Flies

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

The trustees can attest to what I’m about tell you—there has been a fly, or multiple flies, making their way out of the cooling weather and bothering anyone they can in this church. They seem to always find their way into my office, and have been driving me absolutely nuts. One of these flies was torturing us at our Trustees meeting last Monday. Dexter in particular tried numerous times to kill it to no avail.

This past Friday, I got a new tattoo, one inspired by Frankie. It takes up most of the underside of my left forearm, so it took a while— about three hours. And the whole time there was this fly buzzing around, driving both me, and Brian, the tattoo artist nuts. I commiserated with him, explaining to him that flies that had plagued me here at the church all week. Now Brian is a really interesting guy, we had some great conversations. When we were talking about these horribly annoying flies, Brian told me about a theory he has—he said, “I don’t know if I believe it, but I like it.” He told me that he heard once that flies have some sort of dark energy to them, and so when they’re around, they’re trying to stop you from doing the good work you’re supposed to be doing. So now, because Brian’s faith lies more in eastern religion, whenever he’s getting bothered by a fly, he uses it as a reminder to center himself, to ground himself, and he starts reciting one of his mantras. He takes this irritating creature that’s distracting him from his work, and he turns it into something positive.

“I’m gonna use that.” I told him as he was shading in my tattoo. Because that concept, of taking this negative thing and turning it into good, got me thinking of today’s passage. It’s not every day that you’re ministered to by your tattoo artist.  

So we’re moving forward in the New Testament, but we’re actually moving back in time from where we’ve been over these past few weeks reading Paul’s letter to the Philippians. In fact, chronologically, First Thessalonians is widely believed to be the very first book written of the New Testament. For a little background, since we’ll be reading passages from his letters to the Thessalonians over the next few weeks, Thessalonica was a pretty vibrant city in Greece; it had been under Roman occupation for several centuries at this point, but it was still very, very Greek in culture. They were pagan, polytheistic. And, unlike most of the content of Paul’s other letters to various regions and groups of new Jesus-followers, there doesn’t seem to be any real disagreements or arguments or divisions going on. As is the story with all of Paul’s letters, we only get one side, so we don’t know all the details of the correspondence, but one thing that can be assumed is that he’s probably writing to quell some anxiety, and to encourage. It can be assumed since this is from the very earliest days of Christianity, that groups are believers were small, and they were getting the side-eye from those in authority.

In verse 6, Paul writes, “…in spite of persecution, you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit…” Steadfastness of faith in the face of persecution was huge for early Christians. It had to be, or else the faith wouldn’t have survived. And according to Paul, his friends in Thessalonica are a perfect example of steadfastness of faith in the face of persecution, and that is what will keep their community going and growing.

But that’s something that we can’t quite relate to today; though some people would like to claim that they’re persecuted as Christians, and enter into a really strange victim mentality, it’s just not the case. But just because Christians aren’t actively persecuted here in the US, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to be a good Christian today, right? We’ve talked about this before—the demanding work schedules, the constant barrage of bad news, the general fatigue that living in this world broken world causes. So no, we aren’t persecuted. We’re not gonna get thrown in jail for being Christians like Paul soon will. But we do have to work hard to keep out church afloat. We have to work together and be steadfast in our faith, and in the values of this church and this community if we want to survive.

Since coming back from maternity leave, I’ve been a little overwhelmed. I always prided myself on my time management skills, but since I’ve been back, I’m finding myself finishing, sometimes even just starting my sermons that what are supposed to be my days of. I’m finding that my anxiety is bubbling up to the surface more—I think I have a dream about forgetting my sermon on a Sunday morning about every other night. It just feels like everything is sort of amplified right now.

And so, I had really been letting that expletive fly get to me. And when I had that conversation with Brian on Friday, I thought—what a perfect way to turn something so annoying into something positive. Now, do I think the work that I’m doing is so important that some little demonic fly is targeting me so that I’ll quit? No, I’m not so arrogant. But I do love the idea of letting that stupid little insect force me to take a deep breath and remember why I do what I do. So while I’m not a mantra type of person, I was thinking, that whenever I see one of those flies in my office, instead of getting worked up and annoyed and letting that bug distract me from my work, or letting it add to the stress I’m already experiencing, I might take a deep breath, leave and spend just a few minutes in the sanctuary to just be, to just pray and remember the work Jesus calls me, calls all of us to do.

