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Proper 28, Year
A Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
The End is Near For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him. [1 Thessalonians 5:10] Today, our scriptures deal with eschatology, or the doctrine of last things – in particular, death and judgment. As you know, I lived in Nashville, Tennessee for five years. It’s one of those places where you see all manner and conditions of people. I worked in the heart of downtown, and I saw a lot. We had the wandering homeless. Some were musicians who would stand on the street corners and play their music beside an open guitar case. They hoped for donations. We had street preachers who preached repentance to all who would listen. They also preached to many who would not listen. One day on my lunch hour, I saw a rather youngish man wearing a long burlap tunic over his jeans. He carried a sign that read, “The end is near.” He wasn’t saying anything, but his presence made the whole statement for me. He looked like a caricature of Jesus or John the Baptist, so I automatically thought that the “end” referred to in his sign was the end of the world. The gentleman in the burlap tunic was right, of course. The end is near. Whenever we are born we are headed straight for the end of our lives, just as hard as we can go. Time goes by so quickly. When you were younger, would you ever have dreamed that your life would take the twists and turns that it has? The end of one phase of our lives is always near, and the next phase is always on the horizon. Some day the next phase will be life after this life. We see signs on fences around Moultrie that solemnly warn us that Jesus is coming. This is no surprise to us, since we stand every Sunday and say the Nicene Creed. We say of Jesus: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” Two things stand out in our scripture readings for today: There is life after this life; and, there will surely come a day of reckoning for how we have lived this life. There will come a time when we can no longer use the gifts and talents God has given us to give glory to God in this life. Use them well while you can. We are almost at the end of this church year. As we move closer to Advent, we hear these warnings of judgment and of the Day of the Lord. How did we get this concept of the Day of the Lord in the first place? We got this from the Old Testament Prophets. It carried over into the thinking of the early Christians. There, the lines got blurred a little and the early Christians began thinking that the “Day of the Lord” would be the promised return of Jesus Christ. Jesus had told his followers that he would return and judge the world. The Old Testament concepts behind the “Day of the Lord” to which Paul refers in 1 Thessalonians come at least in part from the Prophet Amos. Amos, who had been predicting the destruction of Israel, gets to the heart of the reason for God’s displeasure. The people have been worshiping God according to the rules, but they have been mistreating the poor in their midst. The entire book of Amos is a pronouncement of Judgment – first on Israel’s neighbors, who had been mistreating those weaker than themselves. Next, Israel gets the most stern of all the warnings. Israel is given many opportunities for repentance. They are repeatedly told to seek God and live. In today’s Old Testament reading, the Prophet Zephaniah warns his hearers not to get lulled into thinking that God will not take action. On the Day of the Lord to which the prophets referred, God would reset the clock and make all things new. God would eventually do that in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, God sent the prophets to try to get the Israelites to make their treatment of others match their worship practices. God loves to be worshiped, and is “enthroned on the praises of Israel” [Psalm 22:3]. But the prophets told the people that God wanted their worship of God to make a difference in their daily lives. First Thessalonians is probably the earliest of all writings preserved in the New Testament. At a glance, we can spot what was on their minds. Jesus had promised that he would return for his faithful followers. Almost twenty years had passed since Jesus had ascended into heaven, and his followers were wondering why he had not returned for them. In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul was addressing their concerns. First of all, the “Day of the Lord” during this writing was understood to be the second advent of Jesus Christ. At this time God would bring order out of the chaos of their world. When Jesus told his first followers that he would return to earth a second time, they thought that his second advent was imminent. But time passed, and some of those first followers died. It became increasingly difficult for Christians to stand on their tiptoes and look for the return of Jesus Christ. So what would happen to those people who would not be around to see Christ come again in power and great glory? St. Paul offers an explanation. This explanation still works for us today. Paul assures the Thessalonians that when Christ descends from heaven, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then those who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. This is the basis for our belief that we will be with our loved ones who have died in the faith of Jesus Christ. Paul expanded on the “Day of the Lord” tradition from the Prophet Amos by saying to the Thessalonians that this day will not come upon them by surprise. This is so because they were “children of the light and children of the day.” The Apostle continues his encouragement of these who have been wondering about their dead loved ones. He tells them to keep the faith and God will take care of the rest. Paul finishes with a flourish by telling them in effect that the Day of the Lord is much bigger than they are. It is all in God’s just and loving hands. Paul tells them that God has not destined them for wrath. Instead, they [and we] enjoy God’s “salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep [that is, alive or dead] we may live with him.” The New Testament writers all seem to be in agreement on this: The Day of the Lord will come without warning, but it will come. In musing on this statement, I have wondered if my own death will come as a surprise to me. Why do we read this letter of Saint Paul? I believe it is mostly because it gives us hope beyond our present situation. We can take hope from Saint Paul that even if Christ comes again to earth in our lifetime, we will be reunited with our loved ones through the resurrection that God will provide. In two weeks, we will begin celebrating the Season of Advent. We will fold into our celebration of the first coming of Jesus Christ our hope and expectation of his second advent. Advent is all about holding out the light of the gospel to the world around us, and remaining in a state of watchfulness. Advent is all about not getting caught up short on the Day of the Lord. Our attention to eschatology – the doctrine of last things -- gives us a keener sense of living in the tension between the past and present, between the now and the not yet. This puts excitement into our faith, as we live in joyful hope. Saint Paul advises us to stay close to God in prayer so that we won’t be caught completely off guard. We will be with God whether we are alive or not. It’s easy for us to lull ourselves into thinking that such a day will not come. It’s better to use every day to stay alert to the presence of God. The heart of our prayers for today comes from our Psalm: So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. |
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St. Margarets Church, Moultrie, Georgia