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Now, this is a season where it is much cooler and a lot of people like to think of this

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as, you know, if somebody is single, they might want to go out and try to find a relationship.

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They call it cuffing season.

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They're like, I want to be in a relationship for the winter months or whatever it might

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be.

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Well, you know, personally, I would hope it would go longer than that.

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But I wanted to make sure that for all of those, especially you online who are joining

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us that you may need some help with this area.

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And of course, I am an expert in the area of dating and relationships, as you can tell.

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So I'm going to give you a few good opening lines that can be used in case you need this.

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I see you in the back with the purple.

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I know just in case you need this as well.

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Okay, good.

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So here are eight of the better ones that I liked.

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We may not be socks, but I know we'd make a great pair.

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Let's commit the perfect crime together.

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I'll steal your heart and you steal mine.

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I know, I know.

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How did the telephone propose to his girlfriend?

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He gave her a ring.

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Yes.

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Have you been to the doctor lately because I think you're missing some vitamin me.

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Ah, okay.

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We got four more.

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We got four more.

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Okay, did you hear about the notebook that married a pencil?

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She finally found Mr. Wright.

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I was told never to date a tennis player because love means nothing to them.

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Are you a bank loan because you have my interest?

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And finally, are you Australian because you meet all of my koala vacations?

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Yes, this explains a lot, doesn't it?

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Yes, I know, I know.

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The thing is, is that oftentimes we find a lot of the passages in Scripture that talk

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about romantic love or intimacy and we kind of like brush over them quite a bit.

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But I find it interesting because that's more of a thing that we have started to do in our

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society today is that we oftentimes don't know how to deal with conversations about

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intimacy and relationships because either it's plastered everywhere around whether we

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like it or not or we're afraid almost to talk about it and we feel like it's something

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to avoid.

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The thing that I always loved about Paul?

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Paul doesn't really avoid too much.

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He's pretty clear about things.

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The thing with this is that Paul is speaking to people in the city of Thessalonica.

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Thessalonica is this Greek port city.

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And with that, not only do you have a lot of the Greek influence, but it's also at a

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time during the Roman Empire.

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Now what we see is that there were some different cultural norms that were happening during

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this time period.

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Now remember, a lot of letters that had been written were oftentimes written to the Jewish

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community that had come to know Christ.

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But in Thessalonica, this is one of the examples where Paul does need to talk to those who

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are Roman citizens who have more of a Hellenistic background, a Greek type of background, not

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just culture, but also in their society.

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Now the thing is that back then there were a lot of things that were different in regard

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to what people expected or accepted in regard to male, female, or other relationships.

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With that is there might be examples where there were temples in the area where oftentimes

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it was expected that things like prostitution were a normal part of the way they would practice

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in the temple.

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There were also times whenever certain officials would have not just a wife, but also two others

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that might be a part of either not only the official's life, but also even having additional

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families outside of his primary family.

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There might also even be times where the idea of having relations with somebody was actually

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seen in many ways as not just a part of marriage, but rather is just getting to that as soon

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as possible.

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The idea of eroticism was moved to a level where people weren't even sure how to see

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a Christian life beyond what they had been used to before that.

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The thing is that we know quite often how we see in a world that has many things that

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are acceptable, that it is very difficult to communicate the idea that what we do with

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our lives, our physical, our mental, our spiritual lives, are meant to be glorifying to God.

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Last week, I believe it was last week, we were discussing how in Christian realms of

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different ideas of dating in the life, it is that it oftentimes went so far as to even

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be afraid of whether or not to kiss someone before their wedding night.

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And yet oftentimes then what we'll actually see in Christian circles is that it's sort

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of like this idea that if I've gone past a certain point, then now everything else doesn't

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matter in God's eyes.

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This is a thing that is difficult not just for the people during Paul's time.

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You see it says in Scripture that there's nothing new under the sun.

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This is still a place that we find ourselves today.

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Is there oftentimes parts of our lives that we see this is something for God.

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And then the rest of it, well that's for me.

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Or you know God's idea of what should happen, that's just a little too narrow.

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So I'm just going to do what makes sense to me and we're going to go from there.

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The thing that we end up seeing in Paul's letters is that we end up having an idea of

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what we're meant to do not just because we have the letter of the law, but rather asking

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what is actually good in God's eyes, but also what is good with one another.

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When I was teaching over at Chinkelpin, there was a student, we were finishing up, I was

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coaching volleyball one semester.

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I was originally supposed to coach middle school volleyball because middle schoolers,

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you're just wanting them to get the ball over the net.

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I was like I can handle that part, that sounds great.

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And then at the last minute, and I mean like the week before school started, the varsity

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coach for high school quit and said I'm not helping anybody with anything.

