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The Day We Meet the Lord

The Rev. Thomas W. Simmons IV

I have a word I'd like you all learn this morning.  For some it might be completely new and some might have heard it before.  Some of you might even know what it means.  The word is 'eschatology.'  It's from ancient Greek and means 'the end'.  It refers to the future, the end of things toward which history is moving. It’s the day we meet the Lord. 

Eschatology is deeply woven into the Bible, Christian consciousness and worship and life.  It's neatly summarized in a saying we repeat every week in our Eucharistic prayer. "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."  You all know that one, right?  We say it together every Sunday.  It's so familiar, in fact, that maybe we don't even think about it's meaning. Imagine that!

It's a very simple statement, with a nice little cadence to it. But don't let that fool you.  It is full of profound meaning.  It encapsulates a Christian view of history and helps us understand the past from which we came, the present in which we live and the future that lies ahead.  It puts Jesus right at the center of them.  That's why we've gathered here this morning: to worship him as theLord of history: past, present and future. 

Christ has died and we are saved by his death.  That's our past. That's where we come from as Christians.   Christ is risen and we live in and are transformed by the power of his life in our relationship with God.  Life conquers death. Christ will come again and we orient our lives around that day we meet the Lord, because that's where history is headed. 

When we wrap our minds around this eschatology it changes how we think and live. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says, "As parts of Israel we are endowed with the consciousness that we do not live life in a void.  We never suffer the anxiety and fear of wandering through the emptiness of time.  We remember where we came from and we look forward to the end."

I'm intrigued by what he means by, "living life in a void…wandering in the emptiness of time." I think he's describing our culture in modern America.  Americans live very much in the present, perhaps more than anyone else in human history. 

For many Americans history is just a class we took in high school, of little practical importance in adult life.  That's even true on Veterans Day, which unfortunately to many Americans is just another day off – though perhaps not now that we are at war. We’re so bad with history, thought, that when we want to dismiss something or someone as completely irrelevant we say, “He’s history!”

In the same way, many people live with only dim awareness of the future, thinking about and preparing for little beyond retirement.  Folks get distinctly fuzzy when thinking of the future and death and life beyond death.

But as Christians we are different - or we should be.  As Heschel said, "We remember where we came from and we look forward to the end."  We are a future oriented people.  We are eschatological.  “Christ will come again.”  We know the future and are called to order our lives in light of it. 

That's what our lessons this morning teach us.  They give us a glimpse of the future and teach us how to prepare. That’s especially true in Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica.  He describes a time when Christ will come again. 

Jesus’ approach will be heralded by a shout and the blast of a trumpet and he will descend.  As he approaches the saints will rise up to meet him.  There is the resurrection, in which the dead saints rise. And those Christians who are still alive at the time will ascend to meet him.

That’s quite a picture isn’t it?  It sounds fantastical to our modern ears and is perhaps hard to believe.  Buthey, we're Christians.  It’s nothing new!  "We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."  "And he shall come again to judge the living and the dead."  We confess these things every week and they are foundational to our Christian worldview. 

And if you think about it, rising to meet the Lord isn't so outlandish a concept.  We do it every week when we “lift up our hearts to the Lord”. Consider the liturgy as practice, as a preview of coming attractions.  In fact, the Eucharist is a present participation in the future wedding feast Jesus spoke of.  It proclaims the outcome of human history.  You could even say that the Church is living the end times all the time , so that when Jesus comes back there will be no surprises. We know how it works!

So, Christ comes and we meet him in the air.  What happens then?  Many would say that we meet the Lord and then go to heaven, leaving the earth behind to suffer through the Tribulation.  That’s the notion sold by Tim LaHaye and his mega-best seller Left Behind series.

But I think Jesus' teaching in our Gospel lesson show us a very different picture.  The bridesmaids go out to meet the groom, not to run off with him, but to bring him back to town for the wedding.  This is an ancient custom that echoes today where the groom and his people come to the bride's town for the wedding and party. 

The hosts prepare the wedding and reception, as you fathers of recently married daughters know well.  And in the ancient custom, the bride’s family and friends literally escorted the groom to town with great fanfare and celebration. That’s what the bridesmaids in Jesus’ story are doing.  They are waiting for him to come. 

In this scenario, that’s the role of the Church.  We are the hosts preparing for his coming.  We remind ourselves of it every time we say, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”  We are the bridesmaids going out to meet Jesus in the air to escort him into our world. 

Our life and mission as Christians and as a Christian community is oriented toward that future event.  And it is serious business.  And therein lies the rub.  It requires our faithful diligence and alertness and endurance for the long haul. 

That's the point Jesus is making in our Gospel when he contrasts the wise and foolish bridesmaids.  The wise ones prepared for a long wait, while the foolish gals banked everything on the groom’s speedy arrival. 

Timing is everything and it is difficult for us in the 21^st century to understand the urgency that these 1^st century Christians felt about the timing of Christ’s return.  They generally expected Christ to come within their lifetime. 

They figured that the end would come when Jerusalem was destroyed, as Jesus warned it would be.  That’s the day they meet the Lord.  But it wasn’t.  They realized his coming was still sometime in the future, that they really had to wait. 

This created a crisis of expectations for many Christians.  Paul addresses this with the believers in Thessalonica who were wrestling with a disturbing question.  What happens to Christians who die before Jesus comes? They were experiencing the first deaths of Christians and didn’t know how to deal with it.  They had assumed Jesus would return within their lifetimes. 

And in Matthew’s case, the Christians he wrote to just weren’t spiritually and mentally prepared for the long-term.  Like the foolish girls they banked on Jesus’ speedy arrival and weren’t prepared for a long night of waiting.  So he warns them that this is serious business and that they need to prepare for his coming by preparing for the long term.  They need more fuel. 

Well, here we are in Purcellville, 2000 years later.  How does all this apply to us today?  Well, we’re still waiting, aren’t we?  In fact, we’ve been waiting so long many of us have forgotten what we’re waiting for.  Maybe we’ve given up waiting and gone about our daily business, figuring the future will take care of itself. 

But I think the message this morning is that this is not acceptable for the people of God.  We have a mission.  We are Building Christians for Service in order that we might bring Christ to the world, so that we might all be ready on the day we meet the Lord.  And how we live and orient our lives today has everything to do with how we will fare on the day we meet the Lord.

We’ll have opportunity to talk more about these things in the weeks ahead as the season of Advent approaches so stay tuned.  AMEN.