A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – December 14, 2014
My nieceBella wrote a letter to Santa this past week that said, “Dear Santa, I left this snack for you. I hope you enjoy it. It is the best of the best best best doughnut from doughnut vault. These doughnuts are awesome. So awesome. Yes, I hope you enjoy it. Your friend, Bella. PS. Everybody’s sinful. Nobody’s perfect. Then why do you give out presents? If you should give presents to someone, give them to Jesus. If you know who Jesus is, sign this form.” And then there were two boxes for Santa to mark; either the one that said “Yes, I know Jesus,” or the one that said, “No, I don’t know Jesus.”
Now, I’ve read a good number of Santa letters in my day, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a child trying to convert Santa for Christmas. Not a bad thing to put on your Christmas list, right? What’s on yours?
My extended family has a Facebook page on which we share our different Christmas lists so that grandparents and godparents can know that Kaylee would like some gifts cards to buy some clothes, Chloe would like art supplies, Aidan would like a Stealth Ninja Elf, Carson would like an iPhone, and Sydney would like anything Frozen (don’t tell her, but we’re going to get her a bag of frozen veggies). Maybe you share Christmas lists like that. But that’s not the list I’m asking you to think of right now. I’m asking what you put on the Christmas list that you don’t show anyone. And I’m pretty sure most of us here have one.
I’m going to tell you a pretty sad fact. If you take the number of people who are murdered every year, add to that number the number of people who die in war every year, and then add to that number the number of people who die in natural disasters every year – if you add all three of those numbers together – you will end up with a number that is still less than the number of people who die every year by suicide. About a million people die every year by suicide. In other words, whatever they’re putting on their Christmas lists, it’s not happening. And they’re convinced it never will.
What’s on your list this year? The important one. The one you make when it’s just you and the dark ceiling above your bed staring back in your direction? Maybe you just want to be happy, feel more confident, better loved by someone, or more inspired to do something important. You wouldn’t be the only one.
This morning the Apostle Paul gives us what you might consider Christmas list more ambitious than making Santa Claus a Christian. In fact, at least a million souls every year conclude that what Paul tells us to do will never happen. But Paul thinks it can. And he wants you to believe it too. Today he tells us how the deepest longings of your heart can find their greatest fulfillment.
16 Be joyful always;17 pray continually;18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.22 Avoid every kind of evil.23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Lynn Stein lives in Florida. Last month, she started crying when she was at Walmart. When she got to the front of the Customer Service line and told the cashier she didn’t have the money to pay for her layaway item and that she’d have to return it, the cashier wouldn’t let her; at least not without first telling her that it had already been fully paid for. Earlier that week, a man named John Sanders came into Walmart and paid off not just what Lynn owed for her layaway item, but paid off over $12,000 worth of layaway accounts for hundreds of Walmart customers. And he didn’t even know any of them. He just wanted them to have a happy holiday. And now Lynn and many others more likely will.
But for the folks to whom Paul wrote this letter, happy moments like that were pretty rare. Not because they owed a lot on layaway, but because the city of Thessalonica was a hard place for Christians. The Gospel was pretty new to this city, which meant there were a lot of first generation Christians whose parents didn’t care for their kids’ new religion and often didn’t want to see them if that’s all they were going to talk about was how “I want to someday see you in heaven.” The politicians weren’t Christian and treated Christians very unfairly, hoping that would compel them to pack up their family and their religion and move to another city. Thessalonica was a harbor town, which meant a whole lot of sailors would spend the night looking for a few drinks and a stranger with whom they could have a good time, and if you stayed away from the bar scene, your reputation took a dive. Add to that the normal burdens, fears, worries, troubles, and tragedies every person experiences, and Paul’s Christmas list of always rejoicing and giving thanks in all things seemed as unrealistic to them as it sometimes does to you.
After all, it’s easy to rejoice when your layaway debt suddenly goes away. It’s a bit harder when money’s already tight, you haven’t bought a single gift for anyone, your furnace blows up, your car breaks down, and money for the unexpected trip to the emergency room is nowhere to be found. It’s easy to give thanks when everything goes the way that you want. It’s a bit harder when nothing does. It’s easy to pray continuously when God answers a prayer just the way you were hoping. It’s not so easy when you pray and pray and pray again, and nothing happens. And yet, that is God’s will for you, Paul says. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you … in Christ Jesus.” And that’s the key phrase. Just consider how differently those commands sound to someone who has faith in Christ Jesus compared to someone who does not.
Without faith in Christ, the bible says, it’s impossible to please God. But by faith, it says in Romans, everything you do looks just as righteous and perfect as Jesus Christ is. The bible says that Christ is at the right hand of the Father right now interceding for you. In other words, Christ is your Johnny Cochran, arguing to God that your sin doesn’t fit and he therefore must acquit. And because Jesus has never lost a case for anyone who has faith in him, there is nothing in all creation that will keep you from one day walking right in to heaven. Are those things always true? And aren’t those all very good things? Then you always have reasons to be joyful, don’t you?
