1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.
And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So, reassure one another with these words.
In our previous lesson, Paul and Silas and Timothy had finally made it to the city of Thessalonika. As would become their usual pattern, they ended up being chased out of town by the traditionalist Jews, but Paul, worrying about his friends in Thessalonika, sent Timothy back to check on the newly formed “church” there. This first of Paul’s letters, you will recall, was in response to Timothy’s report on his visit.
We learned last time that it was a good report, with no schisms to report, no big fires to be put out – just love and longing for Paul’s return.
There was only one real question to be addressed – and as we read more we will find that it was a question that was arising, not just in Thessalonika, but all around the Near East and Mediterranean worlds. As the years passed and as the word of Jesus continued to spread out, not only near Jerusalem, but into the Gentile world, the question spread, too.
After the death of Jesus, as the stories were passed around and a shared understanding of what the life and death and reborn-life of Jesus meant began to develop, it was clear that his followers fully expected him to return for them – and they expected it to happen soon.
By the time of the writing of this letter, twenty years had come and gone – and the people were still waiting. Not only were they waiting, but some of them had died and those who remained wondered what had happened to them – how was Jesus going to come back for them if they had already died?
Those of us sitting here 2000 years later simply do not see this question as the people of Paul’s time saw it. We have, in some ways, lost our sense of immediacy. The first Christians saw that Jesus was somehow still living and they believed wholeheartedly that he was coming back for them – and soon.
As years passed, it became extremely difficult for them to shift gears and wrap their minds around what it might mean that twenty or thirty or more years later, they were still waiting. It would be like being convinced that the world will end next Tuesday – and then waking up on Wednesday morning. I am sure there were some who lost their faith -- the ones who did not, had to grapple with finding another explanation.
There are two primary ways to approach the bible – one is that it is a collection of stories written by believers and saved for those of us still to come – stories about God and about God’s interactions with God’s people. The other way to that of the literalists, who believe that every word was dictated directly by God – therefore, every word is holy.
Down through the centuries this choice has offered us two paths. The first path -- the one followed by most mainline churches today -- teaches that Jesus was speaking metaphorically, and that everyone will someday be united with Jesus in God’s heavenly realm. The second path takes Jesus’ words entirely literally, and – as the years have gone by, it’s proponents have gone to amazingly tortuous lengths to explain why it is all literally true in spite of the fact that it still isn’t happening as they insist it will. They go with an answer that seems obvious to them – that Jesus said it would happen, it hasn’t happened yet, and therefore it is still out there in the future – still “coming.”
Any minute now, the good people – the true believers -- will be caught up in “the rapture” while the bad ones will be left behind to suffer. For these believers, this life is all about preparing for the next life – setting oneself up now to make it through “the judgment.”
There have been very minor movements on the second path through the centuries, but “rapture” theology, as we are semi-familiar with it, actually only came to full force in the 1800’s with the preaching of an Anglo-Irish clergyman named John Nelson Darby – the person who apparently came up with the term “the rapture,” which is not biblical, by the way. Rapture theology also was amplified through the work of Cyrus Scofield, whose reference bible, known by his name, has been for decades the bible for believers in the theory of Dispensationalism.
I mentioned the tortuous lengths believers go to in order to justify their belief in the coming rapture – Dispensationalism is the most tortuous in my view. I try to explain the various dispensations, but I am not remotely qualified to try to teach them. Basically, it is the belief that God has tried many ways to save humankind, but we keep sinning and failing, so God keeps changing up the rules, stopping that attempt, then starting again from zero, basically trying another tack – each of these attempts is a new age – and a new dispensation. According to some systems there are four, in others, there are seven.
We keep failing and sinning, but now we are under the dispensation of Grace, the longest dispensation, the current church age. There’s still one more to come: a literal, earthly 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom that’s not here yet, but is coming soon.
I hope I do not sound as if I'm mocking the Dispensationalist -- that is not my intention. That is many people's sincerely held belief and they have a right to it. I see it as an unnecessary and Byzantine explanation of something that is essentially quite simple. God loves us and God does not leave us abandoned. I don't need to know the details. I do not feel any need to prove God as "fact," I am comfortable allowing God to be God.
It is clear from our reading today that Paul did believe in Jesus coming again – soon. Time proved him wrong about that, but only if we insist on anchoring God’s moment in one particular historical point of time. It is also clear when we read Paul’s letters that, as Marc Borg says, his passion was not at all for preparation for the final judgment, but for the transformation of God’s people. I firmly believe in this interpretation for the simple reason that when Jesus taught, he always spoke of the Realm of God as here and now – already -- the present moment. He also insisted that “no one knows” the time or place of God’s actions – so I’ve always found it odd that folks keep on trying to nail down a date.
We each live our own moments when we are touched by God. One day we will each come to our own “end times” and find ourselves fully united with God. But while we are here we are called to be transformed and to live fully and passionately in the eternal now of Christ’s Spirit in us.
It is a simple choice – to worship the words of scripture, or to hear the message found in a thousand years of stories and teachings about a people’s interaction with their God – our God.
Paul begins the last chapter (Chapter 5) in this letter in this way:
1-3 I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.
And then he ends with this admonition:
23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.
I do not believe, as many conservative churches teach, that we are here to work toward our salvation and a “someday” heavenly kingdom. We are not preparing for eternity – eternity is here and we live in it in every moment – right here, right now. May we live each moment as the beloved people of God -- put together, holy and whole.
Amen.
Amen.
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