From the Daily Office Friday/Saturday Dec. 4-5, 2020
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is widely regarded as the earliest letter Paul wrote, probably about 49-51 CE, but possibly as early as 41-44, a decade or less after the death of Jesus and at least fifteen years before the Gospel of Mark. It is the earliest book of the New Testament and the earliest surviving Christian writing of any kind! The city of Thessalonica was an important trading center in the Roman province of Macedonia in northern Greece, and Paul had established a church there before writing this letter to the gentile converts there. Having left Thessalonica he was writing from the next stop on his journey farther south in Greece, probably from Corinth or possibly Athens. So why was Paul writing back to the Thessalonians? In addition to writing to compliment them on their response to the gospel he had preached, and to reassure and comfort them in the face of the persecutions they faced, he was writing to address a problem raised by the congregation. Taking to heart Paul’s apocalyptic message that the end was near and that Christ would be coming soon, they were eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus to save them from the wrath to come, and to take them to heaven with him. But Jesus had not returned yet, and some of the members of the congregation had died. The Thessalonians had thought that the end was coming before they would pass away. Was this wrong? Even more troubling, had those who had died missed their chance to enter into heaven when Jesus returned? These verses from the fourth chapter are Paul’s response to their concern. He assured them that those who had already died had not lost out, and indeed would precede the living as they enter into the presence of Christ at the end of time. He was providing them with hope and assurance that all would be well. When would this occur? A little further along Paul tells them that no one knows the time, as he writes: “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (5:1-2). Notice that Paul in verse 17 says “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them [those who have died] to meet the Lord….” Paul apparently thought that he would still be alive on the last day, and thus clearly thought that the return of Christ was imminent.
While of course Paul had no idea how influential these words would be in the development of Christian doctrine concerning Christian hope and future expectation, they certainly have been. A significant issue for contemporary Christians is what kind of expectation about the future is appropriate now, over two thousand years later. Exactly what will this life with Christ be like after we die? There are a lot of other avenues for exploration and theological reflection here, but what I want to address today is the Second Coming (the parousia), so much a part of our doctrine and about which scripture is full. As an aside, perhaps this is appropriate for Advent, in that it implies a hopeful and expectant waiting. With regard to Paul and his comments about it (“we… will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air”), some context is important. Remember that in the first century the world was considered to be a three-part universe: “up” (where God is), “here” (where we are), and “down” (where the dead and also Sheol were). At that time the universe was actually thought to have an up and a down. Remember the earth was “flat,” and was also the center of all of creation. Compare that to our understanding now, that the earth is the third planet of a solar system formed around a minor star, just one of the billions of stars in our galaxy, which is itself just one of billions of galaxies in the universe. There is no such thing as “up” and “down,” and so no “heaven above” our heads, or “place of the dead” below. Paul of course had no understanding of this two thousand years ago, and his language reflects this. His world, and therefore worldview, is not the same as ours today, and his words to describe the physical events surrounding the Second Coming, while understandable, are inadequate. Do we actually believe that we will see Jesus descending to the earth out of the clouds, and that we will enter those clouds with him to live eternally somewhere in the sky? I don’t think so! Paul’s description and of course the bizarre images about the final days in Revelation were instrumental in the development of the fearful idea of the “rapture” (a word nowhere to be found in scripture) and the “left behind” (remember that series of books by LaHaye and Jenkins?), all, in my opinion, misguided thinking about God, reality, and truth. So what will this Second Coming actually be like? What can we as Christians expect? Let me say this: I am firmly convinced that no one knows.
I remember telling a priest and good friend of mine that I never liked these lines in The Great Thanksgiving: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” My point was that “Christ will come again” is misleading, because it implies that Christ has left us, and now we are left waiting for his return. I never equate the name Jesus with the name Christ, and Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Certainly the man Jesus died, but the Christ is ever present. But it is more than just semantics. Our triune God and all persons in it are always present, thoroughly permeating all of creation. In my struggle with this idea of waiting for a literal Second Coming I discovered in May’s The HarperCollins Bible Commentary (Revised Edition, p. 13) a discussion about theological diversity in the Bible. In it the author presents for consideration: “And the return of Christ, was that expectation satisfied in the coming of the Holy Spirit or is it yet to occur?” I had never heard or read about that possibility before! Is it possible that the Second Coming was accomplished when Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit? Has it therefore already happened? In one of our theological discussions my wife Cynthia and I addressed this question about the parousia, specifically what it would be like and whether it had already occurred. Her response: “I think it happens in each of us when we allow Christ to enter our hearts.” Wow! I liked that.
With all due respect to St. Paul and to the other authors of scripture who wrote about this, and aware of the limitations they faced by living two millennia ago, I prefer to look at the Second Coming from a different perspective. I look at it with a realization that it is not possible to fully know what it will be like, or better said if it is even an “event” that will take place in time. I look at it as mystery, as a pointing to something greater and deeper than our ability to understand, a mystery greater than the parousia itself. It is a signpost of hope which guides us and with us all of creation toward our fully realized union with and transformation into Christ. That is the “Last Day,” the “End Times,” for me. I am not concerned with what it will look like, or if it will “look like” anything at all. It will just be.
Rev. Bob Donnell
Prayer for the Mission of the Church (BCP, p. 838)
Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours for ever. Amen
