The Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Do Not Grow Weary Grace, mercy and peace are yours from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. God says in the final Words of today’s Epistle, “Do not grow weary in doing good.” When God says here, “Do not grow weary,” He is not speaking about tiredness in your physical body. He is speaking about your attitude toward life and toward your fellow Christians. God is saying to you, “Do not grow faint in doing good; do not play the coward’s part and shirk the duties of your office, whatever those duties might be; do not lose courage to act according to the Christian faith.” Dear Christian friends, A strange thing had happened among the Thessalonian Christians, to whom today’s Epistle was originally written. Some false teacher had deceived these poor saints, giving them the false idea that the Last Day—that is, the Day of the Lord—had already come (2 Thessalonians 2:2). This false teaching—that Jesus had already returned on the Last Day—this false teaching had terrible effect on the congregation. Not only did people feel frightened and alarmed that they had somehow missed out on God’s gift of eternal life with Jesus, but they also began to think that daily life was now useless. If the Last Day has already come and gone, what is the point of anything? Why even rise up out of bed in the morning, must less busy yourself with your duties and responsibilities toward your neighbor? As you heard in today’s Epistle, some of God’s Christians in Thessalonica became despondent, “walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition” they had been taught. God responds to this sense of discouragement and misery that some of the Thessalonian Christians were feeling. First, God assures His Christians, in the verses prior to today’s Epistle, that no, the Last Day has not come. Don’t worry! The Last Day will not escape unnoticed and you will not miss it! (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). God then gives His Christians—among other things—the closing Words of today’s Epistle: “Do not grow weary in doing good. Do not grow faint; do not play the coward’s part and shirk the duties of your office, whatever those duties might be; do not lose courage to act according to the Christian faith.” Not many of Christians at Grace Lutheran Church seem to be gripped by the fear that our Lord has already returned and that somehow we have been left behind. The whole idea of being left behind is really nothing more than a Pentecostal dream that should be thrown away with all the other teachings of the Pentecostals. While fear of missing the Last Day is not a problem in your life, discouragement or weariness in your devotion to your neighbor probably is. That weariness you feel in caring for your neighbor makes today’s Epistle is a very good Epistle, not merely for the Thessalonians, but also for us. “Brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” 1. Some of you have neighbors who simply require too much of your time and attention—or so you think. As a nation in general, we Americans have grown disinterested in long-term commitments. That is part of the reason why it is difficult to get people to hold office in our congregation. It is part of the reason why married people sometimes divorce. Beyond that, it is even part of the reason why some of you believe your neighbor requires too much of your time and attention. Their need will not go away and you are the one to whom they turn. And it makes you feel tired, bored, limited, short-changed, perhaps even unappreciated, imprisoned, and resentful. Your life would be more enjoyable if you did not have that particular neighbor planted in the center of it. It would be great if someone else could take over. God says to you today, “Do not grow weary in doing good. Do not grow faint in faithfully carrying out your office and responsibilities.” 2. Some Christians think that they are the only ones who do anything. Maybe you think you are the only one in your family who pays attention to your aging mother or ailing father. Maybe you think you are the only one who ever gets asked to be on our congregation’s Board of Education, or the only one who cleans the kitchen after a congregational meal. Maybe you think you are the only person in your house who knows how to take out the garbage or replace a roll of toilet paper. God says to you today, “Do not grow weary in doing good. Do not grow faint in faithfully doing the right thing, the humble thing, the serving thing.” 3. Some of you are worn out. Your body has become limited by age or disability. You might even think that, because you cannot do what you used to do, there is nothing at all for you to do. Please do not fool yourself. For example, even if you are confined to a wheelchair or a hospital bed, there are still many prayers for you to pray. The Church is chock-full of neighbors who would benefit from your intercessions before the throne of God. (If you need suggestions, I will give you a copy of our congregational directory.) Prayer does not seem very productive, but it does seem very boring. If you are one of those Christians who has no strength left for anything but prayer, your God nevertheless says also to you this day, “Do not grow weary in doing good. Do not lose courage to act according to the Christian faith, even in those ways that seem small and insignificant.” 4. Some Christians are just plain lazy. They have learned that, if they sit on the couch long enough, someone else will finally do what they should be doing. Devotion, effort and quality have nothing to do with the conversation. Everything for them is half-hearted and half-baked. “Good enough” is their highest aspiration. If you are such a Christian—I guess it is possible that there could be some lazy Christians among us—God says to you today, “Do not grow weary in doing good. Do not play the coward’s role and turn away and allow others to do what you should be doing.” Now let’s tackle the reason—the ONLY REASON—why you should not grow weary in doing good: · Probably it is not enough motivation for you simply to know that God commands you not to grow weary or faint in your service to neighbor. After all, God commands all sorts of things—Ten Things Commanded in particular—and we all know from experience how poorly we remain motivated to do those things, much to our shame. · Your neighbor’s need is probably not a great motivation, either. Yes, you want to help the guy, but isn’t he asking a little too much? How much should any one of us be expected to give? (Again, our lovelessness gets exposed; again to our shame.) The motivation to “not grow weary in doing good” must be centered and rooted and found in ONE PLACE ONLY: the human body of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In particular, you now have plenty of reason to do good and now grow weary because your Lord Jesus Christ has set you free. · First, as you often hear, Jesus has set you free from the guilt and condemnation of your sins. Your lovelessness and your shame—my lovelessness and my shame—is now totally covered by the perfection of Jesus and hidden from God the Father’s sight. But there is more: · Jesus has also set you free from the fear of your gravest enemies, both death and the devil. Your Lord Jesus has wrenched you free from the grasp of the evil one, so that you are no longer bound his might. Your Lord Jesus has broken the fingers of death, so that it no longer may make claim upon you. · Our Lord’s gifts of freedom from sin, death and the devil now serve a very good purpose for you. Because your Lord Jesus set you free from sin, death and the devil, you now also have been set free from your fear of the Last Day. Because of the grace of Christ given to you, the Last Day no longer a reasons to tremble or shudder. When your Lord Jesus shall come to judge the living and the dead, stand tall and “raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). · The Last Day still may seem like a long way off for you. That is fine, because there is yet another freedom that your Lord Jesus Christ has given to you. It is a freedom that can be lived and enjoyed here in every moment, without a thought to the future. It is Jesus’ gift of freedom from the tyranny of yourself. By His death and resurrection, your Lord Jesus Christ has set you free from the slavery of self-preservation. Jesus has saved your body; Jesus has saved your soul; Jesus has so filled your pantry with things eternal that you now have nothing to fear. Jesus has seated you in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6), like a king or a queen, thus setting you free to play the role of the servant. Jesus has promised you a resurrected body, thus setting you free to spend all of your bodily strength upon your neighbor, without any true loss to you. Jesus has promised to remember every good work done in faith—works you do that you do not even recognize as good (Matthew 25:31-46)—thus setting you free to attend yourself even to the humblest of duties. Our Lord’s cross and tomb are firmly planted in the center of today’s Epistle, where it is written, “Do not grow weary in doing good.” These Words might sound like a command, but they are soaked in promise. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
