Grace Lutheran Church 26th Sunday after Pentecost November 13, 2005

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

26^th Sunday after Pentecost "We Belong to the Day"

November 13, 2005 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Some would say, “These are dark times.” These could be said to be times of the night. We hear of wars and rumors of wars. The sky falls down in tornadoes, the waters of the oceans crash up on the ground, earthquakes open the ground. Friends die. People lose their jobs or have threat of upheaval. Our families, our schools, our community are all experiencing dark moments. With all of the news that you hear you might think that it is a dark time that we live in. But listen to this promise, we belong to the day.

God is so good. We belong to the day. No matter how dark it is all around, we belong to the day.

Some Christians and congregations rest on their laurels. They smile and sit back with a great reputation for work done in the past. Having worked hard in the past some sleep as if it is night time and there is nothing to be doing. An idle church remembers the good times but has fallen asleep and missed the opportunities of the present..

Shame be upon an idle church. Shame be upon an idle people. A church that rests upon its work and reputation of the past and is no longer active will find themselves woken up with a jolt on the day of the Lord. We belong to the day, so why do some sleep like it is night time.

The church in Thessalonica worked very hard in response to the ministry of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. They responded to the message of the gospel and shared it with others. The work they did was not nothing. Paul wrote, “Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us.”

But Paul was also concerned that they were becoming idle in their wait for the coming of the Lord. Consider these hard working people looking around and feeling very satisfied that they had reached everybody worth reaching. It was not that they were trying to be arrogant or hypocritical they were just becoming idle.

I heard a true story this week about a church in West Virginia that decided to adopt their local public school. The pastor went to the principal and asked, “What can we do to help?” The Principal gathered the teachers together and asked them, “What do you need?” The principal went back to the pastor and said, “We you help tutor our kids after school.” The pastor realized he had a well spring of senior citizens that knew grammar up and down. So they started to offer tutoring to the local elementary school. Kids came to the church for after school tutoring. Many of these kids had never been in a church, which should not be a surprise, but it was. One of the senior citizens that was helping out was asked, after he and Johnny had worked through the lesson, if he could get a tour of the church. He said, “Because I’ve never been in a church.” The gentlemen loved showing him around and discovering again the joy of the cross, the altar, and the stained glass as he pointed them out to Johnny. Later this gentleman went to the office of the pastor and said, “Pastor did you know that there are lost people in our town?”

Brothers and sisters we cannot be idle with the idea that we have done enough in our family and neighborhoods to build up the kingdom of God. We belong to the day. We are awake with the joy of building the kingdom of God.

It is time for us to be awake in this world and share the good news of Jesus. To a two year old, or at least to my two year old, the difference between awake and asleep is very important. When Henry wakes up from a nap often his first words are, “I’m awake, I’m awake.” If I ask Henry if he is ready for a nap he will insist, “I’m awake, I’m awake.”

We need to confess that too often we are content to be asleep in this world and not shine as children of the light. We belong to the day.

But Paul’s concern was not just for the idle it was with those that were living in the night time drunk. The night time was the time for the acts of shame, neglect, and selfish indulgence. The night time was the time to live without regard or care or thought. The actions that are done in secret exposed to the light of the day shrink and fade away.

Think about the way that we treat conflict. We gossip, talk around, talk about, accuse but do not approach. Jesus asked us to reconcile with our brother before we come to the altar with our offering, but too often we revel in the attention of conflict. Why do we let the night time of secrets and shame settle upon our conflicts? Why don’t we bring the light of Christ to shine upon our actions and the actions of those we love? Do we want to tear one another down and divide and separate our families into camps? Children of light encourage one another and build one another up.

There is no joy in God witnessing his creation destroy one another. It is the desire of your God “to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake of asleep we might live with him.”

Your God obtains for you your salvation. God the Father sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus died for us. In his death, night time was buried. Even though it was three in the afternoon the sky became dark as Jesus breathed his last upon the cross. On the dawn of the third day Jesus rose from the dead and a new day, an endless day was given. The book of Revelation describes how the city of God has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. Through your faith in the Lamb of God, he is your lamp. By the light of the Lamb of God you walk. It is Jesus that provides the light that makes it daytime for us in the kingdom of God. No matter how dark this world gets in war, famine, bloodshed, and hatred, you are a citizen kingdom of God, a child of light, a child of the day. Jesus died on the cross so that you and I would not need to fright away from the darkness.

We belong to the day but unfortunately some may be confusing what it means to be a child of light. It is not all smiles, perfect hair, the Sunday suit, the Easter dress. To belong to the day is to be living in the light of Christ. We carry the light of Christ into this world of darkness. We live on the edge of the darkness always expanding the light of Christ.

I had the opportunity this week to hear some representatives of the churches that we in the Eastern District have adopted in the area affected by Hurricane Katrina. Rev. Dave Goodine, the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran in Burgundy, Louisiana and Sue Schiller, the principal of St. Paul Lutheran Elementary School, really helped remind me what it means to belong to the day even while the world looks around us to be getting darker and darker.

Burgundy is right on the edge of the Ninth Ward. Appropriate or not, one of the members of St. Paul has printed up a shirt that says “Ninth Ward Swimming Team: Sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers.”

Well the people of St. Paul realized they needed to get their school up and running as soon as possible. Orleans Parish schools are not going to open on their side of the river this school year. St. Paul Lutheran Elementary has been open for a month. A school that pre-hurricane had 223 students started with 26 kids and now has 61 kids. They are right on the edge of the darkness in that city but they are going to bring some daylight to whoever they can. 90% of the homes of congregation members are uninhabitable but they are going to encourage one another and build up one another up. No one is going to get lost in the darkness.

St. Paul’s Burgundy belongs to the day, no matter how much darkness seeks to surround them. They are bringing the light of Christ to the world. They are not going to sleep through this crisis or get drunk with pride and ignore the problems that surround them. When the levees broke and the city began to flood, St. Paul’s opened their school’s kitchen cafeteria and fed the community. They did not hoard their supplies for a select few. They did not invite only Lutherans. Everyone was welcome.

As they gave more, they received more. Because as people left and restaurants were emptied they brought their remaining supplies over to St. Paul’s. People came to St. Paul’s because they heard that they were helping people. St. Paul’s is going to keep bringing the light of Christ to the edge of the darkness and let it shine.

You and I go to the edge of the darkness putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. Others approach the darkness with laws, wars, chains, bars, and swords. But we do not defeat the darkness of sin with the sword. We live with the confidence that Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has defeated sin, death, and the devil. Through him who loved us we are more than conquerors.

We bring the light of the world to the edge of the darkness. Armed with faith and love and salvation we step into this world and wherever we go we are armed with the light of the world. We do not go to conquer the world, Christ is victorious. Jesus died and rose again. We don’t need to go into the night to defeat the devil, we go to proclaim and live the victory.

We belong to the day, not for smiles, a Sunday suit, or perfectly done hair. The gospel lesson for next week, the last Sunday of the church year is Jesus telling us that on the day of the Lord the sheep and the goats will be separated. Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

We belong to the day and bring to those in the night…the light of the world.

Soli Deo Gloria

Grace Lutheran Church

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