Community Always

1 Thessalonians 5:13b – 22

This morning we’re going to jump out of the first Testament in our Bible, the Hebrew scriptures, after spending the whole of last month in the history, prophets and psalms of our scripture. We’ll jump from the Old Testament writings of last month to the oldest writing we have in the New Testament this morning.

But first, let me ask you something: Somewhere between the years 33 CE and 55 CE – that is, at some time within the first twenty-plus years after Jesus’ death – something fascinating happened.  Understanding that these dates are not absolutely certain, but rather best scholarly guesses, and the most popularly used dates, who can tell me what happened somewhere between 33 CE and 55 CE?  Anyone? Lots of stuff historically, of course. But something to do with us as a gathering …

Somewhere in that relatively brief timespan the first known community of the “followers of the Way”, that is the Way of Jesus, shows up in history. 55 CE is the year most commonly used to date the writing of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.  It is not the original text, of course, we have no original scriptural texts.  They are all copies of copies, at least – of copies of copies, most likely.  But the first letter to the Thessalonians is widely thought to be the oldest writing in the New Testament and it reveals for us a bi about the first Christion community on record. One that was first called the followers of “The Way,” later the “ecclesia,” the gathering, and ultimately the Church, the Body of the resurrected Christ on earth.

Pray with me …       

So, as a community of followers of the Way in 2026, our great-great-great-great-great-great-seventy-eight-generations-ago grandparent was a small gathering of people in the Greek city of Thessalonica. And like us, this new community in the first century was a profoundly counter-cultural one.  It was not the first to “counter” culture, to be sure, but it did it a new way, a way not done for thousands of years, at least, since the radically monotheistic faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wandered into ancient Palestine out of Mesopotamia and Egypt. 

This community was first formed by those who were learning about the teachings and healings of Jesus, who were told about his brutal death by crucifixion and then how his first followers experienced his presence even after that death.  This community formed up through those with whom that experience was shared, who then had that Resurrection experience themselves … and shared their experience of it … and so on, and so on, continuing for two thousand years and counting, all the way up to us.  We have all experienced the Resurrection power of God at one time or another in our lives. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have come back to this community, back to church, right? (You’re not just here for a good sermon, are you?!)

And, from the very beginning this community, our community – the Body of Christ, the Church – has had some pretty peculiar characteristics, or features, and some pretty odd requirements.  Some of these characteristics and requirements were recorded from the outset of this Holy enterprise, through the oldest words of our second, New, Testament scripture.  Listen for the Word of God …

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:13b-22 … The Word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.

Beautiful … So, how many of you were here every week last month, the Sundays in July? We had some fun during this hour where more of us gather together than any other hour of the week. We turned around in these “forward-facing” pews every Sunday morning, encouraging all who gathered to engage one another in ways we don’t usually do during worship. Ours is a pretty traditional “form and order” of worship. We messed around a little with both of those things last month – nothing too radical, to be sure, but new and different for us.

Well, last month grew out of the month that came before it – June, on our worldly calendars and the beginning of the Season of Pentecost on our church ones. We asked some questions of ourselves on Pentecost Sunday, the last Sunday of May, and we explored our responses during the month of June in order to set up the worship experiences in July.

What do you care most about? What matters to you? What questions and concerns do you have about your life and the world? And how is God setting your soul on fires these days?

In fact, everything has been connected, week-to-week, month-to-month, for us as a community of faith since the beginning of our Lenten Journey and our Annual Congregational meeting on the first Sunday of Lent way back on February twenty-second. We hope that on some level those of you who call this community home have realized that. We’ve done a few things to force you to experience that – kicking and screaming, or smiling and laughing, all the way.

The worship we’ve gathered for, the music we’ve sung, the messages we’ve heard, the questions we’ve asked and the responses we’ve given during these last five months insist that we are a people longing for deeper connection, shared purpose, and practical ways to embody our faith. As it was in the first recorded gathering of followers, we “seek peace among ourselves, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the week and are patient with all.”  Through our Hope for the world as God desires it, we do not seek to do evil for evil but seek to do good to one another and to all. With our Lament we “test everything, holding fast to what is good”. As Prayer, we pray without ceasing. And for Joy we rejoice always. This has been life in Christian community from the very first recorded gatherings until today, here and now.