What about “praying continually?” “There is one mediator between God and man,” the bible says, “the man Christ Jesus.” Christ Jesus is the middle man between us and God; the bridge between your heart and God’s hands; the phone line between his ears and your cries. He is the antenna that not only keeps us continually tuned in to God, but keeps God tuned in to you continually at all times. Yet another reason to be joyful, wouldn’t you say?
“Give thanks in all circumstances” is entirely different for those who do and do not have faith in Christ Jesus, not because our circumstances are any different. The pains of this life pierce their hearts just as sharply as they pierce yours. But there’s one thing we know in our pain that they don’t. “We know that in all things God is working for the good of those who love him.” Paul’s not telling you to give thanks because of what you go through, but because of the good we know God is going to work for you.” Paul’s Christmas list can be summarized in one sentence: He wants you to always see your life from God’s perspective. He wants us to see the treasure we have in Christ Jesus and to hold onto it as if it were our most valuable possession.
Walter Morrison was at work this past September, unloading a cargo plane at the Phoenix airport, when he took one of the packages and stuffed it under his shirt. He thought it was a package of money. But when he got home and opened it, it turned out to be just a couple pieces of jewelry, which he later that day traded for some marijuana. It turned out to be a bad decision, not only because he ended up losing his job and serving time in prison for what he did. He found out later that he bought $20 worth of weed with $160,000 worth of diamonds. He didn’t know the value of what he had.
And Paul knew that we sometimes forget too. Paul told us to “test everything” and to “hold on [only] to the good,” the good things in life that keep us looking at life from God’s perspective. But what good thing are we trying to hold on tomore than anything when our mood goes so dramatically up and down based on how easy life is, how comfortable I am, or how many people like what I put on Facebook this morning? How determined are we to celebrate who we are in Christ when we’re quick to pray for forgiveness after falling into a sin, but so slow to pray for strength when we’re going against temptation? Whose perspective are we trying to see our lives from when wefeel self-pity or refuse to give thanks when earth doesn’t quite feel like heaven, just like God said it wouldn’t? Whatever you feel, faith is always looking at everything from God’s perspective, which means sometimes seeing something no one else does.
Jake was a high school freshman when he was walking home from school one day. Across the street was one of his classmates named Kyle. Jake had never spoken with Kyle. Kyle looked like he was carrying all his books. It was Friday, and Jake thought, “Why would anyone carry all their books home on Friday? He must be kind of a nerd.” Then Jake saw a bunch of students running toward Kyle. They knocked all his books out of his arms, tripped him, and pushed him in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and as the kids ran away, Kyle just lay there, crying. So Jake went over to him, grabbed his glasses, said, “Those guys are jerks,” and helped him to his feet. “Thanks,” Kyle said, “that means a lot.” They walked together that day, discovered they didn’t live too far from each other, became very good friends, and stayed very good friends all the way through high school.
Kyle really did like to study, so much that he was the Senior class valedictorian. And in his speech at graduation he talked about how graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. And then talked about a day his freshman year when he had decided to kill himself. He talked about how he had cleaned out his locker at the end of the day so his mom wouldn’t have to later. He talked about how he was carrying all his books home, on a Friday, and how weak and worthless he felt when a group of kids ran right over him. But then he looked at Jake and said, “Thankfully, someone saw something in me that I didn’t. Thankfully, a friend saved me.”
Kyle wasn’t saved because he was so happy, or because he always prayed, or because he was so good at looking at life and giving thanks. He was saved because someone who cared was there for him, just like God always will be for you. “The one who called you is faithful,” Paul wrote. That’s God’s perspective on your life. Our failures to be faithful to God does not at all change his desire to faithfully be there for you through anything, even if Christ Jesuswould eventually be thrown into the dirt of our worldas a result of that decision. Even if Christ Jesus had to carry the heavy load of our sin and be run over by our hell in order for his friends to becomeholy and blameless and a perfect fit for heaven. Even if Christ Jesus had to die alone, with nails in his hands and no one there for him, in order for the phrase “in Christ Jesus” to really mean something. But it does. And you are free to use it as often as you can.
Two months ago, a man named Alan Martin bought a “pasta pass” from Olive Garden. Olive Garden made 1000 of these available. It cost him $100, and it allowed him to eat at Olive Garden as often as he wanted for seven weeks. And so he did – for every meal. He also kept track of how much all those meals would have cost him over that time and figured out that his pasta pass saved him over $1500. He used his pasta pass that much. “If it’s already paid for,” Alan said, “why not use it as often as you can?”
You’ve been given something greater than a “pasta pass” from Olive Garden. “In Christ Jesus,” you’ve been given a new perspective on your existence – and a really good one. And you didn’t even have to pay for it. And there’s no expiration. So why not use it as often as you can. Open the Word and feed it to your heart every day. Serve it to your children. Worship together. Take communion. Celebrate your baptisms like they’re your birthdays. Then do it all over again. Let your eyes see your life from God’s perspective as often as you can. And no matter how many times you come back, you will always find the same thing: a reason to rejoice, a reason to pray, and a reason to give thanks. Because that is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. The since the one who called you is faithful, we know that he will do it. This is one list we know will be accomplished this Christmas.
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