“He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:10)
Ready for the Day
Wouldn’t it be nice to know the future? It’s what I call the ‘almanac factor’, taken from that series of films “Back to the future”. Biff, who’s a total air-head, has nevertheless managed to procure from his future self an almanac which gives all the sports results for his own time. It doesn’t take too many bets for him to accumulate an absolute fortune.
History has thrown up its prophets, or more precisely its seers. People like Nostradamus, a French doctor who published a book of predictions in the 1550s – credited for foreseeing the Great Fire of London (1666), the French Revolution (1789), the atomic bomb, as well as the lives of people like Louis Pasteur, Adolf Hitler, Charles de Gaulle and Mikhail Gorbachev. Some early Christians were convinced that Jesus would return in the year 1000, and thereafter many tried to put a date on it. The Methodist John Wesley plumped for the year 1836, Joseph Smith of the Mormons 1861 and Herbert Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God 1975. It’s funny that Christians should think they know better than Jesus! Jesus said that His return would come suddenly and unexpectedly: No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Matthew 24:36). And Paul, doubtless reflecting on those words of Jesus, said it would come like a thief in the night (verse 2) – suddenly, unexpectedly, like labour pains on a pregnant woman (verse 3).
Jesus’ return triggers two thoughts for Paul relating to the idea of day and night, light and darkness.
- Firstly, a lot of bad stuff goes on at night as darkness provides a good cover … crime, drinking, partying, prostitution, murder. And he goes down a path of contrasting the people of the night with the people of the day. Christians are supposed to be people of the day, so our task is to bring light into the darkness.
- But then the other feature of night-time is sleep, and Paul sees that as a metaphor for the Christian life. Following Jesus is not something you switch on and off. We need to be alert at all times, not just avoiding evil but positively doing good. He writes: We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let’s not be like others who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober … putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet (verses 5-8).
Paul lived his whole life in the Roman Empire. The emperor was in total control. Successive emperors had built the empire through brute force and repression – a significant percentage were slaves. And yet ironically one of Rome’s favourite slogans was ‘Peace and Safety’ (verse 3). Rome was an autocracy and it was hot on law and order. It offered a sophisticated, state of the art experience. There were roads and sanitation systems and entertainment and very lax morals, where citizens were encouraged to satisfy their appetites and cravings, no matter how perverse, invariably by abusing their slaves.
Such is empire through the ages!
Communism was very popular among intellectuals during the years between the two world wars. Much of what had happened in Russia was somehow kept under wraps e.g. the fact that there was a six-year civil war following the 1917 revolution in which 10million died, the appalling government-inflicted famine on the people of Ukraine during the early 1930s in which a further 3million perished. When the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941 they were applauded in by the Ukrainians as liberators, but the Nazis rapidly set about executing Ukrainian Jews.
All empires, it seems, repeat the cycle of initial butchery, later artistry and eventual collapse.
1st Century Rome was no different. If you ever stepped out of line and challenged the ‘Pax Romana’ (Roman Peace!!!), you would be crushed. The lucky few who had Roman citizenship drifted through life thinking ‘this is as good as it gets’. They were not about to jeopardise their own good fortune by standing up for the victims of Roman butchery!
And yet that’s exactly what Jesus calls us to do – to step out of line, to live by His rules, to live in the expectation of His imminent return. And if Christ is going to return, then we must not drift through life. We must be alert, prepared for the challenge of what following Jesus means. We are called to be children of the day, to live in the light, to see life differently, to live by a narrative which draws Christ-like actions and reactions from us.
We are all called to be purveyors of a better world. We can all see what’s going on outside our windows, but does how we speak and act promote a better way? I once came across some words that I subsequently used to read before communion – they explored the thought of re-membering, of putting the broken members of Jesus’ body back together again.
We come to re-member Jesus …
the hands that touched the untouchable, healed the hurting and did no violence;
the feet that got dusty along city streets and at the lake’s shore;
the arms that welcomed the stranger and embraced the outcast;
the legs that entered homes and synagogues and danced at celebrations;
the eyes that blazed against injustice, knew how to cry and saw the potential in everyone;
the belly that shared table with unexpected people and shook with laughter;
the lips that wove stories and painted pictures of a new community and a better world.
This blessèd body that was broken, abused and rejected, we come to re-member.
Is this the person that inspires you and shapes the way you think and live? Are you a child of the night or a child of the day? Have you bought into the consumerist values of this age, or are you driven by the hope of the age to come? Has Jesus radically changed the way you think and the way you behave? I still remember the evening I first turned my life over to Jesus – there have been ups and downs, and no end of regrets and recommitments, but the perspective of Jesus has always made sense to me.
Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. There are plenty of competing claims, but His is worth your full consideration. Christians look forward to His return when God will establish a better empire of justice and joy.
A dying Christian once dictated a final letter to a loved one.
I am still in the land of the living, he began, but then paused and began again.
I am still in the land of the dying, but soon I will be in the land of the living!
Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. This is our faith and hope. This is our compass through life.
St. Luke's Church Ramsgate 