"People Will Talk"
October 16, 2005: 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Rev. John MacIver Gage, co-pastor
United Church on the Green, UCC: New Haven, CT
www.newlights.org

Scripture:
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 labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that [God] 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 persons 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 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 [God's] Son from heaven, whom [God] raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Sermon:
The following transcript was uncovered recently by archaeologists exploring the ruins of an ancient Chamber of Commerce building in Thessalonika:

"Hello. My name's Troy McClure. You may remember me from some ancient world promotional videos as 'What's So Colossal About Rhodes?' and 'Sparta, Sparta-cular!'.

"But today I'm here to talk to you about Thessalonika. We're a modern city-state on the go... and on the grow! We got off to a Great start with Alexander back in 316 B.C.E., but we just keep getting better. In Thessalonika, we're just four centuries young, and it shows. Things have really taken off since the Roman Empire made us their "Gateway to the Eastern Colonies" along the Via Egnatia's ultra-modern one-lane superhighway. Traffic and trade couldn't be easier! Plus, our up-to-date port facilities mean shipping your important cargo out to Ephesus or Alexandria or points beyond is a breeze.

"But don't you think about shipping out! Thessalonika is a great place to settle down and raise a family. Thanks to the world-famous Pax Romana and the many brave troops garrisoned here with us on their way to combat terrorism in the Middle East, we enjoy unparalleled peace and security. Under the auspices of our beloved Emperor, the streets are safe at night, the slaves are kept in line, and the chariots run on time. Yessir, under the influence of Imperial Rome it's a brand new age here in Thessalonika—a golden age, an Augustan Age.

"Just imagine how good you'll feel walking ten paces in front of your wife through the twilight in beautiful Imperial Square beneath the statue of His Majesty Emperor Augustus, Our Holy Father and Almighty Lord—a civic improvement made possible through the generosity of the Greater Thessalonika Chamber of Commerce, the Cult of Isis, the Cult of Dionysus, and the Masons—while the smoke rises from evening sacrifices in His divine name. We don't care who else you worship. In Thessalonica, as long as you love the Emperor, we love you.

"Now that's what I call living! And the good life can be yours today in Thessalonika: Macedonia's Rising Star. Remember, if you lived here, you'd be home now!"

This message brought to you by the Council for Religious, Political, and Economic Cooperation of Greater Thessalonika, "Building a Better Thessalonika for Tomorrow, Today."

Sometimes it's hard to get ourselves into the mindset of those First Century churches Paul was writing to in his many letters, later collected as the Epistles of the New Testament. And sometimes it's not.

The church Paul planted in Thessalonika was struggling to take root and grow at a time in the history of that city-state when civic religion was being used to bolster the political and economic powers-that-were. Diversity in religious belief was part of the public discourse, of course, and the usual wide variety of cults had adherents in Thessalonika, but they were always assumed to operate within the larger context of mandatory devotion to the Roman Emperor.

Because remember, when we talk about the Emperor in First Century empire life, we're talking about not just political but religious power. Since the days of Caesar Augustus, in city-states from Spain to Persia, the Emperor was treated as a god and received prayers and ritual sacrifices and titles like "Father of the Empire," "Savior," and "Lord." Dionysians and Isis-ites and others were tolerated, even allowed to flourish, as long as they did their civic duty and offered incense and animal fat to the divinely appointed administration in Rome, as well.

This was a particularly true in Thessalonika. Once simply a wide spot in the road, with a sign that read "Alexander slept here," Thessalonika had experienced enormous growth in the wake of Roman expansion. They benefited greatly from the new Roman road and were quick to adapt to Roman ways in religion and politics, too. They did, in fact, raise a statue to the great Augustus, and claimed that he had brought them into a great new golden age. His was the first and second coming rolled into one, at least as far as the merchants and bureaucrats were concerned. So what if they had to sacrifice some of their civil liberties along with those pigeons and goats on the imperial altar? What was that compared with the peace and security of the Pax Romana? Who in their right mind could object to that?

