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Proper 27

1 Thessalonians 4

13My friends, we want you to understand how it will be for those followers who have already died. Then you won't grieve over them and be like people who don't have any hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and was raised to life. We also believe that when God brings Jesus back again, he will bring with him all who had faith in Jesus before they died. 15Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won't go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died.

16With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God's trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. 17Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever. 18Encourage each other with these words.





You can always get a seat on the subway on Sunday morning. On Wednesdays, when I go downtown to Emmanuel College (hard for a Queen's grad to say out loud) I have to wedge myself into the car and stand while attempting to keep my balance. But Sunday morning is akin to having a private rail car.

There is one unusual aspect to a Sunday morning subway ride, and that is the eternal presence of 'tracts.' You know them. They are the little religious tracts or booklets that are dropped here and there by zealous Christians. Sometimes people will hand them out on the street, or leave them in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

I guess the subway is a popular favourite because our conservative brothers and sisters are already on their way to church, so we know they are already thinking about it. Or perhaps they have been given the responsibility to giving away a certain number of tracts and this their last minute attempt to do their duty. For whatever reason, the subway on Sunday morning is littered with tiny, well-illustrated religious tracts.

The very first time I noticed this was also the most memorable. The tract was a detailed look at Christ's return, a staple of conservative Protestant theology, and the pictures were really scary. Employing the best of the comic book style, this tract picked up the story at the moment that the faithful had already been raised heavenward and the lost were newly aware that they were not among those lifted up.

Now they have me. I'm gripped by this little book and I turn the tiny page to see an alarming image of the not-so-faithful in the streets. They are really mad. The focus of the authors attention is not the lost that we might expect but the lost that didn't know that they were lost and are only now waking up to the fact that they are not among the unlost but are in fact lost. Who are they? These newly lost are members of the United Church and other mainline denominations, of course.

Why are they mad? Or perhaps I should say, why are you mad? It turns out (according to the little tract) that when the ministers of the newly lost realized that their people were among the lost they went into hiding, fearing that all those mild-mannered United Church folks would form an angry mob and come looking for the ministers that led them so far astray.

If you think I'm looking at you now with a critical eye, you are correct. I'm trying to imagine what you would look like as an angry mob and whether my hiding place is good enough knowing already that you are clever and resourceful people. Note to self: spend Monday finding a better hiding place.

Perhaps it's too easy to make fun of the little tract. Maybe there was a lesson for me contained in the pamphlet left on my seat that day on the subway as I was winging my way to church to preach to my congregation. It certainly explains why my Pentecostal cousins (from my mother's side) view me with such suspicion, knowing now that while it is bad to be lost, it is really bad to be a leader of the lost.

The lesson was not to repent of my United Church ways, but rather the lesson, I think, was to question why we gave the whole concept of the end of time to more conservative churches and never spoke of it again. Where is the discomfort? Are we simply too smart to believe in the Second Coming? There are certainly lots of clever way I can discount the topic. They taught us how to do it at Queen's. Funny, with all that book-learning, the little subway tract still lives somewhere, not so quietly, in the back of my brain.

***

16With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God's trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. 17Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever. 18Encourage each other with these words.

The key to interpreting this passage lies in the final line: encourage each other with these words. What we are reading is a form of distant pastoral care. Paul writes to maintain and strengthen the churches he founded. He took care to address issues as they arose and wrote in response.

In this case it was a promise that Jesus made that has caused trouble for the church in Thessalonica. He said, "I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." What Jesus meant was his return, and the coming of his Kingdom "in power." It was a promise that God's reign would be established on earth and that it would happen in the lifetime of the first believers.

The problem on the ground, of course, was that death did not wait, and believers were dying and Christ had yet to return. Members of the Thessalonian church (and all the others) were confused and upset that some were now dead and would miss the triumphant return and the rest of that blessed moment. Theology led to a pastoral issue the moment the first believer died in advance of Christ's return.

Paul's solution was to recount Jesus' promises. He wanted them to have the sequence of events in mind, but he began with the promises:

13My friends, we want you to understand how it will be for those followers who have already died. Then you won't grieve over them and be like people who don't have any hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and was raised to life. We also believe that when God brings Jesus back again, he will bring with him all who had faith in Jesus before they died.

Reassured regarding the sequence of events, he also reminds them to live as people of hope. They have no need to grieve in the manner that people without hope of reunion will, rather they can be assured that there will be a glad reunion in the time to come. I'm certain Paul didn't mean that we couldn't grieve (although some have unfortunately read it this way) but rather death doesn't have the same sting when we recall that death is never the final word. I like these words from the writer Michael Maynes: "To believe that beyond death lies resurrection might be thought to make departing (and the grieving process) less painful. It doesn't. What it does is to change the whole context in which you see your life." (Resources, p. 271)

***

It was in fourth and fifth century that the first wave of Christian monasticism took place. It happened throughout the Near East and led to a collection of wisdom we now know as the "Sayings of the Desert Fathers." In fact there were desert fathers and mothers, and while much of the ascetic life is completely foreign to us, there are stories and sayings that speak through time and circumstance.

One father, known simply as 'the shepherd' said this: 'Vigilance, self-knowledge and discernment; these are the guides of the soul.' The Abba (or father) who spoke these words lived among those who waited for Christ's return and made a lifestyle of waiting. While few of us would consider leaving the world behind to live in a cave or a monastery, it helps, I think, to learn from these teachers the practice of waiting.

Vigilance, self-knowledge and discernment; these are the guides of the soul. I think many of us would agree that if your did some sort of high-tech scan of the quality of the souls that surround us we would find them somewhat diminished. I'm not being moralistic or judgmental when I say this. I'm talking about the malaise that I see in so many eyes, the anxiety that many experience, the unease and the longing that come through in conversations of any depth or meaning. I struggle to understand the root.

Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not let them be afraid." But I am afraid that this is precisely where many souls in our world dwell. That it was as simple as knowing the sequence of events in a fondly held belief. I think the trouble is much deeper, in a place within where we struggle to even know ourselves. This is where the guidance of 'the shepherd' is critical. We need to practice self-knowledge and discernment was we imagine a future, we need to understand our soul's state and discern a way to grow as we need.

***

Some might argue that imagining the end of time meets some unmet psychological need and is best dismissed as the domain of primitive or damaged minds. It may be no accident that the most dangerous cults in recent times were largely focused on the end of the world. I don't think this discounts the whole topic, owing that Jesus focused much of his attention on the coming of the Kingdom and the need for watchfulness.

Another gift of the desert fathers, this time from Anthony the Great, is the idea of 'interior watchfulness.' He and his fellow hermits tried to describe what they were doing out in the desert and the phrase 'interior watchfulness' is perhaps the best description.

Interior watchfulness is based on the knowledge that this reality is temporary, and that the best preparation for a life with God is to tend to your soul. This is intimately related to idea that resurrection changes the context in which you see your life. Some call it a 'faithful' or 'joyful' response to the gift of God's grace. How ever you describe it, the broad outline is that look within and alter our response to the gift of life accordingly. We are watchful because we want to be ready -- not for the end times -- but for whatever moment or means God chooses to meet us.

May God help us as we strive for interior watchfulness. May we find God at the very centre of our interior lives. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 11:00 AM