Sermon (not Homily) for Sunday, May 15
Easter 5 + Year A (RCL)
First of all, the fact that we are all here in church this morning means one of two things: either the Rapture did not occur yesterday, as predicted by Harold Camping and the folks at Family Radio, or it did occur and none of us were found worthy of being carried off to heaven! Since a quick look around seems to indicate that nobody was carried off, either the prophets of doom are correct, and our entire society is so evil and corrupt that we are all damned, or in fact no one was carried off, and the Rapture did not occur. Regardless of the explanation, I’m very glad to be here with you all this morning!
What exactly is this “Rapture” of which some speak? Is it in the Bible? Do all Christians believe in it?
The dictionary tells us two interesting things about the word, “rapture.” First, in everyday speech, it means something like ecstasy, joy, delight, a high state of happy emotions. Additionally, if someone looks at you with rapt attention, he or she is completely focused on what you are saying.
In specifically Christian (or I should say “evangelical Christian”) parlance, “The Rapture” refers to a predicted event that is barely mentioned in the Bible.
On the gloomier side, the people who study the origins of words [etymologists] tell us that “rapture” comes from the Latin word raptus meaning “to seize, kidnap, or carry off,” and it is also the source of our word “rape.” I’m sure that has nothing to do with the intended sense of the word among those Christians who speak of it.
So where does this belief in something called “The Rapture” come from? First of all, the word “rapture” is never used in the Bible. It is also important to point out that the idea of the Rapture is not very old. It appears to have originated with the American evangelical preachers Increase and Cotton Mather in the 1700s. They didn’t use the word, though – that was left to Philip Doddrige and John Gill, theologians of the 18th century. Before that time, the concept appears not to have existed in Christian theology or thinking at all.
Today, those who propose believing in this event look primarily to First Thessalonians, which biblical scholars believe is the oldest of Paul’s epistles:
15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16For 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. 17Then 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 for ever. [1 Thess 4:15-17 NRSV]
The word that is here translated “caught up” is a bit watered-down. The Greek word that Paul used (harpagesómetha or ἁρπαγησόμεθα) has the sense of being “grabbed roughly” or “snatched.” It is not a gentle invitation that Jesus is offering here!
Let’s look at this in context. At the beginning of his ministry, Paul (and possibly most Christians) believed that Jesus was going to return very soon – if not immediately, then at the very least while some of them were still alive. It was not in their mind-set to think that they would have to wait long, and the Gospels seem to confirm that idea. Matthew 16:28, Matthew 10:23, Mark 9:1, and Luke 9:27 all say more or less that same thing: “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” [Matthew 16:28]
Jesus clearly seems to be assuring his hearers that some of them will still be living by the time that he returns. How do we deal with this, given the fact that every one of them has now been dead for around two thousand years? Was Jesus wrong? Was he misleading them? Did his words mean something other than their clear, obvious meaning?
Some Christians, called “Preterists,” say that all of Jesus’ prophecies were fulfilled shortly after his death when, in the year 70, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed forever. Preterists would say that all of Jesus’ warnings came true once and for all when the people of Judea, ignoring his teachings, were punished with the conquest of their nation and the destruction of the most holy place in their religion.
Other Christians believed that all of Jesus’ promises about the coming of the kingdom took place (i.e., were fulfilled) at the Transfiguration, when he was seen in glory alongside Moses and Elijah. The fact that the verses quoted above almost immediately precede the account of the Transfiguration in all three Gospels is cited to link the two and suggest that the Transfiguration fulfilled the promise that some would not taste death until they saw the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom. In other words, there is nothing left to be fulfilled.
For most other Christians, the question remained open – what did Jesus mean, and when is he going to return? It is further complicated by the lengthy passage in Revelation chapters 5-22, in which many details of the Last Judgment are described, along with a number of apparent prophecies of things that will happen first, to signal that important event.
So, starting with the assumption that the Preterists and Transfigurationists are incorrect, and that Jesus’ promise was not fulfilled during his lifetime or shortly thereafter, most Christians believe that it is an event that is yet-to-come. Just when that will be is the subject of interest, debate, and consternation.