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And they said, well Jason, you're literally the only one who's even played volleyball.

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And I'm like, I never played in school.

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So I don't know what's going on.

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So that was the worst season that they had in volleyball at the school.

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We won three out of six games, I think maybe.

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It was pretty bad.

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But with that though, it was an opportunity though to get to know some of the students.

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And as we were finishing up one of our games, one of the things that I appreciated about

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the school where I was teaching was that they really emphasized being able to have conversations

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with students about life and being able to be there for them.

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And out of nowhere, one of the students says, hey Jason, you're a pastor, right?

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And it was like, well, yeah, that's what they told me at seminary.

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And it was one of those things where she says, what is this whole thing about like not having

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sex before marriage?

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Is that really that big of a deal?

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And I'm like, what in the world?

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How in the world?

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It was like in the evening.

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It was like dinner time.

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And I'm just like, who in the world randomly asks some adult that question?

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And I'm like, oh my word, how am I going to handle this?

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Now we could go to things like, you know, like there's Sunday school answers, you know.

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Well, you know, the Bible says do not commit adultery, which kind of sort of fits it.

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But not exactly.

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Not when you're talking to a high schooler who's never been married.

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But at the same time, you're still trying to communicate to this high schooler that

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even though she may be looking at her life as just do whatever seems like fun at the

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moment is that there's more to it than that.

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And so instead talking about how God created Adam and Eve and that the two of them were

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together and that from the beginning of humanity and our culture and everything is that there

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was meant to be a one to one relationship that doesn't just end.

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And that later on, whatever Paul is speaking, he's talking about how our relationships are

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meant to be about respect.

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And in talking about this stuff and being able to explain more than just saying it's

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a commandment, don't do it, is you actually have a student saying, oh, that actually kind

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of makes sense.

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I have no idea what she did with going forward.

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But at least that one moment in time, something finally sank in.

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But that's also the thing that Paul is trying to get across is that he's trying to communicate

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to people who didn't grow up in a Jewish community where they had the 10 commandments and they

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just accepted that this is what our society does.

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How do you communicate to a world that didn't grow up in the same background about what

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it is that God would want for you?

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Now Paul goes into here and saying that, you know, do not go out and have these other relationships

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because you're supposed to respect your brother in Christ.

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Now I do want to pause because in many ways this is this idea that people married young

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and therefore what it was is that you don't want your brother now to have lost their spouse.

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It's a very narrow view of this.

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Paul was in a culture at the time that very much was focusing on male headship and the

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idea of respecting your fellow man.

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But realizing that in today's world the same thing is true male and female is that much

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of this is about respect for that person.

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See whenever we see ourselves as being less than the temple of God, whenever we just see

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ourselves as well just do whatever we wish at some moment in time, we stop not only respecting

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ourselves but also other people.

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If two people are intimate and then they realize wait we have nothing else that's in common

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and then they split, now you've just communicated to a person that they were only good for one

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thing and then what happens to them in their next relationship?

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What happens to us in our relationship?

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What even more than that is to ask what is it that we even do in our interactions all

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around us?

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If all that we can do is think about how we're satisfying one part of ourselves then what

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does that mean for the billions of other people in the world that we're never going to have

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that with?

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Does that mean that now they have no use in our lives and we have no use in theirs?

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And I hope that's not the case because that would make for a very lonely world.

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When we see Paul's letter and it speaks in here in so many different ways about what

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it is to not just disregarding man but also are you disregarding the Holy Spirit from

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God is that we are facing a world of YOLO.

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We're facing a world that says you only live once so get as much out of it as you possibly

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can.

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I find it fascinating that Paul puts this part right before discussing the resurrection

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of the dead.

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See the thing is that we're often time spending so long measuring our life in decades here.

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He's asking these questions of well I only have a few years of this part of my life and

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then I only have a few years of that part of my life and how can I get the most out of

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all this and we live such hectic reckless lives.

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We squeeze so much into every single moment.

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Not even just in these relationships that can often times be so fleeting but what we

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do with our families, what we do with our jobs is that we are trying so hard to squeeze

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everything out of it that after a while is that we pause and say when was the last time

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that we actually did something meaningful where somebody either in our family or our

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friendships or our careers or our lives were actually blessed to know Christ today.

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Well I had too much to get done and yet does this life finish when we enter the grave?

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See it's different for us in some ways because we're post 2000 years of knowing that Jesus

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hasn't come back yet.

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So for us we can take this idea that Jesus will come back again and we can still kind

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of hold it as this idea but for the people back then they were understanding Jesus is

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about to come back and then it's a year later and two years later and three years later

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and people have passed away.

