Prayers and Thanksgiving

Advent 3 – December 17, 2023

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Luke 1:47-53
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

If you just read Paul’s introductions and conclusions of his letters you would think that he was a guy with an even temperament, always in a good mood, calling us to prayers and thanksgiving and to rejoice always. But if you read the body of his letters and Luke’s account of him in Acts you will note that he was not even tempered. In his letter to the Galatians he is so angry that there are places where his grammar fails and it is difficult to understand what he is saying. (In the Greek – translators fix his grammatical mistakes). The meaning of several of these passages evoke strong disagreements among scholars even today. There is also the scene in Acts where he heals the slave girl who has a demon that allows her to tell fortunes because she constantly annoyed him. (He spent some time in jail for that one.) Paul was really no different than you and me. He had good points and bad. At times he suffered, and celebrated other times. He was, in the modern convention, a complicated guy. In fact he gave up a relatively easy life (as one could have had in Roman times) for one that brought about much toil and heartbreak. And, still, in the midst of his struggles he is able to give prayers and thanksgiving to God for his life and for those he met. More importantly he was always able to rejoice. He did not rejoice in his troubles and hardships. He rejoiced that God guided and gifted him with all that he needed.

That is the message for you today. While many will tell you that, with Jesus, life will be easy and all your problems will be solved, that is not true. For Paul life was more difficult after he became a follower of Jesus. That was the experience of many of the early Christians. That is one of the many messages Paul and the other New Testament writers conveyed. Living with Jesus does not magically remove your troubles – he gives you the strength and ability to continue in the midst of them. While the world offers riches, luxury, financial well-being, and an easy life if you buy certain things, it cannot fill the emptiness and guilt that comes from our sin and death. I sometimes wonder if that’s what this season has become for some people: Buying gifts and making plans and gathering families in an attempt to push aside the troubles that assail us. And maybe that is the crux of the problem. No matter how hard we try, on our own, we cannot push aside the sting of sin and death. Only Jesus can do that.

Knowing that Jesus was his salvation, Paul was able to pray, give thanksgiving, and rejoicing always. He knew that only Jesus could save him from his troubles. We know that too. The problem is we are constantly bombarded by the world’s answer to our problems and choose to try it their way. Instead listen to Paul and pray often, giving thanks for God’s gifts, and rejoicing in the gift of Jesus. Spend time with Jesus this season as we celebrate his coming to us as an infant born of poor parents in a troubled and troubling world.