I Thessalonians 4:13-18 is a short excursion into pastoral care for St. Paul and his beloved Thessalonians. This text is the Second Reading appointed for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost in the Year of Matthew. It is also the Sunday following All Saints Sunday. What we hear in this letter is St. Paul's concern for those who are grieving, specifically those who are not only grieving but wondering what will become of their loved ones who have tied prior to the Lord's return. This pastoral concern will be the concern of the preacher's as well.
(The following questions are not meant to be exhaustive but are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes. These questions are meant to help understand how the Word is functioning in the text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers. For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? This text is all gospel, ending with the words, "Encourage one another with these words." This text raises up the victory of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and all the saints, and the promise of being together with the Lord forever. All this is gospel.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? There is no Word of Law here, no word that calls us to repentance, or shows us our need for a Savior. The First Reading from Amos 5 provides that word.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? As always we identify with those to whom the Word is addressed, in this case, those who are grieving. We too hear the words of promise that give us courage.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? The only imperative in this passage is in the last line, the call to encourage one another. This is a call to obedience, albeit a small one.
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? Some of the classic couplets provided by Herman Stuempfle certainly work well here: anxiety/certitude; despair/hope; transiency/homecoming.
6. Exegetical work: Beverly Roberts Gaventa does a nice job of highlighting the pastoral concerns of St. Paul. She reminds us that "the community did not expect anyone to die prior to Jesus' return." Where she finds real hope is in verse 14a, where Paul makes clear that "Jesus' resurrection is not an isolated event, a single rabbit God pulled out of the hat to demonstrate that Jesus is in fact the Christ. The resurrection is directly connected with God's final triumph and with the lives of all human beings." (Interpretation series, First and Second Thessalonians, pp.63-64). This echoes the words of Gregory the Great who wrote: "It is unseemly to addict oneself to weary affliction for those of whom it is to be believed that they have attained to true life by dying." (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT, vol. IX, p. 84). Augustine, more of a pastor than Gregory, gets us back to pastoral concern: "We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart, and shall come to that life, where, more than ever, their dearness to us will be proportional to the closeness we shared on earth and where we shall love them without fear of parting." (Ibid., p.84).
7. How does the Crossings Community model work with this text? Steve Kuhl does a nice job of picking up on the different sorts of hope that St. Paul refers to. Grieving "as others do" is contrasted with grieving with hope. This is one way the preacher may approach this text. See crossings.org/text-study for the whole analysis.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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