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The winter after I graduated from college was a rough one. Not only because it was a lighter "snowpocalypse" than we had the year before (so still bad weather), but because the heater in my apartment was out for two months of that winter and our landlord was out of the country.
It got to the point that one day I decided to do something about it. I got my roommates together to try and come up with a plan to approach our landlord about the problem, or to even do something else to try to fix it. But one of my roommates was too scared of getting kicked out to act and the other was too indifferent. I felt alone and betrayed, and I wasn't sure what I could do.
At the time, I happened, in my spare time, to be taking Year One of Education for Ministry, or EfM. For those unfamiliar, this is a program that comes out of Sewanee and is designed to help increase lay members' knowledge of the Bible and Church History. We also did a lot of spiritual reflection too. I had become very close with my group, so much so that I still keep in touch with our EfM mentor after all this time.
When I told my group what was going on not only was there support, but there was help. Everyone in the room offered me so sort of help, whether legal advice or an offer for a place to stay. Of course, our landlord got back within the week and the problem got fixed, but I was touched by all the offers. I was touched to actually have support and love from a group in the church.
It was in that moment that I learned to importance of Christian Community and the church because each and every one of us from time to time needs this community to help and support us.
That's what the reading from 1 Thessalonians is about this morning. It's about the help we give to each other as members of the church.
This reading continues the conversation from last week. Last Sunday we talked about the bridesmaids in Matthew who were wise and continued to train themselves in their faith and in their listening to God to be ready for when Jesus came into their hearts. This is the example we are called to follow.
And we hear some of the same language that we heard in the parable last week. We get the unexpected hour of Jesus' arrival in both. And the message in today's reading is to keep awake, to be ready. While the bridesmaids last week did fall asleep, the wise ones were still ready.
But the reading this morning from 1 Thessalonians is that we are called to build each other up in being ready. We're called to encourage and help one another.
We are not meant to train ourselves in our faith alone. That is the excruciatingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, path. At times we need the encouragement from others when our situation seems to be beyond us, as it did for me in my winter without heat. Sometimes we need to just know that someone else is there. Sometimes we just need the presence of the other to remind us that God Himself is there with us in both our times of joy and our times of sorrow.
We are not meant to go through our lives in faith alone. That is why we call the church the body of Christ. That is why Paul in 1 Corinthians spells out the role that each of us has in that body, just as each part of our own bodies has a role to play. That is why we celebrated the great communion of saints just two weeks ago. We don't go through our life in faith alone. We do it together as a community.
The Parable of the Talents tells us that we each have gifts God has given us to offer, whether they are talents as in our abilities or they are talents as in money as we see in the parable. In each case we're called to build those gifts up, to train ourselves continually. In speaking of talents, I also want to give my plug for stewardship this week. Please do continue to give as much your time, talent, and treasure as you can to help us continue to do the work of Christ Jesus together in this church.
As I said last week, the life of faith is one we are continually training for. And we don't have to do it alone. We shouldn't have to do it alone. So when you see your fellow member struggling, help pick him or her up. And when you find yourself in need of help, look no further than your neighbor here. Because we don't go through this journey in faith alone. We go through it together.