What Does It Mean To Please God?
a sermon by Rev. Rebecca Segers
Luke 13:10-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-10
How many of us want to please God? Want to live lives worthy of God’s calling to us? Upon our passing from this life into the next, want to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? I would imagine the answer to that question is each and every one of us. But what does it mean to “please God”? How do we know when we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing? How do we even know when we’re on the right track?
Luckily, we’ve got some help with these questions because they’ve been asked since the early days of Christianity, since the beginning of people’s attempts to follow Christ’s path, since the establishment of the first fledgling community of the Jesus Way. We have proof of this in the letters that Paul writes to the Corinthians and the Galatians and the Philippians and all the early communities that he founded including the one that we heard read from today: the first letter to the Thessalonians.
Thessalonika was originally an ancient Greek town named Thermai, which means “Hot Springs”. The town gave its name to the gulf on which it stood and in time became important because of its strategic location. It was the center of Alexander the Great’s kingdom and later named Thessalonika for the Macedonian king Cassandar’s wife, who was Alexander the Great’s half-sister.
In Paul’s time, Thessalonika was the capital of its province of Macedonia and an important city on the Via Egnatia, the highway that led to Rome to the east and Asia to the west. When Paul arrived in Thessalonika on his second missionary journey with Silas and Timothy, Thessalonika was a free city, with no Roman troops quartered within it. For this and other reasons, it was more important than Philippi. It was a self-governing community with a large enough Jewish population to sustain its own synagogue.
Paul’s ministry in Thessalonika was very successful, getting an immediate response to the Gospel, although the book of Acts also tells us that it was not without difficulties as some of the local folks took exception to Paul’s teaching. As a result, he had to leave earlier than he had anticipated after only about three weeks of preaching the Jesus Way. Still, Paul did end up planting a community of believers of mixed heritage: Jews and Greeks, men and women.
At the time of the writing of the letter to the Thessalonians, Paul is in Corinth. He’s gotten a report from Timothy who was with him during the founding of the Thessalonian church. Timothy says that they’re having some trouble. What’s happened is this: the folks in the church have decided that Jesus is coming back pretty much post-haste and that they don’t need to worry about the current world, the situation of today anymore.
It’s as though someone came up to you and said, “The world is ending tomorrow.” What would you do? Well, the Thessalonians have quit their jobs and are hanging out having fun – eating too much and partying and engaging in a bit of hanky-panky here and there thinking that they are forgiven or can just quick repent right as Jesus arrives.
Paul gets wind of this and he realizes that while he can’t head back to Thessalonika because of what he’s got going on in Corinth, he’s got to respond. As a result, we’ve got this letter to the Thessalonians, which is largely believed to be the oldest piece of writing in the New Testament. That’s right, this letter, 1 Thessalonians, is thought to have been written about 50 Common Era, less than 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It gives us the earliest view of what the beginnings of Christianity were like and the initial growing pains it was having.
The passage that we read today is in the opening section of the letter. Paul is reminding them of his early days with them, of the time that he and his partners in ministry spent telling them of the gospel of God and of nurturing them in their first steps as Christians. He’s also reminding them of his purpose in coming to them. It wasn’t to make them like him or to try to make money off them or to trick them. They didn’t try to use beguiling words or flattery or fool them in any way. Rather they spoke the truth in Christ’s love to them. They felt compelled by God to share the gospel and did so out of the obligation they feel toward God. In other words, it wasn’t about what would make the Thessalonians happy, but about what would make God happy.
So in a sense, Paul is saying that they felt honor-bound to tell the good news of Jesus to the Thessalonians. But what exactly is this good news? Quite often, we feel that we can recite a creedal statement and that’s all that’s required. The oldest one that we have is the one Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians: “(This is the gospel which we) received, in which (we) stand, and by which (we) are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day.” It’s good to know these phrases and to have them ingrained in the fiber of our beings so that they are there in times of need. On the other hand, that statement is Paul’s answer to the question of “what is the good news”. It was a question that was answered very differently by Jesus himself.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 16-21, Jesus is visiting his hometown of Nazareth and he goes to the synagogue on Sunday and reads from the scroll of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” After reading this scripture, he tells the folks in the synagogue, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
So to Jesus the good news is not simply that He has come to earth and is with us, commiserating in our sorrows and relishing our joys, forgiving us our sins and advocating for us always. The personal relationship that we have with Jesus is important, but it is not what he himself proclaims as the good news. Jesus tells us the good news is about releasing captives and healing the blind and letting the oppressed go free. This is what he did and what he expects us to do.
