Looking into the lectionary
23rd Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 26)
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
November 1, 2026
Back in 1997, Fred Rogers was honored with a Daytime Emmy award for his work on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” As he stood to accept the award, he started with these words, “So many people have helped me to come to this night. Some of you are here. Some are far away. Some are even in heaven. All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take along with me 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are — those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life? I’ll watch the time.”
The story goes that, within a couple of seconds, the packed auditorium was filled with the sounds of sniffles and muffled sobs from the glitterati of Hollywood. Rogers’ slow, soft, loving, parental voice had given them permission – had created a safe space – for them to become like children. It is no surprise many were moved to tears by a glimpse of the love that knows no end made manifest in a cardigan-clad Presbyterian minister.
Remembering the people who formed us has the capacity to wrench at something deep within us. For preachers struggling to bridge the gap between the 23rd Sunday of Pentecost and All Saints’ Sunday, 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 is a gift: Offering the opportunity to remember those saints whose lives particularly shaped our faith as we consider the words of Paul, exhorting the Thessalonians using familial language to “Lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” In response to Paul’s exhortation, nothing less than the sound of sniffles and muffled sobs will do!
There is a reason Paul cycles through a lot of familial language in 1 Thessalonians. In her Interpretation commentary on the epistle, biblical scholar Beverly Roberts Gaventa writes that it likely comes as a comfort, “Particularly for those Christians, who may have experienced severe conflict with family and neighbors over their new convictions, even the loss of family in some instances, family language serves to create a new family in place of the old.”
While Paul does sometimes seem flowery in the language that he uses to establish or re-establish his relationship with his readers, here in 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, he seems to take particular care to remind the Thessalonians of the love that he and the others have for them.
We take more seriously the words of someone we love, don’t we?
Some time ago, I wrote an article for my church’s newsletter that came across as quite censorious. A handful of members of the congregation had been picking at each other; just relentlessly sniping. So, I wrote an article about behaviors that cause relationships to break down. I barely remember it now, but I think I went on and on about gossip, threw in a dash about triangulation, and ended with a flourish of pettiness. I submitted it to the newsletter editor, who was a member of the congregation, and someone that I held in the highest esteem.
A day or so later, she was at the church and I sat down to chat with her. She was holding my article, and she said to me, “We need you to think better of us than this.”
Those words shot through me like an arrow, because I loved that congregation. I still do. I trashed the article and started over.
I learned a lesson then that I’ve been learning ever since: When we think the best of people, we are most likely to get the best from people.
Paul’s hope for the Thessalonians is that they live lives worthy of God. When he finally describes what that life looks like, it is nothing earth-shattering. It involves loving each other. He has a few things to say about self-control and sexual morality, but mostly, he reminds them of how he behaved when he was with them, and encourages them to be that way with each other: to work diligently, attend to their affairs, to live quietly.
A life worthy of God, like the saints many congregations will remember in their Great Prayers of Thanksgiving on All Saints’ Sunday, is rooted and grounded in being the best we can be for each other.
I am pretty sure that the saints who formed me weren’t thinking about being saints at the time. They’d likely have been insufferable if they were. They were just leading lives worthy of God.
Questions for reflection on 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
- When has tough advice come from someone who loved you? What difference did their love make in how you received their advice?
- Who were the saints who formed you? If they are living, have you ever talked with them about how their lives shaped your own?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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