Dearest e-votees-
I hope and pray that your commemoration of those saints who shaped you and went before you last week was good and blessed. This week our assigned epistle text talks directly to those of us who have not yet gone to be with Jesus about how we might wait faithfully.
May the words that follow be good and be a blessing to you as well.
Peace,
Karl
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5 1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 4 But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; 5 for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. 6 So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7 for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
People have been predicting the last day of the world frequently (and to date 100% incorrectly) for many, many years. Harold Camping’s multiple predictions of the end of the world, Heaven’s Gate and the accompanying suicides, for some it was the massive failure of computers due to the Y2K bug and many more doomsday scenarios have been lifted up to warn and terrify those gullible to such fears.
As our Thessalonians text tells us the day of the Lord will come suddenly and severely. None will escape the consequences and no one will know when it is coming.
So what are we to do?!? Live in fear and dread? Study the predictions and choose which of the end of the world scenarios is most likely to be so? Get drunk with fear and lurk in the nighttime corners hoping to get passed by? No!!!
We are saved. We are destined for salvation not wrath. Whether we are awake or asleep (a euphemism for death) we are alive in Christ. We need not hide in the dark. We need not try to numb and drown our fears in the night. God has chosen us. God’s choice is good and strong and irrevocable. We are saved.
Our time is best spent encouraging others. Are time is best spent building others up. We have faith and hope and love to protect us from any harm that might befall us as this temporary world passes away.
The next big end of the world prediction that is on people’s radar is from the Mayan calendar which seems to end in December 2012. So what are your plans for January 2013? What do you say to neighbors who grow anxious with possible global meltdowns and destruction? Do you scoff and sneer at others who seem to be so duped? Do you pour out encouragement and strive to edify? How do you answer the call to “love your neighbor”?
I have always been partial to the quote attributed to Luther. When asked what he would do if he knew the world was going to end tomorrow Luther is purported to have replied “I would plant a tree today.”
God is in control. God has saved us. God will do what God will do. The best things we can do is keep living faithfully doing what we do and let God—who is good and gracious and loving and forgiving—take care of the rest.
God, help us encourage and edify all those we can. Help us rest in your sheltering gifts of faith and hope and love. Whenever this world ends our new lives will continue with you. Thank you for never giving up on those you love. Help us know and live into that abiding and saving truth. Amen.
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