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 hope -
Paul offers his recipients both consolation and hope in Jesus’ second coming or his
return (last week’s section in 4:13-18), and this Sunday’s section in which Paul
charges his listeners to be vigilant and alert as they await this re-entry of Jesus to
gather his followers. Clearly, the recurring theme reflects both of these
themes-persistence in the apocalyptic hope but also the in-the-meantime ethical and moral
life that is good.
can’t be posted on your calendars, but you know - Times and
seasons = synonymous expressions that simply mean "a time of judgment" (not two
separate kinds of times). Who knows about this "second coming?" Well, apparently
Paul’s house-church "knows very well" (5:2) the way in which the time of
judgment will come: as a thief in the night-a well known motif in apocalyptic thought. [1]
the learning curve? - Will our preoccupation with mundane cares and
concerns cause us to be caught off guard when the Lord comes-either at the end of our
lives or at the end of time? The fundamental Christian triad of our faith in what God has
done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus, our hope that we will share in that
resurrection, and our love for one another based on faith and hope give us the spiritual
armor we need to be awake and alert for the end. [2]
 Of all the places you live (home,
work, school, church, etc.), where do you need for faith, more hope, and/or more love?
How can you be better prepared for Christ’s return-for your personal meeting
through death or at the End as Paul describes it?
Where else does this image of light and darkness appear and how does it reflect a
common truth that helps to define Christian morality and ethics? (Cf. for example,
John’s gospel and other places in the Pauline corpus.) [3]
 block #1 - Life Together. That’s
what Paul seems to write about so often. Here in his Thessalonian letters he returns to
this theme and seeks to assure us that for Christians, the circle will never be broken.
block #2 - What are the ethical demands of living in community here and now? How can we
be alive and awake in this present world?
block #3 - suggest how community is at the core of what Christ has and is doing within
the church. You may want to differentiate between community and church membership-the
latter of which is in deplorable decline. Yet, as George Hunter III points us in The
Celtic Way of Evangelism, people yearn to belong first before ever believing the faith.
[4]
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