O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O
Israel.
O come, Thou Day-spring, from on
high
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of
night,
And death’s dark shadows put to
flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
1 Thessalonians 5:16–24
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
O Come O Peace
Grace mercy and Peace from God our
father and Savior Jesus Christ His son our Lord. AMEN
Our Text today comes from the Epistle of St Paul to the Thessalonians
Life is stressful. Its busy, its messy, and there isn’t a
good escape from the stress until the final day. Of course when Life hands you lemons, make
lemonade. That’s great as long as you
have stock in minute maid or own a lemon grove, but the bitterness of life is
often a little more difficult to smooth over than just adding a little
sugar. Mary Poppins intoned, Just a
spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine goes down in the
most delightful way. That may be true,
but you are still sick, and no amount of dentist unfriendly medicine is going
to just make the day stress free and delightful. There is no peace to be found here on earth
through simple addition of pleasant things.
We spend a lot of time attempting to fix things on our own, but in the
end we are only sugarcoating the truth if we are truly on our own. When Life throws you lemons make lemonade,
when life throws real problems at you, pray.
Today’s text tells us to 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give
thanks in all circumstances; and that is a tall order. How can we always rejoice, when there are
real problems in our lives? How can we
give thanks when all we want to do is grumble about how things aren’t going our
way. Don’t even begin with praying
without ceasing, it’s not even possible to pray without ceasing at least not in
the sense that we understand prayer.
Christmas is a time to repeat the old adage let there be peace on earth,
because there is so little to be found.
These things can only come to pass when we view them together, How do we
live as Christians in every part of our lives.
It begins with the prayer, Heavenly Father bring us peace.
Today’s reading comes
from the end of 1 Thessalonians which is in some ways one of the most positive
books in the bible. Where many of Paul’s
letters are written for the stern correction of the errors of the church in
many places, 1 Thessalonians is not. Instead it is more of a check up and
encouragement for the congregation in Thessalonica. He is writing, rejoicing in the faithfulness
of the people and encouraging them to continue to endure the persecution of the
unbeliever. Paul was not able to return
to them, but instead sent Timothy as an emissary to them. He exhorts the people to continue in what
they have been doing, living differently from the lustful desires of the
unbelievers instead living pure quiet lives.
His words of instructions begin with “For this is the will of God, your
sanctification:” and he describes how
this is carried out for them. These are
not about what things they are doing wrong, instead it is reminding them of the
instruction that they have already received and to not worry about the end of
times. They have not missed it. But since we belong
to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for
wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t worry, be happy; God has already
given you everything you need. It is in
this context that the instructions to the Thessalonians came to “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in
all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do
not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything;
hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.” On the surface this seems like the impossible
task, for how many people will suddenly be happy, when commanded to be
happy. But all of this is brought together
in the words for this is the will of God for you. In these things they are to see the
sanctification in their lives. They have
every earthly reason to be anxious; war, famine, and plague are all too common
in their times, plus add in the persecution of Christians. But they have been given everything they need
already, as a result Paul exhorts them to be happy and trust in God doing what
is good in His sight.
These words are for us too.
Yes, we do have valid earthly reasons to worry. With the recession, money has become slightly
less than a sure thing for many Americans.
Only recently a young man with a connection to this congregation was
killed in the war. There are people
abroad and locally that are starving.
And society is becoming more and more resistant to Christianity, in some
cases, opposed to it outright. Gone are
the days that we can sit back confidently and proclaim that we know our
children will grow up in a better world, a more peaceful world, as
Christians. Yes, we do have valid
earthly reasons to worry, these are not peaceful times. But then the earthly is temporary, and what
seems stressful is often a matter of perspective. Even in the midst of great tragedy, there
room for joy. Yes there are terrible
things in the world, but God has created you and all creatures and sustains you
each and every day. Yes our corner of the world is becoming more resistant to
Christianity, but we can still meet peaceably and not worry about our
safety. Many Christians cannot say the
same thing. And whats more, even when
churches are shrinking in one place, the word of God continues to spread in
other places. God does not forget his
people. As a result we can be joyous in
the blessings he has given to us this day.
And no matter what is happening we do need to pray
continually. How can anyone pray without
stopping? Paul is not telling his people
to remain in one place mumbling words to God, never eating, never sleeping,
never doing anything. Instead praying
without ceasing is praying with your whole life, assuming the attitude of
prayer. Luther talks about this need in his large catechism at the beginning of
the Lord’s Prayer. We have now heard what we are to
do and believe. The best and most blessed life consists of these things. Now
follows the third part, how we are to pray. We are in such a situation that no
one can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, even though he or she has begun to
believe. Besides, the devil, along with the world and our flesh, resists them
with all his power. Consequently, nothing is so necessary as to call upon God
incessantly and to drum into his ears our prayer that he may give, preserve,
and increase in us faith and the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments and remove
all that stands in our way and hinders us in this regard. That we may know what
and how to pray, however, our LORD Christ himself has taught us both the way
and the words, as we shall see. Prayer
is very simple for Luther, A
person who wants to make a request must present a petition, naming and
describing something that he or she desires; otherwise it cannot be called a
prayer. Prayer is simply naming your requests to God. A person once said, if you assume the
attitude of prayer, eventually you will be praying. Praying without ceasing is similar, if you
continually call upon God, you will eventually rely on him first. That’s why praying without ceasing is so
important, because it proves that it is
not me and my abilities first, but it is God first. He is the one who we praise, He is the one
that we look to for help.
If we are doing the first two parts, Rejoicing and praying,
the third part giving thanks should come naturally, because the first part
already acknowledges that things are pretty good, and the second part
acknowledges that when they aren’t good, God takes care of us. We give thanks for the good, and for the good
that happens in spite of the bad. The
bad things don’t happen because God will it, but because we live in a broken
and sinful world. BUT God did not leave us in broken and sinful world without
any hope. Paul did not leave his letter to the Thessalonians with those words
of command, instead he blesses them and promises them. 23 Now may the God of
peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and
body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls
you is faithful; he will surely do it. Paul’s commands were not coming out of a
desire to prove the strength of character of the Christians in Thessalonians,
instead they were gentle reminders of who truly was in charge. We can rejoice, knowing that we have a high
priest who has interceded for our sake, Jesus Christ, who was the perfect
sacrifice upon the cross so that there could be peace on earth good will toward
men.
As I’m sure you probably noticed, O come O Come Emanuel has
been our Theme hymn of Advent as we have walked toward the Christmas season
together diving into the Epistle lessons each week. With it we viewed the desire of wisdom and
knowledge that came from the Prophet. We sought after the King of Heaven and
Earth who came to die. And Today we
remember the perfect priest that takes our prayers to God the Father. We pray for the return of the prophet, priest
and king for peace in the words of the final stanza.
O come,
Desire of nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our
sad divisions cease, And be Thyself our King of Peace.
We can Rejoice!
Rejoice! For the God with us has come to us, continues to look over us, and
will come again on that final day, o faithful Christians. AMEN
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