Community Church Sermons
November 13, 2005
Our worship theme this November is “From Here To Eternity.” We have taken a look at what it means to embrace eternity as a way of life. Last Sunday we talked about those who have gone before us, and how the Christian view of eternity offers the hope of reunion with our loved ones, as well as the gift of healthy grief that enables us to value life between now and then. Today, we move on to another subject that is closely related to eternity, and that is the second coming of Christ.
A number of years ago, a west coast newspaper reported about an enterprising group of Christians who came up with a unique idea about “the rapture.” The rapture is the idea that Christ’s second coming will occur in two stages. In the first, Christ will descend in the clouds just far enough to call forth the true believers, and they will be whisked away into heaven where they will be kept safe until after the Great Tribulation. Everyone else will be “left behind.” Then, in the second part of the second coming, at the end of the Great Tribulation, these true believers will return to earth with Christ to establish the Kingdom of God.
Well, this particular group of Christians in California came up with a neat idea. Rapture insurance! It is an insurance policy that will be triggered when these believers disappear into heaven. But the policies will not pay off for seven years when they return to earth with Christ. This will keep their money out of the hands of the antichrist. And in the new Kingdom, they will be rich!
The newspaper humorously concluded the article by dryly observing, “This all goes to show you that, if you can’t take it with you, you can at least have it waiting for you when you get back!”
Rapture insurance! Then there’s
the rapture speedometer!
You can see it for yourself at www.raptureindex.com. It is a scale
that considers all of the signs that are said will take place before the second
coming of Christ – wars, earthquakes, pestilence, all those things we read
about in the Bible. Each of these events is assigned a numerical value, and the
numerical value is multiplied by the number of occurrences of the sign at a
particular time to arrive at the “speed” of second coming activity. Overall, a
speed of 85 and below is considered to be slow apocalyptic activity. 85 to 110
is moderate activity, and 110 to 145 is heavy second-coming activity. Above 145
on the rapture speedometer, the site tells you to “fasten your seat belts!”
You’ll be interested to know that, as of last Monday, the Rapture Index is a supersonic 158!! So hang on!
Rapture. The end of the world. Second Coming. Kingdom of God…these are the things of something theologians call “eschatology” – the study of final things.
Rapture insurance policies, rapture speedometers – and other end-time paraphernalia - these are the things of …what? Human minds gone wild?
So I’ve tried to make a point by titling this sermon, “Eschatological concussions and other blows to the religious mind.”
I hope no one will take offense, and that all of us will listen and learn.
What are we to make of all the stuff circulating in our world today about the Second Coming of Christ? Should we stick our heads in the sand and simply ignore it? I don’t think that’s ever a good approach. Should we simply swallow all the ideas whole as though they are the Gospel Truth? No, that’s not a good idea either.
I think a better approach is to try to understand the history of some of this discussion, and then through that understanding, to anchor ourselves in the way Christians from the very beginning have lived, awaiting the return of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.
That Christ will return and establish his Kingdom on earth is a belief deeply held by Christians of every age. Our Scripture text from last week, found in 1st Thessalonians 4, is perhaps the earliest Christian writing on the subject. It describes the return of Christ in glory, and all of God’s people going out to meet him as he comes. Today’s text from the 5th chapter of the same letter cautions us against trying to figure out times and dates for this great moment, but urges us instead to live EVERY day as though it is THE DAY - in Christian faith, love and hope. Paul assures us that living the way we are called to live will always prepare us for Christ’s return which will take place suddenly and at a time we cannot know. To live faithfully as Christ’s people in anticipation of that day is how Christians in every generation have believed.
But then came March, 1830 – just 175 years ago. Over in Scotland, a fifteen year old girl named Margaret McDonald was deathly ill. In her sick bed, Margaret had a vision about true believers being snatched away before the time of tribulation predicted to take place just before the Lord’s return. Well, as she miraculously recovered from her illness, Margaret McDonald circulated to leading clergymen hand written copies of her vision, accompanied by scriptures she found to support it. Before long, prayer meetings in her home evolved into big emotional revival-like services. Margaret’s end time vision became well known to visitors who came to experience the services. Among them was a preacher by the name of John Darby. Darby became fascinated by Margaret’s idea, and it gave him a clue about how he could resolve a great theological problem he had. How can you explain the contradictions in the Bible, especially those that seem to show God treating people at one time differently than people at another time. And what about the Jewish people who God elected, but who had rejected Christ? Had God failed with them? Or would they be given another chance? Darby developed a system he called “Dispensationalism” – a way of saying that history is divided up into a series of different “dispensations” when God “dispenses” His grace differently. And one of the key elements of Darby’s Dispensationalism was the vision of little Margaret McDonald. So it was in 1830 – just 175 years ago - that the term “rapture” was first heard in the Christian Church. For the first 1800 years of our faith, there is no mention of either the term or the idea in Christian writing. Christians in every age have believed in the return of Christ to establish his Kingdom. But it wasn’t until 175 years ago that the “rapture” as we know it came to be.
