Ok, I want to give you a brief history of the New Testament. None of the gospels were written down until the late 60’s AD. The stories about Jesus circulated, but nothing written down. St. Paul never met Jesus in person, but only encountered the risen Christ (which is much like many of you have done). This happened a few years after Jesus rose.
Paul was all fired up to go spread the message of Christ risen. He went off to convert the Gentiles (which is basically anyone who is not Jewish). He traveled, preached, baptized, stayed until a church was started, then left to do the same thing in another place. Once he left, the people still had questions so they wrote him and he responded back. His responses are the letters that we read during the second reading.
The earlies letter of Paul (and the oldest writing of the New Testament) was used as the 2nd reading for today . . . the letter to the Thessalonians (written around the year 50 or 55). We heard the very beginning of that letter today. And the letter started out with the usual perfunctory salutations that letters started with at that time: Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to the church of Thessalonians in God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ: grace to and peace. Every letter started out with something like that.
And the next line, is considered the very first original words of the New Testament. Paul writes, “We give thanks to God always for all of you.” Wow! Isn’t that incredible? The very first text is to say, “We give thanks.” And remember Paul would have lots of complain about, people wanted to kill him and all Christians, they had little resources, lots of people rejected his messages, Paul endured whipping, stoning, ship wrecks, tortures. . . and he says “We give thanks.”
I have some homework for you this week. Take out a sheet of paper [I bring out a large poster board] divide the paper into 2 sections, On one side write out all the things that are burdening you right now. For example: politics, COVID, fights with a family member, etc. On the other side write out all the things that you are thankful for right now. For example, my family, beautiful fall colors, smells of pumpkin spice, etc. I guarantee that your thanks section will be longer than the burden section. It always is. But we focus on the burdens.
A few years ago I gave a big workshop to about 100 people. I worked hard on and felt good about it. Well at the end, the participants wrote out evaluations. And you know, 99 people wrote how moving it was and the new insights they gained. But one eval comes back with, “I didn’t learn anything. It was boring.” Ugh [pretend to get stabbed in my heart]. And what do you think I focused on? Not the 99 positive remarks, but the one negative remark. We all do that.
Look in the gospel, the Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up (again) with a question about money and taxes. Yes, they had taxes back then and yes people complained about them. And people focused on money just as we do today. But Jesus is trying to awaken them to think beyond money, think beyond taxes and think beyond wealth. Of course we have those, but too many of us get burdened by money woes. Your money (with riches or poverty) is just your life situation, it is not your life. Your life is bigger than your money. And, think about this . . . your money is NOT your’s. It basically belongs to God. You are simply using it. For when you die, you can’t take any check books, or bank statements or pots of gold with you. Nothing.
But here’s the good part. Survey and survey, and test after test proof that the happiest people on the planet are those who give money away. Even those who don’t seem to have a lot of money.
They give . . . and in exchange receive JOY.
Some of the most miserable people in the world are those who only look out for themselves and would never want to donate, tithe, be charitable, help someone. Maybe they have money, but they probable have a hard time coming up with things on their THANKS list.
In a couple of weeks, we will be having our annual Tithing Pledge weekend. This weekend is also WORLD MISSION WEEKEND. Both are opportunities for you to give thanks by your giving.
Where are you with all this? If you want to find joy, start giving. If you want have more peace, start letting go of material things. If you want to have less burdens, start trusting God more . . . and not Caesar. St. Paul wrote in another letter (this one to the Corinthians) “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”