“Boasting of the Good Stuff” - October 30, 2016

II Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

            I kind of miss the three-hour Good Friday services that a lot of us grew up with.  When they went away they took with them a good deal of the solemnity that Good Friday really should have.  One thing that I do not miss, however, is the series of sermons on the Seven Last Words or, as I once heard somebody call it, the Pillsbury Preach-Off.  Nobody really ever intends for worship to become competitive, but it does happen that people make comparisons even when they don’t mean to do that.  Put seven preachers in the same pulpit in three hours, though, and there will be someone at some point who thinks either, “I wish I had said that,” or “I think I could have put that better.”  That’s human nature.

            On the other hand, a lot of outright bragging goes on in the church world.  It often strikes me when I see some mega-church spring up in a cornfield or adding on another wing that somebody somewhere is going to be insufferable about it.  Instead of adding on another service, ridiculous amounts of money are spent on making the sanctuary so big that people in back cannot see the front through the haze from the fog machines and have to have those big screens and jumbotrons projecting the whole thing.

            Again, they don’t always mean it to happen, but the attitude that can come through at times toward smaller, more traditional churches can be condescending.  “Oh, don’t you have anyone directing traffic?”  The comments in return imply that they are all flash-and-dazzle and no substance, with jabs about coffee lounges and holy hipsters.  That’s not fair, either.  (And I myself just made a cheap shot like that, so – guilty as charged.)

            If there is any place for boasting, it has to be boasting about something that we have nothing to do with directly.  It is boasting about what God is up to.  There are a lot of places where the Psalms encourage us to do exactly that, and the New Testament continues the practice, where Paul’s letters often use the word “boast” with the same admonitions.

“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” [Galatians 6:14]

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” [Ephesians 2:8-10]

If we boast of the good stuff that is happening, we should do it in such a way that it recognizes and celebrates that it really is God who is working wonders all the time.

            Those wonders are not necessarily the great, external achievements that can be reduced to numbers.  They may be what William Pierson Merrill called “conquests of the spirit” in a Thanksgiving hymn that we sometimes sing and that resonates in (forgive me for mentioning this) an election season:

“Not alone for mighty empire,
Stretching far over land and sea,
Not alone for bounteous harvests,
Lift we up our hearts to Thee.
Standing in the living present,
Memory and hope between,
Lord, we would with deep thanksgiving,
Praise Thee more for things unseen.

Not for battleships and fortress,
Not for conquests of the sword,
But for conquests of the spirit
Give we thanks to Thee, O Lord;
For the priceless gift of freedom,
For the home, the church, the school,
For a place of true belonging,
In a land the people rule.

For the armies of the faithful,
Souls that passed and left no name;
For the glory that illumines
Patriot lives of deathless fame.
For our prophets and apostles,
Loyal to the living Word,
For all heroes of the spirit,
Give we thanks to Thee, O Lord.”

Paul speaks of the gifts of God that he sees among the Thessalonians in that vein, even in hard times.

“We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.” [II Thessalonians 1:3-4]

The growth of faith and of love are always to be celebrated, with the ways that they are shown being examples.

            So let me brag a little bit.  Do you realize how deep the care and concern of this congregation for its community is?  It is so deep that about one-third of the worshiping congregation helps out with cooking and serving meals to people who can use them on a regular basis.  (And we could still use a hand with that program, by the way.  The numbers of people eating dinner at St. Peter’s has been going up and a few more cooks and servers would be good to have.)  Do you realize that we have people who don’t make a big deal of it, but who put in time at PACS and the Clinic and Meals on Wheels and at the library, who coach kids at sports and volunteer at the firehouse?  The concern goes far afield, too.  We have people who work with students in Philadelphia.  We have people with ties to Christian communities in Central America.  I could go on.

            God uses the connections we have, person to person, to reach those who need the good news of Jesus in sometimes unexpected ways.  The Upper Room Prayer Center is part of the work we support through the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship. They get about 800 calls a day.  A story that showed up in their one of their blurbs this past week said this:

“Brian is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for drug trafficking. One Thursday afternoon, he decided to use his few minutes of phone time to connect with The Upper Room Living Prayer Center. 

Most who call the prayer center ask for healing, strength, or divine guidance, so Brian’s request caught our volunteer off guard, especially when Brian identified himself as a prison inmate. 

‘Will you pray a prayer of gratitude with me?’ Brian asked.

Brian told the volunteer, ‘I am where I need to be, and I am making a difference in the lives of men I meet here in prison. I am thankful that God has guided me to do the right thing. While other guys get shorter sentences, I am thankful to be serving my time. It’s the right thing to do.’

Brian and the volunteer prayed together. They prayed that Brian would have strength and courage, and that he would be a good example to those around him. The volunteer reminded Brian that the prayer center network would continue to pray for—and with—him.”

That’s the sort of thing that’s worth boasting about.  That’s the good stuff that God and God alone can bring about.  And isn’t it good to know that he does?

“To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfil by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [I Thessalonians 1:11-12]