Sermons and Reflections:

Monday after 2 Advent
December 9, 2002
Lutheran Theological Seminary Chapel
Marcia Bell

Isaiah 64:1-9

It sounds to me as if the Thessalonians were getting a little weary and maybe even a bit cranky! And it wasn't even the end of the semester for them! Surely, it wasn't always this way. Like all new Christians, they were, no doubt, enthusiastic right from the get go, when Paul first arrived on their shores, and powerfully preached the Good News of Jesus. They were quick to convert, to give up their pagan ways and become believers. But now, time has passed, Paul's in Corinth, lots of them have been persecuted, some among them have died, and this community of the faithful seems to be losing the spark. So Paul initially sends his emissary, Timothy, to check things out, and later fires off this first little epistle to bolster their belief, reassure their doubts, and also to remind them of his vision and expectations for the Christian life.

You heard the list…Lustful passion, fornication, impurity are OUT, of course. But on Paul's IN list this year are living quietly, minding one's own affairs, working with ones hands, being independent, and behaving properly toward outsiders! Hard to argue with any of that advice! But then in mid-chapter he turns to the subject of those from the community who have died before the return of Jesus. The Thessalonians were apparently living under the assumption that the second coming, the parousia, would occur during their own lifetime. But brothers and sisters in the faith were dying, and Jesus still hadn't returned. So Paul offers his great up, up, and away image, to explain how those who have died and those who are still living will be reunited. They will be caught up in the clouds, right after the trumpet has sounded, the archangel has called, and the Lord has commanded. Now these are not just words to explain the end times, but these are words of reassurance, of comfort from the Apostle Paul…He says: 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 WHO HAVE NO HOPE.

Here enters Paul the Pastor, the one who isn't just about the business of dispensing moral advice or lofty theological wisdom, but the one who cares about those among the faithful who are grieving. Paul wants them to know that their grief is not like the grief of others, because as believers in Jesus Christ, they have HOPE…HOPE, the very center of this Advent season.

I have found that one of the most profound privileges of the office of pastor is the privilege to be with people in their grief, and I don't just mean at the time of death or in the service of funerals But even years later, when loss and hurt resurface, it is in the security of the community of faith, that the grief is safely expressed. Where else can we speak of these hurts? No where but here…of babies who died years ago, before they even had a chance of life, a brother killed in Viet Nam, a fiancé on D-Day, a father drowned on a fishing trip, of siblings estranged for decades, loss after wretched loss. Some of these losses stashed away out of sight for years, but in the context of a hospital room, or in reaction to a sermon, or in the confines of an ordinary conversation in the pastor's study, they come spilling forward. It is the privilege of this office that we may hear these hurts, but it is certainly not because of who we are or any expertise we might possess…I'm convinced of that…Rather it is the message that this office bears and the message that the church brings to the world…the good news of HOPE in the name of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Paul never said to the Thessalonians that because they are believers that they would not grieve. How well we all know that grief and sadness are very much a part of all of our lives. But Paul did say that because of HOPE in the one that has come and the one who will come again, our grief is different. Loss is no less profound, separation no less painful, but we have the promise and the assurance of a new earth and a new heaven…where God will dwell with God's people…God with us…Emmanuel…a time where God will wipe every tear from our eyes…Death will be no more…a time when mourning and crying and pain will be no more...for then the first things will have passed away

And as we wait and watch for that time, it is the Church who offers us the Word of encouragement and a safe haven to grieve. It is here with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are nourished with his body and blood, and we are offered the oil of healing for all the brokenness of our lives. We wait and watch for that day when all the faithful will be, as Paul said, with the Lord forever. We wait and watch in hope.