1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Want to be saved from a coming wrath? Unfortunately, there are no free passes. Fortunately, there are resources to aid us in not responding to wrath wrathfully.

Find a living and true G*D. That ought to be easy, except such tends to toss salvation back to you. Since the future is not just an in-breaking of a quantum leap surprising to behold, but an outgrowth of investments we make in it by the way we operate today, we again hear those ancient words, “Choose this day . . . .”

All the encouraging words patting us on the back for having moved in the direction Paul was headed, will eventually lead us to a key issue in the whole book of 1 Thessalonians - persistence in the face of difficulty that we be ready to receive a present paradise in what appears to be a dark and dismal day to come.

Let's say Jesus saves us from a coming wrath. OK. How?

Not by snapping fingers or impecable calendaring or a past act of integrity that rolls on of its own accord. No.

Modeling a persistent drive for a preferred future through intentional present action. Yes.

In following Moses' way of following G*D, following Jesus' way of following Moses and G*D, encourages others in following us following Jesus following Moses following G*D - not unsimilar to the house that Jack built. Such persistence does not allow a passive waiting for an apocalyptic moment, but insists on active investment, willingly risked, anticipating a way through a next self-caused crash based on what we do today.

persistence of trust
of something better
in the face of great persistence
claiming only more of the same
is our way through
to paradise
while wading deep
in unnecessary wrath

[You might be interested in an economic paper that talks about persistence in dealing with the wrath to come from the latest burst bubble pipe-dream of an ever upward economy. The authors speak of persistence in this fashion,

Rather than lurching from one futile mini-stimulus and quantitative easing to another, we must build consensus around a five-to-seven-year plan that matches the likely duration of the de-levering with which we now live, as well as that of the time it will take for emerging markets to transition to patterns of economic growth driven by domestic demand rather than exports.