The Long Afternoon
Church family,
Nobody loves the waiting room. The chairs are stiff, the magazines are from three presidents ago, and every time the door opens you sit up a little straighter, sure it is your turn. It isn't…
This coming Sunday both of our readings take place in a waiting room of sorts. In Matthew 25, a man goes on a journey and leaves his servants in charge, and Jesus says he returns "after a long time." In 1 Thessalonians 5, a young church is restless and wondering when Jesus is coming back, and how they will know. Both passages are asking the same quiet question: what do we do with the in between?
Paul talks about "the day of the Lord," and that expression has a long history. For centuries the prophets used it to describe the day God would finally show up to set the world right. Israel looked forward to it the way a kid looks forward to summer break. Then the prophet Amos stood up and said, in effect, careful what you wish for. "Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light?" (Amos 5:20). When God comes to set things right, it is good news for everyone except the people doing evil.
Jesus picks up this thread just before our parable. He tells his disciples to stay awake, because no one knows the day or the hour, and he says the Son of Man will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42-44). Paul borrows that exact vision for the Thessalonians. And then he says something surprising: that day does not have to catch you off guard, because you already belong to the light.
Paul warns about people who say "peace and security" right before everything falls apart. To us that sounds like a generic catch phrase. To people living in a Roman city, it may have sounded a lot like the empire's P.R. team. Rome loved to promise that its influence kept everyone safe. Paul gently pokes a hole in that argument. Real security for people was never going to come from Caesar, or from a bank account, or from anything we can bury in the backyard.
It comes from the God who keeps His promises.
Paul also compares the coming day to labor pains. That is an image the prophets used also, and later Paul tells the Romans that all creation is groaning like a woman giving birth (Romans 8:22). Labor pains hurt, but they are not the pains of something dying. They are the pains of something new coming to life.
This is one of my favorite details. Paul tells the church to put on "the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." Where did he get that? From Isaiah 59, where God looks at a broken world, sees no one stepping in to help, and puts on a breastplate and a helmet of salvation Himself to come to the rescue.
In Isaiah, God wears the armor. In Thessalonians, God's people wear it. The equipment God used to rescue the world is now given to all believers for the long afternoon of waiting. Jesus is the one who wore it all the way to the end, and now He shares it with his people.
But Waiting Is Not Sitting Still
So, what do we do in the waiting room? Both of our passages say the same thing: waiting is not the same as doing nothing. The servants in Jesus' story are not told to sit by the window and watch the road. They are given something valuable and trusted to use it. Paul tells the Thessalonians to stay awake, stay sober, and build each other up.
Faithfully waiting looks less like staring out the door and more like getting busy with the people around you. Come on Sunday and we will open the parable together. Bring your curiosity. There is more in this story than most of us have ever noticed.
Words Worth Knowing
Day of the Lord: A phrase from the Old Testament prophets for the day God comes to set the world right.
Talent: In Jesus' time, a talent was not a skill but a huge measure of weight, used for silver or gold. One talent was worth many years of wages. Our English word "talent," meaning a gift or ability, actually comes from this parable.
Salvation: Rescue and healing. In Scripture it means being brought out of danger and into wholeness with God.
Encourage: In Greek, parakaleo (pah rah kah LEH oh), meaning to come alongside someone and call them forward. It is the same family of words Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, our Helper and Comforter.
Grace & gratitude,
Pastor Mark
Nobody loves the waiting room. The chairs are stiff, the magazines are from three presidents ago, and every time the door opens you sit up a little straighter, sure it is your turn. It isn't…
This coming Sunday both of our readings take place in a waiting room of sorts. In Matthew 25, a man goes on a journey and leaves his servants in charge, and Jesus says he returns "after a long time." In 1 Thessalonians 5, a young church is restless and wondering when Jesus is coming back, and how they will know. Both passages are asking the same quiet question: what do we do with the in between?
Paul talks about "the day of the Lord," and that expression has a long history. For centuries the prophets used it to describe the day God would finally show up to set the world right. Israel looked forward to it the way a kid looks forward to summer break. Then the prophet Amos stood up and said, in effect, careful what you wish for. "Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light?" (Amos 5:20). When God comes to set things right, it is good news for everyone except the people doing evil.
Jesus picks up this thread just before our parable. He tells his disciples to stay awake, because no one knows the day or the hour, and he says the Son of Man will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42-44). Paul borrows that exact vision for the Thessalonians. And then he says something surprising: that day does not have to catch you off guard, because you already belong to the light.
Paul warns about people who say "peace and security" right before everything falls apart. To us that sounds like a generic catch phrase. To people living in a Roman city, it may have sounded a lot like the empire's P.R. team. Rome loved to promise that its influence kept everyone safe. Paul gently pokes a hole in that argument. Real security for people was never going to come from Caesar, or from a bank account, or from anything we can bury in the backyard.
It comes from the God who keeps His promises.
Paul also compares the coming day to labor pains. That is an image the prophets used also, and later Paul tells the Romans that all creation is groaning like a woman giving birth (Romans 8:22). Labor pains hurt, but they are not the pains of something dying. They are the pains of something new coming to life.
This is one of my favorite details. Paul tells the church to put on "the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." Where did he get that? From Isaiah 59, where God looks at a broken world, sees no one stepping in to help, and puts on a breastplate and a helmet of salvation Himself to come to the rescue.
In Isaiah, God wears the armor. In Thessalonians, God's people wear it. The equipment God used to rescue the world is now given to all believers for the long afternoon of waiting. Jesus is the one who wore it all the way to the end, and now He shares it with his people.
But Waiting Is Not Sitting Still
So, what do we do in the waiting room? Both of our passages say the same thing: waiting is not the same as doing nothing. The servants in Jesus' story are not told to sit by the window and watch the road. They are given something valuable and trusted to use it. Paul tells the Thessalonians to stay awake, stay sober, and build each other up.
Faithfully waiting looks less like staring out the door and more like getting busy with the people around you. Come on Sunday and we will open the parable together. Bring your curiosity. There is more in this story than most of us have ever noticed.
Words Worth Knowing
Day of the Lord: A phrase from the Old Testament prophets for the day God comes to set the world right.
Talent: In Jesus' time, a talent was not a skill but a huge measure of weight, used for silver or gold. One talent was worth many years of wages. Our English word "talent," meaning a gift or ability, actually comes from this parable.
Salvation: Rescue and healing. In Scripture it means being brought out of danger and into wholeness with God.
Encourage: In Greek, parakaleo (pah rah kah LEH oh), meaning to come alongside someone and call them forward. It is the same family of words Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, our Helper and Comforter.
Grace & gratitude,
Pastor Mark
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