We are currently making our way through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. First Thessalonians--that’s quite a mouthful, isn’t it?--is the earliest of Paul’s writings, rather, the earliest of Paul’s writings that we have preserved. It is most certain that he wrote some things before this. He would not be as good a writer as he is if he had not written a fair amount before this letter. It is possible he wrote some things as an Apostle writing to a Christian community. If he did, there is no evidence of it because nothing has been preserved. First Thessalonians is the first evidence of Paul’s writings that have been preserved. It is not only the earliest of Paul’s writings, it is actually the earliest Christian writing that we have preserved. It is older than all the other Epistles, older than the Book of Revelation, older than all of the Gospels. It is the Christian writing closest in time to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an interesting point to keep in mind as we are reading it.
As we talked about last week, Paul is writing this letter to a community that he misses immensely and desperately wants to see in person, but he can’t. So he is writing a letter using the technology of his day in order to communicate with them and to connect with them. It is not unlike what we are doing here, using the technology of our day, the video and internet, in order to connect with one another.
As you read Paul’s letter you will see that it is quite clear that Paul is deeply affectioned to the people there in Thessalonica. Again, not unlike today. We are deeply affectioned to one another. I miss you immensely, I care for you deeply. This is what Paul was feeling.
Paul’s affection for the people there comes through in a lot of different ways in this writing. One of the ways it comes through is in the image we heard just a few moments ago of Paul describing his relationship to his people there as a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. This beautiful maternal image that Paul uses to describe his relationship is an image of affection, an image of care, an image that embodies that teaching that we hear in the Gospel reading today, the teaching of love. What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets. What are the law and the prophets? That is the scriptures. Remember that all the scripture that we read is much more vast than what Jesus had access to, because it had not been written, yet. So for him, scripture is the law and the prophets. Jesus is saying that all of scripture is summed up, is embodied in love--love of God and love of neighbor. That is a message that Jesus talks about all the time. It is at the core of so much of what he does. He says it is the core of his death and resurrection. It is in his new commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.” It is the meaning of the Incarnation, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” It is at the core of our faith, according to Jesus.
Paul is embodying that in a very real way in his relationship with the people he is writing to, the people that he wants to be with. Paul says that this love, this tender care, this embodiment of love, goes beyond sharing of the Good News, which to Paul is an act of love on its own. But he goes on to say that is not really enough. The love that he is talking about here is a giving of his whole self, not just giving of the Good News. That is the message he is trying to get across in this one moment here. It is more than just a sliver of what we know and who we are that we are invited to share. When we love our neighbor, when we love one another as Jesus loved us, when we want to embody the Good News, it can only be done in a full giving of our full selves to each other.
What does that mean? It means a lot of different things. Right now I would be remiss if I didn’t say that we are in the middle of the pledge drive season, so part of that giving does mean the giving of our financial resources because that is a part of ourselves. One way to think of it is that it is our stored labor, and giving of that to the community, to our neighbors in need, is a giving of ourselves as an act of love, the embodiment of Jesus’s teaching.
There are other ways, also. This is not just a pledge pitch, even though that is important. It comes down to all the ways we interact with each other. Right now, being in this pandemic, this remote way of being is an act of love. This thing that we are doing in this moment is a giving of ourselves to each other. It seems strange, doesn’t it? We are physically distant, and shouldn’t you be together in order to give of ourselves to each other? No, not physically. This is what we are learning. This is a giving of ourselves, because in this act of worshiping together, spiritually yet physically distanced, we are protecting each other if any of us happened to have the virus. We are especially protecting those most vulnerable among us. To keep some distance is an act of love.
Another way that we embody that love in the middle of a pandemic, is that if we do go out, as most of us have to do to some degree or another, is to wear a mask. We know that masks can save lives, masks can protect. We don’t wear the mask to protect ourself. The mask optional idea that I’ll wear a mask to protect myself if I feel the need, is not the way the masks work. The masks protect other people. When I wear a mask, no matter how uncomfortable it might make me, I am doing it to reduce the risk of giving the virus to you or somebody else in case I have it. When you wear the mask, you are acting in love towards me and other people in case you have the virus. It is an act of love to wear those masks. I read something the other day that said that if we all wore masks, meaning we reached a universal mask-wearing of 95%, we would save over 100,000 lives between now and February. That is a lot of love right there.
It is not just about lives saved, because one of the things we’re learning is that the health implications, even if you do survive, is severe and significant. We don’t know how severe or long lasting it will be, because the virus has not been with us a year, yet. We do expect that many of the long-term effects will be life-long health challenges. So again, wearing a mask can be an act of love because we are protecting people from long-term health consequences and even death. Keeping our distance, when we are together, to keep some distance even when we wear the masks, to limit how long we are together since we don’t know how much of a viral load one must get to become infected. We know if we keep the time together short that it will reduce the risk. All of these ways we are acting, which feel so unnatural, and don’t feel like we are giving of ourselves, are the giving of love to our neighbor by giving them safety and protection.
Another way that we act in love, that we give of ourselves in this time, is by checking in with each other. Even if we can’t go out and see each other in person, we can still make a phone call, we can still write a letter, we can still send an email or a text message, set up a Skype or Zoom or Facetime conversation with somebody and check in. It is not the same. Of course it is not the same, but it is still a way that we can connect, a way that we can act in love. There are a lot of people out there who are very lonely, who are very disconnected, who are hurting at this time. If we reach out to them, we act in love.
My friends in Christ, I encourage you as this pandemic continues and likely worsens, to act in love, to offer love to your neighbor, to act like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children, in the ways that you can at this time for the full giving of yourself. Through pledging, but also through keeping our distance, through wearing our masks, through washing our hands, through calling each other, checking in with each other, and praying for each other. Together we are going to get through this. There has never been a pandemic in all of history that did not end at some point. That was true before all of modern medical science, which is going to find solutions faster through treatments and eventually through vaccines. There is no such thing as a pandemic that lasts forever. They always come to an end, and this one will, too. We will get through this together. Our way of doing that, as followers of Jesus, as Christians, as baptized members of the Body of Christ, is by loving each other, by loving our neighbor, by caring and being affectioned to one another.
AMEN
