I Thessalonians 5:12a,13b-18 - Sundae of Christian Unity

Presented to the Tisdale community at the ecumenical Day of Prayer for Christian Unity Service and to the Nipawin Corps of The Salvation Army on January 27, 2008

1 Thessalonians 5:12a, 13b-18: But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters... Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you.

For our message this week, I do not have my typical style of sermon, where I am painstakingly exegeting a passage and trying to illustrate with a number of neat stories that I hope that you will remember.

Today is going to be a little different. Now, you’ll understand that I wasn’t initially on to preach this weekend. Captain Susan was. She was very much looking forward to it but she then realised that she would be out of the province this weekend. So, while I did read up on the day of prayer for Christian unity and the theme of praying without ceasing, it occurred to me that the Lord has let me see a lot about these two things – just this past weekend.

Something exciting happened a week ago today: Irving, a member of our Nipawin congregation, was baptized. There were many of us there1 (maybe 9 or 10) from The Salvation Army to support and encourage him. It was great. I praise and thank the Lord for Irving and I was delighted to be able to be there to witness this outward expression of the inward reality of what Jesus is doing in his life.

But, now I don’t know how many of us here are familiar with The Salvation Army’s stance on water baptism. It is noteworthy for sure. We, denominationally, would look at it like … well...if salvation were ice-cream baptism to us would be sort of like... chocolate sauce atop the ice-cream. Sure many people like it. And many of us probably wouldn’t say ‘no’ if it were offered to us, but we – The Salvation Army, denominationally – we pass. We don’t see it as necessary for the enjoyment of our ice-cream of salvation for which, like 1 Thessalonians says, we can rejoice always.

Like many Christian denominations, though not all, The Army believes that baptism in water is not necessary for salvation: Jesus’ death and resurrection is all that is ever needed for that.

In the early days of The Salvation Army, we actually did used to practise the rite of water baptism but – for many reasons pertaining controversies [in 19th Century England] when and where the Army was born, we decided as a movement, that abstaining from this rite, this chocolate syrup of our analogy this evening, as it were, - for us - would be right.

At this time in the Army, baptism actually became almost like circumcision was to Paul in his letters to the Corinthians, Romans, and yes even the Galatians to whom Paul writes that “neither circumcision nor un-circumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 3:6; cf. 6:15).” That is our belief. And today in Canada our leadership is certainly firm in our stance that our Officers (our clergy) are not to baptize people. We have the opportunity, we are told, to show the world, as it were, that it is okay to pass on this chocolate syrup on your ice-cream of salvation.

We again acknowledge, of course, that there is nothing wrong with water baptism, and we are certainly an organisation that from its earliest days is both Christian and very evangelistic; we just prefer to have our ice-cream without toppings. (Actually there are some Salvos who would argue that since we are to lead fully sacramental lives, we shouldn’t have ice-cream at all – but I’ll save that for the holiness debate!) We are joined by our friends, the Quakers, in declining this rite of baptism - by the way.

Now, I am taking my time explaining this, and you’ll have to forgive me but there is good reason for this relating to our theme today of Christian unity and our sub-theme of praying without ceasing.

You’ll remember that I said that we do not believe that baptism is necessary for Salvation. And you’ll remember that I said that we do not practice the ceremony. You’ll remember that The Salvation Army does not forbid people from baptizing or being baptized nor do we discourage others from doing it: we are merely abstainers. We have no theological problem with the rite at all.

I must confess now that this stance of ours, a month or two ago, provided a good catalyst for ceaseless prayer on my part because Irving, our brother in Christ; Irving, a faithful member of our congregation; Irving, at the Lord’s prompting; Irving came to me letting me know that Irving was being called by the Lord to the waters of baptism - and then Irving paid me a great honour by asking me, as his Corps Officer, to baptize him.

I am excited delighted that Irving was following the Lord’s leading and I told Irving that I would pray and I would ask the authorities over me if I was permitted to baptize him but that I thought it would be highly unlikely.

So I pray. And I pray. And I pray. And I ask those in authority over me if I can perform the rite and they say, 'no', for good reasons, they say, 'no, that would not be right.'

So I pray and I pray and I pray some more - Now every Tuesday there is a ministerial prayer meeting at The Salvation Army Ministry Centre in Nipawin that is open to any Christian clergy so that we can come together and pray and support each other. Some of our most faithful attendees are a Baptist preacher from Smeaton, a Pentecostal pastor from White Fox, a Narrazene minister who leads the Holiness church in Nipawin and, of course, a Salvation Army Officer or two from Nipawin and Tisdale.

These prayer meetings are a great source of encouragement for me. It is a time when we can share things with the Lord and each other that we won't necessarilly share in other places. It truly is a place where we can encourage and help each other. It is a place where we can share about the miracles that God is performing in each of our lives, communities, denominations... It is a place where we can pray together as an ecumenical community.