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Does that mean that they miss Jesus?

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Does that mean that they were just trying to get as much out of this life as possible

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and oh no, well that's the end.

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If only you could have just lasted a little bit longer and waited for Jesus to get back.

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The thing is is that everything in our life no matter how long it lasts is still not the

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end when we are here on this earth.

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It still goes on for an eternity.

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We will be raised up in Christ on that last day and that's not meant to be this whole

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discursus on what's going to happen with the rapture or anything like that.

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People get way too caught up in the weeds on those things.

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But to point out that that's not the end for those who have passed.

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But it's also not the end point for you either.

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Are you living this life just trying to make sure that there is enough for today to make

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sure that you had a memory or a photo or something that you can discuss at the water cooler?

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Or is today another building block on something that's meant to go to eternity?

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I think we lose sight of that.

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I was told at one point when I first came to Christ Memorial Lutheran that we are a

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church of managers.

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We oftentimes have a habit of trying to figure out how we are going to tell everybody else

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what needs to get done or who we are supposed to hire to get it done.

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Sometimes we lose track of the fact that we are the ones who are supposed to get it done.

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When was the last time that you had an afternoon or an evening of mentoring a child, of cleaning

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up somebody's yard, of sitting down with someone you haven't seen at church in forever and

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just finding out what's going on in their life?

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When was the last time that you, yourself, were a part of that?

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See a lot of times we lose sight of the fact that when we say we have only one life to

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live, well we have only one life to live before the resurrection, how much are we using this

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life in preparation for the life of the world to come?

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And that's what we see in our Gospel lesson for today.

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See, our Gospel speaks about the ten young women that are there waiting for the bridegroom.

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And the thing is that with this they are unmarried women.

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They have so much to look forward to as far as what their life, what it is that they have

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coming forward for them.

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But being young some of them didn't quite realize that they needed to be prepared for

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the future, falling asleep at that moment.

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Because at that exact moment I'm tired, I don't feel like doing anything else, well

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did you get enough oil?

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Well, I'm sure the bridegroom will come back, I'm sure it'll all work itself out.

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But the thing is we do the same.

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Did I manage to make sure that I had enough vacation time?

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Did I manage to make sure that I had an extra room built onto the house?

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Did I manage to make sure that I was able to upgrade the Lexus, whatever it might be?

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I don't know what y'all drive, I have a Toyota, I used to have trucks, I don't think I'm ever

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going to have a Lexus, I'm a pastor.

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But with it though is we're spending so much time making sure we've squeezed enough right

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now.

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But if Jesus comes back today, what does he see?

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Because that's the difficulty with the young women and their lamps.

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Their lamps went out and it's night time in a place that doesn't have street lights, in

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a place that doesn't have the local glow of the McDonald's down the street in the golden

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arches.

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If it's dark it's dark.

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And if you're inside and the light is behind you and you look out into the darkness and

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somebody doesn't have a light on, you have no idea who it is, are you going to let them

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in?

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At that moment is let us in, I don't know you.

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If Jesus comes back and looks at us does he see us living out the lives that he gave us

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on the cross?

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If he sees us does he recognize us?

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Are we spending so much time consumed with things that aren't going to matter?

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Or are we actually letting that light shine for the things that do?

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And that's the thing for me to tell you all the day.

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We could go back to just trying to get to glory days of the church and everything else

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that we think we want to be.

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Or we can just pause and say am I letting my light shine today?

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Not because I think that somehow that's going to make God love me, but because that's what

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Jesus has already given to us.

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In closing I had some of the youth over the weekend.

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I gave them little votive candles.

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Put a little light, you know, like each one we turned it on.

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And I sent them all over this gym and turned off the lights.

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I said okay I need you all to come and find each other.

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And I had one of our confirmation students, I whispered go blow out their candles.

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Because I knew that he would have a great time doing that.

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And I also knew that he's a little bit sneaky.

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He'd be good at it.

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That got so frustrating for everybody else because they weren't expecting that.

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I think we do the same.

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I think we sometimes get so caught up in living a good life that we miss out on the fact that

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there are other people who look just as good as us with their candle, but they're blowing

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out ours.

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And so what did they have to do?

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They had to go back to other people who still had their light glowing.

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And get it relit again.

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So I don't know where you're at today.

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I don't know what's been happening in your spirit.

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I don't know what's been happening with what's going inside of you and why it is that it

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feels like that light keeps being blown out.

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But what I do know is that we're in this together.

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And that if you're struggling with that, let us help you to relight that.

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Not by our own power, but by the Word of God who is still glowing by his spirit within

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us.

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So that together we can get out into the world and we can make it a little bit brighter for

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the world to come.

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Thanks be to God.