After Paul applauds his friends’ faith in the face of persecution, he praises them more saying, “…you became an example to all the believers not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known.” Imagine being anxious and nervous about you’re the path you’re on, even knowing it’s the right one, but scared of the potential dangers that await you, and imagine someone you most admire, someone you respect, revere even, a mentor of some kind, telling you that you are a prime example of all that is right. Imagine how encouraging that would feel. And he essentially lets them know that the fact that they are being persecuted probably means they’re doing something right.

And I wonder if that’s why some Christians want to play that victim card so badly—they want to be like those earliest Christians. After all, Paul does use this language of imitation—of imitating both Jesus and the apostles, and it’s easy to take this literally and assume it must mean that to really be a good Christian, we have to be oppressed. But I think today, being a good Christian is both recognizing the privilege we have as Christians in this country, as well as recognizing that to truly be a good Christian is to do the hard work that remains hard today. Calling oneself a Christian isn’t going to get you thrown in jail, holding a sit-in at Congress calling for cease-fire in the Middle East will—as was demonstrated by the anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace just a few days ago— around 500 demonstrators were arrested.

Now, I’m not asking anyone to put their lives or livelihoods at risk, though that is certainly would Paul and Jesus you ask. But  I think it’s easy to forget why we’re here. Why do we come here on Sundays? Why are we involved in this congregation, in this faith community? In my moments of overwhelm recently, I wouldn’t say I’ve forgotten why I’m here, but I’ve certainly let myself get sidetracked, get distracted by say, this pesky fly that just wouldn’t go away. We have to remember what we’re here for, what we’re asked to work for, the people we’re asked to stand for. Paul commends the Thessalonians for being imitators of Jesus and the apostles by being made joyful by the Holy Spirit in the face of persecution.

When we were talking about the Paul’s letter to the Philippians over the last few weeks, you might remember that Paul talked about “suffering” the losses of his wealth and status for following Jesus—but that he didn’t actually see this as suffering at all. He rejoiced in these losses because he knew he was on a righteous path now, creating and nurturing these communities in Christ that would stand together in the face of the oppressive Roman Empire.

We can imitate Jesus and the apostles by standing together in the face of Empire in our own small way today, I think. Because that’s the thing— when you’re the right thing—that is, working to lift up the poor, the disenfranchised, you’re working against Empire. Because to maintain an Empire, those in power have to keep some folks down, right? There always has to be someone under them so they can keep that power and status. And when you’re working from the ground up against those in power, there’s always gonna be pushback, and the work is always gonna be an uphill battle. But we know we’re doing the right thing, so we do it with joy.

It's that joy that we have to really hold onto. It’s the joy in community that we have to hold fast to. That’s what keeps us going. That joy in standing in solidarity with one another working for an earth as it is in heaven. That joy of just being together, working as one body to create and maintain a space for all people to feel safe and loved. That doesn’t sound like something that would be persecuted, and it isn’t… on the surface. But ultimately, communities like ours are few and far between these days. The Empire we live under keeps us so busy and stressed so that we don’t have the time to work for a world where everyone is loved and equal; it keeps us busy and stressed so we can keep the status quo of Empire going by not having the time or the energy to maintain and build our community of faith and of love.

And when we’re so exhausted by the Empire that we live under, it’s easy to become anxious, it’s easy to become frustrated and distracted. It’s easy to let some stupid little fly throw your whole day off. So I hope from now on, when I encounter some infuriating little distraction like that fly, that I can hold true to my word and take a moment of peace in the sanctuary and remember why I’m here—to remember all the times the people of this church family have stepped up and helped one another; have stepped up and helped me; and to remember that my daughter is going to grow up knowing what true community is, something that is sorely lacking these days.

So I wonder if we all can make an effort to be aware of when we’re at a breaking point, when we’re at a place where we let something like a fly or some minor annoyance just throw our whole day off, if we can use that annoyance and turn it into a positive— to bring ourselves back, to center ourselves, to remember why we come here on Sundays; to remember why we remain a part of a community of Christ like this when it seems it gets harder and harder to make time for it. Maybe it’s a mantra, maybe it’s a prayer, maybe it’s a meditation.

And in remembering why we come together, why we work together as one to continue our good works in the face of Empire, we can be examples to all believers, to all people, of the good communities like ours can accomplish in the world. And that is something to rejoice about. Amen.