Social Holiness: Hope
God’s Salvation is Not in Our Grasp
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Nov. 19th, 2023
One summer I was out to visit a friend and he took me to two worship services. One worship service was in the morning. It was a venerable church with a large endowment. They had a pipe organ with a top tier organist. They hired a choir from the nearby university. Everything about the production was excellent. Only there were hardly any people, and those who were there didn’t seem all that engaged. Despite all that was put into the service the spirit was lacking.
Later that day he took me to another church that met in the parish house. It was a ragtag group of old hippies and college students. They sat in a circle, almost like a Quaker meeting. One of them broke out a guitar and they sang hymns and praise choruses. Someone brought a message. They gathered in prayer and made intercession for all the ills of the world. Even though they lacked a building, an organ, a choir, or an endowment; and even though they were small in number, yet the Spirit was present in that gathering. I felt the Spirit’s stillness, and hopefulness.
When we gather in worship it is not simply to meet old friends or to hear edifying messages or to enjoy music. It is not to sing our lungs out or to raise funds for community work. It is so that we, as the gathered body of Christ, might know the Spirit’s presence. That we would witness to the living God. It is the Holy Spirit that makes a holy Church. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Freedom from sin, freedom from guilt, freedom to be faithful, loving, hopeful people following Christ.
We need to have conviction about the Spirit’s presence. Jesus promised that it was to our benefit that he would ascend to heaven because he would send the advocate, the comforter to us. A downpayment of our salvation. The presence of God in our midst that propels us on and teaches us what we need to know to follow Christ. But we also need to have a certain awe and reverence. The Holy Spirit is not a power given to us like we were some superheroes, the Holy Spirit is the Holy God in our midst and Lord over the Church. The Holy Spirit gives us life. And the Holy Spirit is not, not, at our command.
It is a continual temptation for the Church in all ages, and by extension for Christians of all ages, to assume the Holy Spirit is ours as a possession. That the gifts of God are ours for our disposal. But the Spirit is not our possession, he is not at our disposal, the Spirit is the living God in our midst. As the Lord was present to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, in these latter days God makes his presence known among his people in his Spirit.
It is easy for us to think of God as at our disposal because God is so faithful and generous. There’s an old GK Chesterton line about God’s eternal youthfulness, "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” So too it is when we clasp our hands in prayer or gather around the table. God never tires of our prayers or our intercessions. But each and every time God acts out of his free love and grace. Not out of any command we might make of God. Not on account of our own authority.
We are yet sinners. We are yet broken and incomplete. God’s full salvation has not yet been seen. We are all pilgrims on the way, sinners seeking salvation. What we will be has not yet been revealed.
God makes his presence known in the Holy Spirit. And yet at the same time God promises more. The full promises of God have yet to be fulfilled. This morning Paul turns our attention to the end. The end, Paul says, that is coming like a thief in the night. The end, he says, that comes in sudden destruction. But an end that need not surprise us. Because we are children of the day, not the night. We have the Holy Spirit in our midst teaching us all things. And through the Spirit we know we are not destined for wrath, but we are destined for salvation in Christ. And that same Spirit may keep us sober, keep us awake, prepare us for the fullness of the Lord’s coming.
We should never presume that salvation is in hand. We should never presume that we have such authority that we can call down God’s power at will. We should never presume that we have made it, that our salvation is secure. If we presume we are no longer a people of hope.
The future is in God’s hands. The movements of the Spirit are the free movements of God. Our salvation is in God’s hands. Recognizing this is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, and also the beginning of holiness. All is in Gods hands. But he is patient, long-suffering, full of loving kindness. The love of God endures forever. We may have hope in his promise. A promise he makes known in the Spirit of God in our midst.