And we’re in a really fascinating “wrinkle in time” in this seventy-eighth generational iteration of “the Church”. I’m pretty certain every generation thinks they’re in a fascinating time. And that’s probably good – it drives the Church forward. But in our time, we are faithfully asking, more and more, not how do we get more people in the pews on Sunday morning? But how do we live faithfully in a world beyond these pews that feels increasingly fractured? Your Pastors, your Session, your Ministry Team leaders and an increasing number of you believe that if we can find responses to that second question, then the first will resolve itself. If we as a worshipping community can be relevant in people’s lives, then these pews may seat more people.  And we’re thinking of “these pews” as much more than the wooden benches of our sanctuary. “These pews” include the chairs and spaces in The Parish House, the classrooms and gym of the Child Development Center, and the parks and community spaces in South Oldham County.

And, if there’s any truth in our questions centering less on numbers and more on meaning, then we don’t primarily need more programs. We need deeper connection, shared purpose, and practices that help us share one another’s joy and carry one another’s burdens. Our future together, then, will involve creating more spaces and more gatherings where people are not merely volunteers but companions; where people know a bit of your story, notice your absence, and offer you a community that makes space for the rest of your life outside these walls! I can only imagine that this is what the first communities of the “followers of the Way” were most concerned with.

Yes, eventually they’re going to have to figure out what they “believe”. In the next few centuries an institution will arise that will insist on an orthodoxy that just may be the death of it millennia later.

Yes, eventually they’re going to have to figure out who will “lead” them in their beliefs and practices. In the next few centuries an authority will be established that continues to create and maintain priest and pastor centered societies, for better and for worse.

And yes, eventually they’re going to have to figure out how to pay for all the buildings and properties and programs they’ve built and created. In the next few millennia that infrastructure will be the doom of many a faithful worshipping community.

But, for those who first gathered, these were the guiding values: Belonging, Becoming, and Blessing. People were welcomed, known, and valued. People were growing in and being transformed by their trust and fidelity to a Way of Life very different than what the world offered. And people were making a difference both for themselves and beyond themselves.

The communities that first answered their call to gather together in Jesus’ name were never intended to be a “commodity” – a set of properties with a group of managers whose main concern was numbers – members and money. The communities that first answered their call to gather together in Jesus’ name and follow his Way were intended to be a “community”, a group of people that never stops encouraging and admonishing, rejoicing and praying, giving thanks and being patient with one another. Community …

And here’s a fact: You can’t leave this kind of community behind when you leave on Sunday morning after worship, when you pull out of the parking lot onto Central Avenue.  You can’t always pay someone to “fix” this kind of community when its grounds get overgrown, or its lights burn out, or its members experience sorrow and death, or it expects some lemonade after worship, or its Sanctuary needs a deep-clean and its Parish House needs people to gather.  Because, being a part of a “community” and not just a consumer of a “commodity” means sticking around and helping each other out whenever needed and whenever we are able.

Perhaps that’s why “numbers” are so elusive these days to communities like ours, why people are not pounding down the doors of smaller churches. They don’t want to engage beyond an hour a week. There’s a lot of comfort and relief in not being relied upon, in not being counted on to show up, in not being missed when you’re not involved.  But that’s not who those in Thessalonica were called to be. And, seventy-eight generations later, that’s not who Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church is called to be. The followers of the Way who gathered sometime in the first twenty years after Jesus was crucified, and the followers that still gather today, have been called to be a community of people that are relied upon, that are counted on, and that are missed when we aren’t involved, here and in the world beyond these walls.

And today is the perfect day to illustrate all that.

Whether you’ve been here for sixty years or just the last thirty-five minutes, all of us here and those outside scurrying around are part of this community today because we’re gathered together today. Our tables are set, inside and out, for the sharing of our Life (with a capital “L”) and the sharing of our lives, small “l”, together. We hope everyone will stay beyond this hour for our picnic. Because we’re counting on you and you will be missed if you don’t!

We are gathered as followers have gathered for seventy-eight generations, part of the community that began almost two thousand years ago and still has work to do to bring about the Kin-dom of God on earth. It begins around a Table. Let us prepare ourselves for the feasts.

Amen.

Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor

Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / August 2, 2026