Well, the Christians, that's who. Like their Jewish kin, the new Christian church in Thessalonika refused to play along. They refused to go along with "civic religion." They objected to the way the civil authorities misappropriated religious vocabulary to shore up their own political and economic power. To the church, being a Christian meant being a Christian only offering obedience first and only to the God made known in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

So people in Thessalonika began to talk. They talked about how the Christians weren't "our kind of people." They talked about how the Christians must not love their country because they refused to pray for the Emperor. They talked about how the Christians clearly didn't support the troops, because unlike all the other communities of faith, the Christians insisted soldiers renounce their vows of obedience to the Emperor before joining the church. They talked about how, on the other hand, the Christians seemed to admit just anyone to their ranks. Rich and poor, men and women, even slaves and free, sitting right there next to each other in church like one big happy family! It was scandalous. It was wrong.

And it was dangerous to the Thessalonian way of life. "Who cares what those people do in the privacy of their own homes," the talk went around, "but why do they have to make trouble? Their faith threatens to undermine the entire social order—and the peace and profitability of our community!"

But with the encouragement of teachers like Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, the Christians of Thessalonika held fast. They reclaimed their religious vocabulary, retooled it, and put it back out into the public arena on their own terms. They looked to God alone as their divine Father, so all persons, Gentile and Jew, male and female, even slave and free were one family in God's love. And Jesus alone was the "Anointed of God," the Christ, and Savior. It was the new age of God's peace, love, and justice the Christians were looking to bring in, the Pax Christi, not Augustus' bloody Pax Romana chewing through tremendous resources to bring "peace" to some and war to many more, all the while perpetuating class divisions that kept the great majority of people in economic thrall to a tiny elite.

Soon the growing family of churches around the Mediterranean began to hear about them, their steadfast faith in the face of so much public opposition, and the Thessalonians' story strengthened their own resolve in the Gospel to live not merely as good citizens of the empire but as true believers in the love of God against which every human institution is to be judged. Paul wrote back to the Thessalonians from one of those neighboring congregations in the reading we have before us today. Hear his words again reflected in Eugene Peterson's modern Biblical paraphrase, The Message:

Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you're in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Lord, Jesus Christ, before God our heavenly Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put God's hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. In imitating us, you imitated the Lord. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble. Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Lord's Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore—you are the message!

Sometimes it's hard to get ourselves into the mindset of those First Century churches Paul was writing to in his letters. And sometimes it's not. Let those with ears hear! Listen, we know that people talk about us. We know many other communities of faith, and in particular many, many other churches, believe what we do here at United Church—the way we seek to speak truth to power, lifting our voices against an unjust imperial war, speaking out on behalf of the disenfranchised, the poor, the immigrant among us, workers, women and children, persons of color, and yes, gay and lesbian persons—many believe we are a scandal, wrong, dangerous, that what we say and do and believe will undermine the social order.

Well, Amen, sister—Amen to that fair prayer say I! As a follower of Christ, I seek nothing less than the total transformation of this world in accordance with God's purposes of peace, love, and justice, though I know my own life will be turned upside-down along with the all the rest. But I am willing to take the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble. I hope people are talking about us. I hope that my life, that our life as a congregation is stirring things up. I pray we are a true echo of God's word, not just out here in the provinces or in God's house, but in the Whitehouse and the halls of power. I pray we are turning that word into action not just for an elite few but for one and for all.

Friends, I believe that God has put God's hand on us for something special—that same something special God has in store for all God's children: liberation, redemption, healing, wholeness, salvation. Because the Gospel news of the faith we share in Christ is getting out. How do I know? Because people are talking! And people are talking because, despite all our faults and failings, all the ways we still stumble over ourselves, even in our very best intentions, still, still God is speaking through us.

People will talk. They always do. So let's give them something to talk about. Let them see the Gospel at work in our lives, not as a high and mighty city on a hill, the shining example of a very few far removed from the hurly burly of real life, but let them see in us a river of grace continually flowing outward to water a thirsty world until the desert blooms like a garden, the garden of God's intention. God is still speaking, friends, and, by the grace of Christ, we are part of God's message of abundant life for all. Thanks be to God.