Chris Taylor’s Sermon –11/16/08
Like a Thief in the Night
Judges 4:1-7
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
One weekend Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decided to go on a camping trip. That first night they had a satisfying meal and then sat around the camp fire, talking about some of their adventures over a nice bottle of wine. As the fire died out, they climbed into their sleeping bags, said goodnight, and fell asleep. A few hours later Holmes woke up and nudged his old friend: “Watson, look up! What do you see?”
“I see millions and millions of stars,” Watson replied.
“And what do you deduce from that?” Holmes asked.
Watson thought about it for a moment and then said, “Astronomically, it tells me there are millions of galaxies; possibly billions of planets. Astrologically, I can see that Saturn is in Leo. Meteorologically, I deduce that in all probability we are going to have a beautiful day tomorrow, and theologically, the stars speak of me of the vast power of our Creator and how small and insignificant we are in this great universe.”
Holmes was silent for a moment. “Watson, you dolt!” he said. “Someone has stolen our tent!”
This morning our subject stands before us like those millions of stars – it is virtually impossible to miss – but what it means and how we should apply it is nowhere near as obvious as that missing tent. Here in our text the Apostle is talking about the Second Coming and the Day of Judgment. Clearly it is something that the Thessalonians themselves had already heard about. It was a part of the teaching that characterized the early church. Even today we give at least a nod in this direction every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed. We profess this Jesus who “ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;” and add “from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
He shall come, and he shall judge. That’s exactly what Paul is talking about. But when was the last time that any of us actually thought about Jesus’ second coming, or the Day of Judgment? In spite of the Apostles’ Creed, the truth is this teaching about Jesus’ Second Coming and the Day of Judgment exists only on the periphery of our awareness if it exists at all. It certainly doesn’t impact our day to day journey with Christ. What our texts suggests, however, and my point this morning, is that it should. This is a teaching that we should reclaim. Belief that Jesus will, indeed, come again and sit in judgment on all creation can have a profound and very positive affect on our experience of life in this world.
Our first lesson teaches us something of the nature of God’s judgment. Take a look at the first verse: (Judges 4:1) “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan…” God’s judgment here is experienced as falling under the control of a neighboring country. From a purely objective or historical perspective, Israel was simply experiencing the consequences of having so blindly pursued her own prosperity. Turning from God, she became more attractive and more susceptible to Canaan’s aggression.
This is the form God’s judgment ordinarily takes. God doesn’t reach out and knock Israel down for her disobedience. God, rather, simply allows Israel to experience the consequences of her choices. That’s the way it usually is with us. God doesn’t actively punish us. God’s judgment, rather, is in what happens to us as the natural result of the choices that we have made.
When we cheat or lie, for example, we may think that we’ve put one over on people; that we’ve gotten away with something. In reality, however, we pay a great cost. While we may have been able to manipulate the impression of others, the truth is that we’ve given away something of ourselves in doing so. We’ve sold our integrity, and sold it pretty cheaply. You can’t do that and not experience some consequences. You can’t sacrifice your most precious possession, your integrity, and not have it impact the way you feel about yourself and the relationships of which you are a part. God’s judgment is felt in God’s allowing us to experience those consequences.
If that is the form of God’s judgment, however, the goal is something altogether different. Look again at this lesson from Judges. God never turns away from the people of Israel. God never turns his back, even though they’ve done what is evil in his sight. God lets them experience the consequences, but the goal is always the same. The goal of judgment is to draw people back into a relationship with him.
Israel turns away from God and falls to Canaan as a result. That experience of falling under Canaan’s control causes the people to realize what a mistake they’ve made. As a result, they turn back to God, v. 3, “the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.” Judgment, in other words (like everything else God does), is ultimately about God’s love. What does God do when Israel turns back? God is waiting there with open arms. When the people cry out for help, God responds by raising up Deborah and Barak who delivers Israel, and sets her free once more. Judgment is about God’s love. It is always about love.
But in our second lesson, Paul seems to be saying something else. In the opening verses he says the Day of Judgment is going to come like a thief in the night – a dark presence that breaks into our lives and wreaks havoc just when we think everything is peaceful and secure. He tells us it is going to be like the pain of a woman in labor; a pain that sweeps through our entire being and destroys any semblance of rest. This doesn’t sound very loving! It certainly doesn’t sound like something that any of us would want.
In the verses that follow, however, Paul goes on to say that in spite of these things we don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to worry (verse 9) because God has already destined us for salvation. We don’t have to be anxious (verse 10) because Jesus died specifically so that we can share all eternity with him. In fact, contrary to what we might expect, when we look at the whole of what Paul says about the Second Coming and the Day of Judgment, it actually becomes a source of hope, comfort and encouragement.
Paul’s discussion of the Second Coming starts back in the thirteenth verse of the previous chapter. The Thessalonians have lost some of their sisters and brothers in the faith. They are grieving, and at the same time wondering what happens to people of faith when they die.
In response, Paul says (4:16) “For 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. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air…”
Paul is pointing here to that day when Jesus comes again. He is telling these Thessalonians, that when Jesus comes he is going to draw all of us (both the living and the dead) into fellowship with him once more. It is, in other words, exactly what Jesus himself promised just prior to his crucifixion (John 14:3), “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.”
Here, then, is this wonderful promise that the day is going to come when every one of us is going to be reunited with those we love. We are going to see them again.
Now in our text Paul adds a second dimension. He tells us that this is also going to be a day of great judgment. Should we be afraid? Absolutely not, because God has chosen us and Jesus has died for us. On this day, rather, everything that is contrary to God and contrary to God’s love is going to be destroyed.
What Paul is doing here is offering us a glimpse of how the story ends. He is telling us the good guys win.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the evil, by the darkness that is so much a part of this world? If you have lived at all, you know that bad things happen. We see it every day: in the collapse of a school in China or Haiti; in an Iraqi soldier who turns his gun on the very Americans who have been working with him; in a mother who chooses to abandon her child. There is so much suffering in this world, at times. There is so much, all around us, that seems to contradict everything that we know of God: the lump that turns out to be malignant; the phone call telling us our child has been in an accident; the drunk driver who swerves across the highway and head on into a van filled with a beautiful, young family. Sometimes it gets so bad you can’t help but wonder if the darkness isn’t winning.
But here in the promise of a Final Judgment we catch a glimpse of how it turns out. It isn’t God that is going to be destroyed in the final judgment. It is everything that is not of God; everything that contradicts God’s nature or God’s will. It is, in others words, the very things that have broken our hearts along the way: the stuff of war and hatred; of poverty and abuse; of disease and even death itself. God is going to win, and on that day “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
No, we don’t have to be afraid of Jesus’ Second Coming. Just the opposite. This is a day that we should be holding onto: a day of glad heavenly reunion; a day when everything that is dark and destructive and contrary to God’s nature dissolves in the glorious light of God’s own presence. The Second Coming and this Day of Judgment are, for us, good news. The final victory, the victory that counts most of all, belongs not to death or darkness. No, the final victory belongs to Jesus Christ and to all who are in him.