Thoughts going in, Sunday November 9th, Pentecost +22

1Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

            It's at times like this that I feel a bit sorry for churches located in the southern hemisphere--at least if they want to use the same common lectionary we do (and they do). The lectionaries are a product of the northern hemisphere church. All you have to do is look out your window. The flowers are gone; the leaves have turned and are now almost all gone; the cold winter--always symbolic of death--is knocking on our door. Thus, just in time, the lectionary encourages us to contemplate the "ends." We contemplate the end of life in this world on All Saints day/Sunday; and then again this Sunday. Next Sunday we'll contemplate the end of history with Paul's reading that it will happen like a thief coming in the night. The following Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year, we'll contemplate the rule of Christ The King--which is itself a death knell to the world's idea of power, reign, and authority. And then we'll begin the church year all over again with Advent--yet Advent isn't just thinking about the soon arrival of Baby Jesus in the manger, it begins by reminding believers that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. In other words, from All Saints through the first Sunday of Advent, our focus is constantly on the "ends"... whether our personal end, or the end of the present world order, or the end of time/history itself... and at some deep emotional level, it all makes sense for us to hear these things now as days become shorter/darker, and nature itself seems to be reminding us of these things. Unless you live in Australia, where nature itself is coming to LIFE... the days are getting longer, and buds are beginning to bloom. What looks like the end *here, is just the beginning, *there.

            I'm not sure that's a 100% accurate parallel to the reading above from St. Paul's letter to the church at Thessalonica, but it's pretty close. They had somehow missed a link in the discussion chain from Paul's earlier instruction and had begun to believe that *IF you died prior to the return of Christ, this somehow meant that you had missed out. Paul, in pure pastoral affection, takes this opportunity to encourage them that not only have their loved ones who've died in the faith not missed out, but he gives them a solid foundation for viewing death from the perspective of faith, and for caring for each other in our grief. These are perhaps St. Paul's most pastoral words--and as you can imagine, this text is a mainstay for funeral sermons.

            There are really 3 main ideas going on in the text: GRIEF, HOPE, and RESURRECTION. The first, GRIEF, is often very misunderstood. I have been to more funerals than I care to count where the emphasis seems to be on the artificial denial of grief... all because the deceased was a believer. And so the pastor, (or more likely a well-meaning relative) tries to turn the event into a 'no-grief-zone.' No crying, remember Grandma's in heaven with Jesus... there's nothing to be sad about. Hold the phone. Grandma can be in heaven with Jesus, but we still miss her here! And besides, that's not what St. Paul said in the passage. He didn't say Christians don't grieve; he said we don't have hopeless grief; we don't grieve like the rest who have no hope (v13).

            Which introduces the next big idea, Christian HOPE. This too can be misunderstood. KC Royals fans hoped their team would win the world series, and they made it close, but in the end it wasn't to be. We can hope that it's not going to be a harsh winter, but who knows? Regular human hope is a wistful desire for something with absolutely no guarantee. This is not Christian hope. Christian hope is the confident expectation that God will act as He said He would, based upon the foundation that it has already begun. The main thing that separates Old Testament believers from New Testament believers is that they had much less to go on than we do, and yet they believed anyway. The latter days are here. God has already acted decisively in the world. That's the whole point of the opening of Hebrews: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things (1:1-2a). Since God promised to act, then acted, Christian hope is about the assurance that all of the rest of the stuff God has promised will also come to fruition. The forecast may be up in the air, but God's promises are not.

            And then finally, the last big theme is RESURRECTION. As with grief and hope, resurrection can sometimes be misunderstood. Many people think this is what happens when we die; our souls live on in heaven and our bodies get buried or cremated. This is a very comforting and Christian thought, but it's not resurrection. It's what happens before resurrection. In other words, resurrection isn't our souls going to be with Jesus, it's what happens when Jesus comes back to earth to be with all believers of all time. Resurrection is new body time, without the downsides of the original body. No more high cholesterol or diabetes; no more aches and pains; no more getting old; no more dying.

            If there's a 'downside' to this passage, it's probably that the word 'rapture' has been applied to it--not that there's anything wrong with the word, it's the Latin for 'caught up,' but in its sensationalized/popularized teaching of today, 'rapture theology' has totally shifted the focus away from Paul's message. The emphasis isn't on being 'caught up,' the emphasis is on the return of Jesus. Here Paul uses a customary/ceremonial term that everyone would be familiar with in his day: parousia. The parousia was when the emperor, or his legate, came to visit. Before he got within sight of the city, a herald was sent ahead to sound the alert; to blow a horn. This was a sign to the city's residents that they were to drop what they're doing and come out of the city, lining the way, so as to cheer the emperor upon his arrival. Paul's point is that the return of Jesus will be a lot like this, only GREATER. At his parousia it will be not only the living believers who come out to greet him, but also those who have died in the faith. And this event will usher in those great words of the creeds:  the life of the world to come.

Cheers,

T.M.