Wesley Menke

28 November 2021

Sermon ~ Advent 1

Something must have gone wrong in Thessalonica. Probably somebody important had left the church either by death or some kind of a disagreement. For this reason there was a crisis of faith. Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica and says that he wishes he could go there and see them face to face in order to restore whatever is lacking in their faith. This is a puzzling thing for Paul to write, because faith isn’t something you can give someone else. Only the Holy Spirit gives faith. A related concept to faith is trust. Which raises the question of the church in Thessalonica had trust issues with Paul or each other. A key ingredient to building trust is healthy boundaries. 

My parents live on the upper banks of the Oak Creek just outside of Sedona, Arizona. Flooding is a perennial concern. A flood of water has the ability to destroy everything in its path. For this reason careful records are kept of the maximum height of the creek during flood times, and engineers can predict just how high flood waters can reach in a 100 or even in a 1,000 years. So when you build something near the creek, the lake, or the ocean, the essential question is, “What are the boundaries of the water?” Boundaries tell you where it is safe, and where it is not safe to live and build your home. If there is uncertainty as to where the boundaries of the river lie, then there is a reluctance to build a home. Sedona has been booming like many other communities in the Southwest, and as a result there is new construction along the banks of the Oak Creek. People are willing to invest hundreds of thousands of daughters and their personal possessions why? Because they trust that the boundaries of the river are secure. 

Like a river, God’s love and grace flows through the church and our lives. God’s power is so great that indeed it is the power of life and death. We baptize in water to underscore the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the fragility of each of our own lives. But when a person goes to church, has trust in other people, and when that trust is violated and boundaries are crossed, then sadly often a person has a crisis of faith, because the very community that helped shape faith, can be guilty of violating trust, and so trust in God can suffer as a result. 

Thankfully the goodness and faithfulness of God doesn’t not depend totally on us. When we fail as people God works to teach us. That is what Psalm 25 is all about. In this psalm we pray that God would teach us God’s paths. Specifically we pray that God would be patient with sinners and teach sinners the way of righteousness. We are saved by Grace through faith, and not by our works. That means that God doesn’t give up on us as people or the church when we fail, but God patiently teaches a better way to live. 

I often talk about my experience doing Clinical Pastoral Education, when I served as a chaplain in a hospital. One of the things that made the experience so positive was that our supervisor built trust with us so that when a visit didn’t go was well as it could have, both she and our colleagues could gently give suggestions for how to improve. This wasn’t about criticizing. This was about believing that we could all be better and more effective as chaplains and pastors. As you hear these words my prayer is that you would be open to God’s grace which comes as gentle instruction. Each bapti