If we acknowledge that Jesus really meant that he would return in person and live in the world again, although in a glorified bodily state, then we can talk about what that might be like, and what sequence of events might transpire in order for that to happen.
That’s where 1 Thess 4:15-17 comes into focus. At the time these verses were written (probably around the year 52), the destruction of the Temple was still almost 20 years in the future. Paul had visited Thessalonica and founded a Christian community there, and now he was writing to offer them some additional guidance. Perhaps to reassure those to whom he was writing, Paul addresses two questions.
One of the things on the minds of the Thessalonians is the question of the return of Jesus, which Paul seems to have thought would happen very soon. “What about those Christians who did not live long enough to be alive when Jesus returns?” the Thessalonians seem to have been asking. By extension, they are also asking, “what’s it going to be like when Jesus returns? What’s going to happen.”
We don’t know if Paul had a vision, or whether he had learned this description from other apostles, or even whether this was a commonly-held picture of the return of Jesus from his time. We only know that he wrote to reassure the Thessalonians of one important thing: their relatives who had died would not miss out on the resurrection. In fact, they would be the first to benefit from it.
In Paul’s view, when Jesus returns, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” [1 Thess 4:16] That is, Jesus first will take to himself all faithful Christians of all time who have lived and died loving him and following his teaching. This will be accompanied by the call of an archangel (Michael, according to Revelation) and the sound of God’s trumpet – an awe-inspiring event to say the least.
There’s one other aspect of the Rapture in many evangelical interpretations: namely, that it will not happen to everyone. Matthew and Luke repeat the same idea of Jesus: two people will be side-by-side (working in the field, grinding the grain, or even lying in bed), and one of the them will be “taken” while the other is “left behind” (hence, the title of a series of popular novels about these events). [Matthew 24:36-41 and Luke 17:30-36]
There we have it. Two unrelated biblical passages at the root of all the ruckus yesterday. Jesus described the “coming of the Son of Man” as an event that will affect people in two ways: those who believe will be saved; those who do not believe will not be saved (left behind). Paul envisions the dead in Christ rising from their graves and meeting him in the sky, followed by all good Christians, also flying away.
This may in fact be TMI – too much information about history, Scripture, and theology for this brief homily. Let me end by emphasizing what we (and I would dare say most Christians today) believe.
Jesus will come again. He promised it, and we do not doubt it for a moment. He also said in various places [see Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32] that no one would know exactly when that will happen. He said this in order to remind to always be ready: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” [Matthew 24:42].
The exact details of his Second Coming, the Last Judgment and the End of the World (all lumped together in the branch of theology called eschatology) are left a bit vague. The early Christian Church asked for some kinds of reassurance: tell us when it’s going to happen, if you know, and assure us that our dead relatives will also be saved. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul all attempted to offer some insights, but it is not wise to base an entire theology on a handful of verses taken out of context.
Rather than going on here, I can do no better than to quote directly from the Book of Common Prayer, page 863. The Outline of the Faith (commonly called the Catechism) begins by quoting the Nicene Creed:
Q. What do we mean by the last judgment?
A. We believe that Christ will come in glory and judge the living and the dead.
Q. What do we mean by the resurrection of the body?
A. We mean that God will raise us from death in the fullness of our being, that we may live with Christ in the communion of the saints.
Q. What is the communion of saints?
A. The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.
Q. What do we mean by everlasting life?
A. By everlasting life, we mean a new existence, in which we are united with all the people of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God and each other.
Q. What, then, is our assurance as Christians?
A. Our assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Whenever the End of the World comes, however it happens, Christians need to be ready at all times. Every moment on earth, every breath we take, could easily be our last, most likely with no warning at all. That is no reason to panic, to sell all our possessions, to take to the streets to warn everyone. We teach the Second Coming at all times, not only on specific dates, and we subscribe to the belief that Jesus will judge all with mercy, love, and justice. That’s all we have, and all we need.
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