Today in my ongoing Thessalonians series I look at 1:9-10.
9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They
tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and
to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who
rescues us from the coming wrath.
In the
closing lines of this chapter Paul addresses a group of people waiting for
Jesus to return. They had turned from their old gods and idols to follow the
true God and his resurrected Son Jesus who would return one day. During his
time with them Paul told the Thessalonians about what will happen “when” Jesus
returns, but they are waiting for the “when” to become “now.” This the first
time he brings this up in the letter and he does so by way of praising them.
But as we will see later in 4:13-5:11, they are beginning to wonder a bit more
about at what point the “when” will become “now.”
For Paul and
the Thessalonians the time of Jesus’ return was imminent. In 1 Corinthians 7:29
Paul says that “the time is short.” But for those of us living 21 centuries
later the time has become “very long.” The return of Jesus has not happened and
it is difficult to live with a feeling of imminence. It is hard to juggle the
responsibilities of life and live with the belief that Jesus could return at
any moment. Many of us probably think more about when and how we will die than
when Jesus might return.
While
growing up I was exposed to teachers and preachers who often proclaimed that
Jesus “could return at any minute.” This was presented as good news, but it was
also confusing since for those of us in adolescence were also looking forward
to growing up, marrying and starting families of our own. I remember one night
at dinner my father suggesting that the Lord would probably return before my
sister and I were through being teenagers. At that point my sister burst into
tears and said “But I want to get married.” That cry of a young adolescent
crystallizes the tension we can all feel while waiting for the imminent return
of Jesus. We know that our hope should ultimately be focused on the day of
Jesus’ final victory, but we also have a life to live in the mean time and need
to invest ourselves in it.
But perhaps
we should not think so much along the lines of “imminence,” but “anticipation.”
I suppose this is a low-key “imminence,” but it does recognize the tension we
all feel of needing to live life with the belief that Jesus could return in any
generation. We are waiting, and God is not on our time schedule. Waiting means
that it is out of our hands. And waiting is how we recognize the sovereignty of
God to have the final say. God works it in God’s time.
There is a scene in C.
S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
that helps illustrate. Aslan, the Christ figure in the book, has just appeared
to Lucy in the magician’s attic. But almost as soon as he has appeared, Aslan
leaves with these words.
“Do not look so sad. We shall meet soon again."
"Please Aslan," said Lucy, "what do you call soon?"
"I call all times soon,"
said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away and Lucy was alone with the
Magician.
Lucy’s
question reflects that desire to know at what point “when” will become “now.”
But Lewis reminds us that when we are “waiting” time is not an issue, at least
for God. Neither God nor Aslan is bound by time and for both all times and
events are immediate and present. But for Lucy and the rest of us, we are left
waiting and anticipating for that day and yet living our lives as if we will be
here till we die.
Living and
waiting in anticipation also recognizes the church’s location within redemption
history. We, as the church, are situated between the resurrection of Christ and
the revealing of Christ. By its very existence the church is a witness to God’s
redemptive work in history. And this is the church’s time for mission, to share
the good news of what God has done in Christ. Although we are waiting for Jesus
to rescue us from the coming wrath, we are also positioned to share God’s love
with the world. As we will see later in this letter, evangelization is linked
to the victory in the final arrival of Jesus Christ. Evangelization in the
present time takes on eschatological significance. Jürgen Moltmann puts it this
way in his Theology of Hope.
The risen Christ calls, sends, justifies and sanctifies men,
and in so doing gathers, calls and send them into his eschatological future for
the world. The risen Lord is always the Lord expected by the Church – the Lord,
moreover, expected by the Church for the world and not merely for itself. Hence
the Christian community does not live from itself for itself, but from the
sovereignty of the risen Lord and for the coming sovereignty of him who has
conquered death and is bringing life, righteousness and the kingdom of God
(p.325).
Moltmann
hits it on the head. The church of Jesus Christ, like Israel, is not saved for
itself. It is saved to be part of the mission of God to the world. Therefore,
we should ask ourselves how our lives should be different because of the hope
we have that Jesus will one day return.
It’s easy
for the church to become insular and detached from the rest of the world as we
wait for Jesus to return. But Christians are Christ’s representatives to the
world. We have an obligation to not just live out the gospel in expectation of
Jesus’ return; we also need to share it. The church cannot ignore the social
ills and concerns of the world. This means not seeing the return of Jesus as an
escape plan, but rather a close, but fuzzy timeline for the work of the gospel.
True there is no clear end in sight. We don’t know at what point in time the
“when” will finally become “now.” But as we wait for the return of Jesus we
need to be Jesus to the world around us.