The perfect example of this is the first scripture lesson that we heard read today. It was also in the gospel of Luke and our story tells of the last time during his ministry that Jesus enters a synagogue. He is preaching on the Sabbath day and there is a woman there who is listening who had been crippled, bent over, unable to stand up straight for eighteen years. Imagine that! Eighteen years of looking at your feet, of being unable to see the sky unless you are lying down or in some other awkward pose, of not seeing people’s faces when you speak to them. Eighteen years of downcast eyes and inferior physical positioning, submissive posture, feelings of inadequacy and subservience and lack.
When you read the original Greek, the Bible tells us that the woman’s condition is attributed to “a spirit of weakness.” The term is astheneia and can be translated “weakness” or “illness”. It is unclear what this weakness or illness is, but it is possible that this is simply part and parcel of her diminished status as a woman in her society. She is not even named in our story, but is shown as a weak, bent-over, broken woman.
As I read this story, it came to me how often women who remain in abusive relationships are seen as weak and treated as though they are at fault. Rather than recognizing her attacker as the one at fault, the woman who is being abused is seen as the problem. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard judgmental comments in reference to this behavior like: “Why doesn’t she just leave?”
There could be many reasons why “she doesn’t just leave”. Reasons that are equal in strength to asking the question of the bent-over woman in our story today: “Why doesn’t she just stand up?” While we have made great strides in the United States, our culture is still more supportive of men who are divorced than women, including offering them better pay for equal work and this is even more true for women who are ethnic minorities. While family violence knows no ethnicity or socio-economic boundaries, these are elements that can impact a woman’s ability to walk out the door. Additionally, there may be children added into the mix, and while those children likely will stay with the mother and should stay with the mother, once again her ability to support them alone can be an issue. Then there’s the Fear Factor. Are you aware that 75% of the women who are killed by their domestic partner are killed after they leave the abusive relationship? It can be dangerous to leave. Very dangerous. And very scary.
The church has not helped over the years, but instead has often been one to tout remaining in a marriage despite emotional, physical or sexual violence. One of the major founding fathers of Presbyterianism, John Calvin, wrote a letter in response to an unknown woman on June 4, 1559. This is what he said to a battered wife:
"We have a special sympathy for poor women who are evilly and roughly treated by their husbands because of the roughness and tyranny of the captivity which is their lot. When he uses threats, when he beats her, when there is eminent peril to her life, we exhort her to bear with patience the cross which God has seen fit to place upon her, and not to deviate from the duty which she has before God to please her husband."
Up until the year 1871, it was legal, in the United States, for a husband to beat his wife; the wife was considered a piece of property, and she could be treated as the husband saw fit. As a matter of fact, the phrase “rule of thumb” comes from the law that a husband could beat his wife with nothing larger around that the circumference of his thumb. Now we would like to think that this type of thing has been eradicated from society and especially from the church, but in my short time in ministry, which has encompassed the last seven to eight years, I worked with a pastor who used to say, “If she just wouldn’t push his buttons, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.” Let me tell you something, folks, it is never all right to hit someone, I don’t care what she or he, because sometimes, although not often, it is the male who is abused, has said or done or what “buttons they have pushed”.
I know this is uncomfortable to hear from the pulpit, and believe me, it is uncomfortable to speak about, but Paul told us in our scripture lesson today that “we speak as (those) approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please mortals, but God who tests our heart.”
However, we need to do more than speak about injustice. Let’s look again at Jesus and his response. Jesus releases the bent-over woman through the words, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity” and the laying on of hands. Unlike many other healings in which Jesus participates, here touch is an element of healing. It confers a blessing as well as a simple healing. I find this a wonderful addition when applied within the context of family violence as well – that touch could be, can be a positive thing as well as a negative one. That touch can be a healing contact.
As many of you know, we have a Prayer Shawl Ministry here at the Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow. Yesterday, we helped to organize and support, but mostly just enjoyed, a Prayer Shawl Ministry Retreat at the First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin led by two of the women who began this ministry which has had its tendrils reach round the world now. I am delighted to share with you that one of the major places that we have been donating shawls made by our parishioners has been the Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. We pray over and bless the shawls themselves before we pass them on to the unknown women who have had the courage to take the first step out of abusive relationships and into new life and all the trials and tribulations and wonder and excitement that such a huge step will bring. We pass them on in hopes that the women who receive them will feel the blessing, the healing touch, the warmth and love and care prayed into them as they wear them. It is a small gift, but one that we are happy to share.
