Gratitude | Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks
Having lived in Arlington for over two years now, I can tell you with confidence that you (well, we) are not patient people. I would like to believe I had the patience of a saint before I moved here and that my lack of patience is somehow your fault but I am fairly certain my impatience would be diagnosed as a pre-existing condition. Waiting - to back out of the driveway, make a right on red at 16th Street, in line at Philz Coffee, for Metro, or for Uber - puts me in a mood I do not like to be in. I become uncomfortable, and when I become uncomfortable I begin to find fault not just in that which I am waiting for but all in things and people around me as I am being forced to wait.
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I want to live in an instant world.
Amazon same-day delivery and Instacart grocery delivery are bringing society up to the pace I need but more often than not I find myself waiting in my car on a Monday morning at the crosswalk connecting the church and the parking lot and wondering why preschoolers walk so slowly. Can’t their tiny legs move quicker?
Patience is quickly leaving our vocabulary if it is not gone entirely. A new economy is developing around our lack of patience. Drones are being tested to deliver prescription drugs, carryout orders, and groceries. I imagine our proximity to D.C. will not be a limiting factor in the coming years for drone usage to speed up the pace at which we live our lives. Imagine, as you are stuck in traffic on I-66, you will be able to order fill a prescription, order dinner for the family, and make your target run without leaving your traffic-jammed car and everything will be delivered before you make the turn from Fairfax Drive onto Glebe Road. For the most part, you can do many of those to-do list items now but you have the patient and wait for the algorithms of the cloud to cue up your delivery.
The Thessalonian church had grown impatient. Jesus told his disciples that when he departed this earthly life he would go to prepare a place for them and that he would return to take them there (John 14:3). Jesus is coming back and the Good News is that he will restore all of creation, every corner. The problem for the Thessalonians was this:
Jesus did not provide a timeline.
No dates were circled on the calendar and not feasts penciled in.
The Thessalonians, one of the earliest Christian communities, like many Christians today, earnestly expected Jesus’ return within the lifespan of the first generation of Christians. Their hope for the new age to come was giving way, challenged by the realities of life. The grind of everyday life had shifted the Thessalonians’ posture of anticipation and gratitude to impatience.
Community members were dying from old age and persecution. Hardship seemed to have fallen on those who believed Jesus had and would continue to free them from the bondage of this world. Rejoicing, prayer, and gratitude shifted to doubt, laziness, and a lack of focus on the cross.
Jesus promised a blessing upon the poor and weak, and those who mourn, but the harshness of the rough road of life had overshadowed the promised hope to come. As the shadow grew larger, the mundane of this life took priority over the promised hope to come. Redemption, fulfillment, and blessing were forgotten as the community traded gratitude for impatience.
You can’t blame the Thessalonians. The assumption was that Jesus’ return was imminent -as in like now.
They viewed their perceived delay as a lack of movement in G-d’s Spirit.
Impatience turned in to frustration which turned in to despair. Hope, it seemed, was gone.
They may have felt as though time was running out. Their impatience, their demand for a timeline, along with their agenda blinded them to the reality that through Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Kingdom of G-d, the kingdom they were waiting for, was already present.
The Kingdom of G-d is present whenever we gather for worship, to serve, or to share a meal around Christ’s table of grace.
There are two kinds of impatience that can block gratitude - rejoicing in G-d’s goodness - from taking hold in our lives. There is superficial impatience: a delay in Amazon shipping your latest order or traffic being held up on a holiday weekend as you are trying to dash out of town. Superficial impatience should not be dismissed as invalid but in these cases, resentment takes the place of gratitude when the delay is (finally) resolved.
Then there is justifiable impatience: the harshness of this life is only getting worse, the rough road is getting rougher and we lose sight of hope and love in the world. How much more can I or they take before the dark shadows of life block out the Light of Christ?
Author Diana Butler Bass makes the point. That negativity, justifiable impatience, is not always our fault. The harshness of this life makes gratitude toward or for anything, let along G-d, feel distant and without necessity.
Perhaps you have felt this way or do so now, or you know someone experiencing this.
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Paul’s words - rejoice in all things, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances - seem easier said than done, for us and the Thessalonians. Like Paul’s most famous words in 1 Corinthians 13, on paper everything makes sense but when the roughness of life sets in, Paul’s words seem more like lofty goals than a realistic guide for the community.
You can make verses 16, 17, and 18 into a mantra, decorative wall art, or even get the words tattooed on your body but the reality is a posture of gratitude does not displace the harshness of suffering and presence of evil in this world.
Tell the oppressed to be grateful for their oppressor or the abused to be grateful for the abuser and let me know how that works out.
Paul is not suggesting we express gratitude or rejoice and give thanks for evil deeds. This, not the Bible justifying or empowering perpetrators of evil and trauma. Paul is writing pastorally to the Thessalonian church, encouraging the church to rejoice, pray, and give thanks as acts of will and not emotions for their circumstances. Paul is encouraging the church, then and now, to be a community of self-giving love where those in the community nurture one another. This is not an invitation to self-congratulatory or self-gratifying praise and prayer. Faced with hardship, Paul is offering a pastoral outline for the Christian community. These are words for the Church when times are tough.
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Paul is inviting the Church to live in the promised hope, new life in and through Christ. A posture of gratitude is possible when we realize Paul’s words are not commandments to Law required acts for holy living or a set of requirements to be performed before we are invited into Jesus’ Kingdom. Paul’s words are an invitation to grace, an invitation to rely on the holiness of G-d and now our own righteousness or circumstance. Just like his words in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s words are more about our lives, together, in Christ, then they are about our individual attempts to be disciples of Christ on our own.
Acts of gratitude, expressed in rejoicing and prayer, extend worship from Sunday morning into every aspect of our lives. We are rejoicing, praying and giving thanks to G-d in all circumstances but not for all circumstances.
All of life is an opportunity to worship G-d with a grateful heart. Like any discipline, lives of rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving take disciplined practice and patience. There will be days when we are rockstar exemplars of Paul’s words and then there will be days when gratitude for G-d and Christ are everywhere but on our minds.
We are able to rejoice, pray, and give thanks - assuming a posture of gratitude - because we know, through the power of Christ’s resurrection, that the evil, suffering, and death we see in this world do not get the last word. G-d has not abandoned us and we can look to the full realization of the Kingdom of G-d with hope because through the Church, through one another, and through sacrament we are opening ourselves to experience the means of grace Christ left for us, and we cannot think of anything to do but rejoice, praise, and give thanks.
