1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Proper 27 (32) - Year A
One of the connections we progressive Christians lose track of all too quickly is that of the past. We tend to present and future orientations rather than that of past and present.
It is beneficial to us to use this archaic vision of the dead floating out of their graves to connect with us "Johnny come latelies." I am not yet convinced that moving to some form of "ground of being" language is any better. If that had been the organizing principle of the Paul's day, instead of a 3-story universe, we might well hear about Christ's coming first to deepen 6-foot graves and that we living will dive into the depth of G*D's compassion behind them to join with them.
There is something appealing to thinking about Christ coming from below rather than from on high. It really does help us reduce our pride that we happen to be alive now while others have laid down that temporary gift. It does give the dead a closer geographical claim on Christ.
Well, whether you resonate to the heights or the depths, neither will keep us from the love of G*D in Christ Jesus, nor provide an automatic advantage. Let's encourage one another. May we find the height oriented able to encourage the grounded, and vice versa.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/november2002.html
All Saints who have gone before are defined as those who shift our grief structures.
Where once we held deep within us a death instinct we now find an impulse to life. These are matters that go beyond our consciousness. Our fear of engagement with the powers that be fades in the presence of these Saints. Our joy at pushing past our own limited salvation to that of all grows in the presence of these Saints.
One important source of encouragement is our experience with the Saints, whether past or present. We are revived in their presence. We move from death orientation to that of life.
Count your blessings. Know there is a Saint behind each one.
In addition to our thankfulness for Saints of old we are encouraged to so live that we become Saints in our time on behalf of the new.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html
"Those of us alive will not precede those who have died into eternity." Who is going ahead of those of us who think we have things under control and absolutely know the best way to live? Well, try any given prostitute or collaborator with injustice. How about a starved child, a worthless old coot miserable all his days, or the person who has most injured you?
Surely it is just the righteous dead who will rise with Christ and our illustrious selves! It is our brothers and sisters in The Way that Paul is writing about! This is encouragement for those of us still left that if we are persistent we will get in with the good guys, leaving the rascals behind!
I think we can encourage one another with these words. Not one will be left behind. GOD desires the salvation of all and will see to it. We live well, healing and teaching wholeness in Christ, not because we are afraid of missing the boat, but because it has more meaning than anything else.
On All Saints Day the United Methodist Judicial Council reinstated a pastor who played gaykeeper in a way that attempted to block GOD's desire for all, setting up the heresy that one must be live up to some contrived standard before entering the exclusive fold of "brothers and sisters". May they finally hear that they won't precede anyone.
Rats, now I have to affirm that even that pastor and that Judicial Council will join me in a new heaven (that is, Paradise/Earth). I also need to affirm that this affirmation does not allow me to passively allow GOD to do all the work. I am called, again and again, to say that decision was wrong/sinful and work to overturn it even if I will later join those who perpetrated such upon the church in a more visible journey within Paradise.
What "Rats!" moment do you have? Revel in your disappointment and move on to live and teach healing and wholeness in a sick and broken context.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 or Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 or Amos 5:18-22
Psalm 78:1-7 or Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm 70
Matthew 25:1-13
Wisdom requires decisions made in the moment, in this day. To wait for more information is not as wise as acting on what is now known and adding to what is known as we go along and making appropriate corrections, including recantations, to and of prior decisions.
What do you know of "bridegroom" behavior? How do you then plan and decide about their inconstancy?
What do you know of "bridegroom" forgiveness? How does this change your plans and decisions?
What do you know of "bridegroom" justice and righteous? Does this confirm or change your plans based on what you know about the forgiveness of same?
- - -
alas for you
who desire the day to come
without having made
the needed decisions of this day
to desire without planning
is driving without
seatbelt or helmet
damn silly
to desire without deciding
is counting chickens
before they are hatched
worthless
no amount of ritual
incantation or sacrifice
will atone for innocent desire
none
plan for extravagant justice
decide for expansive righteousness
for this is saving music to the ear
beautiful
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
There will be grieving, but the way in which we grieve still has some choice available within it. Not all grieving is equal.
We might grieve that those who have preceded us, who had been left behind, have as their main perk that we will not precede them. The dead and gone will rise before those still clinging to their life – a sure metaphor of conversion that the current life must be lost before it can be raised.
Without preceding our predecessors we will be able to be joined together in transforming this world (there will still be additional worlds needing transformation for the process of transformation and wholeness is never completed and always completable).
So let's not be uninformed by claiming that which is beyond claim – that our heritage holds sway over our present or that an anticipated future trumps every ancestor's limit. Early or late, soon or anon, we eventually need to arrive at today – a creative intersection of a lost past and an unformed future. Let us encourage one another with the reality of redemption of the past and intentionality of the future. We are not bound by past limits nor beyond a well-articulated, heavenly, "yes, we can" come to earth.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
The kingdom of heaven will be like this. Twenty bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. On the way 10 of their lamps went out. Now let’s have no grieving for them for hope will see us through. Since we believe that Jesus’ lamp went out and was relit again, even so, through Jesus, God will relight those 10 lamps that went out. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we, whose lights still burn, will not precede those whose lamps failed.
Of course there was muttering for having a light had so privileged their holders before this. Revisionist history is difficult to come to grips with (see 5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think).
So the apologist continues: For the Lord’s cry, the Archangel’s call, and God’s trumpet (in some order or other) will descend from heaven and the unlit will rise first. Then the remainder, with lamps aglow, will be caught up and join them in the clouds. And we will all live happily ever after.
Tell one another this until you believe it.
And people still wanted to win - to have their lit lamp signify their privilege;
still didn’t see this rise from probable to the way everything else works;
still feared they would be forgotten if they weren’t first;
still participated in double-standards that left them on top; and
still couldn’t understand this story-telling as a fact.
So what are you telling yourself and others about heaven elsewhere than here and now?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/11/1-thessalonians-413-18.html
In every identity war the church has waged there have been thousands upon thousands who died without seeing themselves included in. The exclusive church has harmed and harmed again and returned to harm some more (same process; different target).
While it is little comfort at the time, hear again the work of Jesus: "through Jesus, G*D will bring with him those who have died". (Well, as constructed it is the work of G*D, but we'll leave that for another time.) Regardless of fanciful details, "Encourage one another."
If this is an encouragement to keep on working for mercy and grace in the present, good. If this is one step too many to be an encouraging word, OK—use what you can for encouragement.
Whether an expectation of joy or an after-the-fact promise, may you have what you need to engage the powers-that-be with an affirmation larger than their limitation.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/11/1-thessalonians-413-18.html