Pentecost 24A (Week 3 of stewardship campaign: God's Extravagance)
November 12, 2023
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
INTRODUCTION
Each year in November, as we prepare for Advent and Christ’s first coming, we hear texts that speak to the Second Coming, the Parousia, or the end-times, or the apocalypse – choose your eschatological language. It’s the time of year when we get to dwell in some of the questions that trouble us the most: what happens when we die? What happens to our loved ones? Does whatever tragedy is current mean that the end times are near? Is Jesus coming soon? Is the rapture real? Will I, or my loved ones, be welcomed into heaven when we die? How will any of this look, anyway?
Today, two texts in particular speak to these questions: Thessalonians and Matthew. Both of these audiences are in this weird place where they had expected Christ’s return to be imminent… yet they are still waiting (and so are we, now 2000 years later!). This is cause for a lot of anxiety.
The text from Thessalonians is the first of Paul’s letters that we have, making it the most ancient text in the New Testament, older even than the Gospels, written around the year 50. The particular concern of the Christians in Thessalonica is that their loved ones are dying, and they are afraid that means they will miss out on the glorious return of Christ. So in this letter, Paul speaks pastorally to them, inviting them to encourage one another with the promise of the resurrection.
The parable from Matthew is… less pastoral. Chapter 25 of Matthew falls at the tail end of Jesus’ ministry; the next chapter will begin the Passion narrative. Chapter 25 delivers three end-times parables in a row, which we’ll hear over the next three weeks. Today’s parable, about the 10 young women, or bridesmaids, urges us to be always ready and prepared, because we don’t know when Jesus might return. I’ll be honest – the stewardship theme this week is hope, and I found a lot more hope in Thessalonians than Matthew, so that’s where I’m going in my sermon. But, troubling as this parable is, there is also much to be gleaned there, and I’d be happy to talk about it with you if you like!
So yes, hope is the name of the game today. As you listen, listen for words and ideas that you find hopeful, and consider why they are so – and I would love to hear your thoughts (especially if the hope you find is in Matthew!). Let’s listen.
[READ]
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| The Sinking of the Ville du Havre |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The year was 1873, and it had been rough couple of years for Horatio Spafford. Spafford had, two years prior, invested all his money in real estate in what is now Lincoln Park, Chicago – right before the Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed it all. Still, he carried on faithfully. Spafford was an active Presbyterian lay man. He taught Sunday School, worked at the YMCA, and served as a director and trustee for what is now McCormick Presbyterian Seminary. But then, his wife fell ill, and their family doctor advised him, his wife, and their four young daughters, to take a European holiday to help her heal. At the last minute, Spafford could not go, and sent his wife and daughters ahead, planning to join them shortly. On November 22, 1873, their ship, the Ville du Havre, was struck by another ship, and sank in 12 minutes. Upon arriving in Wales, Spafford’s wife sent him a message: “Saved alone.” All four of their daughters had been among the 226 souls lost in the wreck.
Spafford traveled by boat to meet his wife in Paris. As his ship passed the location where the tragedy had happened, words came to him, and he wrote them down: [Listen here]
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say:
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Spafford had endured unspeakable tragedy. After this horrific event, he had three more children, one of whom, his only son, died of scarlet fever. His church blamed these grief-stricken parents for their own tragedy, assuming they had done something to bring it about. Eventually, when Spafford refused to believe that babies, like his son, could be consigned to hell, the resulting controversy was so great that his church – which he had built, and of which he was elder, a church that he loved – kicked him out. Still, his faith remained. He and his family moved to Jerusalem in 1881, where they engaged in social services, education, and saving children from starvation and disease. Through this grief, they were carried by those words that came to Spafford as he passed the spot where his four daughters had perished:
Lord, hasten the day when our faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back like a scroll,
The trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend;
Even so, it is well with my soul!
~~~
The year was around A.D. 51, less than 20 years after a man named Jesus had lived, died, and rose again. Paul, Timothy, and Silvanus, teachers and preachers, had planted several church communities around belief in this Jesus, including this one in Thessalonica. The followers of The Way (who would later be called Christians) who lived in Thessalonica were Gentiles – that is, they were not Jewish, but Greek converts. Though they believed in the teachings of Jesus, they were also very formed by their Greek culture, and often persecuted because they did not believe, as was the custom, that Julius Caesar was god, and Tiberius the son of god. No, they believed that Jesus was the son of God.
Though they persisted in faith, they had begun to grow worried, because they had been under the impression that Jesus would be returning any moment… and he still hadn’t come. Meanwhile, many of them were dying – whether at the hands of the state or of natural causes – and they were very concerned that their loved ones who had died would miss out on the glorious moment of Christ’s triumphant return. You see, the Greek understanding was that once you die, that’s it. You go to the Underworld, and no one ever returned from the Underworld. Oh, there were stories of those who had tried – Orpheus and Eurydice (yur-EE-dih-see), Sisyphus – but none had succeeded. Though they believed in Jesus’ resurrection, it was difficult, given their cultural milieu, to maintain hope.
After a trip to Thessalonica, Timothy reported this concern to Paul. Paul had a special affection for this Thessalonian community of believers, and promptly wrote to them, encouraging them. “I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,” he wrote, “about those who have died, so that you do not grieve as others do, who have no hope.” He knew that the Greek belief in an Underworld from which no one returns was indeed one without hope – for they would never again be with those they loved. But this was not the case, he said, for those who died in Christ. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” he wrote, “even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.” Paul goes on to describe what will happen when Jesus returns: that first those who have died will be raised and meet him in the air. Imagine hearing this, having been told all your life that the Underworld is forever, that nothing is more powerful than death. But now, this God is more powerful, powerful enough to raise all of their loved ones from the dead to meet him in the sky.
And that’s not all. Paul goes on in words that would inspire a man named Horatio Spafford to write a hymn about peace in the midst of immense loss. Listen again to Paul’s words: “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.”
The trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend;
Even so, it is well with my soul!
There is hope, after all. There is hope for an ancient community who had never before been exposed to the possibility that they might be not only be with their loved ones again, but that they would all be together with the God of love, forever. There is hope for a grieving man who has lost all his assets and all his children in two years’ time, to declare that even so, it was well with his soul. There is hope for you, and for me, as we face our own loss, and despair, and discouragement, and uncertainty. There is hope, because whether we live, or whether we die, we are Lord’s, and we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, encourage one another with these words.
Let us pray… God of hope, when peace like a river attends our way, or when sorrows roll like sea billows… whatever our lot, you have taught us to say: “it is well, it is with my soul.” Grant us the hope we need to endure the trials of this life, so that, even so, we might praise the Lord. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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