I always feel sorry for people who predict the end of the world. It happens once every couple of years. Somebody has a prophesy that the Lord is coming back, and we are all in trouble. The specific predictions always seem to fail, and the prophet looks silly for a little while, until we all get on to something else.
Generally the comments of Paul in Thessalonians is mentioned in these predictions, about how we who are alive will rise to meet the Lord in the air. This has come to be called the "rapture", and it is taken at face value by a number of fundamentalist Christians. Here is another example of how a fragment of scripture can be taken out of context and a whole doctrine built around it.
Paul's intent in that Thessalonian letter is to provide hope for those people. He begins the passage with those wonderful words: We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters about those who have died, so that you do not grieve as others who have no hope. That is the point that Paul wants to make in all that follows; how at the trumpet call of God, the dead will rise first, and then we who are left will rise to meet the Lord in the air. Paul was not attempting to create absolute doctrine here, he was offering hope to those who worried about the people who had died and were grieving for them.
Grief is something that we all have experienced from time to time. A few years ago when our little dog died, the veterinarian who put her down sent us a lovely poem about "the rainbow bridge", where she is waiting for us. You have probably all read it, it is a fantasy about how our pets go on after death. Our vet's sending us that poem was an attempt to console us at the loss of our dog, to somehow mitigate our grief. It was a thoughtful thing to do, and it helped. That is also the intent of the funeral services that we have for our loved ones who have died, that we can be consoled by knowing that God receives and loves those whom we have lost, and that many others in our community share our grief; also that the time will come when we will join them in eternity. Comfort is what we all need in the middle of our grief.
Loss is never easy. One of the main reasons that we have community is to have people present for us in our losses and in our joys because loss is inevitable and joy is always to be yearned for and needs to be shared. What an incredible help community is in providing comfort to us in the middle of these times.
On All Saint's Sunday, we sang that powerful hymn "For all the Saints, who from their labors rest". I have come to know all eight verses of that hymn by heart because of the large number of clergy funerals that I have attended. It is usually sung as the processional at those events and I have always been comforted by the hymn's images, which are all about community; how we are all together in life's struggle and how we will continue in community even after our death. The last verse is a magnificent tribute to inclusion: From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, through gates of pearl, stream in the countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! What more could we ask for in the loving inclusiveness of God for all of us? In life and in death, that is what our relationship with God is all about.
In his book "The Great Divorce", which is a kind of answer to William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", C. S. Lewis talks about how the people in the "Grey City", which is essentially Hell, get on a bus to go to Heaven. When they get there, they often see people whom they don't think ought to be there and so they get back on the bus to go back to the Grey City, where nobody has a relationship with anybody and it rains all the time. It is a good book and it makes a powerful point. None of us really understands what Heaven is all about, even though we yearn for it and want above all things for our loved ones who have died to be there.
At the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells the story of the ten bridesmaids and their lamps. Five had lamps as well as oil for them, and five had only the lamps. When the shout of the coming of the bridegroom was heard, all of them trimmed their lamps. The ones without oil asked the others to share their oil with them. The others said that there wouldn't be enough for all of them if they did that, and to go and buy some. While they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came and the wedding banquet started. When the foolish bridesmaids came back the doors were locked and the banquet had started and they couldn't get in. The story ends with the admonishment to "keep awake, for no one knows the day or the hour".
Now, I can argue with the story. Why would the bridesmaids not share their oil, and why not let all of them into the banquet? That seems to me to be more in line with Jesus' teaching that the Love of God extends to all of us; but that destroys the point of the story, which is to remind us all to keep awake and to keep looking for the return of the Lord to this earth. That is what I think is at the heart of the message of those "predictors" of the rapture. They, like all of us, want the Lord to come back so that Justice and Mercy will rule in this world where there is so much misery and hardship.
At the end of the Book of Revelation, when finally the story is told and is at an end, comes that very special word Marenatha, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. That, in the end is what we all really want, for God's will to finally be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Generally the comments of Paul in Thessalonians is mentioned in these predictions, about how we who are alive will rise to meet the Lord in the air. This has come to be called the "rapture", and it is taken at face value by a number of fundamentalist Christians. Here is another example of how a fragment of scripture can be taken out of context and a whole doctrine built around it.
Paul's intent in that Thessalonian letter is to provide hope for those people. He begins the passage with those wonderful words: We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters about those who have died, so that you do not grieve as others who have no hope. That is the point that Paul wants to make in all that follows; how at the trumpet call of God, the dead will rise first, and then we who are left will rise to meet the Lord in the air. Paul was not attempting to create absolute doctrine here, he was offering hope to those who worried about the people who had died and were grieving for them.
Grief is something that we all have experienced from time to time. A few years ago when our little dog died, the veterinarian who put her down sent us a lovely poem about "the rainbow bridge", where she is waiting for us. You have probably all read it, it is a fantasy about how our pets go on after death. Our vet's sending us that poem was an attempt to console us at the loss of our dog, to somehow mitigate our grief. It was a thoughtful thing to do, and it helped. That is also the intent of the funeral services that we have for our loved ones who have died, that we can be consoled by knowing that God receives and loves those whom we have lost, and that many others in our community share our grief; also that the time will come when we will join them in eternity. Comfort is what we all need in the middle of our grief.
Loss is never easy. One of the main reasons that we have community is to have people present for us in our losses and in our joys because loss is inevitable and joy is always to be yearned for and needs to be shared. What an incredible help community is in providing comfort to us in the middle of these times.
On All Saint's Sunday, we sang that powerful hymn "For all the Saints, who from their labors rest". I have come to know all eight verses of that hymn by heart because of the large number of clergy funerals that I have attended. It is usually sung as the processional at those events and I have always been comforted by the hymn's images, which are all about community; how we are all together in life's struggle and how we will continue in community even after our death. The last verse is a magnificent tribute to inclusion: From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, through gates of pearl, stream in the countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! What more could we ask for in the loving inclusiveness of God for all of us? In life and in death, that is what our relationship with God is all about.
In his book "The Great Divorce", which is a kind of answer to William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", C. S. Lewis talks about how the people in the "Grey City", which is essentially Hell, get on a bus to go to Heaven. When they get there, they often see people whom they don't think ought to be there and so they get back on the bus to go back to the Grey City, where nobody has a relationship with anybody and it rains all the time. It is a good book and it makes a powerful point. None of us really understands what Heaven is all about, even though we yearn for it and want above all things for our loved ones who have died to be there.
At the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells the story of the ten bridesmaids and their lamps. Five had lamps as well as oil for them, and five had only the lamps. When the shout of the coming of the bridegroom was heard, all of them trimmed their lamps. The ones without oil asked the others to share their oil with them. The others said that there wouldn't be enough for all of them if they did that, and to go and buy some. While they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came and the wedding banquet started. When the foolish bridesmaids came back the doors were locked and the banquet had started and they couldn't get in. The story ends with the admonishment to "keep awake, for no one knows the day or the hour".
Now, I can argue with the story. Why would the bridesmaids not share their oil, and why not let all of them into the banquet? That seems to me to be more in line with Jesus' teaching that the Love of God extends to all of us; but that destroys the point of the story, which is to remind us all to keep awake and to keep looking for the return of the Lord to this earth. That is what I think is at the heart of the message of those "predictors" of the rapture. They, like all of us, want the Lord to come back so that Justice and Mercy will rule in this world where there is so much misery and hardship.
At the end of the Book of Revelation, when finally the story is told and is at an end, comes that very special word Marenatha, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. That, in the end is what we all really want, for God's will to finally be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
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