In Jesus’ story, the religious leader is not so happy that Jesus is speaking the gospel and offering healing touch to the bent-over woman. He is concerned only with the violation of the Sabbath law, not for the woman’s condition pre- or post-healing. How many of us feel those same feelings that the synagogue leader did? Okay, we’re all for helping people who are suffering from violence in their homes, but do we have to hear about it on Sunday? Can’t we just come in and worship and do what we’re used to and get along about our Sunday business as usual? The synagogue leader cites the necessity of keeping the Sabbath, and it is important that we leave this place enriched and renewed, but it is also important that we remember who we are as Christians. What that means in our daily life Monday through Saturday. As the church leader complains, Jesus announces the greater necessity of freeing a human being from whatever cripples, binds or diminishes. The concern over the suffering of fellow human beings takes precedence over obligations related to keeping the Sabbath.
Let us not forget, the story of the stooped woman as demeaned, denied proper status, and oppressed by religious and social restrictions is, in fact, the story of many women. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. The blessing of the good news is two-fold: Paul explains his desire in Thessalonians to share the gospel by speech, but he also goes on to describe how he does that – in verse 7, gently, like mother caring for her little children and in verses 11 and 12, as a father, encouraging comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God. So the deepest desire he expresses is not only to give the gospel in words, but also all through the meaning, energy, and service of his own life. Could it be that this is the meaning of the giving the gospel in its truest sense? Not only to speak the words of forgiveness of sins and relationship in Jesus Christ, but also to live lives of service and compassion in His Name…
Ultimately, I believe this is the truth in which we stand and by which we are saved – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that we are raised into new life with Him also according to the scriptures. As you reflect this week on “what does it mean to please God,” I ask you to think about the persons that you need to speak to and the persons that you need to touch. The places you need to go and the people you need to see. They may be people you already know. Perhaps there is someone in your life that you feel is really searching for meaning and comfort that could use a church community. Why don’t you ask him or her if he or she would like to join you next week in coming to celebrate worshipping the Lord with you here at Sweet Hollow? Or invite them to come to Bible Study…or maybe simply to the Harvest Dinner – how non-threatening could that be?
Or perhaps there is a place that you are to be giving service. If you would like to learn more about how you could help women and children who are victims of family violence, speak with Elaina after the worship service today in the Parish Hall. I’m sure that she knows ways you can help. Or start knitting a Prayer Shawl today that you know will go to one of the women in the Suffolk County Coalition’s shelters. Or FYI: Joan Sommermeyer is our Domestic Violence Networking Representative for the Presbytery of Long Island. If you don’t manage to get to Elaina today, we already have a system in place for education and awareness through our own Presbytery. Tap into it and see what you can do to help.
Maybe there is another place that you feel called to serve. Cooking at a homeless shelter, being a Mentor to one of our new confirmands, teaching a child at the Huntington Station Enrichment Center to read or tutoring him or her in math. Maybe you are meant to be leading a Workshop during Sweet Hollow’s Sunday School or volunteering to be considered as a deacon or an elder in our upcoming elections. Perhaps you are to be extending your financial gifts to the church or lending your voice in song in the choir. There are a myriad of ways that you can be living to please God and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed. It is up to you to search your hearts, to speak with God in prayer and listen to God’s response in meditation, to discover how and where and when you are to be serving the Lord.
It might be scary at first. You may feel uncomfortable, speaking in ways that are different than the norm or exhibiting conduct that is unusual for you. But remember, the end result is awesome. At our story’s finish in Luke 13, the crowd rejoices at all the wonderful things that Jesus is doing. It is no longer the bent-over woman who is silenced, but the synagogue leader. The woman is healed, the people are delighted, the Holy Spirit is present and the Kingdom of heaven has broken through on earth.
So take this away with you this week – what small thing is it that you are to say and to do to further God’s kingdom on earth? What small thing is it that you are to say and to do to further God’s kingdom on earth this week? Then go out and say it and do it. If you do, believe you me, not only will you be pleasing God, it will transform your life. I promise. Amen.