It is a place where our different theological flavours - of the ice-cream of Salvation can be brought together into a wonderful Neapolitan type ice-cream; where, while we maintain our denominational distinctions much like the chocolate, vanilla, and the strawberry, we mingle in prayer and support in such a way as to produce a taste that we hope is always pleasing to the Lord. And we hope to never cease offering this pleasing dessert to the Lord.

So of course, on this one particular Tuesday, having just spoken with Irving and having just spoken with my authorities and while continuing in personal prayer, I added prayer about Irving’s baptism as – a sprinkle atop our Neapolitan prayer meeting.

I told my friends everything. I told them that The Army does not oppose baptism but that we do not perform the ceremony; I told them that God is asking Irving to be baptized and Irving is asking me to do it. I told them that the Army, however, has strongly recommended that I not personally touch the water. I was wondering if they could encourage me and be united with me in ceaseless prayer.

I also had another request. On this particular Tuesday, there is - a, sort of, - well, let’s say a chocolate flavoured Baptist preacher present. So I bring specifically to him the challenge of the chocolate syrup of baptism. I ask him some questions.

Now, as some of you may know, I have studied Baptist theology a bit and I know that different Baptists feel very differently about baptism: what it means, who can do it, and the works. After much prayer, I do ask pastor Darcy if he could and would add the chocolate sauce of baptism to Irving’s spiritual ice-cream sundae.

Now, this Baptist preacher, who does not live in the same town as Irving, as it turns out, does not travel with a baptismal tank in the back of his pick-up. (Go figure) but he would ask Pastor Brian of the Pentecostal Church in White Fox if the ceremony could be performed there. We prayed. I spoke with Irving. Darcy spoke with Brian. They prayed. Irving spoke with the others. We prayed. And in the end there really was the peace among us of Verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 4.

So on this Sunday that just passed, the Lord poured the strawberry of The Salvation Army corps into the vanilla of White Fox Pentecostal Church and then added the chocolate of the Baptist preacher and the chocolate syrup of water baptism to Irving’s spiritual sundae. This indeed was a glorious sundae. This sundae of Christian prayer and Christian unity was completed on this past Sunday through the power of and to the glory of God.2

The Lord used this Sundae to show me a perfect example of Christian unity of prayer and service and He reminded me that the new testament letters weren’t written to the churches (plural) at Thessalonica, they were written to the church (singular) at Thessalonica and today, as members of the church at Nipawin/Tisdale/whatever city you happen to be in, I encourage us all to pray without ceasing for this same sort of Christian unity that Paul has been calling for since his letter to the Thessalonians.

Now, we have not always done so well at being united with our Lord have we? Many times and places today and throughout history members of Jesus’ Church have fought with each other. Many times we have put our own selfish ambitions before the Gospel of Jesus Christ himself. Many times we have let the devil tear us apart and divide us. Many times we have tried to exclude rather than encourage each other. Many times we have devoured each other and there are many examples of actual physical wars where Christians have dared to use a force of arms against each other instead of against the real (spiritual) Enemy.

We should not be fooled. Let us not be fooled. When we attack each other when we waste our efforts fighting with one another, then we are distracted and Enemy needs not worry about us, does he? When we concentrate on our differences, it only serves to divide us and then we cease to be this tasty ice-cream dessert for the Lord. When the sparks of discord fly, when we repay perceived or real evil with evil then, instead of being this great Neopolitan sundae, we instead, become a melted puddle of enmity.

So let us never give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Let us be united in prayer for when we do pull together; when we are at peace among ourselves; when we are admonishing the idlers, encouraging the faint-hearted, helping the weak, and being patient with everyone (as our text today says). When we see that none of us repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another. When we rejoice always, when we pray without ceasing, when we give thanks in all circumstances, THEN we experience the joy that comes from doing the will of God in Jesus Christ; we experience the joy for you, for us, and in Christ.

So brothers and sisters today, I invite us all to come together, not as a flavourless puddle of enmity but instead as a strong ice-cream sundae rich in the traditions and heritage of the Christian faith and let us remember that we are all one body and as a body, we are indeed the bride of Christ himself – and he’s coming back for us – and soon! And when he does, lets present him with that wonderful Neapolitan flavoured ice-cream sundae of Christian unity.

Let us pray:
Lord thank you this Sunday that we are able to come before you united in prayer for Christian unity. Lord, we pray that this Sunday we will really truly appreciate the distinctive flavours that you have given each of us and each of our denominations that we will indeed be a treat and an everlasting dessert in which you are well pleased. In Jesus name, Amen.

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1The ceremony was performed at the White Fox Pentecostal Church by the Baptist Reverend Darcy Cust.
2The is an interesting footnote to this as well. This footnote I take as the Lord's blessing. When I asked my leadership about whether I could participate in the ceremony they gave me a full blessing but they suggested that I not 'touch the water' – in the end I did wind up reaching out to help our newly baptised, soaking wet congregation member from the tank and you know what – not a single drop of water got on me. Not a drip. Praise the Lord. This is very important to me the Lord kept me blameless in lending this helping hand to our brother. This moment was indeed for the Lord.