Fourth of Easter
[Ex. 13:20-22; I Thes. 5:9-24; Jn. 13:31-35]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Easter Day was already three weeks ago, though the Season of Easter lasts until the Day of Pentecost, this year on 4th June.
During these post-Easter weeks we might perhaps be tempted to focus on the summer months already and -heaven forbid!- even start thinking about Christmas.
But then we would miss out on the messages that Ascension and Pentecost Day bring us, important messages of Jesus' ongoing presence among us, His departure and absence, and His presence through the Spirit.
'God with us', Immanuel.
Ascension and Pentecost are festivals worth celebrating and we shouldn't ignore them just because it's not all that clear how we should actually be celebrating them because they don't feel as tangible if you will as Christmas and Easter.
Our readings today tell us about Jesus' enduring presence with His followers, even if He doesn't always seem that near to them.
Yet, though He bodily ascended to the right hand of the Father, the Spirit maintains an enduring link, a connection within each and everyone of us.
It's after all an everlasting presence, a proximity, an interaction; it's a personal relationship within community, from His visibility in the pillars of cloud and fire guiding the Hebrews, to His closeness and physical tangibility in Holy Communion.
Christ is always there!
And Christ will come again, as we profess in the Creed, when Jesus' presence will be emphasised once more.
Paul underscored this in his first letter to the young Christian community in Thessaloniki, modern-day Greece, around AD 52.
It's the oldest book of the New Testament, and in it Paul tried to assure the community about life up until the return of Christ, which he reckoned was imminent. He wanted to reassure everyone, and was adamant that each member of the congregation would hear his letter read out (v. 27).
Because, even if Paul believed Christ's Second Coming 'to judge the living and the dead', His Parousia in Greek was going to happen soon, the Christian churches still needed guidelines in order to lead lives which emanated the love of God.
Unfortunately, for many Christian groups and sects the Second Coming and the period surrounding it are moments of great fear, of separation, of violence.
However, if the focus lays so much on the End of Days, then what is left for the here and now?
Often it leads to a dangerous disinterest of our present-day world and the challenges all of Creation faces.
If the Second Coming is going to happen shortly, why would you bother with justice or peace, why bother with the environment and endangered species, why bother with medical research, democracy and issues like abuse, homelessness and greed to mention but a few.
Solely focusing on the Parousia often means a blinkered outlook and the retreat in a cocoon of exclusivity and judgement!
This is certainly not what Paul was writing about; even though he himself likely believed Jesus' return would happen in his own lifetime, he still advised people to lead their everyday lives as the Lord had commanded them: by loving each other as He had loved them!
Paul urged for patience, to be in light, to believe and hope, to encourage and build up, to pray and rejoice and give thanks, to be present for each other. [Especially as a small minority church with limited means, presence is a vital ministry.]
The wait for the Second Coming as such is not about fear, it's about daily life, about the here and now in the perspective of eternity!
If life is eternal then surely that includes earthly existence!
Many of these millenarian or apocalyptic groups even have the audacity and arrogance to claim they can predict the actual date when Jesus will return to Earth based on events they interpret as signs of the End Times, signs they mostly cherry pick from Matthew, Daniel and Revelation.
Yet, that ignores Paul's reassurance that we're not to fret about this; it will come as 'a thief in the night' (5:2). It's a saying we also find with Jesus Himself in Matthew's gospel (24:44) and in Peter's second epistle (3:20).
So don't worry about something you have no control over; instead we're to trust in a Lord who's righteous and just but also merciful and who knows us like no other.
The danger in pinpointing such a massively important happening on one's calendar is that the focus will lay on oneself.
It's a very self-centred approach: 'Will I be saved when the time comes? Am I doing the things I need to get into heaven?'
How does that mindset serve the neighbour? That kind of obsession must be exhausting not liberating!
How are we to be human beings living our lives together with the rest of Creation as all we can think of is Judgement Day and the so-called Rapture?!
How are we to have life abundantly, as Jesus gave us, and rejoice if all we're preoccupied with is what might or might not happen?! It distracts our attention from the world we live in to something we have no say over and no influence on.
The first letter to the Thessalonians is not about fear or fretting, it's about being aware, being realistic but also about living in the here and now together with our neighbours and about joyfully preparing for the future with Christ without disregarding our own present.
The Second Coming is not about exclusivity or arrogance, it's about that moment when the presence of Jesus will be visible again, even though He never really left us, in a triumphant and eternal re-connecting of heaven and earth.
Immanuel, 'God with us'. Jesus there for us so we can be there for others!
Även om det är troligt att Paul trodde att Jesus återkomst skulle hända under hans egen livstid, så rådde han människorna att leva sina dagliga liv så som Herren hade befallt dem:
att älska varandra så som Han älskade dem!
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.