Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Early Christians were preoccupied with last things: the second coming of Christ, the last judgment, the final victory of good over evil, (in other words) the culmination of it all. The New Testament (their book) has a teaching, or a saying, or a parable about "that great day in the morning" on almost every page. That wondrous day when Christ will return, when the evil powers of this world will be vanquished, when time shall cease and the saints of God (those who have believed faithfully in Jesus, who have drunk a secret toast to him, their exiled king, with a little bread, every time they worshipped, those who have suffered for him and died for him) - the saints of God will sit at table with him, and drink that pledge joyfully one last time, in the Kingdom of God.

But there are also hints in the New Testament of some discouragement, some disillusionment, perhaps, regarding the question of Christ's return. They had believed it would happen soon, weeks or months (maybe) after Christ had died, rose and ascended. But years had passed! That's the reason for all the New Testament admonitions and warnings: Don't give up. Don't fall asleep. Stay awake. Watch. Keep your lamps trimmed and full of oil. As trusted servants, maintain the house in good order all the time, for "ye know not when the Master cometh - whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrow." "Watch therefore…" Watch therefore…Still," they said," it's any day, any minute." This conviction that Christ would come again in glory, and make right the wrong, was the engine that drove the early church.
Isn't it curious that this belief in the second coming of Christ, obviously so important in the early church, is so seldom mentioned in the church today? That may explain our lack of enthusiasm. Old "pappy" Lambdin, my preaching teacher at Drew, told us that he had traveled all over the United States and heard many ministers preach, and the one element missing in all their sermons was urgency. No one was anxious. No one was agitated. No one was energized. Church, he said, had become like a debating club, or a tea party. Nothing important was anticipated. How dreadful!

When we forget that Christ is coming back, church becomes a bore. And so does worship and so does our Christian life. It's like finding a book and realizing that someone has torn out the last chapter. You can read it if you wish, and it may be well-written and full of intrigue, but it won't really catch your interest because, you know, you're never going to find out how it all ends.

Just after the Second World War, in occupied Berlin, a Russian officer was discussing with an American lieutenant how the tides of history had brought the two of them to this place, and how mysterious history's movements are. The Russian asked, "Have you read Karl Marx?" "Yes," the American said he had. "Well then you know how it will all come out." The power of communism was right there; not in its ability to feed and clothe people in the present (It failed terribly at that.), but in its conviction that, when all was said and done, the proletariat, the common people, would rule. The American lieutenant later said, "I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask if he had read the New Testament, and to say, 'Then you know how it will all come out.'" Love will win. And all forms or hatred, including class warfare, will be condemned. We had a different views of the end times, and that made communism what it was and democracy what it was.

But there is a dilemma in our faith about how we should understand the end of history, the second coming and the last judgement, and all that. On the one hand, we can emphasize it too much, focusing everything on the next world and neglecting this. (Now and then we read of some group of Christians who have decided to sell all they have, relinquish every earthly responsibility, climb some mountain and wait, because Christ is coming back next Tuesday night at 7:45 p.m. Eastern Standard time.) That is miles away from what the New Testament expects of Christians in regard to the end. But, on the other hand, we also have known Christians who have focused too much on this world, forgotten the promise and the hope, and ended up in despair.

In the Gospels, when those who emphasized too much the end of times ask Jesus when it will come (and this happens a surprising number of times in the Gospels), his answers can all be summarized like this: "It is not your prerogative to know exactly when, or how! That is something in the mind of God only. Leave it; turn to your own responsibility. Live a life of faith, courage, love, sobriety, and service, and then, no matter when or how it won't catch you unprepared." In other words, the main purpose of our belief in the second coming (since we can't know much about the facts of it) is to instruct us, and motivate us, in regard to our living today.

In this morning's scripture, from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, he stresses first how suddenly and unexpectedly Christ's coming will be. "Like a thief in the night" it will come, he says, borrowing from Jesus But then Paul suggests another analogy, better, I think, for two reasons. It will come "as labor pains come upon a woman." The first reason I like that image better is that a thief coming in the night is an unmitigated catastrophe, but labor, while it brings pain also brings a blessing, as does the end of time. Second, it's a better analogy because- labor is not entirely unexpected. A pregnant woman knows labor will come, without a doubt, but she doesn't know exactly when. Knowing it is coming, she is in an expectant mood, and she actively prepares. She makes ready her home. She buys the things a baby will need. She is consumed by the expectation. It's not a complicated idea: she lives in the present so as to be ready for the future which she knows will come, but does not know exactly when.

That is exactly what we do. God established the world, and we believe he will de-establish it when the time is right. God is sovereign in these matters. When Christians say to each other, "On guard!" it's not because they fear the day but because they fear not being ready for the day.