Rapture Insurance. Rapture Speedometer. Rapture books. Rapture movies. Rapture conferences. Rapture talk shows. Rapture Web Sites. This idea that does not show up anywhere in Christian history until 1830 has now become a lucrative multi-billion dollar a year industry for those who advance it, and a sometimes unhealthy obsession for some who buy into it.
Last week, Ina Hughes wrote in the Knoxville News Sentinel about a man right here in our area who said God revealed to him that something big was going to happen last Friday, on November 11, 2005. God has shown him that the number 11, he says, has special spiritual significance and the individual numbers of the date 11-11-2005 add up to…what? – ELEVEN! The man, Hughes writes, is not only spreading the word of his prophetic predictions, but is also preparing materially for the hard times that will precede the Rapture. He has sold his stock. His house is on the market. He is stockpiling nonperishable food, water, gas and other necessities.
Now I’m not ridiculing this man for his belief, and I must say that I even waited until Saturday – after Friday had safely passed – before adding this section of the sermon….just in case! And I was so sad to read yesterday morning that the man now has been let go by the company for which he worked and who he identified himself with in several public interviews. Like many people in our day, this man seems to have focused his life on exactly what St. Paul cautioned against – “Don’t get caught up with trying to figure out the times and seasons!”
And in truth, this man has a better message to share. Listen to how Ina Hughes quotes him: “The main thing I have to say, and this is what God is saying through me, is that God does love us, that God is with us. We just need to repent, ask to be saved, ask that His will be done in our lives – and then we have nothing to worry about when the time comes.”
Amen! This is the historic second-coming message of the Christian Faith! This brother is right on!
It’s just such a shame when that beautiful message gets overshadowed by carnival-like ideas like Rapture Insurance, Rapture Speedometers, and finding life-direction by adding up dates to equal the number 11.
Listen to St. Paul! “Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet!”
Here is the truth about the Second Coming of Christ if you want to hear it. In one way or another Christ will return to each of us within our lifetime. For some of us that will be at the time of our death, Last Friday night around 11 o’clock, Christ came to our dear Jeannette Conte and took her home. For the rest of us, perhaps it will be soon, perhaps a few months, perhaps a few years from now. Some may have decades yet to live before Christ returns to lift us from death into life. But return he will. Remember how we sing the last verse of Hymn #1?
“When Christ shall
come, with shout of acclamation,
and take me home,
what joy shall fill my heart!
and there
proclaim, “My God! How great Thou art!”
Christ is coming to all of us, and within our lifetime! So live faithfully!
And one day – perhaps while we are still alive – Christ will come and establish his kingdom on earth! The dwelling of God will be with people! The last shall be first! The hungry shall be fed! The downtrodden will be lifted up! Wars will cease! Peace will be established! The lion and the lamb will lay down together! There will be no more illness! Even death will be destroyed! And we will see God face-to-face!
Go back into your Bibles and read the beautiful vision of God’s new Kingdom described in Isaiah 65:17 and following. And open your Bible to the Book of Revelation for the most colorful descriptions of all of how beautiful the world will become when the Kingdom comes.
Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing’s book “The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” is a must-read for Christians today. Rossing calls us back to the truth that the Gospel of Jesus is not about scaring people into faith, and not about obsessing about someday escaping from the world. On the contrary, Rossing sees in the Book of Revelation a message of great hope that those who steadfastly live in Christian faith, hope and love will endure every trial that comes, and will contribute to the building of the Kingdom of God.
So be strong. Be steadfast. Be committed to the purposes of God.
Paul said it well – the best armor you can put on to withstand the difficulties and tribulations of life are faith and love as a breastplate. Faith in Christ and love of neighbor will protect and keep your heart always in the right place!
And then, says Paul, put on the hope of salvation as a helmet.
You see HOPE – the radical belief that the Kingdom will come, and that the Kingdom is worth working for, and that each day brings us closer to the time when the world will be made right – is like a helmet, according to Paul.
And a good helmet of HOPE may be just what we all need to protect us from eschatological concussions and other blows to the religious mind.
With Christians in every generation, I hope we too can say, “Come soon, Lord Jesus!”
But in the meantime, let us not get ready to leave the world, but let us rather go into the world and engage it everyday as the people of God. Work for justice. And peace. And unity. And the well-being of others.
Put on a breastplate of faith and love.
And put on the helmet….of Hope!