NEW TESTAMENT 1 Thessalonians 3: 9 - 13 (RCL)

1The 3:9 (NRSV) How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.


1 Thessalonians 3: 12 - 4: 2 (Roman Catholic)

1The 3:12 (NRSV) And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 4:1 Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Notes h/t/

During the many years of wars that took place after the death of the Great Alexander (in 323 BC), only one man was successfully able to rule (and eventually also to call himself King of) Alexander's homeland itself - Macedonia. The man's name was Cassander. After eliminating his rivals, becoming guardian of the toddler King (Alex IV), and securing the loyalty of the nobility under his rule, Cassander needed to strengthen his future hopes at claiming the throne. To do this, he married the only surviving member of the Royal Bloodline, a daughter of Philip the Great, and half-sister to Great Alexander. The woman's name was Thessalonike. They married in 316 BC.

In 317 BC, when Thessalonike and her stepmother (Cassander's last rivals) were beseiged for a year, the future King began making plans for his new country. Cassander sent his troops to strengthen old cities and to build new ones in strategic places. The most important new city, in the most strategic location, was just being finished when Cassander finally took Thessalonike as his captive, and then as his bride. Perhaps as a wedding present, he named the new city after her.

Cassander built Thessalonica on the site of an ancient Thracian settlement called Therme (which means ‘hot’). The site was especially valuable because of several choice features that had to do with its location, not the least of which was a large natural harbor, deep at the shoreline, where Cassander used to increase trade with the inland areas, and for basing a sizeable portion of his fleet. Using both Macedonian and Athenian architects, Cassander gave the old village gates, walls, a fortress, temples, a gym, stadium, theater, and all the special features necessary to be called a city in the world of their day.

The new city grew in importance and prospered, barring periods of conflict, for over a century. When the Romans finally occupied all of Greece (after their second invasion, in 168) they soon noticed the perfect location and harbor of Thessalonica, and made it the capital of their new province. By 140 a new Roman road, the Via Egnatia, was built running right past the city, connecting the traffic of land trade and armies between two major parts of the Mediterranean seas. The Romans kept peace, and the city grew in size and in (relative) prosperity. Italians, Jews and Macedonian-Egyptians all moved to the city, to share opportunities, and wealth (such as it was)….

In the 83rd year after Augustus’ rule began, his nephew Claudius was on the throne, and a new type of religion was introducing itself to the West. In January of 51 AD, two Jews from Palestine, calling themselves followers of “the Christ”, walked into Thessalonica. In that cosmopolitan city, as in so many others, Paul and Silas would manage to turn that whole world upside down… for three months!


h/t http://bible.org/seriespage

“Night and day” does not mean once at night and once in the morning nor does it mean that all night and all day they did nothing but pray. It means they prayed during the night and during the day, i.e., regularly, consistently, and in earnest.65

“Complete” is the Greek karartizo. It means “to fit together or adjust, restore, repair, equip.

“What is lacking” is the Greek husterema, “deficiency, what is behind.” It brings out an important principle. Our faith and our knowledge, application, and faith in the faith never reaches a point of perfection. There is always room for improvement and growth.





GOSPEL Luke 21: 25 - 36 (RCL)
Luke 21: 25 - 28, 34 - 36 (Roman Catholic)

Luke 21:25 (NRSV) "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see "the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
29 Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
34 "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

h/t http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/cadv1l.shtml

Darkness day and night was considered a sign of the coming of divine judgement:


the “Son of Man” (v. 27), the ideal human, Christ, will come from heaven (“in a cloud”, a symbol of divine presence, as at the Transfiguration) with power to control events. Then “redemption” (v. 28), God’s acts of freeing his chosen people, will be near.


do not be so “weighed down” (v. 34) with day-to-day earthy matters that you are unprepared for the final call (“that day”). It will be for all those who survive all disasters (v. 35). Pray that God may give you the strength to resist all evils, so that you may “stand before” (v. 36) Christ, be deemed worthy by him.

“adorned with beautiful stones”: The second Temple was begun after the return from exile (c. 520 BC), and was modest. Herod began construction of the third Temple in 20 BC; it was finished in 63 AD, and destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD at the end of the Jewish revolt. It was still under construction in Jesus’ day. The stones were some 11 m long x 5.5 m wide x 3.6 m deep. The Temple was begun by Herod the Great


Usually, however, the reference is simply to the coming of the Son of Man or Christ as Lord which, like the coming of the Kingdom of God, the Day of Judgement, and the resurrection of the dead, was expected in the not too far distant future, at the end of the present era.