Advent
December 11, 2014

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.—1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

Quench is not a word I use very often. I am most acquainted with its use when talking about quenching a thirst, which means to satisfy* the thirst. Are we not to satisfy the spirit? If we dig deeper into the source of the word quench, the word extinguish is also used. Now that makes more sense in our modern use of language. When we extinguish a fire we put it out, stop it from burning. Thus when we quench a thirst, we are extinguishing it. The Greek word, sbennumi, translated here as quench does not have satisfy in its definition.**  Besides extinguish it does include the words suppress and thwart.

Now you may not share my intrigue with words and the way we use them, but I think we need to understand what Paul is saying to us. How do we suppress or thwart the Spirit or, worse yet totally extinguish the Spirit? Paul was a bit of a mystic. He talks about his relationship with the Spirit and when and how it guided him. Our post rationalistic world is perhaps not as comfortable describing such experiences. We prefer to talk about a still small voice that tweaks our conscience and wonder if that small voice is from God or not.

Faith like all relationships involves habits of communication. When we or our friends talk about someone who is having relationship problems we say, “They just cannot seem to talk to each other anymore.”  Something is suppressing or thwarting their communication and until that “something” is identified and dealt with the relationship will continue to diminish until it is extinguished. So too goes our relationship with the Spirit. It takes work to make relationships flourish. It takes our commitment to communicate our fears and frustrations with God so that the lines of communication can work and we can be confident in that still small voice.

Prayer: Lord, quench my thirst to have a meaningful relationship with you. Clear away my fears and my hesitations. Make me whole in my relationship with you so that I can do your work wholly with others. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/quench
**http://biblehub.com/greek/4570.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.