anything written to you,’ Paul was keeping the future open, in other words, he was opening the future into a situation of unpredictability, allowing the church to recognise that it is God who works in that situation offering hope through the present. Imagine if Paul would have written to this church what the future is offering to them or the details of the future, in this case the exact date and time of the return of Jesus Christ. If he did so, I think Paul would have brought disgrace to the grace of God, for God’s grace works amazingly in situations of unpredictability, for God’s Spirit does not know from which direction it comes from and to which direction it goes forth. Unpredictability is in the very essence of God, who surprises people through God’s grace at the right appointed time in the historical time-line for every person. By keeping the future ambiguous and mysterious, Paul was upholding the unpredictability character of God. Paul further explains the unpredictability character of God by offering two common examples, which is like the ‘thief in the night’ and like the ‘labour pains to a pregnant woman.’ ‘The day of the Lord’ is the day of the ultimate future, which is a day of the unpredictability nature of God, for it is only God who knows when is that ultimate future, and offers the present for the creation to live in and live with it. In the globally most watched web series on Netflix, ‘Money Heist’ a Spanish drama of robbing Royal mint by a group of robbers, one can understand what it takes for the ‘thief to come,’ who works with careful planning and execution of plan, anticipating well ahead the situations and events that they will meet during the heist. ‘The day of the Lord,’ will come in that moment of unpredictability, which is only in the hands of God, who is timeless and eternal.
In such a context of keeping the future unwritten and unpredictable, Paul offers hope into the present time through Jesus Christ. Paul mentions several binaries in this passage, binaries like night and day, sleep and awake, drunk and sober, darkness and light to explain the living of a Christian life in a context of persecution, false prophecies and (un)predictability of the return of Christ. However, Paul offers hope in Jesus Christ to the Thessalonian church, which also has a relevance for our context today. I want to emphasise on three signs of hope in the time of unpredictability from 8-10 verses.
Before I share the three signs of hope, allow me to share that we are trying to reimagine the meaning of this text rather than repetition of it for our times today. As we know, evidence suggest that the first book that is written in the New Testament was I Thessalonians which was around 50 CE, about 20 years much before the Gospels were written. In other words, if we have a chronological New Testament in our hands, I Thessalonians will be the first book in such a canon. Paul was writing his letters to the churches in the context of Roman empire, where military language of breastplates and helmets were part of their common vocabulary. The people in these churches saw soldiers wearing such Roman military uniforms as an everyday experience. So, Paul creatively borrows the language of his public sphere and explains a counter-public message in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A mere repetition of such military words, like breastplate, sword, helmet etc. for our context will be out of place and out of meaning for us, as they are not only out of our world-view of our public sphere today, they are also not used as our critique and contestation of occupation and war that happens anywhere in our world today. So, here are the three signs of hope in times of unpredictability.
1. Wrapping the hearts with faith and love:
Paul reminds the Thessalonian church to not be in the trance caused due to drunkenness, but be sober, awake and alert to the message of Jesus Christ. So, the first sign of hope is by calling on the church to wrap their hearts with faith and love. As a church when they were anxious with the unpredictability of Christ’s return, the sign of hope is to fill the hearts with faith and love, where faith offers a grounding in God, and love demonstrates such grounding in God through actions, meeting the needs of the creation. God in Jesus provides meaning to the very understanding of wrapping hearts with faith and love, where the church is invited to reflect their faith in God through their love for God and love for one another. Such an act of exhibiting and living out love in faith is a key to overcome anxiety, for we live the moment in faith and we celebrate the moment in love.
As we reimagine this sign of hope today, when people are anxious about the future of the church in the context of this pandemic, when people are depressed with the unpredictability and uncertainty due to this lockdown, the message is clear and loud, wrap our hearts with faith and love. Faith and love offer courage to face the situation now, and also offers strength to wait on God, the source of all hope for the world today. Faith and love co-exist together, for one without the other loses their relevance. Faith without love is a dead faith, and love without faith is abstract. In the context of growing hunger in our times, faith and love has to be shown in actions today.
2. Wearing the hope of salvation as a headgear:
Secondly, Paul calls on the church to put on a headgear of hope of salvation, in overcoming the unpredictability of the day of the Lord. The good news is that what they have been waiting for has already begun in Jesus Christ. The gospel is not about a spiritual existence in some ether place, but a reality of living life in and with the times now, for the salvation in Jesus offers hope to face that unpredictability. By wearing the hope of salvation in Jesus, the church is called to be critical in their reflections, be vigilant in their faith, and be fervent in their love. Hope of salvation serves as a perspective, serves as a hermeneutic for the church, where they interpret the signs of the times in that hope of salvation. When this hope of salvation becomes a mindset for the church, all it can offer is hopefulness and optimism in facing uncertainty.
For our times today, we as a church needs this headgear called hope of salvation, where we don’t take easy answers, but are open to find hope through critical and creative thinking, even in situations of hopelessness. This hope of salvation flows into our lives, as we embody God’s love offered in Jesus in the here and now. This headgear provides protection to negativity and leads us into optimism and positivity. As a church we should provide these headgears to all people in our community.
3. Wonder of offering a destination of life for all people:
There isn’t any greater hope than to know that God has destined all people not for wrath but for salvation offering the gift to live with him, whether they are awake or asleep. When the Thessalonian church was wondering what would have happened to those who died before them in meeting Jesus Christ on his return. Paul was writing that the God in Jesus is a God of love, a God who surprises by receiving everyone and offering a destination of life to all. God in Jesus is a God who offers life in situations of unpredictability. Paul also writes that God has destined everyone salvation through Jesus Christ. Such an assurance, such a belief in God offers hope to the church.
The church today is called to offer life to all people, and all means all, irrespective of their identity, race, gender, whether asleep or awake. We in following Jesus are not called to preach wrath and judgement against people, but offer hope to cope with situations of uncertainty. In verse 11, Paul says, “Therefore encourage one another, build up each other, and indeed you are doing.” The assurance that one receives in the vertical relationship with God needs to shared and shown horizontally with our neighbours, so that collectively we celebrate life, and courageously face the unpredictable future.
In closing, let me conclude this reflection using the words of Graham Tomlin, who in his book “Why being yourself is a bad idea” where he offers love and wonder as the purpose of life. He says,
“According to the Christian faith, that is what you are here for. Whether you become famous, earn lots of money, travel the world and collect amazing experiences is all secondary and relatively trivial against the real purpose of your life, which is to learn to live in tune with the power that gave birth to the world, to live with the grain of universe, to become somebody capable of love. And again, to avoid misunderstanding, this is not primarily about feeling warm thoughts about others, but about the slow, steady, patient ability to surrender your own comfort and prosperity for the sake of someone else – not just your friends and family, but your neighbour and, even more, your enemies. It is to extend to your neighbour exactly the kind of care that you would give to yourself and to find in doing so that you thrive and flourish – finding yourself by losing yourself.”
May God’s grace and hope always remain with us. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,
13th November 2020
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